Chesterfield Observer

By any measure, Dennis Barbaro is a successful restaurateur. Fired from a dishwashing job on Long Island at 15, the New York native, bounced back into the business to establish a small empire that spans eight states, and includes one of the newest restaurants at Westchester Commons, Napa Kitchen and Wine.

Napa Kitchen and Wine: California dreaming - Chesterfield Observer Dennis Barbaro, owner of Napa Kitchen and Wine ASH DANIEL By any measure, Dennis Barbaro is a successful restaurateur. Fired from a dishwashing job on Long Island at 15, the New York native, bounced back into the business to establish a small empire that spans eight states, and includes one of the n...

When Jonathan and I landed in Bucharest after an early flight from Amsterdam, our immediate feeling was that we had left the West and entered the East. Intellectually, I knew that Romania bordered Ukraine and had once been behind the Iron Curtain. But after landing at a Soviet-era airport, checking Google Maps, and seeing Moscow in the upper right corner, we shared a definite chill.

In the land of Vlad Dracula: Unnerving moments in Romania and a less eerie perspective of the Transylvanian myths - Chesterfield Observer The country of Romania, which borders Ukraine and was once part of the Soviet Bloc, contains a fascinating history. In more recent memory, it witnessed the 1989 popular revolt against Communist President Nikolae Ceausescu, and in the 15th century, the legend of Vlad the Impaler was born. HUNTER REAR...

Greg Speeks remembers as a young boy riding on the fuel truck with his grandfather to deliver fuel oil to customer’s homes.

“We went all around town,” he says. “If people needed fuel oil in the middle of the night, we would go and bring it to them.”

Speeks’ grandfather, W. Gwyn Speeks, started W. G. Speeks in 1943.

A long-burning duty: Founded in 1943, the Chesterfield-based W.G. Speeks marks 80 years of keeping people comfortable at home and at work Greg Speeks remembers as a young boy riding on the fuel truck with his grandfather to deliver fuel oil to customer’s homes. “We went all around town,”