An octagon with windows for service, customers have their own space and get drawn into each other’s conversation. Cornelia stirs the pot with questions like, “Where are your grandparents from?”
Cornelia was born in New Dorp, moved away as a young child, but always came back for family visits. At his Italian grandmother’s, he learned about the magic of the stories that flow with good food and family.
What is on the menu each day is ultimately up to the cooks. The cooks are firefighters who volunteer for the job, but they get out of dish duty and paying the daily $10 stipend for food. There are regular meals, such as a Sunday breakfast that medic and firefighter Jay Fink said “can’t be beat.”
Inspired by one of the original information highways of long ago, they called their business Silk Road BBQ. Centuries ago, the Silk Road was a network of trading routes that connected China with Central Asia, parts of Africa and eventually the Romans. Along with the exchange of goods – silk, spices, gems – came the exchange of culture and ideas.
It all began with the well-intentioned, but rarely realized, impulse to “have a reunion” among cousins at a wedding. However, the phrase became more than a cliché when Cornelia’s mother had the family up to her home in New Hampshire.
That also dictates what kind of meals the firefighters can whip up. Meal preparation can be halted immediately for emergencies, so the best food is the type that reheats well, Coffey said.