7 minute read
We Can't Forget
Amped Coffee Co. pledges to remember 9/11 with memorial By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski a ected them.
Keith and Janine Walashek rememWhen she thinks of ber the 9/11 terrorist attacks vividly. 9/11, Janine recalls the ey recall exactly where they were, sounds of the television and the pain and fear that overcame their and the feelings she felt bodies. that day. She kept her
So when Keith heard that at one point New kids home from school. York was considering canceling the 9/11 Trib“ ey were little, and ute in Light due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was scared,” she says. he was angry. “I remember feeling
“I promised to never forget,” he says. bonded with my neigh“Well, this is how you start forgetting, You bor over this because start canceling things. You start forgetting they felt the same way I things. ere’s a whole generation right now did. I think we’re losing who doesn’t even know about 9/11. We need that feeling. We’re all in to keep that going. this country together,
“When I heard New York canceled their and we need to support lights, it was like a kick in the gut. So we each other.” thought, ‘OK, let’s do something.’ So I e event will take place in the parking lot thought we’d do lights.” of e Green Room and its sister co eeshop,
It was easier said than done, because lights Amped Co ee Co., at 6:30 p.m. September 11. that bright and that illuminate that high aren’t readily available. One company in Arizona Introducing The Green Room o ers them. e town of Gilbert was going to Housed in the former Pizza Hut, The use them, but when it canceled its memorial, Green Room is a relatively new venture for the Walasheks grabbed the lights. the Walasheks. e couple received the keys
“It will be the brightest lights in Arizona,” to the building in January, but, of course, the Janine says. “We want the rst responders contractors started working two weeks before to know this matters to us because it really COVID hit.
The Superhero salad is vegan, with spinach and three types of kale, with shredded carrot, quinoa, broccoli, edamame, butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries and a citrus poppyseed vinaigrette. Janine and Keith Walashek recently launched a new venture, The Green Room. (Photos by Pablo Robles)
“We were out of the country when COVID hit,” Keith says about a trip to Israel. “It was the worst time ever to commit to a build. On the other side, we were shut down, so it was the best time to do it.
“We took advantage of that. We moved everything out of this space (Amped) and did a super deep clean to keep everyone safe. We took that opportunity to rearrange how we function, too.” e Green Room did open in July. e salad restaurant—not a walk-up salad bar—was the result of the Walasheks’ studies. ey monitored what the community was saying, and most wanted to see a healthy restaurant or salad restaurant go into that space.
“It’s full service, like Chipotle,” Janine says. “We serve you. I think that’s the hardest part about opening it right now, is really getting the word out that this is full service. We even made our sneeze guard extra tall—like, taller than what the health board requires.” e Green Room—a further play on music, like the Amped Co ee Co. name—boasts ve salads. One is the Amptastic, a Southwesternstyle salad with black beans, crunchy jalapeno, corn, cheese, red peppers and re-roasted red peppers and served with a Chipotle ranch dressing. e Superhero salad is vegan, with spinach and three types of kale, with shredded carrot, quinoa, broccoli, edamame, butternut
squash, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries and a citrus poppyseed vinaigrette.
For the protein powerhouse cobb, bacon, eggs, chicken, tomatoes and shredded cheddar cheese sit on a bed of crisp Romaine lettuce.
Spinach is topped with quinoa, chicken, mandarin oranges, edamame, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries and shredded white cheddar is the ai citrus salad.
Last, the Fruitopia is a spring mix lettuce with quinoa, shredded carrots, peaches, chicken, dried cranberries, white cheddar and walnuts with a raspberry vinaigrette.
Guests are welcome to design their own salad as well.
Amped opened in June 2018, and in mid-August 2019 a customer arrived who wanted to purchase treats for first responders. She paid for a $100 gift card and left it behind the counter. Since then, the Amped employees and customers have kept the card topped up so first responders’ tabs will always be paid.
“ e card hasn’t hit zero since we started,” Janine says. “It’s been really cool. It’s not like they make a whole lot of money. So, they just come in and they eat. It’s a great way to show them that the community is behind them.” e Walasheks opened Amped as a way for their son, Austin, and other musicians to have a place to showcase their talents.
“We thought it would be great to have a stage here in Anthem for the community,” Janine says. “We’re a platform for up-andcoming musicians. at’s where the name ‘Amped’ comes from.”
It’s personal
e Walasheks say the 9/11 memorial and
the rst responders’ gi card are personal missions as well. eir oldest son, Dylan, is a medically retired police o cer. His partner was Clayton Townsend, a Salt River police o cer who was killed by a distracted driver. Dylan named his son Clayton.
The 9/11 event will benefit Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which has a local chapter. Siller, who was assigned to Brooklyn’s Squad 1, had just finished his shift and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he got word over his scanner of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Upon hearing the news, Siller called his wife, Sally, and asked her to tell his brothers he would catch up with them later. He returned to Squad 1 to get his gear.
Siller drove his truck to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but it had already been closed for security purposes. Determined to carry out his duty, he strapped 60 pounds of gear to his back and raced on foot through the tunnel to the Twin Towers, where he gave up his life while saving others.
“It turns out they’re the reason New York is doing the 9/11 lights again,” Keith says. “ e Tunnel to Towers Foundation just pressured them.”
Amped Co ee Co.’s memorial will feature bagpipers; a testimonial from 9/11 survivors; and then Austin Walashek’s band, Wild Giants, will perform the Jimi Hendrix version of the “ e Star-Spangled Banner.”
“It’s going to be kind of cool,” Keith says. “We’ll be led into prayer and then we’ll go into a moment of silence, and the silence is going to be broken by Wild Giants playing the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ Jimi Hendrix style.
“When they hit the part ‘bombs bursting in air,’ that’s when the lights will go on. It should be cool. It’ll be bright.”
Janine hopes this event makes Americans remember the importance of community.
“We’re not missing 9/11,” she says. “We’re missing 9/12. Do you remember how we felt, as a nation, on 9/12? It doesn’t matter how you voted. We’re just all in it together.
“The 9/12 feeling is slipping away. We can’t let it slip away. Even though we’re just a little coffee shop here in Anthem, we want to do a little something and make a little difference to those who aren’t forgetting.”
