Oral History: Tony Piraquive, Red Hook Coffee Shop, 2020
There is an interview and short video in Spanish at the bottom beneath the photos.
Carolina Salguero of PortSide interviewed Antonio "Tony" Piraquive who ran the Red Hook Coffee Shop for years, until 2020. We then threw a goodbye party for him because we had learned that his cellphone was flooded at home during hurricane Ida, so he lost all his contacts and couldn't say goodbye to people before he moved back to Colombia.
All sorts of people dropped by. At the end, he thanked us very often and said "this kind of thing doesn't happen every day."
It really takes such little effort to appreciate somebody and make their day, and it feels great to do it.
We brought a lot of food and drink. Thanks to Bene Coopersmith of The Record Shop and site owner Scott Pfaffman for hosting, Cory Hill of Wet Whistle Wines for wine, Molly Blieden for chili and brownies, Nico Kean for mussels, Paul Kennedy for apple pie, Ulli Gruber for cookies, StopOne for a hero, Maria Nieto for helping. We had a lot of great home cooking!
Facebook post link
A profile about Tony in the local paper, the Red Hook Star Revue, is here.
The place was gutted, access to a small backyard added, and a new business opened using the same name and facade, described on their Instagram as a "
Vintage Store Curated selection of vintage pieces, clothes - furniture - design." It's got regulars hanging out with a whiff of remote worker cafe.