The Athens Rooster interior. 44 2nd Street, Athens The activation of Athens adorable little waterfront downtown continues with the opening of chef Melissa Chmelar s The Athens Rooster, a breakfast and lunch spot dishing up hot coffee and from-scratch goodness. Chmelar, whose Murray Hill restaurant Spoon Table & Bar was among Manhattan s many COVID casualties, is an expert in elevated comfort food and in creating the type of neighborhood joint that regulars flock to. Breakfast kicks off with wholesome options like the Power Bowl, with steel-cut oatmeal, coconut flakes, flax and chia seeds, dried cranberries, and almonds ($6.50); indulgent picks like the breakfast panini with thick-cut bacon, scrambled eggs, housemade pimento cheese, and cheddar on a sesame roll ($5); or the hipster-friendly vegan avocado toast with turmeric-tahini-massaged kale, pickled red onion, and sesame seeds ($9). Lunch is all pizzas and paninis. For a p
click to enlarge There are 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the US and there are 114 percent more female entrepreneurs than there were 20 years ago. Women have been starting their own companies in ever greater numbers, and 40 percent of US businesses are women-owned. These national statistics are reflected in the Hudson Valley business scene, which is driven by innovative female entrepreneurship across all sectors of the economy. We talked with some of the region s business leaders on how they get it done, from the boardroom to the storefront.
Listening to Your Gut
For 20 years, Kate Bradley Chernis worked as a radio DJ and had more than 20 million daily listeners. Then a dream career turned into a nightmare. Fed up with the boys club, hostile work environment, sexual harassment and gaslighting, she knew it was time to leave when the job affected her health. I had a rash on my torso that no one could explain, and I developed epicondylitis and tendonitis t
Tommy Zurhellen walking along the Green River in Wyoming, 2019 I always knew being a veteran can be hard, but on my walk across America I discovered that being a homeless veteran can be so much harder,” says Navy veteran Tommy Zurhellen, a Marist College professor who in 2019 walked 2,866 miles across the country from Portland to Poughkeepsie to raise awareness of veteran suicide and homelessness in the US. Zurhellen’s recently published memoir, The Low Road: Walking the Walk for Veterans, recounts his experience walking 22 miles a day (a reference to the average daily number of veteran suicides in the US) with nothing but the bag on his back. “This walk showed me that we have a long way to go to support our heroes, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues,” says Zurhellen.
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Artist Paula Lalala in front of the Paula Lalala MVSEVM. In 1997, New York-based artist Paula Lalala took a trip back to her childhood home in Texas. She had left over 15 years before, and, after her parents divorce, her siblings and mother had moved on as well at that point, it was only her father living alone in the home they had all once shared. While it was a simple trip from New York to Texas, it was also, in effect, a trip back in time. Very little had changed aesthetically or materially in the house, Lalala remembers. My father was a very meticulous man he was a dentist and he kept all of the items in the exact same places they had been when I lived there as a girl. The glasses in the kitchen cabinet were arranged the same way they had always been; the books on the bookshelves were in the same order; the furniture was in the same locations. He did that for decades. It struck me that he was living in a museum.
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Frolicking on Hudson River ice in early February near the Saugerties Lighthouse. Ask someone from Saugerties how they re doing and they tell you the truth. They re exhausted. They re tired and fed up with all the endless extra work that s yet another side effect to the pandemic s trauma. Saugerties has always been extremely proud of its community spirit. Residents seem preternaturally compelled to support each other, but to sustain the level of organizing and charitable giving necessary to keep their collective heads above water is draining. Yes, it is exhausting, says Peggy Schwartz, Chamber of Commerce co-chair, owner of Town and Country Liquors, mother-in-law of Congressman Antonio Delgado, and community matriarch. But we are existing. There is activity and we are keeping on. Saugerties is a very social town. People love to get together. Another e-word: