Bruce Apar’s Blog

I’ve heard a few mutterings lately about the proliferation of fundraisers in our area that take the form of golf tournaments. (Full disclosure: my family’s own Harrison Apar Field of Dreams Foundation contributes to the glut with its annual Columbus Day Golf Classic, this year (Oct. 13) at Mohansic Golf Course).

In this year’s economy, attendance at some of the tournaments is down even as entry fees continue to climb, a function of how much the course or club is charging the charity and how much profit the charity wants to clear on each player.

One of the best run tournaments I’ve been to is the DeVito Foundation’s annual event, just held at The Canyon Club in Armonk on Sept. 18. Anthony DeVito and brother John do a splendid and classy job, and it shows in the turnout of 110 golfers, including Yorktown Supervisor Don Peters, County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, Yorktown’s unofficial lawyer laureate and past Supervisor Al Cappellini, restaurateur Dave Paganelli, Atlantic Appliance proprietor Rich Leahy, Yortown Planning Dept. head John Tegeder, Planning Commission chair Dave Klaus, Outback Steakhouse exec Ron Duckstein, NetbizCom exec Tom Jacobs, Club Fit’s Bill Beck and James Stropoli, and more.

It was a gorgeous day to be out on the links and the Canyon course is no walk in the park, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

(To Be Continued)

We all know about the economy, if for no other reason than the so-called Mainstream Media keeps telling us how grim it is, with occasional lapses into irrational optimism, or so it would seem. (For the record, North County News is not Mainstream Media. Main Street Media is more like it.)

Make no mistake. There are businesses around here that are suffering right now, and we hope they get relief as soon as possible.

At the same time, others are opening businesses. Our Business Beat section in the North County News issue of September 10 reports on newly opened Peekskill Brewery. It’s always encouraging to see local commerce reinvent itself, and not just because it supports the structural integrity of the tax base. even if it is one enterprise at a time. In Yorktown, there are several examples, we’re pleased to report.

At Yorktown’s monthly Chamber of Commerce networking mixer on Monday, September 8, expansively hosted by Roxanne Innerfield of Joe Visconti of RGI Properties, with barbecue catered lip-smackingly by Colonial Terrace, John Chiazzese was introduced as a new Chamber member. He’s just opened Throggs Neck Jewelers in Underhill Plaza, home of Chamber members like Party Celebrations, Mimi’s, Country Florist and State Farm Insurance. John and family’s flagship location is on Tremont Avenue in The Bronx, and many locals are devoted customers of his brother Rosario’s barbershop in The Triangle.

Up the road from Chase Media Group headquarters on Front Street is another retail arrival, aptly named Up Front, A Clothing Boutique for Men & Women. On Commerce Street in the strip mall across from that omnipresent coffee chain is Southside Inn, a tavern and eatery at the former site of Coachlight Inn. We expect to report on its opening very soon.

Another place starting to cause a buzz is Miracles Bar & Grill in Brookside Park on Kear Street. It is situated just below Murphy’s Restaurant (on Route 118), and a stone’s throw in the other direction from Finnegan’s, both of which have developed very loyal followings, particularly among the younger crowd. Around the corner on Underhill is The Heights, a popular bistro for those who prefer the quieter, more leisurely taste of nouvele cuisine.

A recent evening en route home from our Front Street offices, I noticed that Miracles was fully lit inside, the first time I glimpsed its furnishings, so I pulled in the parking lot and moseyed over to the entrance, which faces the rear of the parking lot, looking toward Underhill Avenue.

Inside was a handsomely well-done, blonde-wood decor and two guys who are rarin’ to go: Miracles proprietors Jimmy Bobolakis, owner of Brookside Park, the commercial building that houses the restaurant, and Nick Halampalakis, the 32-year-old managing partner raised by a family of chefs, and who attended the famed Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park.

Projecting a smart ambience that’s at once classy, cool and casual, Miracles fills the two spaces once inhabited by Italian gourmet deli A Taste of Italy and Maria’s Restaurant, which for a very short time after closing turned into Viansa Restaurant. Both spaces have been vacant for an extended period, but sometime in October, Miracles should be open for business, according to the two partners. Once their liquor license is in hand, they will seek town board approval of a cabaret license for live music performances. We can’t imagine why the town board would not approve it. Both Murphy’s and The Heights on occasion offer live music, and Yorktown still has a long way to go to emulate the rich cultural offerings of nearby music mecca Peekskill.

Nick, whose affable, enthusiastic personality is well suited to working the front of the house, as he intends to do, describes his menu as more upscale than comparable establishments, but also reasonably priced, with a range of entrees anywhere from $13, say for a salad, to $60, for a surf-and-turf of filet mignon and lobster tail.

He and his partner Jimmy emphasize all provisions will be purchased and delivered daily to the kitchen, which is impressively spacious and, to my eye, state-of-the-art. A see-through portal in the main dining area will afford patrons full view of food preparation in the kitchen.

Upon entering the 175-seat restaurant, there is a bar and booths, with a flat screen TV perched above what seemed like every booth. There also are giant screens above the bar and in the main dining room.

The partners are aiming for a somewhat different mix of customers than frequent the neighboring tavern restaurants, noting their concept is to recreate the good-time dining-and-music milieu popularized in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Let the kids have their hangouts, they seem to be saying. Miracles is aiming for a client base that skews older, populated by mature adults and families. In the evenings when music is scheduled, Nick says he hopes to keep the kitchen open until 11:00 p.m.

If it sounds like he and Jimmy are trying to import a Manhattanesque night-out to the North County, at suburban prices, I say, bring it on! It’s about time. I’m there. And I know a lot of others who will be too.

At my age, it’s not easy to remember senior moments, whether from the last year in high school or in college. What you do recall tends to be the cruise-control, downhill nature of it all. You’ve paid your dues, you’re the king of the hill, you’re champing at the bit to move on to the next phase in life. What, me worry?
Those were the halcyon days, when, unlike today, we didn’t apply to as many colleges as Crayola has colors, and rarely if ever visisted any of them. One thing, however, hasn’t changed. Four decades ago, annual tuition to a private school cost as much as a fairly fancy car, just like it does today.
These are tougher times for college applicants, as well as for those who foot the bills. Before I transferred to Syracuse University, in those days nicknamed the “Miami of the North” for its social scene, I spent freshman year at the “Syracuse of the South,” University of Miami, whose students were mocked as majoring in “Basketweaving 101.” Today, basket cases need not apply to the Coral Gables campus, and good luck getting in at all if you are anything but a top student with special credentials. The competition for the marquee colleges is that fierce, with exceptional scholars from all over the globe vying for enrollment.
Dr. Randall Glading, assistant principal at Yorktown High School, believes secondary school educators can and should be doing a much better job preparing students for the rigors of postsecondary, education. He lays out his prescription in great detail in his book released earlier this year, “Overcoming the Senior Slump: Meeting the Challenge with Internships.” (Rowman & Littlefield Education, $19.95; rowmanlittlefield.com).
The thesis presented by Dr. Glading is that over the course of his nearly 30 years in the system, “The way in which public educators treat their most experienced students [ie, seniors] has changed little … Students are merely completing coursework to accumulate the necessary credits required for graduation. … The student’s social adjustment to college is extremely important, and if it is not managed correctly, it can result in academic failure.”
He proposes that the best way to reverse the do-nothing malaise of “senioritis” — and increase the likelihood not only of acceptance by the student’s college of choice, but also of a seamless transition between “high school adolescence and college adulthood,” as Fordham’s Bruce Cooper writes in his foreword — is to reinvigorate the high school senior’s experience. It starts with schools weaning themselves off the national obsession of teaching curricula that is a slave to mandated state assessment tests.
“The value of state assessments is undeniable,” writes Willard Daggett of the International Center for Leadership in Education in the book’s appendix, adding, “but we cannot view them as the definition of academic excellence. Unfortuantely, many of those in education do.”
Dr. Glading’s antidote is contained in his book’s title: internships. It extends to mentoring and work-study programs. The end-to-end process is examined in close detail, using actual student examples. The goals are to “work, investigate and experience the real world.” He makes the case that, in addition to grade point average and SAT scores, internships should be seriously considered by college admission officers, who express concern about the “inability of incoming students to succeed at the university level.”
Dr. Glading’s recipe for an effective internship requires adult mentors in both academic and workplace settings. Objectives include independent learning, time management and becoming part of a “learning community outside of the classroom.”
He cites the acclaimed WISE Services (Westchester’s Pioneers in Individual Senior Experience) for its central role in refining the internship model, and notes that its founder, Vic Leviatin, who originated the program in 1972 at Woodlands High in Hartsdale, travels the country helping schools “in the establishment of senior alternative programs.”
still is on the case as a consultant.
Dr. Glading also advises parents that it’s wise to “stand alongside your child but do not get in the way.” Regardless of the grade your child is in, few graduation gifts will have more lifelong value than buying a copy of this book now and taking to heart its sage advice.
He further notes that “all adolescents need to develop a sense of autonomy and ability to deal with challenging situations.”
Worth repeating here are his “basic tenets of effective parenting”:
• Communicate with your child
• Listen to your child
• Find your place in your child’s world
• Do not be selfish with your time
• Respect your child’s opinion
• Stress the importance of family time
• Stress the importance of education
• Hold your child responsible
• Teach respect
• Allow your child to gain independence and autonomy
• Love your child