The Vegan with the Golden Heart
The dark clothes and bright outlook of a father, chef and neighbor
I’m not a pessimist, despite the profound and accelerating evidence that life is overloaded by sorrow and shit. I am saved from this assessment, thank my luck stars, by the wonderment and beauty I find in nature, in my abilities as a creative person, and in my relationships with individuals who have such supernaturally positive attitudes and lusts for life that it is infectious. Why couldn’t this have been our plague?
These people aren’t cheerleaders or sycophants, not saints or dreamers. They are flawed human beings with the same worries and ulcers we all have. Every day they strive to make sense of the world and to find the energy to wake up the next morning. I don’t even know that they are optimists. Yet within them is some metaphysical aloe that soothes the mental rashes of those in pain.
My friend Alessandro Gnoli is one of these people. Ale lives in California now, but his power transcends the phone and the internet. I’m blessed to have another such person right next door in Juan Antonio Andres, the man with three first names. He goes by Tony. He’s also a chef, a father, and aspires to one day open a vegan restaurant here in Bridgeport.
Many of the chefs I know say they fell into the industry instead of, say, worked to fulfill a lifelong dream, and Tony is no exception. As soon as he became a teenager he started working along with his siblings in the kitchen of his father’s small pizzeria across the Indiana border in Hammond. It wasn’t a choice; the labor was needed to keep the place going.
Tony grew up in South Chicago, as did his wife, Alicia.
“Growing up in that neighborhood you’re exposed to a lot of bad habits,” he said. “I was really doing nothing with my life. Avoiding school because of the gangs.” But Tony said he doesn’t judge the neighborhood; it isn’t that way by choice.
When Tony met Alicia, neither of their families thought they were a positive influence on one another. Maybe the families misunderstood the pair’s mutual love of dark metal bands and all black wardrobes. Being Tony, this romance wouldn’t have a Romeo and Juliet ending. Last week the couple, who have been together 14 years, celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary.
Toward the early part of the relationship came Emery, the light of both their lives and a pretty big one in mine. Emery is a sensitive young person, and she’s been riddled with anxiety during the pandemic. Her parents agonize over how to tell her how much she means to everyone. I wish I could, too. Emery has helped me rescue my cats when they escape from the yard; it’s her they go to. When she rides around on her bike it’s powered not by peddling but by the same magic she’s inherited from her father.
The trio came to Bridgeport about nine years ago now, when Tony’s in-laws Mario Calderon and his wife Melanie Espinosa offered them the chance to live in one of their properties: the blue A-frame next to my home.
“They are amazing people,” Tony said. “I owe them so much. I am able to provide my family with a safe neighborhood - a great neighborhood - that’s right at the center of everything.”
After the pizza parlor, Tony decided to stick with what he knew and moved his way up the culinary chain. He worked at Grand Lux Cafe, and at the now-closed Howells and Hood in Tribune Tower. Many mornings I see Tony gliding by on his way to the Orange Line, making his way to work as a sous chef at Eataly. He loves the work and the camaraderie, but the 14 hour shifts and the pressure to churn out 500 delicious meals a day does take its toll.
“It’s very difficult to keep that positive mindset all the time, all the time,” he said. “Being a family man I’m just trying to do my best. Family is just a beautiful thing.”
Tony’s goal is to one day open a vegan restaurant here in Bridgeport; maybe a strange arrival for someone who started out making pizzas and has now perfected a recipe involving…pork cheeks. But he started experimenting with vegan cooking and its health benefits when Alicia was pregnant with Emery and developed gestational diabetes. Now, he said, the choices and options for plant-based cooking are limitless.
Having seen it happen with his father’s restaurant, Tony worries having his own will take even more away from his cherished family time. Being supportive and a little selfish, I told him I’d eat there every day. I hope it happens. If there’s anyone who can meet the unique challenges of opening a restaurant, it is someone who believes all the strife and consternation life throws at us each day are only temporary. It’s someone like Juan Antonio Andres.
“You know,” he said. “I just have so much room in my heart for everybody at this point. I just want to tell everybody I love you and, you know, everything will be ok.”
You can hear Tony tell his story between 6:20 and 6:30 p.m., Fri., March 4 on Lumpen Radio or, if you’re local, on 105.5 FM on your radio dial.
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