Congressman Michael Grimm with the wounded heroes & their families outside Commons Cafe. (Staten Island Advance/Jerry Lee) Click to view more pictures on silive.com

When I was a boy, my father would take me in his 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air to the then-desolate South Avenue to teach me to drive. He’d put me on his lap as I slowly steered the car up the deserted two-lane, unpaved roadway. Back in the early 1960s, South Avenue was lined on both […]

Hundreds of Staten Islanders gathered on Richmond Avenue bearing banners and American flags to pay thanks to wounded soldiers at the tail end of their motorcade escort from the Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to New York City. Over 300 motorcyclists took part in the 200-mile escort, which kicked off the annual […]

Every day, Richard Nicotra comes to work and passes six kitchens in his travels through the Hilton Garden Inn. The Staten Island hotelier eats dinner at 11:30 p.m. — and confessed at a press conference Tuesday that “about 40 years I’ve been dieting.” His desire to eat better and choose foods more wisely pushed he […]

With days to go before the Miss New York pageant is hosted at the St. George Theatre, the contestants took a timely lunch break at Commons Cafe, a healthy and charitable eatery in Staten Island Corporate Park, Bloomfield. They sat for a lunch and posed for photos for the event. Many of the 20 contestants, […]

o out and eat. That’s the simple clarion call for this year’s 16th annual Dine Out Against Hunger event, scheduled boroughwide for April 10. “If there’s one thing I do well, your mom does well, and most of us here do well is eat,” said the Rev. Terry Troia, executive director of Project Hospitality, during […]