Tag: Amy Quinn

Episode 60: Amy Russo from Toast

This week Amy Quinn and Joe Walsh talk Peace, Love and Pancakes with Amy Russo, founder and driving force behind Toast Restaurant here in Asbury Park. With the help of Ming Chen from A Shared Universe PodcaStudio, we talk to Amy about the birth of Toast, its expansion from Montclair to Asbury Park and now Red Bank—what’s it like to get a rave review in the New York Times when you least expect it, and how the pandemic has affected her business.

Episode 59: Kiwanis Club of Asbury Park

This week we welcome Sarah Bloom and Michelle Grezner of the newly re-chartered Kiwanis Club of Asbury Park with the help of Ming Chen from A Shared Universe PodcaStudio. We get right to the heart of the matter in this one and to find out what is Kiwanis? What do they do? We were hoping that they would be mysterious and creepy like freemasons. But no, to our great disappointment we found out that they seem to be non-secretive, inveterate do gooders who might just be your nice neighbors and whose organization you might want to join after hearing this episode.

Episode 58: Local Artists George Bates & Courtney Pasterchick

We took a little, unplanned break earlier this month, so we are glad to be back.
This week we welcome artists George Bates and Courtney Pasterchick with the help of Ming Chen from A Shared Universe PodcaStudio. George and Courtney recently completed works for the 13 Artist Mural Project here in Asbury Park, one of the public art initiatives which — together with the Wooden Walls Project on the boardwalk, and other endeavors — has made Asbury Park the public art juggernaut it is today-with plenty more to come.
We talk to Courtney and George about the role of public art, the business of art, and the training, commitment and practice required to become a successful artist (hint: it’s a lot).

Episode 57: Jimmy Bruno & Kiki Tomek, Asbury Park’s most nonchalant gay-rights heroes

This week, as we observe Pride Month here in June, Amy & Joe talk with longtime Asbury Park luminaries with the help of Ming Chen from A Shared Universe PodcaStudio. Our guests are former Asbury Park city clerk Kiki Tomek and Jimmy Bruno– former Deputy Mayor of Asbury Park, former Board of Education President and Vice President, longtime Little League president and coach, and retired Asbury Park Firefighter. The duo became unlikely icons of LGBTQ history when they licensed and performed the first (and at the time still illegal) gay marriage in the state of New Jersey on March 8, 2004 and expedited the state’s march to marriage equality.

Episode 56: Tee Gates, Asbury Park’s first Black woman Fire Marshal

This week Amy and Joe, with the help of Ming Chen from A Shared Universe PodcaStudio, welcome Tee Gates, the first Black Woman to serve as Fire Marshall for the city of Asbury Park—which is apparently a family tradition. She also is the daughter of the first Black Female Police Officer to serve in Asbury Park. We talk to Tee about her 32 years in and around the Asbury Park Firehouse and find out what responsibilities the Fire Marshall has. Other important take-aways include, remembering to keep your propane tanks outside, never to chain your fire doors and that, inexplicably, there is no women’s restroom in the Asbury Park Firehouse.