This Blog starts with a story. It is the story of a young boy, aged 12, born and raised in Lyon, France. This young boy, as an intended form of loving punishment from his father, was sent to work in a bakery owned by his father’s friend Pierre Callen, in Montmerle sur Saone, in Eastern France along the Saone River (a tributary of the Rhone River)...
Read moreI have lived all my life in, or around Syracuse, except my 4 years in college (Philadelphia) and a temporary 6-month stint in NYC. Back when I graduated from college, the world was a much smaller place, and I never considered anything other than to come home to finish my education, and live here.
Read more“Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so, or not.” Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Read moreThe original Stoop was conceived in 1995 and opened in 1996. Having experienced great success with Slices Pizza, my gateway into food service, and owning an unused second floor in the same building, I naturally (and so innocently and naively) believed that an additional success could be achieved by opening a full-service restaurant and bar on the second floor.
Read moreSay you owned a restaurant that was open for many years, well-liked and successful, that one day you closed because although you had an immensely hard-working and dedicated staff, you just weren’t good enough to find the right person to run it long-term, and could no longer juggle the demands of finding and keeping great staff and management at the same time as your then-current 75 hour-a-week...
Read moreI have lived long enough to see and be a part of peoples’ lives of six different “generations.” A generation, whether anthropological or biblical, generally is a period of about 25 years—measured from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child. My life has spanned the lives of people cumulatively living that long. When I think of the term “status quo” I find...
Read moreNow this is a hot topic. Especially if one lives on water. One might ask, “who cares?” But now that you have asked, let me write a few words as subtly as I can.
Read morePerspective. What a great word, even greater when one has it. For me it has come uneasily with age, but dang it’s finally here.
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