The Man Who Makes Cakes

Seferino Medina will be back in 10 minutes. He has to ice a birthday cake. “Has to” aren’t the right words although these are the ones he uses. Yes, it’s his job, the one he does six, mostly seven days a week at the Broadway bakery Omonia Next Door. But from the ballet of the batter to the pirouette of the piping, Serefino loves his job, so it’s more accurate to say that he “gets to” put the final touches on the cake. If his English were letter perfect,…

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The Sole Saver

In a shop that has long been vacant on Ditmars Boulevard, a gleaming gold coin-shaped sign has risen like the sun. “Cordwainers NYC” is what it says. In case you don’t know that a cordwainer is a fancy name for a cobbler, the words underneath, “Fine Shoe & Handbag Restoration,” offer a gentle hint. The place, in the middle of a block that’s mostly residential, is meant to be as elegant as Richard Ponce is in the chic milk chocolate leather apron he’s…

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The Pasta Pair

It’s not the awning. That Italian-flag green flap of fabric is pretty pedestrian. No, what attracts attention to Cassinelli is that it’s shuttered so much of the time. Astoria’s only pasta maker is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and even when it’s open, its front-window gate is rolled down for 30 minutes at lunchtime and again at 3:30 in the afternoon when the cappeletti and cappelloini, the fettuccine and fusilli, the ravioli and rigatoni and the tagliolini and tortellini…

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The Boy From the South

In the cubicle that serves as Owen McKagen‘s kitchen, there’s a box the size of a cat’s litter pan. A couple of coleus are sprouting out of it. It’s on top of a grey plastic garbage can that’s filled with 25 goldfish. Make that 24 goldfish — one of them is no longer with us. The fish are swimming in the can because one of the glass panels in the aquarium has a fatal crack. Owen’s crude setup is an aquaponic garden. The idea behind the sustainable food-production…

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