Batsakes Hat Store, a Cincinnati fixture for 114 years

89-year-old Gus Miller doesn’t advertise. He’s not on the internet. His downtown store, Batsakes Hat Shop, has been in the same spot on the corner of West Sixth and Vine since 1907, and he’s confident he can keep it going until he turns 100.

“I’m 89 years old,” he said. “Eleven more will be easy.”

Müller is unique. So is his shop, which is perhaps one of the few traditional hat shops still in existence. The product is handcrafted by Miller who uses older tools to make and maintain his hats.

It’s a family business, he explained. Miller’s relatives – Greek immigrants whose last name was pronounced “Bat-sah-kees” – opened the shop at a time when Theodore Roosevelt was president and the country comprised only 46 states.

Miller immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1951 as a young man to help his cousin Pete Batsakes with the store.

Decades later, he still works six days a week. Batsakes is only closed on Sundays.

“I don’t know how I’ve done this work for the past 70 years,” he said. “I can not believe it.”

During that time, he has curated a collection of celebrity clients and a range of strong beliefs about the importance of traditional businesses like his own.

Batsakes has relied on local people to shop for more than 100 years. Miller thinks it’s spot on.

“Pay a little more,” he said. “You keep money in the city, you help the city.”