High Tech Comfy Computers

By Lance Contrucci, New York Magazine, November 19, 1991

A computer-repair shop that's as charming as a country store? Only in New York. Despite its cold name and the high-tech nature of the business, Tekserve, at 115 West 23rd Street [now moved to 155 West 23rd Street], is warm and eclectic - maybe even a little eccentric.

"We like to keep it homey and a little screwball," says co-owner Dick Demenus, 47.

Hence the exposed-brick walls and wooden floors adorned with Americana: ancient radios, an antique Coke machine (with genuine 10-cent Cokes!), massive RCA microphones that conjure up images of Bing Crosby (or Blue Velvet), a fully functioning wrought-iron stove, and a stereoscope with hundreds of photographs. In the middle of it all hangs a wooden porch swing.

Lest you forget that this is a left-brain shop, the western side of the loft features an enormous two-tiered workbench: a smorgasbord of tools, wires and screws. The bench is big enough to accommodate six of the seven employees simultaneously and could probably handle all of them... If it weren't for the terrarium on the far end.

Demenus, along with two other former engineers at public-radio station WBAI, Mike Edl and David Lerner, set up shop here twelve years ago with a company called Current Designs Corporation. Edl, 52, "only comes out at night" and is listed on the corporate resume as an "eccentric genius." Through the years, CDC has invented and produced numerous electrical devices, including the custom audiovisual stations found at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Tekserve, a sister company under the same roof, was founded a year ago and is devoted to servicing Apple Macintosh computers. "We're less expensive than authorized Macintosh dealers, who view service as a necessary evil," Lerner says. They've established a solid reputation with the discerning community of Mac users in New York.

Lerner, 38, is prone to working in his stocking feet. He and the other engineers talk among themselves in stilted technical phrases: "The mother board is okay... but..."

"The transformer...?"

"...let's check the RAM..."

To outsiders, it's as indecipherable as a bee's dance, so Tekserve leaves it to the decor to put customers at ease. It's a perfect formula for the nineties: waiting for your computer to be fixed while you rock on a porch swing.

Copyright © 1991 New York Magazine. All rights reserved.