Frank Cremasco’s foray into the world of The DRIVE was a face-to-face introduction with the bigger-than-life personality of Dave Hunter. In fact, to this day, Cremasco doesn’t even know how he ended up getting selected to be featured on the front cover of the March 2008 edition of Hunter’s magazine.
“I don’t know!” he exclaimed. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know. He came one day, and, after that, we were friends. He came here and he beat me up a little bit to start advertising! I was small at the time, but finally, we hit it off and I started advertising with him—and I’ve been advertising ever since.”
Cremasco says that back in 2008, when Hunter approached him about being on the cover of The DRIVE, Frank Cremasco Fine Cabinetry was a much smaller company, featuring three to five employees at any given time and a workshop of only 4,000 sq. ft.
The iconic cover, featuring Cremasco, in a kitchen, covered in sawdust, standing behind a large pile of shavings and a bottle of wood glue, was expertly taken by local photographer Steve Pomerleau.
“That was a kitchen we were working on at the time,” explains Cremasco. “Dave was like, ‘Why don’t we incorporate these cabinets?’ So, we stacked the cabinets and I think he actually helped one of my guys do it. He was stacking the cabinets, and he was like, ‘I want it to look like cabinetry is what you do every day—with all the dust and that stuff!’ It was pretty cool, what he did; we did it here in the showroom—and these were all Dave’s creative ideas.”
This year, Frank Cremasco Fine Cabinetry is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The company was originally founded by Frank’s father, Bruno in 1969—55 years ago. However, Frank reformed and renamed the family business in 1999 after his father’s retirement. The company has come a long way since the cover story in 2008. Frank currently has a staff of 23 employees and has maxed out their current 21,000 sq. ft. workspace.
“We do pretty much everything in a house—and it’s not just houses,” he explains. “We do houses, institutions, commercial offices, stores, and restaurants. We do everything. If it needs to be made out of wood, we can make it—we are a fully custom shop.”
Cremasco recalls that being on The DRIVE Magazine’s cover was a positive experience and great exposure for his company.
“I’m not one for the spotlight or anything—but it was good,” says Cremasco. “It’s nice to be a part of The DRIVE family with all of the people that have been on the cover before.”
“When I do our advertising, I don’t usually put myself in there, just kitchens that we’ve done,” he explains. “The cover was good for name recognition. It was nice to be recognized, because I don’t really advertise who I am behind the company. It was good exposure for sure.”
