Dear Followers and Friends,
Special Announcements
I’m happy to share my good news with you. FRED’s Timeless Tenant Tales: Buffalo’s West Side Stories, sequel to FRED: Buffalo of Building of Dreams. The sequel will be published in January of 2025. We will keep you posted.
Co-authors James A. Costa and Frances R. Schmidt have also completed a Romance Novel titled Accidental Virgin, which will be published this December 2024.
Carly Miller and Bryan Perri invite readers to hear the story of their relationship from their individual point of view. It’s sometimes humorless and often tumultuous as they deal with their emotions and life experiences and the conflicts resulting from them. Can love survive where secret fears compound their already problematic relationship? To learn the answer we invite you to share their personal drama.
More exciting news about Forever Violet will be shared soon.
Repost: Comfort Food and More
Food is such a big part of life and community. Restaurants on the West Side of Buffalo, NY, where I live, have offered a continuing source of nourishment and gathering for decades. Two restaurants in particular, Santasierio’s and Deco Restaurant are near and dear to my heart.
I was 21 years old when Dominic Santasierio opened his restaurant at 1329 Niagara St., just doors away from my address at 1469 Niagara. Dominic’s sauce made from a family recipe, is still used today, and proof of its popularity. Santasierio’s is best known for comfort food, consistency in quality, large portions and reasonable prices.
This popular Italian American restaurant was the site where Sammy Consiglio and Molly Murphy, two tenants in my had their first date. After that, whenever they could, they would go back there again and again. They struggled for a whole year to keep their relationship quiet. I’ll share more about them another time.
David Abramovich, a Russian Jew and his 41-year-old cousin Samuel Jaroslow , a Polish Jew who came to America from the Pale of Russia in 1910 moved into my building in 1935. I can’t share their harrowing story now, but I can tell you that Santasiero’s helped them survive when they couldn’t afford kosher food. It was good, cheap and filled their bellies after a long workday.
The smells of all their leftovers – spaghetti, Italian wedding soup, eggplant parmesan – was delicious! Boy did I wish I could taste that food. Dominic Santasierio’s descendants will be celebrating their 100th Anniversary in 2021 and if I could shake any other building’s hand, this is the one I would choose!
Deco Restaurant first opened in 1918 when Gregory Deck opened a small stand on the corner of Main and Lisbon. The success of this stand gave way to more than fifty Deco lunch counters that eventually sprouted up around the city of Buffalo, NY. Molly Murphy, yes, the same one who dated Sammy Consiglio, got a waitress job there in the early 1930’s, in the restaurant on West Eagle Street, on the corner of Pearl. She worked the late-night shift. It was a favorite spot at night for cops, late night revelers, and the homeless. Young, old, rich, poor, came together to get a good cup of coffee for 10 cents, 5-cent hamburger, or a hot dog and Cherry Coke. The spot was small but popular, and you were lucky if you could get a dining stool at the counter. Molly just loved working there.
I honor Santasierio’s and Deco, for their dedication to the local customers of Buffalo, NY. These restaurants fed hundreds and hundreds of people, helping them survive tough times and celebrate good times.
Best,
Fred