STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Food, roots and our collective memories growing up in a small community in New York City are among the sweet things that unite us on Staten Island. Nostalgia recently brought up these last few Sundays jogged memories of friends who join us in our pandemic times with the almost one-year running “Food Service Diaries.” And the springboard for today’s discussion hails from a column, “Love at First Bite” published on Valentine’s Day.
This chapter in the Borough of Parks takes us to Zeke Quin, a native Sunnyside resident who grew up across the street from Clove Lakes Park. The part of those bucolic, 193-acres near Victory Boulevard was not only a playground for Quin but the site of many watershed moments. Among such points as the World War II Veteran’s Memorial Ice Skating Rink, the current Stone House restaurant and the lake itself, Zeke brings up the food people of the past and connects them to life in 2021.
THE BOATHOUSE REAWAKENS
“My first summer job in the early ’70′s was working for Sal at the row boat concession in the park and my winter job was working for Flo at the ice skating rink snack bar,” Zeke recalls. He even served as the hot dog man in the park. Suddenly in 1990, a new food venue came to town. Business partners John Blum and Skip Blake fired up a restaurant in the long-vacant boathouse.
Sitting on a stone bridge: Zeke and Nancy Quin at Clove Lakes Park in 1992. (Courtesy of Zeke Quin)
“I was eager to be part of the original staff, tending bar along with Paul Haley and Rich Fugazzi. The new restaurant printed up bumper stickers that said ‘Clove Lake Cafe — Love At First Bite.’ And that was to be the place where Zeke met “the girl of his dreams.” That’s when a fellow worker in the food service industry, Nancy, stepped into the boathouse — or as Zeke says “sashayed” — she arrived with her colleagues in tow, the then called “Roadhouse Girls.”
“They just finished their shift at the Clove Road restaurant up the street. It was love at first sight!” Zeke enthused. He proposed to Nancy in the woods overlooking the lake.
The Quins cut their wedding cake in the living room at the former Lake Cafe. (Courtesy of Zeke Quin)Zeke Quin
“On Sadie Hawkins Day, 1992, I knelt down next to a large rock where I had used a hammer and chisel and carved ‘the question.’ It is written in stone how I feel for her,” said Zeke.
He pointed out, “We had our first kiss, first dance and eventually our wedding at John and Skip’s restaurant in the summer of ’92. It was the first wedding there in at least a generation. Nancy and I took a row boat to our magical reception.”
Throwback to 1968: Harbor Police patrolling Clove Lakes Park (Staten Island Advance File Photo)Staten Island Advance
And as Zeke rowed, Keith Manfredi of Touch of Blast played “Rock the Boat” by Hues Corporation.
The chefs at the Lake House then were Terry Moore and Food Network champ, chef Rob Burmeister.
Zeke eventually altered the eatery’s promotional bumper sticker to read “Love at First Site” and it’s been hanging in his West Brighton garage for 28 years.
Clove Lakes Park nostalgia from the Lake Cafe era. (Courtesy of Zeke Quin)Zeke Quin
He and wife Nancy have reveled in those times by dining at Parks Department resident restaurant incarnations — the Lake Cafe, The Lake Club and The Stone House at Clove Lakes Park and The Boathouse in Central Park. Pre-COVID, part of the fun in recounting memories has included a sunset gondola ride at the Manhattan venue, a trip accompanied by a serenading gondolier.
Retired FDNY firefighter Zeke said, “This year, restaurants reopened in time for Valentines Day and we enjoyed a four-course dinner at the Stone House.” The Quins loved it, particularly that they supped in the fireplace room precisely where the couple cut their wedding cake almost three decades ago.
According to current contract owner of The Stone House, Peter Botros, the building was built in the 1800s in the time of Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of other NYC Parks like Central Park. Over the years, it has functioned as a restaurant under different tenders with roughly 10-year terms between Parks and its food operator.
The row boats go back into action in April. Botros said his restaurant-within-a-restaurant concept with its personal cooking experience, The Chef’s Loft, will return when full-capacity dining returns.
A view from the loft above: Chef's Loft will return to Stone House when full capacity dining returns to New York City. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) Staff-Shot
ROOTS BACK TO THE LENAPE
If you’ve ever wondered why the park earned its “Clove” name, turn to the history noted on the Parks website. It details how the word “clove” comes from the Dutch “kloven” or cleft. Parks says it refers to “the valley and brook between Emerson and Grymes Hills... deepened by the glacier 20,000 years ago.” If a 21st century Staten Islander followed the brook as it once flowed from the the former Clove Swamp it would take one down to the Kill van Kull. Alongside that little river was a path on which the indigenous Lenape traveled on a footpath, says Parks.
The next time in Clove Lakes Park do remember all of those sweet roots that keep us tethered to the Isle of Staaten.
Keep in touch.
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
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