Where Are They Now?

October 2006:
   Robbie A worked as a chef here during his junior and senior years at BCHS, while simultaneously working as a caterer and maintaining grades good enough to gain admittance to the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park where he is now in his second year of studies.  For his first semester this year he has been working an internship at the Sagamore resort on Lake George.  His long term goal is to combine his love of cooking, cars and music into a career.  Robbie is planning on a couple of guest cooking appearances here in November.

November 2006:
   The Valley Cat fans chant "Charlie! Charlie!" when his video comes up on the scoreboard.  Roger Clemens named him 'Charlie Hustle' after watching his dynamo performance in the dugout.  We knew him as Charles when he worked here from 2000 to 2004.  Charles started out washing dishes but with his great hustle and winning personality he was soon waiting on customers and helping out wherever he was needed.  He is now a Physical Education major at Hudson Valley Community College.  He works part time for the Valley Cats as a batboy, and has worked internships as a 'Clubby' with the Valley Cats and with the Astros minor league farm team in Florida.  Next year will find him moving up to the 'bigs', working in various capacities with the Yankees.  His goal is to someday play or coach in Major League baseball.
   Although Charles was always popular here, we were never able to offer the sort of honor and fame baseball is holding out to him; this spring the Valley Cats are issuing his likeness in the Charlie the Batboy Bobblehead!  Look out e-bay.
 

 
December 2006:
   "Bob, do you know the guy?"
   "Naw, don't worry, he'll get a kick out of it."
   "Yeah, he's wearing leather pants, Bob, with a fringe.  He's riding a chopped hawg to the Harley rendezvous in Duanesburg, and he's gonna be amused when you goof on him in front of the rest of the pack?  You're the one he's gonna kick."
   "I overheard him talking about Hale-Bopp, it's a perfect set-up."
   Late Nineties in Delmar, Bob's been doing our dishes for most of the decade.  Mondays and Wednesdays he's the art teacher at St Mary's in Rensselaer, three or four overnights a week he's on the janitorial staff at Division One police headquarters in Albany.  He's working a hundred hours a week, but charcoal sketches down by Henry Hudson Park on his rare afternoons off, or playing chess in the town library with the 'old timers' on rainy evenings, are his passions.  And practical jokes.
   Comet Hale-Bopp was the current media sensation; headlines every day, news anchors joshing one another about it, and eventually the tragedy of Marshall Applewhite's 'Heavens Gate Away Team'.
   All morning Bob's been leading customers outside to see 'the comet through the branches of the maple tree'.  Hale-Bopp shone a bit brighter than Kahoutek twenty years earlier, but there was no way it was visible on a bright sunny morning.  What Bob lacked in credibility though, he made up for in enthusiasm, frantically pointing through the branches to an imaginary celestial bright spot over what was then the Bootery.  "It's right there!  Can't you see it?" but pointing to a can of Comet cleanser he'd wedged into a fork of the tree where the Flintstones' birdhouse now sits.  Focused on infinity, no one spotted the 'comet' quickly.  Initial self doubts of visual acuity gave way to doubts of Bob's sanity.  "How'd you get that up there?" and "Bob, you're a nut!" echoed around the handicap ramp as the dishes piled up inside.  Bob and his victims laughing outside as the joke, and the effort Bob had made to perpetrate it, became apparent.
   The bikers had been showing up in the spring for years (more like the buzzards returning to Hinkley than the swallows to Capistrano) on their way to the Rendezvous.  Years earlier one of them had given a previous dishwasher a dollar tip for spending a half hour in the dumpster on a ninety degree day successfully searching for his misplaced dentures.  Ersatz heavenly bodies in the maple with these guys seemed like it might be a bad idea.  Bob timed a trash run to coincide with the bikers' departure.  Reading through the phone list looking for a sub for the remainder of the morning I could hear the guffaws from outside, "Hey man, that's cool!  You got an empty can we can take with us?"
   Bob now works full time with the city of Albany.  He continues to sketch and paint and play chess.  His gentle wit and humor can be heard in his piano jazz interpretations here at the Luncheonette Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights.





December 2006:
   Returning from running an errand after closing time, I found my clean-up guy sitting at the counter enjoying a Pepsi.  Jesse had just turned sixteen and was getting to be quite proficient as a closer and dishwasher, and was always happy to fill in when no one else was available.  He had also proved to be adept at talking his buddies into applying for jobs.  Several of them were now regulars on the schedule, and I no longer had to advertise for help.  This afternoon was a little different though.  There was a young kid I didn't know cleaning the grill, another mopping the floor, a third finishing up the dishes, and a fourth scraping the bakery table in preparation for tomorrow's baking.
   "Don't worry, I did the slicer myself" he says, reading my expression.
   "Jesse, who are all these people?"
   "Uh, they're my cousins, I forgot I was supposed to be babysitting, I gave 'em each a soda, they think they're having fun."
   Marine Lance Corporal Jesse K. stopped by this past week.  He is on a three week leave from his current posting at Camp LeJeune, home after an eight month deployment in Habbaniyah, Iraq.  Habbaniyah is west of Baghdad on the 'Michigan Road' midway between Ramadi and Fallujah.  Overseas and at home Jesse works 'DaSF', Due and Status File or, as he explains it, he is involved in the ordering, tracking and receiving of all supplies for his unit the Third Marine, Second Battalion.  Jesse expects to be rotated back to Iraq at the end of the summer.  After he fulfills his service obligation (and, we expect, has everyone in the Corps doing his bidding) he hopes to attend the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, and someday open his own restaurant.




April 2007:
   "What a quick study!  He was a good solid student, and a great musician, but soon after he started doing reviews, he became our head rock & roll critic too."
                                                                                                                                     Fred LeBrun SUNYA Professor & TU Columnist
   With the exception of the storefront windows, and the front and rear doors, everything was removed and replaced when we moved our bakery into its Paddock building location in 1984.  The only remnant from our seafood predecessor was their sales clerk Mike.  Just finishing his senior year at BCHS, he was bound for SUNY Albany the following fall, and destined to become the Capital District's premier one man entertainment industry.
   Mike started as our afternoon clean-up guy and was soon running the sales counter and baking the chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies as well.  His most vivid memory of working in the bakery was being threatened with all manner of dire health consequences for helping himself to raw cookie dough instead of baking it. (Always wondered where Ben & Jerry got the idea.)  While at SUNYA working on his degree in English and Film History, Mike studied under noted local columnist Fred LeBrun, freelanced as a review writer for the Times Union, worked in a number of local music stores, and also began his prolific performance career playing with the punk rock band, 'The Plague.'
   Mike, known now for his trademark 'maximum solo acoustic' performs with the Ramblin Jug Stompers and The Gospel Train.  Previously he has opened, and played, for such notables as 10,000 Maniacs, Dave Van Ronk, and Leon Russel.  His three albums 'Cowboy Black', 'Resonator', and 'Small Town Blues' were all critically acclaimed and are available locally.  Last weekend Mike was at Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs for his yearly show.
   Mike continues to write as well; it is rare to attend a concert or theatrical performance in the Northeast and not see him hustling to make deadline for a review in the next day's Times Union.  Michael is also a painter.  His portrait series of legendary blues performers has been displayed at The Outsiders Art in CT, and locally at Bad As Art, and in the Center Galleries.
   Always one to look for a new challenge, Mike can now be heard every weekday morning at 11:23 AM on WAMC where he is the host of A Performance Place, a show he is producing under a grant from the New York State Music Fund.
   Mike and his art can also be seen at his website http://www.michaeleck.com/ and since he has forgiven us for getting after him about eating raw cookie dough, he can often be found in his finest role, with his partner Lillie, and their twins Lakota and Lillie Rose, here at the Luncheonette.




May 2007:
   When Wendy gave her final notice here at the Luncheonette, she mentioned that the window at her new job with policy Research Associates looked out over the apartment where she lived when she worked for us after high school.  She despaired that she was to be forever stuck on the block.
   Wendy received her Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors in Sociology from Sage Evening College in 1998 and her Master of Public Administration degree from Sage Graduate School in 2004.  She is currently a Research Associate at Policy Research Associates (PRA) in Delmar.  Since joining PRA in 1998, she has worked on a number of national research projects, including the Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study, the first major federal effort to address the significant lack of appropriate services for women with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who also have histories of physical and sexual abuse, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  Wendy made significant contributions to the outcome evaluation of this national endeavor and has presented the findings from this study at numerous professional meetings.  She co-authored several journal articles on the research findings.
   Recently, Wendy served as Project Director for the National Institute of Mental Health Adult Cross-Training Curriculum Project, a project aimed at promoting cross-systems collaboration among professionals from the mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice systems.  As a result of this work she authored a publication on a unique approach for preparing communities for re-entry of offenders with mental illness for the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation (in press).  Wendy also serves as the Project Director for the MacArthur Mental Health Court Study, a national study of mental health courts funded by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is Project Coordinator for the New York State Office of Mental Health independent evaluation of the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Program, a legislative mandate to evaluate the AOT Program in New York State, a program for court-ordered treatment of persons with serious mental illness, enacted in 1999 by the state legislature in response to Kendra's Law.
   Sometimes we don't see Wendy for a week or two now.  Her work finds her traveling across the country for consultation or research.  When she does stop in, she takes the shortcut past her old apartment with appreciation that some things never seem to change, rather than with a fear that they won't.
   Wendy lives with her husband Greg and 3-year old daughter Samantha in Voorheesville.




June 2007:
   Yolanda was referred to us in 1982 by a customer who was also her local sponsor.  She had been granted political refugee status after fleeing her native Poland earlier in the year, and was looking for a place to learn a new language while easing into work in a new culture.  She came to us with boundless enthusiasm, a winning smile, an unmatched work ethic, and perhaps ten words of English.  Her first Saturday afternoon as a server she waited on the food critic for the Times Union who unaccountably never published what must have been the most tortuously ordered platter of pancakes in Luncheonette history.
   After leaving the Luncheonette, Yolanda studied at the Austin Beauty School and, soon after, opened her own salon, The Cut and Curl on Kenwood Avenue, where she worked for twelve years.  For the past eight years Yolanda has worked out of her shop on Hudson Avenue.  Yolanda also works as a care-giver at a local nursing home several days a week.
   Her most vivid memory of the old Luncheonette, she says, is of the tall, dark, handsome customer who would come in most mornings for a bag of our cheese Danish to share with his co-workers.
   Yolanda lives here in town with her son Adam, who is in his second year of studies of political science at Cornell University.  She is now able to return to Poland at least every other year she says, to visit with her family.




August 2007:
   We first met Brian in the early eighties in a neighborhood cross fence tomato fight.  He had a great arm for a three year old, and we knew then he was destined to be either a great chef or a fierce warrior.  Turns out we were right on both counts.
   Brian first worked here as a dishwasher in the early nineties.  After high school he bummed his way across the country, visiting California and Arkansas and everything in between before returning to the area and taking a job as a chef trainee at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing.  In between seasons up North he filled in here in various capacities, and worked at several other restaurants as well.  In February of 2000 Brian joined the NYS National Guard.  Shortly after 9-11 his unit was activated and he spent nearly a year patrolling JFK Airport as part of the security detail.
   Brian's unit was again activated in 2004 and he spent a year in Iraq, first as a radio operator in the Tactical Operations Center in Ad Dujayl, and later as a weapons specialist on route security and clearance duty.
   He is currently the Administrative NCO for the S-1 section of the 42nd Combat Brigade at its headquarters in Latham.  He anticipates returning to Iraq in the next year or two.
   Brian and his wife Tomomi, who he met while on duty at JFK, reside in East Greenbush where, in addition to restoring their recently purchased home, they continue to indulge his passion for cooking.




June 2008:
   Congratulations to Nate S!  Nate worked in the dining room with us for his junior and senior year of High School.  He is now pursuing studies at SUNY New Paltz where, after a grueling competition, he has been named the Official New Paltz Guitar Hero!  Nate will be working this summer at Albany Med where we are sure his Guitar Hero skills will be much appreciated.




April 2009:
   Many long time customers were amazed this winter to see Patrick serving here again after an absence of fifteen years.  He started as a dishwasher while he was in High School in the early nineties and, in the many years he worked here,he became an accomplished cook and server.  Pat moved to Florida in the late nineties to work for Metromedia Restaurants and from there to Las Vegas where he worked for China Grill Management opening a night club in Mandalay Bay.  Pat was then picked up by Chef Charlie Palmer as beverage manager for the first ever private restaurant on any Four Seasons resort.  Pat opened a succession of restaurants across the country for Chef Palmer, including Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, DC.  He went on to be restaurant manager back at the Four Seasons, as well as eventually doing consulting work out of Cleveland, Ohio.  Pat has returned to the area to be part of the opening team at Dale Miller Fine Dining in downtown Albany.  Pat says, "Who says you can't go back?"  We wish Pat and Dale the best of luck in their latest endeavors!