I've written about the restaurant Antique Bar & Bakery in these pages before and about some of the people who I have met there, but though I've been wanting to write about the Founding Partner Joe Castelo for a while now, with one thing and another it hasn't happened. This week as I began thinking about who I would write about, I decided to remedy that and write about Joe. A few times in the past when I have asked him if we could meet so that I could write a blog post about him he has been in the process of working on a project, or many, and suggested that we wait until the next phase of one of the projects was ready to be seen. At one time it was the Antique Loft, which I have also written about a few times before, and at another it was a blend of coffee, Hoboken & Sons, that he was planning to serve and sell at the restaurant along with merchandise, with a portion of the proceeds to help benefit the local Boys and Girls Clubs. Another time it was the new branding of the restaurant as they reopened in September of 2020, and more recently it was the new plans for the floor below the Antique Loft where he had envisioned a co-working members only community work space with a cafe and space to show art. With all of these projects continually in motion, along with his film projects and real estate business, it's no wonder that we haven't had a chance to meet for a longer conversation, and so I'm going ahead to write from what I know because otherwise it might never happen, and there's no time like the present as the saying goes.
When I first met Joe it was at Antique Bar & Bakery, when I first went there to have lunch and write a blog post about it. He invited me to come back for dinner and then for the Halloween party they had that year with a Silent Disco. As I wrote at that time, he and his lovely wife had the best costumes and made such wonderful hosts. The evening was a wonderful one, and the dinner of course was too, and the rest as they say is history. Over the years as I've walked by the restaurant on my way to and from my usual errands, sometimes I would see Joe outside, and though we would chat a bit he is always so busy with so many things including being a great father and husband and son along with the other myriad of projects he's always envisioning.
In 2019 right around Christmas, his daughters decided to organize a charitable giving day for the Hoboken Shelter and they put out a call to the neighborhood that anyone who wanted to donate toiletries could drop them by the restaurant on December 22 and have a cup of Hoboken & Sons coffee. That afternoon I had a chance to talk with Joe for longer than usual, and I found out a bit more about his family history and his own goals and dreams and aspirations. He shared with me his heart to help the community, and that there were so many things he wanted to do to help as many people as possible. I had already heard from the owner of Vintage on First that Joe had stepped in and helped him when he had almost lost his business because of an unfortunate event with his landlord, and it had been such a striking story that I had included it in my blog post about that owner when I wrote about him and his store. As I spoke with Joe that December afternoon I started to realize that this was a person who had truly noble aspirations, and that there was something in him that wanted to reach out to others to give them a hand.
It's a rare person who, though busy with a full life, has the heart to take the time to do good deeds in the community. Having that kind of a heart can be overwhelming at times and the goodness of it needs to be encouraged. If I had one prayer to give to a heart like that, it's to know and understand that we're not alone in this journey, and that whatever we are able to give from our heart will be multiplied and made greater than we could ever do on our own.
As a filmmaker, he is always creating something new, short films for the restaurant and for the businesses of friends and for his family, as well as the feature films you can see on his resume such as "The Preppie Connection", "American Saint", the Indie Spirit Award-nominated "The War Within", and "Death Metal Angola" among others. He writes the screenplays for his films with his wife Ashley who is his writing Partner, and together they are raising their family to be lights in the community. Filled with charitable aspirations, with his visionary projects, and the many hopes and dreams he has for the future, Joe Castelo's life is a life lived in Technicolor.
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