Eateries book focuses on people

NORTHAMPTON - When your hobby is dining out at the trendiest restaurants, as
Carol Colitti Levine writes in the forward to her book about the people
behind the city's vibrant dining scene, it makes sense that her desire to
own a restaurant would be as sweet and fat as creme brulee.

Having enjoyed careers in international banking and teaching, and having
moved from Springfield to New York, then San Francisco, and back home to
Western Massachusetts to raise her son near family, Levine found herself
still dreaming of fine food and the establishments that served it.

New to Northampton, she resumed her hobby of searching out the best places
to dine. It didn't take long to realize she had moved to "the Valley of
Great Dining." In the back of her mind was the thought of opening a place of
her own.

On a visit to Manhattan with her husband to have dinner with old friends,
she reconnected with Joy Simmen Hamburger, who had published a cookbook of
recipes from restaurants in Tribeca.

With marketing instincts on overdrive, she used friends as focus groups,
answering their questions about what she wanted to do with her life now that
she had left corporate life behind. Her answer? A cheerful, "I want to open
a restaurant."

"They all told me I was crazy," she said, over coffee in one of
Northampton's busy bistros, just a few weeks before the publication of her
book. They cited the long hours, financial risks, employee turnover, small
kitchens, she said. She wondered why anyone would ever want to own a
restaurant if it was so bad, she said. So she did other things with her
life. Time went by.

Her former boss called and Levine took a job in Boston, suffering the
two-hour commute for years. Finally, she said "bye-bye, bank" for a final
time.

A session with a life coach helped her focus on what she had always wanted
to do. The Tribeca cookbook was sharp in her memory. She reasoned that if it
was too crazy to open a restaurant, she could write a book about the crazy
people who had. Northampton's rich menu of dining spots offered great
material. And she was ready to tell the stories.

Levine examines the Hotel Northampton, as well as the Wiggins Tavern and
Coolidge Park Cafe within it, Fitzwilly's, Eastside Grill, Spoleto, Pizzeria
Paradiso, Del Raye Bar and Grill, Spoleto Express, Mulino's, Brasserie 40A,
Bishop's Lounge, Green Street Cafe, Circa, La Veracruzana, India House, the
Great Wall and Curtis and Schwartz Cafe.

She is careful to point out that her book is not a cookbook or a book about
restaurants. While a delicious selection of recipes occupies the back of the
book, its main courses are the tales of the people who made the eateries
happen.

"It's about people," she said.

Claudio Guerra is one of them. The owner of Spoleto, Spoleto Express,
Pizzeria Paradiso and Del Raye Bar and Grill, Guerra said, "'The book was a
great idea,'" according to Levine. "I spent two hours hearing his life
story." She was intrigued.

As Levine began to write, she was introduced to Lisa Ekus-Saffer of Hatfield
who owns a public relations company for chefs and cookbook authors. Ekus
offered ideas about the book and convinced Levine to collaborate with the
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

Levine joined the food bank's development committee as a way to "give back"
for the luscious, food-centered life she had enjoyed. Consequently, a part
of the proceeds from the sale of her book, "Table's Edge: Stories and
Favorite Recipes of the People who Created a Dining Paradise in the Pioneer
Valley of Massachusetts," will benefit the food bank.

Levine said that although she had an idea of where she wanted her book to
go, she "let the process" guide the way. "I was naive about everything," she
said, except marketing. "That's what I did professionally." She had a
marketing plan and started to do homework regarding publishing.

She began to interview restaurant owners or managers, many of whom she
learned about from other restaurateurs. She was fascinated by how the
stories of one person linked with another, how "their paths had crossed."

Altogether, Levine interviewed 20 past and current movers and shakers in
Northampton's restaurant scene. "It was like herding cats" trying to reach
them, she said. From these experts in the field Levine loved, she said she
learned "that it was even harder to run a restaurant than I'd thought. And
it's not very glamorous. When I had thought about owning a restaurant, I'd
had this image of sitting on a stool at Elaine's (in New York) hanging out
and enjoying the life. It's not like that at all."

From her conversations, Levine realized that the reasons people went into
the restaurant business - their love of cooking, fresh food, and gardening,
their creativity, and their own stories about their connections to the
family kitchen - were the things she wanted to write about.

"I have to tell everybody's stories," she said. "The book is people's life
stories. The recipes are the bonus at the end."

"The Table's Edge" will be available at regional bookstores.

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