An Emporium for Fido, Right on Wall Street

June 13th, 2011

Pity the poor pet whose owner doesn’t shop at Pawprints & Whiskers, located at 292 Wall Street, which for the last nine years has been proffering healthy treats, kibble, and canned food to dogs and cats. Even before you step inside, you know this is a place where you can bring your dog (leashed, of course); a sign reading “all you can eat buffet” is positioned above a bowl of kibble and a water dish at the entrance. The counters just inside the door are the equivalent to a dog bakery, with various goodies from professional pet bakeries arranged on metal plates: monster pretzels, Boston cream pies, biscotti, éclairs, mini cream treats—in bacon and beef versions, of course, as befits a healthy canine.  Articles on the detriments of second-hand smoke to pets are pinned to the wall, and a flea collar box is affixed to the
counter top, with a handwritten “caution/toxic” sign pasted onto it.

Pawprints & Whiskers not only strives to raise the pet owner’s conscience, but also inspire delight: there are bowls in the shape of a bone, adorable beds with cloth pet legs and ears sewn on, innovative litter boxes and carry-alls, and cute dog and cat cards; even the plastic bags are attractive, covered as they are in black pawprints.

On a recent lunch hour owner Neil Schneider was behind the counter, describing the store’s special pet-food niche: “it’s not your standard fare but specialty food, which is natural and uses good, USDA premium quality ingredients.” While the food costs a bit more than the stuff you’ll buy at a big box store or supermarket, Schneider said in the end you’ll save on vet bills and have a longer-lived pet.

He stopped to serve customer Andy Belock, who works two doors down at the Board of Elections and had two cans of pet food on the counter. “On top of the great food selection, I like to shop locally because I get the best service and the best products,” Belock volunteered.

Schneider said he and his wife used to run a small advertising agency and graphic design firm on Broadway but started to burn out after 15 years. They finally sold the business and started selling gift baskets of pet products by mail. After they had a booth at a pet industry fair and got a great response to their products, they opened Pawprints & Whiskers in 2001, renting the space from landlord Schneider’s Jewelers next door. Schneider minds the store, since his wife has a full-time job as an administrator at the Fischer Center at Bard College.

The food product brands suggest the pet equivalent to a health food store, with names like Holistic Select, Cowboy Cookout, Wellness, Deli Fresh, Nature’s Animals, Feline Greenies, and Evo (“the ancestral diet meets modern nutrition,” the label notes, adding that Evo is “grain free” and has the “lowest carbs”). Pawprints & Whiskers also stocks “Dogtoids” to freshen a dog’s breath, along with a canine toothbrush and toothpaste.

The “emporium for cats and dogs,” as he describes it, also sells toys, leashes, collars, coats, litter boxes (with better quality litter), beds, blankets, grooming tools, and rawhide bones.

Schneider said the Kingston Farmers’ Market has helped his business tremendously on Saturdays. He participates by handing out free samples
of high-quality pet food, which helps get customers into the store. He said
since 2008, the business has “had its ups and downs. As a single independent
proprietor trying to get a niche in the pet industry, it’s a tough call,”
especially when people are having to spend their extra cash on gas.

He said that parking is a problem in Uptown—mainly perceptual, given that people resist parking around the corner even though it’s closer to the store than the parking space in the lot at the mall from the mall entrance. He’d also like to see landlords lower their rents a bit to reduce the number of empty storefronts. What would really turn Uptown around is putting in an anchor store, such as a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, at the former Woolworth’s, he said.

On the plus side, “we have a lot of customers who won’t shop at the big box stores. They want to support the little independents. I have a great nucleus of customers who come on a regular basis. The one thing I offer that the big box stores don’t is personalized attention to detail. I can say this product would be better and why. I meet and greet.” Schneider also offers a 10 percent discount for every purchase of 12 cans of food.

Pawprints & Whiskers is open from 10 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday (to 5:30 on Friday). Oh, and by the way, Schneider and his wife are pet owners themselves, in case you’re wondering. They have a dog and are looking for a cat, following the recent death of their beloved feline.              –Lynn Woods

 

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Uptown’s Double Dose of Attractions

May 31st, 2011

The high season kicked off in Uptown with the opening of the Kingston Farmers’ Market at 9 am on May 28. The major role the market plays in promoting local agriculture, bringing people together, and establishing Kingston as a great city to visit or live in was underlined by the cutting of the ceremonial vine by Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack, and a host of other officials that morning.

This year’s market features 33 vendors, with five newcomers: Super Food Citizen, a gluten-free bakery based in Tivoli; Twisted Foods, a pretzel maker out of New Paltz; Luigi’s Infused olive Oils, from Highland; Reginato’s, a restaurant based in Lake Katrine, which offers packaged foods to go; and South Pine Street Farm, Kingston’s own green quarter acre, which also supplies The Queen’s Galley.

 

Kingston City Farmer - Jesica Clark

“Right now we’re at capacity,” said Joe Fitzgerald, president of the Kingston Farmers’ Market Board, which presides over the nonprofit organization. “We try to offer enough variety to the customers. While there’s some competition among the vendors, we don’t need ten vendors with tomatoes, corn and zucchini. That’s what’s made this market viable: we’ve protected the vendors so they can make some money.”

The fee for a booth is $360 in advance (otherwise $400). Fitzgerald said last year the market attracted between 1,500 to 2,000 people a week. This season the Healthy Eating series will continue, with special cooking demonstrations by Lysa Ingalsbe, RN, and Noel Conklin focusing on berries, corn, tomatoes and other foods held the second and fourth Saturday of each month. Also returning is the Storytelling Series on every third Saturday, which is organized by City of Kingston Story Laureate Karen Pillsworth. Crafts on John Street, located around the corner, will be held the first and third Saturdays.

Sean Griffin making crepes

The Kingston Farmers’ Market also brings customers to neighboring stores and restaurants. One vendor, Uptown Twist, with a booth will be directing customers to the ice cream kiosk on Fair Street, opposite Le Canard Enchaine. Proprietor Sean Griffin and his wife, Julie, will be doing crepes and shaved ice, in addition to soft ice cream.

“A lot of our initial p.r. was devoted to making the public aware of the value of our local produce and local farms,” said Fitzgerald. “Now it’s in the public domain. It’s a narrative we don’t have to enforce so much anymore.” The Kingston Farmers’ Market is open from 9 am to 2 pm through November 19.

Working in tandem with the Farmers’ Market is the county-owned Matthewis Persen House, located a block away (it’s part of the famous crossroads that has a stone house on every corner).  This is its fourth year, and the house is open, free of charge, through Labor Day. Once inside the dark, surprisingly large interior, which was built in five stages over three centuries, visitors can get a tour by one of the docents. The house offers a fascinating lesson in local history and building techniques and easily merits an hour. One can get a glimpse of a fragment of original 18th-century roof, as well as a reconstructed brick Dutch-style fireplace, a post hole from the original stockade, and exhibits of artifacts dug up from the site, including Native American arrowheads, fragments of Dutch clay pipes, and an early 19th-century shoe.

The Mattewis Persen House

As it turns out, this is just the kind of attraction that brings well-heeled travelers to the area. In Ulster County in particular, cultural tourism is becoming a significant part of the economy, according to the Dyson Foundation’s Community Profiles report. The report notes that Ulster County earns more on tourism per capita than any other in the region–$2,320 per resident in 2009, compared to $1,490 in Dutchess and $975 in Orange. Historic sites and local culture are sited by 61 percent of all visitors surveyed as the main reason for their trip, according to the study.

That means the Persen House is a true economic asset, according to Jennifer Schwartz-Berky, deputy director at the Ulster County Planning Department. She noted that “the much untapped heritage tourism market…represents the highest income segment and largest portion of travelers, especially from New York City.” Schwartz-Berky cited The Cultural & Heritage Traveler Study, issued by Mandala Research in 2009, which found that heritage tourists represent 78 percent of all leisure travelers (a market of 118 million out of 152 million people). They spend an average of $994 per trip, versus $611 for other tourists. “There is great potential in cross-promoting heritage and agro-tourism/farmer’s markets,” she said.

The Persen House got a boost with the recent awarding of a Museum Assessment Program grant from the American Association of Museums, which will enable the County Clerk’s Office, which administers the site, to further develop the attraction as a Cultural Heritage Center. “It gives us a museum designation, which will allow us grant funding from other sources,” noted Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack.

Postupack said the grant will include a peer review, in which a museum expert will visit the site later in the summer. “She’ll meet with us to discuss the museum evolution and challenges and help us manage our expectations and how we can market ourselves in the community,” said Postupack.

The Persen House will also continue to collaborate with numerous local historical societies this summer, as it did last year. Each participating organization is based at the Persen House for a Saturday, hosting various activities open to the public. Last year there were ten partner organizations, most memorably the British Brigade/16th Queen’s Light Dragoons, whose red-coated re-enactors, glittering swords hanging at their sides, were a handsome addition to the stone house—and provided a premonition of Uptown’s Williamsburg-like potential.     -Lynn Woods

 

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Kingston Hospital Residency Program Is Shot in the Arm for Kingston

May 16th, 2011

The proposed Midtown-Rondout Business Improvement District, or BID, (see last weeks blog posting) would complement two of the prime anchors on Broadway: UPAC, which could serve as the hub for an emerging arts and theater district, and Kingston Hospital, which has spawned a medical arts corridor. The Business Alliance of Kingston is reaching out to these nonprofits for support for the BID. For example, it’s currently in discussions with Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley, which runs Kingston Hospital. “We look forward to collaborating in the revitalization of Midtown Kingston,” said John Finch, HAHV’s chief information officer.

As everyone knows, the hospital is a major employer in Kingston. However, what isn’t widely known is that is also is actively bringing in a steady stream of new physicians to the city, thanks to its innovative Institute for Family Health residency program. Launched in 1979, the institute was started with the goal of ensuring the community would have a supply of qualified young physicians to replace the physicians who are retiring.

Participants in the federally funded program, fresh out of med school, spend a three-year residency at Kingston Hospital. Six residents have been in attendance in any one year, but this summer the program will be expanded to ten per year. Half of the residents end up settling in the area.

One is Dr. Walter Woodley, who arrived as a resident 27 years ago, fresh out of med school at the University of the West Indies, in Kingston, Jamaica. Now the regional medical director of the Hudson Valley—there is a second residency through the Institute based in New York City—he said that many of the residents choose to rent houses in the city, since they are “in early, out late. Living in Woodstock is a hassle if you’re on call.”

Woodley said there are currently a total of 22 residents in the three-year program, all of whom eat most of their meals and shop in the city. Many stay and eventually buy a house in the area. Woodley himself purchased a home in the Town of Ulster and chose to raise his kids here. “I’ve been involved in the town and in the schools,” he said, noting his children all attended Kingston High School. “In terms of the development of Broadway it would be really great to see a revitalization of the city. The area has been a great place to raise a family. It’s everything we could have hoped for.” —Lynn Woods

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Businesses and Architecture Find a Happy Balance at the Millard Building

April 18th, 2011

Built in 1899 and operated as a Chevrolet showroom in the 1920s, the Millard Building is a Midtown gem with its Beaux-Art limestone façade and large windows. Set at an angle to Broadway, it is fronted by a small park, interrupting the straight ranks of buildings with a burst of green that offers rest to pedestrians.

The current owners, five partners based in Newburgh, have done a complete gut rehab, including new plumbing, electric, insulation, and re-fabricated storefronts, since acquiring the building five years ago. Their efforts landed them an award from Friends of Historic Kingston in 2008, and despite a very difficult economy, the building operates in the black, with all but one of the row of shops running along Grand Street occupied by commercial tenants; Planned Parenthood is about to move into a 4,500-square-foot space on the second floor.

Thanks to his involvement in the Millard Building, part-owner Joe Flynn, owner, with several of his partners, of Commercial Industrial Construction Corp., has gotten into the retail business. When the restaurant supply business located on the ground floor went out of business, he and his wife, Jayme, bought up the inventory at auction and reopened the store as the Culinary Warehouse three years ago. Because the front of the building is now occupied by the pizzeria and the Kingston Pharmacy, the store is now located at the back of the building; some former customers don’t realize all they have to do is walk down Grand to browse once again the great kitchenware.

Compared to the old store, a greater portion of the business is retail, with the remaining  60 to 70 percent derived from restaurants. The store stocks everything a restaurateur or serious home cook needs, from gadgets to cookware to silverware to stoves and convection ovens. Flynn said in late spring the store plans to restart its program of  cooking classes (suspended over the winter), which take place in a small kitchen on the premises and are held on Wednesday evenings. A children’s cooking class will be offered, and chefs from local restaurants will be invited to prepare their specialties. Check Culinary Warehouse’s Facebook page for updates.

The Millard Building’s other tenants represent a nice mix of businesses and include Sensational Nails Hair Salon and Hometown Beverages, a distributor of beer and soda, both along Grand Street. One 1,400-square-foot storefront is available, along with 12,000 square feet on the second floor. Flynn said CICC plans to break up the space into 15 smaller offices, unless a large tenant suddenly appears. The second floor also has four well-lit lofts, three of which are occupied. A major advantage is that there’s a large, adjacent parking lot, also owned by CICC, along with several parking spaces in front.

“We’re very lucky. We have very good tenants and are holding our own,” said Flynn. He is appreciative of the city’s support, from the mayor to the building and fire departments. “Everyone’s been wonderful. Kingston is a great place and we enjoy being here.”

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Two Generations of LaLimas Span the Old and the New

April 12th, 2011

LaLima’s Barber Shop, founded by Joseph LaLima in 1968, has been located at 680 Broadway since 1974, across from the Sunoco station. The $9 hair cuts and $8 shaves—a microwave oven has been reconfigured as a “UV towel warmer”—glass case stocked with boxes of hair gel, and two barber chairs reside in a narrow, linoleum-floored space resplendent with personal mementoes: framed Marine Corps. certificates, antique barber paraphernalia, a Harley Davidson sign, a postcard of Kingston’s old post office, and several paintings by Joseph’s son, Joseph Jr., including a large, black-and-white portrait of  local boxer Billy Costello, gloves at the ready. One has entered not just a store, but a psychic space, redolent of old Kingston. It’s hardly a surprise to discover that the mustached customer who is having his neck powdered is a county legislator, his presence confirming LaLima’s assertion that it is his steady clientele, loyal over four decades, that have kept him in business all these years.

As someone who’s been located on Broadway for a very long time, LaLima, who owns his building and rents out an apartment upstairs, has a valuable perspective. He said the city’s first priority should be attracting businesses, to fill the vacant storefronts. He also had some good news: the building next door has been bought and the empty ground floor is about to reopen as an art studio.

LaLima said that despite the out-of-control school taxes, rising Central Hudson bills and costs of opening a business, Kingston is still relatively affordable. Having traveled across country on his Harley—a framed picture on the wall shows him riding his bike in the wide-open spaces out West, his hair blowing in the wind—LaLima said he’s always glad to come to back to his home town. He was born in Kingston, raised in a house on Greenkill Avenue, and attended St. Joseph’s; his father, who was born in Italy, arrived in Kingston as a baby and worked on the railroad.

LaLima had an uncle who was a barber and decided to one become himself. He enjoys being his own boss, and no matter how bad the economy gets, people always need a haircut. His prescription for improving the city? A Giulani-style clean up of Midtown. Midtown, he said, “is forgotten…it’s on the back burner.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Jr. and his girlfriend, Liz Baker, are opening a combination art gallery-café-clothing boutique in the expansive, handsome corner storefront at 63 Broadway next month. After graduating from Pratt Institute in 1995, Joseph returned to Kingston and did a variety of jobs, including creating special effects for the World Wrestling Federation, which required him to travel. The store will be called Aesthetics, and it will sell vintage and new clothing, jewelry (including hand-crafted pieces by Joseph’s friend Nicole Pagano), and baked goods provided by the family (specifically, Joseph’s mother, who is a partner) and local eateries.

Paintings by Michael Hart

The May show will feature paintings by Joseph and Mike Hart. Joseph said he plans to  show overlooked local artists and hopes to eventually offer classes for kids, as well as sponsor mural projects in Midtown.

It’ll be a real family business, involving the couple’s children, nieces and nephews, as well as Joseph’s mother Susan. “We’ll have lots of help,” said Liz. They plan to be open by the first Saturday in May, so that they can participate in the city’s weekly gallery walk.  –Lynn Woods

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Dallas Hot Wieners Offers Authentic Taste of Kingston

March 15th, 2011

Dallas Hot Wieners was founded more than 75 years ago—no one knows exactly when—by Spyros Pappas’ son’s godfather. Once known as Uncle George’s, the location at 490 Broadway was renamed after the original Dallas Hot Wieners in Uptown, which Spyros and his brother-in-law, John Tampasis, took over about 35 years ago. Their sons Evan Pappas and Freddy Tampasis jointly run the location at 51 N. Front Street and another restaurant in Saugerties, with brother-in-law Nick Maritsas, a transplant from New Jersey, in charge of the Broadway location. This is a family business, in spades.  

Doug Bell, who was sitting at the counter at the DHW on Broadway last Friday afternoon, said he thinks the original restaurant goes back as far as the 1930s. Whatever, the Kingston native and property manager said he’s been stopping here since 1967, when he was a kid attending the YMCA and came over afterwards for an 80-cent lunch. What makes the savory hot dog sauce—its recipe a carefully guarded family secret–so good? “It’s the texture,” Bell said. “It’s not sloppy, like some others.” Another customer sitting at the counter named Frank—he didn’t want to give his last name—said he spent 10 years in Vermont and “Vermont doesn’t know hot dogs.” The IBM employee, who has also been coming to the restaurant since he was a kid in the 1960s, said there’s nothing like the tastiness of DHW’s ensemble of dog, mustard, sauce, onions, and roll (nor the price, which is just $1.65). He’s also a fan of the French fries, which should be ordered “dark.” In short, Dallas Hot Wieners “is a great Kingston staple,” Frank said.

Nick Maritsas

“People come here from all over the country,” chipped in Maritsas, who was busy behind the counter. Maritsas noted that before visiting their families, the outsiders stop in at Dallas Hot Wieners. The sauce, which sells for $5 a pint and $3 for a half pint, is a hot item. “We’re down to earth.”

Bell and Frank then took a trip down memory lane, recalling the café in the old Trailways bus station across the street—now the Rite Aid—the old post office that used to be next door, TriCounty Business Machines down the block and sidewalks crowded with factory workers. “The corporations ruined this country,” commented Maritsas, as the conversation veered off into a discussion about the economy, the plight of the middle class, Kingston’s challenges…but I digress. Maybe you can only take talking about how bad things are when you’re sitting at a gold-speckled Formica counter nibbling at the most delicious baklava you’ve ever had, which is made by Maritsas’ wife. It’s one of the more expensive items on the menu, at $2.75.

Two years ago, Kingston High School became a closed campus, eliminating the lunch crowd. (On this topic the conversation was heated, informed, and philosophical.) Four businesses closed as a result, but Maritsas hung in there, expanding the menu, and business has bounced back. When you have a place filled with students, you simplify, he explained, or the cook can’t remember all the orders. When volume goes down, you can be more elaborate. So he’s added chicken souvlaki, buffalo chicken, and gyro steak sandwiches. There’s also at least two homemade soups, in addition to the staples—hot dogs, burgers, milk shakes, and BLTs. (What he doesn’t serve is buttermilk, a once-popular drink that his mother-in-law used to sell to customers uptown, to be washed down with the hot dogs.)

Maritsas attributed the restaurant’s durability to the low overhead. The building was paid off long ago—there’s a rental apartment upstairs—and the staff is small, consisting of a waitress, guy at the grill, Maritsas, and sometimes a fourth person helping out at the cash register. And then, of course, there’s the sizeable foundation of loyal customers, which include an entire family from Wappinger’s who come every Saturday.

Dallas Hot Wieners Uptown

If you haven’t been to Dallas Hot Wieners, you haven’t really been to Kingston, so be sure to stop by. It’s open Monday through Friday from 10 to 8 pm and on Saturday, from 11 to 8 pm. The 51 North Front Street location, which has a slightly different menu, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 8. –Lynn Woods

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Everette Hodge and Summer Sizzlers

March 8th, 2011

The Friday night Rewards for Excellence program at the Everette Hodge Center, located at 15-21 Franklin Street, gets teens off the street, offering not just games, entertainment, and snacks but also guest speakers whose anti-drug or anti-gang message promotes positive behavior. The center also hosts ice-cream parties for honor–roll students and other fun events that promote social skills and a positive self-image for teens throughout the year, as well as trips to local colleges, noted community outreach coordinator Sandra Thompson-Hopgood. Hopgood noted with pride that 26 of the children who participated in the center’s activities are now in college.

One of the most exciting programs the Everette Hodge Center is offering is Kingston Hoops Summer Sizzle, a summer basketball league that was started by its executive director, Charlene LaDay-Hill, in 2006. LaDay-Hill, who moved to Kingston from Beacon six years ago, said she was inspired by Beacon’s summer basketball program, which her son had participated in. When kids in Kingston started asking LaDay-Hill and her son to drive them to Beacon to play, she recognized a need.

photo by Robin Williams

After being told by city authorities the program wouldn’t work, she has proved them wrong, with an average of 200 kids ages 8 to 18 playing in 15 teams. The city also has come round and been supportive: at LaDay-Hill’s request, it has converted the court at Rondout Gardens to a double regulation court (Arold Paving offered its services for free). The kids also play at Hasbrouck Courts, near the Kennedy school. LaDay-Hill said teams from Saugerties and other towns sometimes participate in the games, which are held from the beginning of July to mid August. (Kingston’s Department of Parks and Recreation runs a basketball program in the winter, previously covered in our newsletter.)

LaDay-Hill said she is grateful for support from area businesses, such as Bop to Tottom, with funds paying for T-shirts, equipment, water, trophies, and food for the end-of-the-season cookout. The support is particularly important in light of cuts to Community Development Block Grants, the prime funding source. Thompson-Hopgood encouraged supporters to attend tonight’s (March 9) Common Council hearing on the CDBGs at City Hall, held at 6 pm.

Thompson-Hopgood said Everette Hodge also offers a free after-school program with tutors on hand to help the children. It has an inspiring display in honor of Black History Month up until March 15. The center also serves as a valuable information clearing house for people in need, directing individuals who are without heat, a warm coat or food to the proper agency. It also offers help on resumes and finding employment. Thompson-Hopgood, a firm believer that “education is the way out” for those stuck in poverty, is assisted by volunteer interns, including college students. She always welcomes donations from the business community and said the center is in particular need of a ping-pong table and shuffleboard. —Lynn Woods

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YMCA: Not Just About Fitness

March 8th, 2011

The YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County, at 507 Broadway, has 2,000 members, some traveling from Dutchess County and the distant reaches of Route 28; besides its comprehensive fitness facilities and classes, which cater to infants, seniors, and everyone in between, the Y offers many services to youth. It hosts a teen leadership club, in which kids do their own fund raising for special events; offers an art class for kids on Sundays; and runs The Den, a work-out center equipped with weights, ropes, and mini obstacle courts, which is a fun after-school alternative to the computer or the streets for up to 600 teens. The Y is also a fertile source of employment for youth: many of the youngsters who attend the Y also later find employment there as swim instructors and after-school counselors.

“We’re family-oriented,” noted membership director Joan Keating. “Mom can use the babysitter service while she works out or dad and the kids can swim in the pool.” The reasonable monthly membership fees–$22 for high-school kids, $68 for families, $45.25 for individual adults, and $40.50 for seniors—ensures availability to all; the Y also offers financial aid to low-income people and has a scholarship program for kids.

Founded in 1866, the Y is one of Kingston’s oldest institutions—and unique to the area: the Newburgh and Poughkeepsie Y closed two years ago; the closest Ys are in Middletown and north of Catskill. Keating credited the Kingston Y’s vibrancy to a committed board and extensive network of volunteers, as well as strong outside support: “We are totally reliant on the  community,” she said.

The Y is funded by grants, with the United Way being a particularly dependent source. It also raises money through its Pro Am Golf Tournament, Kids’ Classic (a running event held at Dietz stadium, which supports the kids’ scholarship program), and a silent auction held in November. Contributions from businesses are welcome. “Any kind of help is appreciated, even if it’s a basketball for our leagues,” Keating said.

She noted that recent upgrades to the 80,000-square-foot facility include replacement of the boiler systems, new filters for the Olympic-sized pool, and building of The Den. Besides the pool, the Y has an indoor running track, three full-sized gyms, a free weight room, a yoga room, and a wellness center, including a cycling room. Among the more recent and unique offerings is water Zumba and a rowing class, for people who plan to join the crew teams on the Rondout Creek. Click here for the virtual tour—Lynn Woods

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ASK’s Mission: Arts for Everyone

February 28th, 2011

The Arts Society of Kingston started as an organization representing visual artists, but in recent years, following its acquisition and renovation of the handsome, former Jewish community center building on Lower Broadway, it’s greatly expanded its reach. In any given month, ASK is hosting readings of new plays in development, showing films, and offering improv and youth acting classes, poetry jams, and concerts.   At these events and especially, during the First Saturday gallery opening,  ASK brings hundreds of people to the Rondout, filling local restaurants and bars. (It’s a symbiotic relationship: Ship to Shore often donates the food for the opening.)

The group’s activities aren’t limited to the building. It shows large reproductions of a few member artists’ watercolors in the Hudson Valley Mall and hosts the Kingston Sculpture Biennial (this year, it will be curated by Robert Johnson, a graphic designer who teachers at SUNY-Ulster; the sculptures will be placed on the median of lower Broadway and along the Rondout waterfront). The organization serves not just the city but the entire region, drawing in artists from as far away as Newburgh and Red Hook.

Board President, Lewis Gardiner

President of the board Lewis Gardner, who resides in Woodstock, said his initial attraction to the organization was its accessibility. “There’s no automatic nay-saying. Anyone with a good proposal can get an open hearing.” Gardner added the limited amount of space—consisting of two galleries, one quite large—is the main barrier to doing more.

There is room to expand, with a large, open space on the second floor. Gardner noted that the raw space should be available on a limited basis this summer, given that the funds have been raised to replace the not-to-code fire escape with an external staircase. Eventually, ASK hopes to renovate the former social hall, transforming the small stage into a sound and light booth and erecting terraced platforms for audience seating, which would face a designated performance area on the floor, Gardner said.

Once the building can offer this bona fide professional performance space, the sky’s the limit in terms of programming. In the meantime, ASK offers an impressive cultural menu, particularly in the drama department. The Playwrights Lab that Gardner started at SUNY-Ulster moved to ASK three years ago, providing playwrights, actors and directors with a workshop in which they can assess and get feedback on new work. “It’s a chance for a writer to hear his work,” Gardner said, noting that both experienced playwrights and novices can participate. “ASK serves the entire community of artists, both skilled professionals and people just starting out.”

Yet it also strives to offer quality art to the public. For that reason, in the summer months the staged readings are of selected work by more seasoned playwrights. The performing arts committee also can host a production, as is the case with With or Without, a play by an Emmy-nominated playwright that’s currently being presented. “This is a writer who wanted to become part of the Hudson Valley community,” Gardner said, noting the contact was made through the suggestion of a local actor.

Gardner said ASK also has partnered with other organizations to better serve the community. For example, in April it’ll be showing works by 20 or so artists at the Hudson Valley Mall, each of whom will have a table. The mall already displays and sells banners based on watercolors by local artists. ASK planned to have the artists set up in the corridor where the banners are displayed, but “the owners said why don’t we use the whole mall,” so the tables will be located throughout the facility. ASK will also be hosting a history day on April 9, with presentations, music and children’s activities.

Of course, ASK continues its commitment to the visual arts, with 24 exhibits on the roster each year. Currently there’s also life-drawing sessions, a class on the Sedona method, which is a way of fostering creativity, and Photoshop classes.

Executive director Vindora Wixom noted that yet another appeal of ASK is its health insurance program, which is open to freelancers. Wixom added that the ASK monthly gallery openings are always a big smash. Last month’s opening—featuring a show of Chronogram covers and a member’s exhibition linked to Valentine’s Day—attracted 600 people, despite a snowstorm. ASK has approximately 450 members. The annual membership is $60 for individuals and $100 for couples. —Lynn Woods

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Get Healthy at Colonial Health Food Store

February 21st, 2011

Colonial Health Food Center, located at 43 North Front St., is the oldest health food store in Ulster County. It has occupied its current storefront since 1961 (the business was founded in 1960) and was bought by current owner Natu Shah in 1986. Shah, a native of India, opened up a health food store in Poughkeepsie several months after immigrating to America in 1977, bringing an Indian tradition to the States just at the time when people started getting serious about eating whole foods and following a holistic health regime. It’s a trend that’s blossomed to become a way of life for many, and, despite the faded interior—actually charmingly retro, with its tin ceiling–Colonial has solidly kept up with the times.

The shelves are loaded with vitamins, protein supplements, organic drinks and dairy products, nuts, spices, teas, body lotions and oils, probiotics (flax seed oil, fish oil, and the like), shampoos, tinctures, cleaning products, you name it—altogether, more than 3,000 items, Shah estimated. (A spry 78-

Owner Natu Shah

year-old who could pass for 60, he’s a living testament to the healthfulness of his wares.) He noted the store carries several exclusive brands. They include Bio-Essence International, which makes an allergy, hay fever and sinus treatment that Colonial’s regular customers swear by, and Vita Therapy, whose vitamins are all natural, of course, and cost 20 percent less than other brands.

Manager Liz Hoffmann, who holds a degree in biology from the University of Texas and is unusually knowledgeable about the various elixirs on the shelves, points out a relatively new product, jars of human growth hormone made from deer antlers and stem cells. She said it helps the immune system and is popular with women. Another exotic product that she said bolsters up the body is bee pollen. “We are the cheapest health food store around and have a very eclectic selection,” said Hoffmann.

But Colonial offers much more than holistic health products. If you want to buy green, check out the Seventh Generation recyclable toilet paper and paper towels in the back. If you want to buy spices, flour, dried fruit, beans, nuts, honey or other whole food at a reasonable price, this is the place. The selection is phenomenal, with many of the items hand-packed in ziplock bags. There’s half a dozen kinds of cashew nuts—a good-sized bag is priced as low as $4.50—and bags of millet, quinoa, wheat berries, chickpea flour, red lentils and toor dal, a yellow lentil-like bean that Hoffmann said is particularly tasty. A jar of organic raw honey is just $3.99, or you can splurge and spent $20 for raw wanuka honey, which comes from Africa and contains an antiseptic; it can be both eaten and applied onto the skin.

You can grind your own peanut butter for $1.79 a pound (11 cents more if you don’t have a container). The raw snack items in the refrigerated shelves include a variety of nuggets sweetened with honey or berries and enriched with sunflower seeds or nuts–all tasty, healthy and affordable.  Colonial also stocks a variety of Indian foods. There are bags of curried cashews, bottles of curry sauces, loose curry leaves in a bag, chunks of raw jadgery sugar (rich in calcium and magnesium, according to the package) and frozen Indian dinners. Shah makes his own ghee—clarified butter, which has no butterfat—which is sold in small jars. The only thing Colonial doesn’t stock is produce (although it sells organic milk and free-range eggs). That lack is fulfilled half the year by the Kingston Farmers’ Market, which has been great for business, Shah said.

Even if health food stores aren’t your thing, if you love to eat and cook from scratch,  you’ll want to visit Colonial Health Food Center. Friendly, well stocked, it’s a throwback to the mom and pop stores when they were at their peak—and proof that their appeal never went out of date. —Lynn Woods

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