Sunday, July 20, 2025

An Abundant Life - Pizza Of Dreams

When I was a very little girl, my family used to go to a restaurant in Massachusetts called Kitty's for special occasions and sometimes just because we wanted to have pizza. I used to ask to go there all the time, and we didn't ever have much of the menu, our choices were always pretty much the same. We'd order two pies, one mushroom and onion and one other one, it's escaping me now but I don't think it was just a plain one. Maybe we'd try different things for the second pie and that's why I can't remember, but it was always at least one that was mushroom and onion. Along with the pizza we'd have an Antipasto, and to this day that's the only Antipasto I really ever want whenever I see it on any menu. Sometimes we'd get the pizzas to go and have them at home which was very nice to do too, but going to Kitty's and sitting at a table or in one of the booths was always the best.

Over the years as I grew up and went back to Kitty's on occasion I'd try other kinds of pizza and other things too. I've always loved onion rings, and I think I began my love for them there. Other places just don't know how to make onion rings like Kitty's does, and although I sometimes will order them in other places, it's always Kitty's that I really wish I was having.

I've had pizza in New York, New Haven, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Long Island and New Jersey. I think I may have even had it in Europe and possibly London. There are some wonderful pizzas I've had, don't get me wrong, but there is no place like Massachusetts for pizza. Any hole in the wall place you walk into, any bar, any place that is making pizza makes a wonderful one. Some are fancier than others, but they're all really wonderful. Kitty's is the creme de la creme, at least in my book, and in a way I'm very lucky that I don't live near there because I'd probably have it every day along with an Antipasto salad and some onion rings.

Last week I had some meetings in Massachusetts, and I shared some time with some old and new friends. We were all in the mood to get together with all of us at one point and decided that we'd have dinner. When I was talking to one of my friends about places we loved to go to, she mentioned Kitty's and I asked her if it was still open. I seemed to remember looking it up a while ago and seeing that it was closed, but she told me it had closed for a time and was now open again and just as good as ever. I said that all I ever really wanted when I went there was pizza, and she said that's what she liked to get too, along with an Antipasto and onion rings. I told her that was always my favorite choice and we decided that we'd check with the rest of our group to see if Kitty's would be all right with them. We laughed when we said there's lots on the menu so they could have something else if they wanted but we knew what we were having. I sent messages to the others and Kitty's it was.

When we arrived it looked exactly the same, as if no time had gone by at all. I remember it being darker inside at night, but perhaps that was just in my childhood memories. We all decided on the same things which made me smile that here we were after all these years and we all thought the idea of pizza, Antipasto salad and onion rings was a great one. So much fun to be there with these friends, and so wonderful to have these flavors and textures that I've dreamed about be with me as part of my life once again.


A Night With Friends
At Kitty's
123 Main Street
North Reading, Massachusetts

Time Shared With Beautiful Friends
So Sweet
And An Antipasto
So Wonderful
I Forgot To Take A Photograph
Until The Salad Was Nearly Finished




Blessings,

Jannie Susan









Sunday, July 13, 2025

An Abundant Life - Art of Design

I wrote a few weeks ago about a visit to the marvelous Italian Design Showroom Rimadesio in Manhattan, and this past week I had the beautiful blessing of being a part of an event there with the marvelous Artist Marco Luccio who has been visiting from Australia and the marvelous staff as we collaborated within this beautiful space to show Marco's art within and around the lovely design pieces there.

For many years I have worked with Artists of all kinds, producing events and helping Artists to find spaces and audiences to showcase their work and their performances, films and objets d'art. Since I opened YES Gallery in Hoboken in August of 2022, much of the work that I do with Artists has been in and around that space, but I still always have my eyes and heart open to finding new places and people to collaborate with to bring art and design to ever new audiences and geographies.

When I first saw the space at Rimadesio it was for a beautiful art event that I'd been invited to, and I'm so grateful to the gorgeous Curator Adrielle Nicole who extended the gift of her welcome so that I could be a part of that beautiful evening and meet the wonderful staff there. After that event I was in a meeting to discuss future events with the marvelous CEO and others marvelous people who are in charge of the space and the events that are planned there, and on the day we met, I had just heard from Marco Luccio that he was in New York. 

In thinking about the space and his art, it just seemed like it would be a beautiful combination, and I share some images and links from his website and Instagram in the meeting that day. Later, he and I met in the space to take a few minutes with some of his pieces to see what they would look like there and the result was so lovely! With the blessing of the wonderful CEO and other wonderful staff, we planned a date and Marco made a beautiful invitation, and this past week we celebrated this gorgeous collaboration of art and design during an afternoon and evening.

Everyone involved in this beautiful event was truly wonderful to work with. It is so rare to have things go so well every step of the way unless you are working with the best of the best which I was blessed to do. I'm so grateful to everyone who went out of their way in so many ways to create the beautiful collaboration of art and design that we experienced in that space during those lovely hours we shared together, and to the wonderful guests who brought their beautiful light to shine in this glowing place.


At The Marvelous Rimadesio
For An Art Event With The Gorgeous Work
Of The Marvelous Australian Artist
Marco Luccio





Blessings,

Jannie Susan







Sunday, July 6, 2025

An Abundant Life - Canadian Beauty

This past week I saw a post on Instagram that Halifax in Hoboken was having a special Canada Day menu with specials to celebrate that holiday on Tuesday, July 1. I had been wanting to go back to Halifax again after my most recent visit that I wrote about a few weeks ago. It is always so delightful there, and everything is always so wonderful, with the most beautifully prepared and served delicious tastes created and curated with the utmost care by the marvelous Executive Chef Seadon Shouse, and served with the excellence of the wonderful staff. It's lovely there too, and every moment is a pleasure for sight, sound and palate.

I arrived in the late afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of Chef Shouse who is always so busy creating wonderful things in his kitchen, and I sat at the bar so that I could sit leisurely and enjoy my time there and not take up a table for one right before the dinner rush. The light of the afternoon as it began to glow before the rain that was forecast was a beautiful time to enjoy this lovely space that was also designed with the care of Chef Shouse. I've written about this restaurant and this Chef several times in these pages, and each time I marvel at the beauty and beautiful experience on every level that is there to be enjoyed.

The Canada Day specials were a specially created strawberry rhubarb spritz, lobster rolls, and seaweed baked oysters. I couldn't have asked for a menu that was designed more for my own special loves and tastes. As I savored each, I remembered other times when I'd had flavors and creations that were echoed in these very special menu items, thinking about a summer years ago when my Father had bought crates of strawberries somewhere on a special and my Mother in trying to make strawberry jam made a solution that was delicious but too liquid and so we poured it into jars and had strawberry sparkling water all day long. Lobster rolls always remind me of summertime in Little Compton on the beach, with my beautiful Mother bringing her special touch to a pot luck shared with friends, spooning fresh lobster from a cooler into rolls toasted on an open fire, and of dinners with my Father over many years when he and I would share a lobster or sometimes more than one, and he would show me how to clean each one thoroughly so that there would be enough after our meal for leftovers of lobster salad sandwiches. Oysters at Halifax are always so wonderful, so fresh and prepared with the most joyful flavors, and they remind me of so many dinners over the years, at so many wonderful places with so many wonderful people, and when I am at Halifax, the oysters I have there are always the best.

Being a Chef is not an easy life, and working in the hospitality industry is not either. I admire the wonderful Executive Chef and staff at Halifax for all they do to make every moment so beautiful and so special, and I am so blessed and grateful to know them and have this wonderful place to visit and enjoy.


Canada Day
At Halifax Hoboken
With So Much Gratitude
To The Marvelous Executive Chef Seadon Shouse
And The Marvelous Staff
225 River Street
Hoboken, New Jersey






Blessings,

Jannie Susan