The Sugar House Day Spa and Salon just celebrated its 20th year in business this March, and I had the opportunity to sit down with Erika and Nandor Szuprics, owners of Sugar House Day Spa and Salon, to talk a little about the history and future of the Day Spa we love so much.
It all began with the dreams of two couples — the Szuprics and Mary and Robert Steidl. One evening, while enjoying dinner and discussing their hopes and dreams, they decided they would open a day spa of their own.
Robert, a talented stylist, would handle the salon. Erika, the knowledge esthetician, would take care of the spa. Mary, the social flight attendant, would handle marketing. Nandor, a handy and hard-working mechanic, would tinker the space to perfection. After two years of searching for the perfect space, they finally toured a vacant historic home on North Alfred Street. It was love at first sight.
The search was over, the space was found and now the hard work really began.
When submitting paperwork to the city officials, an employee at city hall exclaimed, “Oh, you are taking over the old Sugar House!” (The home was once part of Alexandria’s first sugar refinery, built in 1804, hence the nickname Sugar House.) It was at that moment that the future name of their day spa was chosen: Sugar House Day Spa and Salon. The historic home was charming and spacious, almost 8000 sq. ft.
Although charming, there was much work to do in order to transform the home into a functioning day spa and salon, including floor plan changes and major plumbing upgrades, It was no small task. There were many long nights and sacrifices to get the spa open.
After eight months of hard work, sweat and tears, the doors officially opened in March 1999 with 13 employees. Their mission was to offer each guest high quality beauty services that rejuvenated the body, mind and spirit.
With only 13 employees working the office, salon and spa, only a small percentage of the space was being utilized. For the first year, a portion of the building was rented to a project management company, which helped with a steady financial contribution.
However, Sugar House grew quickly, by the fourth year in business Sugar House Day Spa and Salon employed about 50 people and was using every inch of the home; even after add-ing an addition to the first and second floor, increasing the space to almost 10,000 square feet.
By their fifth year, Sugar House was receiving accolades from local publications as being the best in their field and has received awards every year since. Today, Sugar House Day Spa and Salon employs close to 70 people and services about 200 clients a day. They not only offer salon services, facials, waxing, massage therapy and nail services, but they also offer laser therapy, medi-spa and acupuncture.
The team has created an oasis for the clients as well as a second family for their staff. The Sugar House family suffered a terrible loss in 2013, when owner Robert Steidl passed away with the death of Mary fol-lowing only three years later.
Since their deaths, which were extremely difficult, Erika and Nandor have been determined to keep the business strong. “We have this business to show for a lot of our lives, many trials and many triumphs. We want to continue to provide an oasis for relaxation and amazing service.”
This is what makes supporting local businesses so important. Sugar House Day Spa and Salon started with people with big dreams choosing to devote themselves to a single community, our community, Alexandria. That is something extremely special – wouldn’t you agree?
