A new year starts. And local entrepreneurs are dreaming about businesses on their wish lists.

Whether it's a rooftop sushi bar or a celebrity look-alike chauffeur service, most business owners have at least one idea simmering close to their hearts. Several talked recently about other businesses they would love to open if the circumstances were right.

Sacramento's fright goddess Deborah Chaussé is really into Halloween. So much so that she would like to turn the home of Evangeline's Costume Mansion into a haunted house each October. That's not a total stretch, considering the fantasy shop is located in two of the city's oldest buildings: the Howard House, built in 1859, and the Lady Adams — at 156, the oldest building in Sacramento.

After inheriting the store from her mother Dorothea Evangeline, Chaussé has toyed with another Halloween idea: offering Sacramentans the opportunity to dress in fine clothes and pose for "corpse" photos in a store coffin.

On Wednesday, she led a tour of back rooms, secret doors and passageways. Behind the exteriors, the two buildings have been combined into one. The upper floors, which house the costume shop open each fall, are already outfitted with scary scenes and surprises.

Chaussé has dreamed of using all the floors and the dank basement for spooky hide-and-seek games, séances and haunted tours. Visitors would be given only "tiny, weak flashlights... flashlights that would flicker ... then go out," she said.

"It would be terrifying. There are so many places to become nervous. The basement is very scary, too. And when it's dark down there, it is pitch black," she said. "We have employees that get scared working here."

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Paul Ringstrom and his sister, Conni Levis, own two successful restaurants in Midtown: Tapa the World, 2115 J St., and Kasbah Lounge next door. Ringstrom lived in Madrid and Paris for nearly a decade. His love of travel shows in the Spanish and Mediterranean food, settings and live music offered in both establishments.

"Restaurant people have these dreams of having a successful business, but people get consumed by it," he said while sitting in his office. "I have found that when I take regular breaks, I really appreciate more what I have."

He and his friend, former Tapa chef Glenn Weddell, have dreamed of operating an eatery in a sunny country with a slower pace for six months a year. While it's still just a dream, Ringstrom and his sister have worked hard to fill both restaurants with 50 employees they trust and rely on enough to be able to get away now that Tapa is 15 years old.

"Something I've actually thought of doing is opening a seasonal restaurant... somewhere in the Caribbean or down south in Mexico, in a small town or village somewhere," he said.

With Weddell doing all the cooking and Ringstrom waiting tables, the pair would offer "good, solid, creative food" that uses fresh, local ingredients, he said. They've had their eyes on a couple of surf towns north of Puerta Vallarta — Sayulita and San Pancho. A menu in a coastal village would feature plenty of seafood and ceviche.

"Down there, you can find some pretty good restaurants, but it's amazing how inefficient it is," he said. "There will be eight tables, three waiters and three cooks. And it takes forever."

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Resale maven Corey De Roo has learned a lot in the five years she has operated French Cuff Consignment with her mom, Darcy McNie. Other small business owners now turn to her for advice. De Roo would like to put that experience to work as a consultant.

"A business I would like to do is mentoring other consignment store owners," she said while taking a break from assisting customers at the store, 24191/2 J St.

De Roo wants to travel nationwide to give support to thrift store owners and teach them things like which clothes are the biggest sellers. This summer, she'll teach proprietors how to use social media marketing as a guest speaker at a conference hosted by the National Association of Resale and Thrift Stores.

"There's so much we've learned, bad and good, what works and what hasn't," she said. "I want to help them be more successful."