‘VERY EMOTIONAL FOR ME’
Family-owned barbershop looks to bounce back from fire
STAMFORD — More than eight decades ago, John DelMonaco’s parents brought him to get his first haircut in Belltown.
His parents couldn’t have known at the time, but that trip would inspire a passion for cutting hair in DelMonaco that would be passed through generations.
When DelMonaco was old enough, he opened a barbershop in Darien. There, he provided customers with a classic, old-school-style barber experience until the day he decided to call it quits. And when DelMonaco put down his shears for the last time, his daughter
Suzann Benevelli and her two sons, Kyle and Kevin, were right there to pick them up.
The three started in DelMonaco’s barbershop in Noroton Heights, then years later — as luck or fate would have it — the mother-and-sons trio found themselves back in Belltown, where they purchased a storefront of their own — the same shop where DelMonaco had gotten that very first haircut.
“When Kyle and I bought Belltown, it was like my family just went one whole full circle,” said Suzann Benevelli.
For more than four years, Belltown Barbers saw the business flourish. But in late September, tragedy struck.
Kyle Benevelli was finishing up with a client when he noticed the smell of smoke in the air. He said he ran next door to the taco shop that shares the other side of the building, but neither he nor they could track down the cause of the smell.
Within 30 minutes, though, the cause of the smell showed itself. Kyle Benevelli said he was standing outside when fire could be seen out of the building’s roof.
By the time firefighters arrived, the barbershop was fully engulfed in flames.
The fire completely gutted Belltown Barbers, as well as their neighbors’ property. The roof partially collapsed, and the building was declared uninhabitable. The smoke and water damage destroyed countless keepsakes: the antique barber chairs from their grandfather’s shop, the signed autographs from stars and athletes who stopped by over the years, the barber equipment built up over decades — all gone in less than an hour.
“It was sad and very emotional for me,” Suzann Benevelli said.
While Stamford fire marshals investigate the cause of the fire, the family has begun meeting with insurance agents and their landlord to discuss a path forward.
The family doesn’t know how much it will cost to get their business up and running again, but they do know they’ll have some help getting it back on its feet.
Since the Sept. 25 fire, two Belltown Barbers’ customers — Kalie and Peter Riordan — have organized a GoFundMe to raise funds to help the Benevellis bounce back.
“This is a dedicated family who has been deeply rooted in serving our local community for many decades. Please help in any way you can to support them as they try to move forward and rebuild,” the two wrote on the page.
Since being posted, the GoFundMe has raised $25,450 — just over half of its goal of $50,000.
Kyle Benevelli said the fundraising efforts have meant a lot to him during these hard times. He said seeing the community, especially his customers, organize around them really hits home the family’s mantra that “Belltown Barbers doesn’t see people as customers. They are family.”