Y Yoou can’t miss the picture on the wall: Lori, David, Geno, Nikki, y. .
e good, very Matt, and Shelby
e that wave a family banner looking for part of that whole family because that’s how Lori Dorothy rolls. She doesn’t just sell merchandise to nameless customers; she embraces people, getting to know exactly who they are, what they’re r, , and how best to help them make their space more livable and enjoyable for years to come.
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DLK is a company that isn’t c just be situated in the shorelin nity; they give back to their co r y. Anyone can throw cause, but the Dorothy family the community’s causes and t hearts and their time right alo Way, , Ol Yoouth and Family Services, co raffles, local people and proje Dorothys are right there to su support is needed.
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life was pointed in that direction. Growing up, Lori wanted to either be a hairdresser or a veterinarian. She chose the former, got her professional license, and made local residents as beautiful as their surroundings. Then she moved to Florida, but it was only for a short time. The shoreline once again called to her, and now, toting a couple of children, she was back, this time with a brand-new career in real estate; yet still working closely with local buyers and sellers to help them realize their dreams. She also worked with M & J Bus Company, doing their Accounts Payable for years. So, while you may think Lori Dorothy has had a lot of different jobs, take a look at the similar thread. It was always people-first in everything she did, and everything Lori Dorothy did, she did well.
Life can surprise you, make you pivot, throw opportunities in your path you had never previously considered. One day, just a few years ago, the Dorothy family needed a new table, and Lori and her husband, David, ran across Hostetler Tables & Chairs,
a company also owned by a well-respected, longstanding family, but a family that was very different from theirs because it was owned and operated by Amish people who lived in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Yup, same home as that of the inimitable groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, he of the dubious shadowed profile each February 2nd.
Hostetler has been crafting furniture for both home and patio for more than four decades, with a day-to-day culture and work ethic of mastery over speed and detailed care in every joint, board, and finish, but their work is decidedly different from anything you’ve likely ever seen before, allowing for timeless appeal and sustainability. Yes, it’s attractive, like many similar lines, but unlike those lines, this furniture can stay outside year-round. Even during a precarious New England winter! Then, when the snow is gone, and you’re ready to enjoy the outdoors, just a simple treatment with soap and water, and your spring cleaning is done!
So, what exactly makes Hostetler Tables and Chairs so very different? They are made slowly and meticulously from Poly Lumber,
but not just any Poly Lumber. They use the very best in the business. Ever mindful of the planet and our place in it and with an ongoing responsibility to keep it clean and green for generations to come, Hostetler uses TANGENT, poly lumber that uses post-industrial plastic like milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles diverted from the landfill to reduce air and water pollutants, toxic exposure, waste, and deforestation. It all adds up to building a stronger planet.
When you purchase Hostetler Tables and Chairs from DLK Home and Patio, the shoreline’s only dealer, you are assured that you are getting furniture crafted with integrity as well as durability. A product that has a smooth feel, resists cracking, mold, and mildew, requires no sealing, staining, or painting, and does not absorb chemicals, oil, or water. Talk about a win-win!
Now, let’s take a look at choice and variety. At DLK Home and Patio, there isn’t just one style of chair or one table... you’ve got different designs, styles, and color options, yet all are built to the same standard of quality: Amish craftsmanship. For example, if you like Adirondack
chairs, Hostetler offers not just uprights, but folding Adirondack chairs, chaise lounges with matching dining end tables, as well as rockers and gliders, a wide variety of dining and end tables, bar tables with matching chairs, and designs that run the gamut from traditional to contemporary. Hostetler even crafts romantic double gliders with built-in consoles and swings for couples who want to sit close, toast their home, family, and friends, and even snuggle a bit.
Chairs to encircle the fire pit, large dining tables to accommodate a large family or a beautiful dinner party, and even fire tables for cool nights and warm conversations. Hostetler may just be the gold standard in what they do and how they do it.
The Dorothys were immediately sold, so much so that when Lori’s husband said, “Why don’t we become dealers?” it was a no-brainer. Why not indeed? It was a perfect match. Family to family with a reputation for delivering the best.
In addition to all those magnificently crafted Hostetler tables and chairs, the Dorothys complement their shop’s uniqueness with gift items and home accents, many from local companies owned by veterans, women, or your friends and neighbors. Don’t miss the year-round Christmas corner with ornaments for every style and taste: Americanism, animal lovers, sports lovers, beach lovers, or just plain ho-ho-ho, and adoration of the guy in the red
suit. There is tabletop, hostess gifts, and plenty of whimsy and wonder. Don’t miss a turn around the store, you’ll probably come out with more than a few delightful items to put on that new Hostetler table.
Two families, yet just one way of doing business. The only way they know how: ethically, joyfully, and in it for the pleasure of their customers and pride in the long life of their products.
One puts their name on the furniture they build with intentionality and sustainable craftsmanship; the other puts their name on their door and stands behind every sale they make. Let the Hostetlers and the Dorothys now put their names on your home for comfort, for outdoor entertaining, for easy maintenance, and for years of you saying, “We got it from the family.”
DLK Home & Patio is the sole dealer for the Greater Shoreline area and is easily found at 355 Middlesex Turnpike in Old Saybrook (860) 227-9399
Taking Care of Business Lori and Son Matt Dorothy
Natalia Nosyk, Peonies in Morning Light, Oil, 24 x 20” Harley Bartlett, Easing Out, Oil, 14 x 17”
Jeanne Rosier Smith, Summer Wind, Pastel, 6 x 12”
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Member Stephanie Lietz said. “Sometimes it’s a medal. Sometimes it’s a case of beer.”
Racing as a club team is about challenging themselves and their teammates, said MacDonald, adding they don’t get upset if they lose. “The whole race day is like a social (event): eat snacks, hang out, communicate with your people. It’s so much more about being with women you like and doing something you like.”
Practice
Some club teams have training facilities. Since Valkyrie Dragons doesn’t, it usually starts its indoor practice season
in February or March, with pool practice once a week at North Providence Pool and Fitness Center in Rhode Island. Sitting on the side of the pool, members place their paddles in the water to work on their form, technique, and understand their timing as a team - paddling back and forth 60 times a minute on average, said Lietz of Warwick, Rhode Island.
Depending on the weather, the team begins outdoor practices at East Greenwich Cove at the end of April or in early May, two to three times per week for two hours per session, with between eight and twenty paddlers. Occasionally, Valkyrie Dragons practices against other coed teams.
“We’ll do a warm-up. We’ll work on some techniques. Today we’re doing some five-minute endurance runs. Sometimes we’ll go up to 10 to 15 minutes at a time and then rinse and repeat. We’ll stretch together beforehand and then we’ll all stretch together afterwards. It’s a sprint sport, so we’re doing our sprints over and over and over again, back and forth in the water,” said Kuhn of Providence in early June.
This two-hour practice period also includes getting the boat in and out of the water, getting to know each other, and offering support on and off the water through feedback and brags. Lietz views this last part as “one of the most special things about the team.”
“At the end of every practice, everybody has to say a ‘brag’ about themselves for the week,” MacDonald said. “It could be, ‘I showed up at practice,’ or ‘I’m now the CEO of a major corporation.’ It’s anything. It helps us get to know each other. But also, women do not brag enough. And so, it’s a really important part of us.”
In addition to the camaraderie and bonding “baked into the team’s culture,” Kuhn said members sometimes socialize outside of dragon boating practices/races: have dinner, attend concerts.
Therapeutic Value of Dragon Boating
MacDonald said the “Chinese tradition of dragon boating has also been brought forward by breast cancer survivors.”
“There is therapeutic and clinical evidence that dragon boating, based on the movement of it, reduces reoccurrences of breast cancer through the action of moving around your lymph nodes,” said Lietz, director of product development for a medical device company. Other cancer survivors have also gotten involved with the sport.
Cultures Blend Together
Prior to joining the team in 2025, MacDonald said she didn’t know anything about dragon boats. “I’ve read a lot, so I have learned things. And festivals are really fun. I love how Asian culture can mix with American culture, can mix with breast cancer survivors and get along.”
The Valkyrie Team enjoys the festivals associated with each dragon boat racing event, including the food and entertainment, Kuhn said. “The only thing we really don’t recommend is that anyone who’s going to
Large Dragon Boats
Large Dragon Boats Getting Ready for a Race
be racing compete in the dumpling-eating contest. “It would never be very good to eat that many dumplings before having to race on a dragon boat.”
Members Learn from One Another.
As one of the younger team members, Kuhn, 35, said she receives a lot of feedback from the team’s board of directors, especially Lietz and MacDonald, about “people managing and how to make sure that I’m being fair and kind and honest.”
Kuhn added that she is also in a leadership position at work. “So, there are a lot of transferable skills for me to get feedback from people who aren’t directly in control of my salary.”
“As busy career-oriented women who also have kids and other things going on sometimes, it provides an outlet and a social environment to be part of something,” Lietz
providing some of my work skills to them,” as well as paddling.
Various Levels of Racing and Commitment
There are also some very large teams, such as the Boston 1 Dragon Boat Team from Massachusetts, with boats at various levels, Kuhn said. “When they go to Hartford, they’re looking to win, so they can get points towards qualifying for larger (national) races… Our team is only four years old, so we’re not quite at that level.”
“We also have team members that join another team and are racing in France this summer for a breast cancer survivor race…They join another team to do that specific race. They’re still with us,” MacDonald said.
Kuhn said, “There’s quite a bit of cross-pollination with the different dragon boat teams, and everyone gets along pretty well. So, we all tend to paddle with each other.”
said. “And I think community is important, and with the way that our society is ultra-tribal and divided, it’s a good way to meet like-minded women who want to do something together and work together as a team. So, does it help my career? I don’t know about that, but it helps my sanity.”
“I’m at the end of my career. I’ve done a lot of leadership throughout, and it’s been lovely to be able to reflect back and help out in that way because I’m new on the team,” MacDonald said. “And yet I feel like I’ve found a role,
Community Teams made up of coworkers, friends, and neighbors will also be competing at festivals to bond, raise money, or both. Unlike club members, they don’t practice extensively.
Dragon Boating is fun - a way to make new Friends.
Kuhn encourages people to try dragon boating for one to two hours of practice and hopes they can get what she has gotten out of it. “I think all of us learned about dragon boating for the first time as adults and decided to give it a try
Dancers on stage
Dancer’s during the festival on stage.
on a whim, sometimes, or based on much convincing from a friend in my case. We fell in love. And so now we have this great community and this great team.”
“I think sometimes that dragon boating looks intimidating to people, and they think that even if they are fit or capable, that they aren’t fit or capable or strong enough to do it, and that’s just not true,” Lietz said.
To find a dragon boating group near you, she suggested searching online for “Dragon boating near me.”
“A lot of the teams use the app ‘Meetup’ to advertise their existence. Individuals are also invited to reach out to Valkyrie Dragons through its website, valkyriedragons.org, or via Meetup.
The Springfield Dragon Boat Festival in Massachusetts will be held on Saturday,
July 18, 2026. For more information, go to pvriverfront.org/ dragon-boat-festival. The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival will be held in Burlington, Vermont, Saturday/Sunday, August 8-9, 2026. For more information, go to secure.qgiv.com/ event/2026lcdbf/.
The Riverfront Dragon Boat & Asian Festival in Hartford, Connecticut, will be held on Saturday, August 15, 2026. For more information, go to riverfront.org/events/riverfront-asian-festival/.
The Rhode Island Chinese Dragon Boat Races & Taiwan Day Festival will be held in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on September 5, 2026. For more information, visit bvtcri.org/dragonboats.
The 2026 New Haven Dragon Boat Festival will be held in Connecticut on Saturday, October 3, 2026. For more information, go to canaldock.org/dragon.
The 2026 Laconia Dragon Boat Festival in New Hampshire has been canceled.
Large Dragon Boats getting Ready to Race
Dragon Boat set up & CrowdDumpling Eating Contest
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Valkyrie Dragons Team Member Stephanie Lietz of Warwick, Rhode Island, near Honolulu, Hawaii in June 2025. Photo by Kathy Lietz
Valkyrie Dragon Team Member Alison MacDonald of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, at her first race at the Springfield Dragon Boat Festival at Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club in Massachusetts on July 19, 2025. Photo by Corian Johnson
Valkyrie Dragons Team Coach/Steerer Sarah Kuhn of Providence, Rhode Island, holding a steering paddle for a Taiwanese Dragon Boat in August 2025. Photo by Corian Johnson
Valkyrie Dragons all-women team at the 2025 Springfield Dragon Boat Festival at Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club. Standing row, from left, are Sharon Roberts, Linda Soeurt, Raquel Muniz, Alison MacDonald, Haley Robertson, Stephanie Lietz, Lisa Close, Jennifer Potter, Marta Trujillo-Bencomo Goncalves, Corian Johnson, Katie Ahern, Patricia Crowley and Lori Bonynge. Kneeling row, from left, are Elizabeth Martin, Melissa Romano, Kim Douglas, Sarah Kuhn, Liz McGraw and Cole Ratkoski. Photo courtesy of Corian Johnson
When you think about life and the things that have the ability to motivate you to take chances, love is certainly high on the list. Few things possess the perfect combination of synapse release and subsequent sense of satisfaction better than feeling the sense that you have found something that has made you whole. That, without introducing this element to your chemistry, you would miss the potential the universe had for you. Love is multifaceted and can take on many faces throughout your time on this planet. So, for July, as we nationally celebrate 250 years of the American experience, I offer a legendary wine that exemplifies the intrepid spirit of this young nation (at a time when we all need to be reminded of the shared hopes and dreams the flag is supposed to represent to us all): 2016 Regusci Winery Angelo's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
While I was getting ready to decant (the process of using a vessel to allow oxygen to open up a wine before service) this small-batch vintage, the song "What You Won’t Do for Love" by Bobby Caldwell came on. You may be familiar with the 1979 smash hit, but maybe less so with the story of the performer and his persona. Bobby was blessed with smooth tones and a sound more commonly associated at the time with black artists (the majority of TK Records' roster, which put out the album). They even elected to make the album cover a dark silhouette to further avoid highlighting his white identity to give the song a better chance of making it into mainstream R&B radio rotation. Such was his love for music that he was willing to hide from the public until he could prove his bona fides to an audience that might have had some preconceived notions about an outsider like Caldwell. What a perfect segue to one of the vineyards that upended the wine world: around the same time this song was being written, the now-infamous Judgment of Paris took place, allowing the upstart Stags Leap Wine Cellars to beat out French First Growths at an international wine tasting competition. The love Warren Winiarski had for what he dared to plant along the Palisades cracked through centuries of established wine lore.
This 2016 vintage is the stuff of big red wine dreams. She is 100% California Cabernet Sauvignon and embodies the best that the varietal can hope to be. Aged in French Oak for 18 months and needs the aforementioned decanting (for at least a couple of hours, ideally) before imbibing. Dark magenta contents are swirled to release a brisk bouquet of cedar wood and roasted fresh coffee grounds that would rival any barista at their best. Dark fruits with all the plum and blueberry jamminess of a bed-and-breakfast spread. The whole thing is grandiosity in a glass, but the tannins are tight and more than keep the body and structure in alignment. The oak is apparent but not antagonistic in how it highlights the rest of what your palate is processing. There is even a little peppercorn and licorice at the tail end to keep you guessing. This is a big wine with bigger menu dance partners, so skip the salmon steaks and head to the butcher for some ribeyes or a prime rib to do this wine justice. Whatever makes it to the plate better be hearty. Whether it is a very mature cheese or a roasted leg of lamb, go big or go elsewhere.
Stags Leap, as a brand and AVA (American Viticultural Area), is already a prize worth purchasing at the most basic offerings, but production fr om a small-batch producer like Regusci Winery is on another level altogether. A future Saltwater Farm Vineyard wedding couple gifted me this wine after a few months of getting to know them,, as they are both planning their second weddings. Both lost their first partners in similar tragic fashions. Neither one of them gave up when faced with the type of event that could easily sink a lesser spirit. Each of them kept their hearts open for the journey that is life. They were rewarded for their patience and persistence. So, as I share this wine with my closest loved ones, I raise a glass to Cheryl and Joe. I know what they are willing to do for love, and I encourage you to take a page from their book.
Gregory Post is a sommelier and manager at Saltwater Farm Vineyard, affiliated with Kingdom of the Hawk Vineyard.
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Readers will discover Ebenezer Huntington (Jedediah’s younger brother) to be a very brash, opinionated young man who becomes prominent later, Cregeau said.
Once Ebenezer received word of the Lexington and Concord Battles in April 1775, he left Yale (prior to his summer graduation) to join the Patriot forces gathering in the Boston area, Cregeau said. “He would later serve as an officer in both the Battle of New York in the summer of 1776, and later, the Battle of Rhode Island in August of 1778. It was in Rhode Island that he assumed command of a Connecticut regiment that performed well in the battle. He would go on to serve in other campaigns including the Siege of Yorktown, which will be featured in my second book.”
Both the Huntington and the Trumbull families went into debt to feed, clothe and house their own soldiers.
Many of the enlisted were teenagers, while the officers tended to be in their 20s or 30s, he said.
“People complain right now about Congress being inept, disorganized, slow to respond. Back then, it was even worse, because Congress didn’t have the power to tax,” as there wasn’t a Constitution yet.
“There are times when Congress is supposed to kick in some money.” Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn’t, Cregeau said. The primary way Congress funded the war involved capturing British ships and selling the goods on the ship on the open market. “The big thing was rum and wine.”
Colonel Samuel Webb of Wethersfield is second in command of a regiment under Ebenezer Huntington. He writes about surviving the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston in 1775 - just grazed by a bullet, he said. Webb served as an aide to Generals Israel Putnam and George Washington (who he crossed the Delaware River with at Christmastime to attack the Hessians: German soldiers serving under the
The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775, is a dramatic painting by John Trumbull. It shows Major General Joseph Warren mortally wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, with British Major John Small preventing further violence. Celebrated for its depiction of heroic sacrifice, it’s housed in major museums such as the Yale University Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A larger 1834 version is at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Trumbull’s sale of engraving rights for this and a related painting helped launch his career.
Below: John Trumbull-self-portrait in middle age. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr. Photo courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery
British Crown at Trenton, New Jersey). After being captured in a Long Island, New York raid and being held prisoner for three years, Webb would go on to lead his regiment again, Cregeau added. He also held the Bible at Washington’s inauguration in New York City in 1789.
Seth Harding is a “colorful character” and excellent sea captain who is appointed by Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. to serve as captain of “the unusual U.S. Navy frigate named the U.S.S. Confederacy.” He is soon frustrated with outfitting the ship (built on Mohegan Tribal Land on the shore of the Thames River on what is now called Preston), Cregeau said. “A supply chain crisis was extreme in the American Revolution, because we’re at war. You’ve got a British blockade.”
Getting the rigging set, the sails, bringing the furniture and the cannons proved challenging. “The book shows how he (Harding) and members of the Marine Committee, those who, like Joshua Huntington living behind us here in his house, were frustrated with how they were getting the ship ready to actually set sail.”
Meanwhile, Jedediah Huntington continually multi-tasked: advocating for his soldiers’ health and welfare, while also trying to be a good husband to his wife, Faith (who he married in 1766) and being a caring father to his young son, Jabez.
first commissioned
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Jabez had just been made sole Major General of Connecticut militia. Here he is showing us his well-fitted troops ready to defend the Connecticut coastline. Portrait owned by the Connecticut State Library. Below: Trumbull painted Samuel Blachley Webb’s portrait around 1790, while working on a series capturing the faces of Continental Army veterans. He hoped to use these portraits in larger paintings about America’s fight for independence. This work is just one example of how Trumbull honored the people and events that shaped the nation.
Already suffering from manic depression during April, May and early June, Faith took her own life after seeing the carnage from the Battle of Bunker Hill at Thanksgiving time in November 1775.
It was important to include Faith Trumbull Huntington in the book “for her own stature as the daughter of the governor, as a talented artist who will inspire John Trumbull, but also because of her mental health history,” as it is not addressed much in colonial American history, Cregeau said.
“She (Faith) was essentially an ‘army wife,’ who became so flooded with anxiety about the possible loss of her spouse and other family members that she was overcome with depression and took her own life,” said Dr. Hall, a trauma psychologist. “It shows that mental health is just as important as physical health and that ‘war-related trauma’ is a real thing to be respected and understood. Ironically, none of the men that Faith was so terrified
Portrait of Major General Jabez Huntington by John Trumbull (1756-1843). Reportedly
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INDELIBLE INK
a book review by Laurencia
Ciprus
/ photos by Winter
Caplanson,
Holding the Line:
Ben Dubow’s Family Meal, The Art & Skill of Mental Mise En Place
Restaurant work looks seamless when it goes well. This is the sleight of hand trick. The plate lands, the glass is filled, the room hums, and the customer rarely sees the pressure behind the performance. Ben Dubow’s Family Meal: The Art & Skill of Mental Mise En Place is written for the people behind that illusion: chefs, sous chefs, line cooks, prep cooks, servers, bussers, dishwashers, managers, and everyone else who absorbs the heat of service and keeps moving.
Dubow’s résumé gives the book its weight. An ordained pastor, chef, and nonprofit hospitality leader, he has spent decades linking
food, service, dignity, and opportunity. That work comes through his leadership at Forge City Works and Fire by Forge in Hartford, where an upscale PanAmerican restaurant also operates as a social enterprise for culinary and customer-service training. Fire by Forge provides transitional jobs, internships, apprenticeships, and real workplace experience for adults facing barriers such as poverty, homelessness, justice-system involvement, addiction and recovery, trauma, or mental-health challenges. Dubow’s contribution is not mission jargon tacked to a wall. It shows up in prep lists, service standards, training shifts, and second chances. That is why Family Meal feels earned: its lessons come from a workplace where hospitality is both craft and repair.
The book is not only for industry insiders. It also teaches diners to look behind the plate. You order, talk, sip, wait—and the food appears. But nothing about that is magic. It takes a culinary orchestra: timing, skill, communication, and care from people most
&
customers never see. Dubow restores those workers to the center of the experience and reminds us that every meal carries many hands, and many interior lives, behind it.
That interior life is the point. Dubow’s core idea—“mental mise en place”—is the inner prep that helps people stay grounded before, during, and after brutal shifts. My first meeting with him at Hartford’s Story and Soil made the concept feel real: he understands both the craft and the cost of hospitality. The book does not pose as therapy or corporate wellness. It speaks kitchen. His solutions land with the urgency of tickets firing on a shortstaffed Saturday night: name the feeling, reset fast, repair conflict, set limits, and recover after service.
The conflict-resolution sections hit hardest because they refuse abstraction; they stay in the heat, noise, and pressure of real restaurant life. Often the right move is not a meeting, lecture, or policy memo. Instead, it is ten minutes in the walk-in: cold air, closed door, no audience, enough space for someone in trouble to come down before words or actions do lasting damage. Dubow honors that practical
de-escalation while pointing beyond the kitchen. For workers at risk, CHOW—Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness— offers an industry-specific safety net through peer support, recovery resources, wellness tools, and connections to care. A healthy crew needs more than toughness. It needs ways to pause, repair, and get help before crisis becomes the only language left.
Dubow is just as clear about what happens after the shift. Without a real cool down, the body stays in service mode: wired, flooded, and looking for the fastest way to shut off. Too often, that release becomes alcohol—not celebration, but sedation. Family Meal argues
65% report using substances at work, and 84% say they feel stress from the job. Those numbers make the pressure impossible to romanticize. Food service is tied to high rates of substance use, depression, and suicide risk, fueled by late nights, unstable money, physical depletion, easy access to alcohol, and a culture that rewards toughness over honesty.
Dubow’s mention of Chef Carlos Perez, whose annual fundraising dinner honors the late Anthony Bourdain, sharpens the point. Restaurants can be a “land of misfit toys”—a haven for gifted, restless, wounded, unconventional people. But when that instability goes unnamed, it can turn dangerous. Here, Family Meal becomes more than a book about better workplace habits. It is a call to name what too many hospitality workers are expected to survive in silence.
for a different exit ritual: breathe, eat, hydrate, talk honestly, move slowly back into yourself. Decompression is not indulgence. It is how workers keep one hard night from becoming a pattern that follows them home. The book’s strongest quality is respect. Dubow does not glamorize exhaustion or treat burnout as a character flaw. He names the overwork baked into many restaurants and offers a working vocabulary for honesty, repair, and self-regulation. The tone is direct, humane, and crew centered. It sounds less like advice from outside the industry and more like a clear, steady voice from the line.
Respect matters because the industry carries a heavy, often hidden mental-health burden. CHOW reports that 53% of food, beverage, and hospitality workers feel pushed to their breaking point; 63% suffer from depression,
The book also belongs in managers’ hands. Owners and leaders get practical guidance for building teams that speak up early, repair tension cleanly, and stop burning out quietly. Dubow’s leadership message is hard but necessary: a healthy kitchen needs more than skill. It needs emotional honesty, clear boundaries, and shared responsibility. Those tools travel beyond restaurants into family life, where patience, repair, preparation, and clear communication matter just as much.
Readers expecting memoir, clinical guidance,
or a sweeping industry analysis may find the book narrow. But that narrowness is part of the point. Family Meal is built for use, not display. It belongs in real moments of pressure, not as a vehicle for virtue signaling.
Family Meal is timely, generous, and essential now that the stress of hospitality work can no longer be treated as background noise. It belongs with the workers who carry the rush, the leaders responsible for their crews, and anyone who wants better language for care under pressure. Dubow treats restaurant workers as whole human beings, not labor on a schedule. He gives them practical tools to stay present, speak honestly, cool down, recover well, and keep showing up without disappearing into the work. That is the book’s quiet power: it insists that the people who feed us deserve to be held, too.
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It was one of “those” places that was a part of most everyone’s childhood. The candy store, the luncheonette, the place to get a comic book or an ice cream cone. It was the place to go after school.
It was called Salerno’s and was located on Valley Road in West Orange, New Jersey years and years ago. The actual name was Salerno’s Luncheonette, but in addition to a counter, there was also a wall of comic books, lots of candy bars and confections, and two guys behind the counter who ran the place and cared about us creepy little kids who perpetually inhabited it.
Dominick and Sal were brothers, you had only to look at them to discern that fact. They were beefy, Italian guys with thick heads of salt and pepper hair and equally thick eyebrows. They had booming voices, hands of steel, and hearts of gold, but they didn’t want to let on about that. Their facade was stern, even growly, keeping perfect order with the kids who ran in and out for hours after the final school bell rang.“Close that door! Hey, don’t slam it! Where were you raised? Don’t handle the comic books unless you’re gonna buy them! Stop squeezing the chocolate bars! What, were you raised in a pigsty?”
The first thing I remember about Salerno’s was the way the floor creaked. The store occupied the downstairs space of an old building and had uneven wooden floorboards that groaned whenever someone entered. Right inside the door was the candy counter, chockablock with some which survived the test of time and other confections long gone. Charleston Chews, Bazooka Bubble Gum, Necco Wafers, Slo Pokes, Saf-T-Pops, Flipsticks, Long Boys, Razzies, Bit-O-Honey, Atomic Fireballs, Caramel Creams, Mary Janes, Sugar Daddys, Dad’s Root Beer barrels, candy buttons, Sugar Babies, Zagnut bars, Good & Plenty...I could go on and on, but I have a mouthful of silver fillings to remind me of my devotion.
The lunch counter at Salerno’s wasn’t very long, perhaps eight stools. They had red vinyl padded seats that were cracked and squeaked when us kids would sit on them and swirl round and round until either Dom or Sal would growl at us, and the squeaking would stop. I don’t remember ever eating at that counter, but I do remember the offerings were limited to selections like hamburgers, grilled cheese, and tuna fish on white. Not exactly gourmet food, but you didn’t go to Salerno’s to dine. You went for the ambiance...and the advice.
The Salerno brothers always had advice, whether or not you asked for it. They advised adults on the best place to buy tires, what bank was giving away transistor radios with new accounts, and if the Yanks had a chance at the pennant this year. They also were expert on who was running today at Monmouth or Aqueduct Race Track, and if the trainer said they were in good health.
When it came to us kids, the advice was not as off-the-cuff. It was doled out more like a warning, a stern reminder, or in most cases, a life’s lesson. More than the “don’t slam the door or manhandle the comic books,” Sal and Dominick acted as surrogate parents when ours weren’t around. They didn’t let us buy too much candy, they recognized the nearsighted, clumsy little girl who had trouble reading Little Lulu and Archie, not to mention the blackboard at school and called her parents, recommending an eye doctor appointment; and they also called your parents if they noticed anyone headed for trouble.
Sal and Dominick were part of the town in running their business, and part of the “village” it used to take to raise the neighborhood kids. They worked seven days a week and never complained - they just felt they were paying their dues for being Americans – and they treated every customer with respect, whether they bought lunch, or only a ten cent comic book. The Salernos were part of the rich fabric that built this country, and now are somewhat of a rarity today.
By the way, that little girl got that eye doctor’s appointment, thanks to the Salerno brothers and wound up wearing glasses for many years. It greatly improved her being able to read the board in class, upped her grades, helped her cure the clumsiness, and makes it easy to write this column in tribute today.
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Believe me, we’re eternally grateful for that and for the fact that you keep reading INK and passing it on to others. When 2026 dawned, our publisher asked the ff f to consider writing some pieces thr r, , geared to the theme of this country’s 250th birthday and aboutthingsthatweredecidedly “Made
tography quez-Sterling, an Editorial Graphic Design about things that were decidedly in America.” That is how he phrased it. I can’t speak for the others, but for me, it wasn’t a hard ask or a difficult stretch at all. I thought immediately of Carolina Mar-er whose contributions add to the exquisite look of this magazine each month. The colors, the angles, the placement of the phoy, , the sheer geometry of the pages,
the fonts and icons that draw your attention to the text...it’s all that which makes people pick up a copy and then hang onto
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a suitcase packed with things like urgency or desperation, but it is ultimately their decision whether to stay or go. Or perhaps the choice is between risk and remaining. In so many cases, the immigrant is fleeing hardship, believing that life somewhere else will be better. So they take their family, their most prized possessions, and every bit of money they can cadge, and depart on their own terms, their suitcase filled with hope and dreams.
Exile, on the other hand, does not ask permission. It is an act of being pushed out rather than pulled elsewhere. It is a cold, hard door slammed in the face of everything they know. It may stem from decree or threat, but one thing is certain: the home the exiles may have known is no longer secure. Their lives hang in the balance; every creak in the floorboards or knock at the door brings instant fear, and there are no choices to make. Here is only one way out, with little certainty of what lies ahead.
Clockwise: Old Havana with Capitol building in forefront 1950. Cuban rebel soldiers in the Havana Hilton foyer, January, 1959. Family Portrait young Carlos brother to Carolina’s father, Don Manuel Márquez-Sterling great grandfather, Carlos Márquez-Sterling Carolina’s Grandfather and the boy is Carolina’s father Manuel Márquez-Sterling. Carolina’s Mother with her maternal grandfather Valentine Sanchez 1962 Miami.
The first major wave began after the Cuban Revolution when Fidel Castro came to power, transforming Cuba into a socialist state. For many in the middle and upper classes, like Carolina’s ancestors, this new form of government upended the lives of a very prominent and illustrious family. Her great-grandfather, Manuel Marquez- Sterling, had once served as an ambassador to the USA; her grandfather, Carlos Marquez-Sterling, was an attorney and professor of law and economics at the University of Havana, where he also founded the School of Journalism named for Manuel. He served as a member of Cuba’s House of Representatives, as well as Minister of State and Minister of Education. He also precided as president over the writing of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba, but in the 1950s, after being detained numerous times because of his opposition to Batista and later arrested by the government of Castro, he went into exile, as did Carolina’s parents, who could not live under Castro’s rule. A once prominent family, now reduced to a life of exile. Over time, they developed, as many exiles did, a complex identity, balancing memory and adaptation. A life of resilience and reinvention mixed with memory and longing.
In 1960, just three months after arriving in Washington, D.C., Carolina was born. Her birth marked a new chapter for her family, who had recently left Cuba behind under difficult circumstances and were still adjusting to life in the United States. The arrival of Carolina in the nation’s capital symbolized both the hope and uncertainty of starting anew in a foreign land, carrying with them the memories of their homeland as they began to build a future in America.
Her father soon got a teaching job in Latin and Economics at a prep school in Maryland, and later taught Economics and World history at Ricker College in Houlton, Maine
The Capitol in Washington DC. Home of the Marquez-Sterling Family, The family in 1962, Carolina and her sister Gloria after ballet class.
earning an honorary Bachelor’s Degree. A few years after, the family moved to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where her father secured a position at Plymouth State College teaching Mideivel history.
“Every night, my family would discuss politics at the dinner table,” Carolina recalled. “My parents were adamant that we speak Spanish at home to preserve our language, but outside the house, we spoke English so we could remain bilingual. We were the only Spanish-speaking family in Plymouth, and other kids at school would
mock my sister and me, calling us ‘Castro’s daughter.’ Still, my parents instilled strong values in us. ‘Just do what you do,’ they would say, and over time, the town came to accept and embrace our family.”
“My parents were very intelligent, so they commanded respect. My mother became a Spanish teacher at the high school, and my father went on to head the History Department at Plymouth State.” In addition to the nightly political talk around the dining room table, they gave us a solid background in the arts. When Picasso’s “Guernica” was being shown in New York at the MoMA, they took the whole family down to see it. It was then that I decided, ‘This is what I want to do.’
“In addition to art, they immersed us in music. I took piano, clarinet, ballet, but all
I really wanted was to draw and paint. I took every art class I could in high school, then went on to Plymouth State to learn how to build a professional portfolio so I could apply to the best art schools. I applied to six and got into all of them. My parents wanted me to attend one in a big city like New York or Baltimore, but I was terrified of living in a big city.” Carolina ultimately chose Massachusetts College of Art, majoring in graphic design. She spent a brief period as a production artist at Vogue, then returned to New England to create packaging designs for Hood Milk Company—ice cream, sherbet, and cottage cheese among her projects. Her next position was at LOTUS, a software company in Cambridge, where she thrived professionally. “I flourished there, but I was always somewhat of a docile helion. In my family and in my work, I liked to stir things up,” she laughed, reflecting the gentle mischief that colored both her life and career.
These days, when the writers and the publisher of INK send her a story to design, she does one thing right off the bat. “I read it. I read every single story because I need to know what I’m designing for. You’ve only got five seconds to get someone to read that first paragraph.”
“Over the years, many people have said my painting is Latino, as if the cells remember. Perhaps culture endures not just through language or place, but in temperament, rhythm, and sensitivity – traits quietly passed from one generation to the next.”
Carolina has never visited Cuba and will not return until her people are free. She identifies as a blend of cultures, neither fully belonging to one nor the other, but skillfully navigating the space that connects them.
“I did not flee for life, liberty, and freedom my parents sought. I have always known it and never lacked it. Yet, growing up with people who lost everything deepened my understanding of the gift this country is.”
Left page: Carolina’s cousins and sisters visit the statue of Liberty, The Cuban ski team, Plymouth NH. in 1965, Mount Washington NH the backyard of the Márquez-Sterling Family.
Photos Clockwise: Boom Chicky Boom , Acrylic on Canvas 2008, Flamingo Road, Mix Media Paper Construction 2020, Carolina Márquez-Sterling in her studio. Carolina’s Dad, Manuel, Waiting for Spring in Plymouth NH
Love Letters to the Shoreline
by Elizabeth S. Mitchell
The Miracle of Community: Displaced, but Still Home
W
hen I began writing Love Letters to The Shoreline, I had lived in the same sweet little rental cottage for five years. It was there that I built my first-ever solo home after my divorce, where I became good friends with neighbors on all sides, where I went home every night over the course of more than half a decade, as I found my people, fell in love with local places, and built the community connections that would shape my current life.
It's the house I lived in when my mother passed away, when I finished my MFA, when I finally decided that falling in love might be worth the risk, when I turned my first solo-home into the foundation for an ever-expanding life and love, and when I got married. But late in 2025, it was time to move on. It was time to find our next place for our next chapter. Though we loved living there and will always be grateful for the years we got to call it our home, a confluence of events, many of which were unforeseen or beyond our control, turned our conversations of “maybe we should think about moving” into “It’s time.” But we did not expect any of what came next.
Photo by Elizabeth S. Mitchell
We were out of our former house already when we learned the place we had thought might work out as a temporary home would not, and suddenly, with winter coming, my husband, cat, little dog, and I were without a permanent place to stay and without a plan. What came next, over the ensuing months, were the most incredible demonstrations of neighborly care, community kindness, and both individual and institutional generosity that I have ever experienced in my life. The Shoreline that I spent a year writing “Love Letters’ about, that had welcomed me, a complete stranger, with open arms when I had arrived seven years prior, and where I had spent those years excitedly and joyfully building a whole new life, would turn out to love me back in a way I never could have imagined and never would have expected of any person or any community.
In total, we would go on to stay in thirteen different places between November and March, some of which could accommodate all of us, some of which could accommodate a cat but not a dog, a dog but not a cat, pets but not people, people but not pets -- and so while we were not always all together, never once, not for a single night in four months, during the roughest winter in recent memory, were we without a safe, warm, caring place to stay. If that is not a miracle, I don’t know what is.
During the holidays, when businesses are full to the brim and busy, and when families are fully engaged with their own celebrations and hosting their closest people, we would never have imagined being not just accommodated, but welcomed, looked-after, and cared for, not only by close friends, but by neighbors, acquaintances, and local businesses. I will not name private individuals/families for the sake of their privacy, but I would like to loudly thank Saybrook Point Resort in Old Saybrook, CT, The Griswold Inn in Essex,CT, Old Lyme AirBnb Host and Publisher of Old Saybrook Neighbors Magazine Lori Montazella, and local Ameriprise Financial Advisor Joel Blum of North Cove Capital. Your charitable hospitality will never be forgotten. I also would like to thank local realtor Nick Prevost for his inexhaustible patience, determination, and resourcefulness.
Time after time, friends we knew well and people with whom we were friendly but not yet close, all conspired, one after another, to help us. We stayed at a farm in Chester, CT and looked after the animals while the family was on vacation; we house-sat for a friend in Old Saybrook, CT; I spent a long weekend by a cozy fireplace in a friend’s living room in Clinton, CT; we slept in bunk beds, on couches, in guest rooms; we did our very best to be helpful by getting groceries, shoveling snow; walking dogs, fixing water heaters (okay, my husband did that part). Every time we were sure we were out of options and the bottom was falling out, someone else threw a net underneath us, bought us time, and kept us part of the place we call home.
And because of those people, because of one person after another after another putting us in touch with someone else who “may be able to help,” we found our next home. I lived in the same sweet little cottage for nearly six years, and it broke my heart to imagine leaving the area if we could not find another year-round rental we could afford. Incredibly, through word-of-mouth and the help of friends and neighbors, by Spring we were moving into the perfect place. And not only did we not have to leave The Shoreline, we did not even have to leave the neighborhood. We are now on the same street where we had been previously living, in a lovely house that can better accommodate a newlywed couple and their dreams of a growing family.
One of the most frequent questions I am asked at my job behind the bar at Sip Wine Bar in Old Saybrook, CT is,“Do you live locally?”And when I answer affirmatively, the next question is always,“Do you like it here?”
I have always answered this question by saying, honestly,“I love it here. It feels more like a community than any place I have ever lived,” and then I say,“I’ll stay as long as they’ll have me.”
Now, my answer to these questions is still the same, but it is tinged with even more meaning and depth than before, because not only has this community made clear that it is willing to have me, but that it is willing to go above and beyond to keep me -- a privilege and blessing I cannot express without crying. My gratitude to the incredible communities of The Shoreline is boundless. This truly is an uncommon place filled with uncommon people, and I am immeasurably fortunate to be among you. Thank you.
With Love, Lizzy
The Cheesemonger
Deana Simmon, The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook
Happy Birthday America!
As America approaches its 250th Birthday – it got me thinking, what was cheese making like 250 years ago and what types of cheeses were made. I thought the answers would be obvious since cheese making was heavily influenced by English and Dutch settlers, but I was surprised to learn that most homesteads were not only making farmhouse cheddars and Dutch-style goudas but experimenting with all sorts of aging techniques and styles transforming milk into artisanal style cheeses long before it was a thing.
Back on the homestead in 1776 cheese was a daily chore. It was an essential way of preserving milk. Although Colonial farmers didn’t generally specialize in dairy farming nearly every family in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island who owned dairy cows, made cheese. The first commercial cheese factory didn’t exist until 100 or so years later – which meant homesteaders of 1776 were producing cheese by hand, the old-fashioned way… hmm
Let’s take a closer look at the cheese making process in 1776.
No automation - Automation makes milking faster and more productive today, but our earlier settlers milked their cows by hand twice a day. With an average of 2-10 cows per family – that means up to 4 hours of your day could be spent milking cows. A herd of five cows could provide enough milk during the season to make several wheels of cheese per week. This helped preserve surplus milk and create valuable products for winter use and trade.
Raw Milk - Pasteurization wasn’t introduced until the late 1800’s – farmers of 1776 made cheese with raw milk. This added more complexity to the cheese and reflected the cow’s diet, pasture and terroir.
Animal Rennet. Only natural animal rennet was used. The exact definition of rennet is even too much for me to read – let us just say it’s a natural enzyme found in animals that when added to milk helps it to coagulate. Today, there are several types of rennet used in cheese making: from plant based to microbial. But only animal rennet was available to our early cheese makers. Hand cut curds. Unlike today with curd cutting done on automated equipment, our early cheese makers cut and stirred curds by hand by adapting ordinary farm tools such as rakes and paddles into cheesemaking tools rather than owning specialized equipment.
Cooked, fire side - Curds were heated over a hearth fire. Unless fresh cheese was being made- early cheese makers would heat or cook their curds; also called cheddaring over a hearth. This softens the curd, allowing it to lose moisture evenly. Today’s heating is done with large temperature control equipment.
Wood packaging - Curds were packed in wooden molds and pressed with stone weights. Curds are placed in molds and weighed to drain the whey and promote natural mold growth on the rind. In the modern cheese making world of today – wooden molds have been replaced with plastic or metal molds due to sanitation and hygiene.
Salt - Wheels were salted and aged in cool cellars, attics or spring houses. Today, cheese is still “cave aged” or “cellar aged” but what you may not know is these caves and cellars are all temperature controlled. In early cheese making on the farmstead the cheesemaker had to monitor it daily to make sure it reached the proper temperature for cheese maturation. Without the proper temperature cheese could spoil.
Aging - Wheels are aged from weeks to months. This is true today as it was then. Depending on the type of cheese made it can age anywhere from weeks to months.
Since much of New England was settled by English colonist, many cheese making practices came with them. By the time of the Revolutionary War cheese had become a staple food for families, travelers, sailors, and soldiers. An aged wheel of cheese meant months of food and nutrition, a well needed necessity for every family to sustain through the cold New England winters.
As we approach and celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary, let us remember that our nation was not only built by soldiers and statesmen but by farmers, artisans, craftsman’s and cheesemakers. In the kitchens of New England families used their hard work, skills, and traditions to transform fresh milk into cheese. While cheesemaking has evolved over the past two and half centuries, the heart of cheesemaking has not changed. It is a commitment to turning simple ingredients into something extraordinary.
Deana Simmons
The Cheese Shop . Centerbrook
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Independence Day Boat Parade | Essex
Decorated boats, booming cannon fire, family activities, and waterfront fun along the Connecticut River. The Connecticut River Museum celebrates America’s 250th with special programming and discounted admission. 67 Main St (Foot of Main), Essex, Connecticut,
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7 - 10 pm $20 donation - BYOB and picnicOutdoor Bistro Style Seating in the Amphitheater Rain or shine!
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lift community residents, musicians, and local businesses by producing a world class event that honors America’s purest art form—Jazz. Beyond the music, the festival fuels the economic and cultural vitality of Greater Hartford, drawing people from near and far to share in this vibrant celebration.
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Old Lyme’s Midsummer Festival gets underway with a free riverside concert at the Florence Griswold Museum. This year’s performers, Mass-ConnFusion, bring polished horns, powerhouse vocals, and a danceable mix of Motown, funk, R&B, and disco to the museum lawn. Arrive early to explore the galleries, grab dinner from a food truckandclaimaspotbytheriverbeforethemusicbegins al se e al pson
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Sterling Flower Farm | Sterling Flower Picking: Sunflowers, Zinnias and more
Pick your own flowers at Sterling Flower Farm, featuring sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, ageratum, strawflowers, and more. 1080 Plainfield Pike, Sterling, CT.
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Noank Artists Exhibition | Noank June 26 - August 30
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Tin Can on a String: Conversations from the Collectio Through August 9
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Norwich Stories Of
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May 9 – December 31
Norwich, Connecticut was a center of Revolutionary activity in Eastern Connecticut. From bands of Sons of Liberty to dedicated soldiers of all backgrounds, the city produced scores of men and women who served in all capacities. From humble militiamen to a Signer of the Declaration of Independence lesser-knownstoriesofthesevaliantPatri
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