Author: ruhlwrite

Lemme tell ya somethin’: Agatino “Tony” Manganaro, who came to New York from Sicily with a pregnant wife and only $25 in his pocket, didn’t get where he is by resting. He worked — his brawn and his brains. A thin, wiry man who wears a thick gold chain around his neck, Tony, who technically retired two years ago, doesn’t like to sit around; he has enough energy to power a battalion of battery bunnies. “Lemme tell ya somethin’,” he says. “I…

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Jules Corkery trudges up the marble stairs hauling a white plastic bucket of compost that’s almost as big as she is. “Welcome to the farm,” she says as she opens the double deadbolt door to her dollhouse of an apartment facing the Astoria Park tennis courts. She hands the bucket off to Robert McMinn, her significant other, as Esmeralda, Penni and Dearie crowd around her feet. “Oh! There’s some poop,” she says as she excitedly scoops the shiny black pearls into…

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Emma Bryant is an actress. She’s not waiting on tables. She’s not waiting for the big break. Nope, she has taken charge of her career. “I believe in myself,” she says. “I know it’s a cliché, but I trust that something will happen. I don’t know whether I believe in fate and destiny, but I know that something good will come.” She pads across the living room in bare feet and cocoons in the cushions of the couch. Sir Didymus, an orange and white Pekinese-Sheltie…

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With a flourish of his hand, Rafael Petrosyan, formally attired in red patterned vest, black striped dress shirt and grey pinstriped suit slacks, bows. “After you,” the sculptor says as he follows me into the Modern Art Foundry. “Two centuries ago, gentlemen bowed when ladies arrived. Ah, but it is no more.” At the top of the linoleum-covered stairs, after a right and then a left, is what Rafael calls his cave. It’s one immaculate room doing double duty as two. There’s…

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He’s been on his feet constantly, 24/7 more than less, since June 10. That’s when pastry chef George McKirdy opened Astor Bake Shop, Astoria’s sweet-treat hot spot. “I need some caffeine,” he says, sucking down a liter-size glass of the shop’s signature ice coffee through a straw as though it’s water. Before he allows himself to sit, he checks the kitchen, rings up a sale at the front counter, confers with a customer about a wedding cake and greets a little…

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