Author: ruhlwrite

Stop by the Court Square Diner for breakfast or dinner, and you’re likely to see Hugh Carragher. He’s the tall, white-haired gentleman sitting at the corner counter seat closest to the subway. Hugh has been eating at the diner twice a day ever since he moved to Long Island City at the end of 1961. That’s, let’s see … 56 of his 81 years. Hugh is surprised by the math; he had it in his mind that he’s been a regular customer for only 50 years. “It’s amazing how quickly time goes,”…

Continue Reading →

“I always eat a cookie for breakfast,” says Amy Stack. She sets a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie on a plate then adds a raspberry-blueberry-almond scone for good measure. To compensate for all this sweetness, she takes her coffee black, sans sugar. “I never eat the whole cookie,” she says. “All the calories are in the last bite, right?” Amy, the co-owner of Pink Canary Desserts in Long Island City, laughs. It’s such a sweet joke that she takes a big bite of the scone. …

Continue Reading →

Fumi Sugino is a portrait photographer, so it makes sense that he sees things in scenes. His images are artfully and carefully composed. The people in them are merely props meant to blend in with their surroundings. “I tell the sitters to have no expression or feeling,” he says, with no expression or feeling. “I imagine the subject matching the background. It is as if they are in an old painting.” Fumi demonstrates. He stands next to a graffiti-scrawled wall and stares straight ahead…

Continue Reading →

Romaine Paige is sitting on his bed trying to figure out his future, which may or may not be written on the Whiteboard on his wall. His wife – there has been no wedding ceremony or marriage license, but that’s how Romaine thinks of her – left him three days before Thanksgiving. “She told me that separation makes the heart grow fonder,” he says, tears coming to his eyes, which register heartbreak even when they’re dry. “She said that she would come back but that I needed to re-define…

Continue Reading →

“Would you like me to make breakfast?” Because the asker is Peter Giannakas, the chef at Ovelia, the answer is an enthusiastic YES. “I’ll just fix something simple,” he says as he begins frying organic eggs in Greek olive oil. “A traditional Greek family-style breakfast.” Within minutes, he brings the platter of eggs to the table. Then he presents country-style pork sausage made with leeks and orange zest; grilled halloumi cheese from Cyprus; grilled pita bread seasoned with…

Continue Reading →