Cafe Notte serves a taste of tapas

By Pam Starr for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Sunday, January 24, 2010

It’s impossible not to feel Jerry and Debbie Santucci’s excitement over their new Emsworth tapas restaurant, Cafe Notte, on Ohio River Boulevard.

They transformed an old motorcycle shop into a take-your-breath-away restaurant that has customers coming back week after week, and sometimes, day after day. It’s not just the atmosphere they love, with the wood-burning brick fireplace and curved black ceiling with fiber-optic lights that look like twinkling stars in a night sky — it’s the eclectic, tapas-style cuisine, created by 21-year-old chef David Hurley.

“He’s the most dedicated, conscientious and passionate chef I’ve ever met,” says Jerry Santucci, a builder from Connecticut, who lives with his wife in Ben Avon. “Our customers are amazed by his presentation and overwhelmed when they eat it. What he does, and how he presents it, is like a marriage. This kid is so talented.”

Hurley had been working at The Rusty Nail in Bellevue when he was asked by the Santuccis’ son, Dave Mielnicki, to come in for an interview. The two men were acquaintances, and Mielnicki knew that Hurley was a chef who had graduated from the culinary program at Bidwell Training Center in the North Side. Debbie Santucci says that when Hurley presented his tryout dish to them, they knew he was special….

For the full Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/lifestyles/fooddrink/s_663433.html

By Kim Leonard, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Innovators have long called Pittsburgh home. Here’s a look at 20 men and women whose contributions in science, medicine,
journalism and the arts resulted in significant change.

…Bill Strickland (1947 - )
The accomplished pottery maker has founded educational programs and centers that are being replicated in other
cities.
Strickland is the chief executive of the company that runs the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in the city’s North Side, a
center that he founded as an after school program in 1969 and that now teaches ceramics, photography and visual
arts to thousands of students each year. The craftsmen’s guild also hosts jazz performances that have included music
legends such as Nancy Wilson.
Strickland’s company also runs the local Bidwell Training Center, where culinary arts, chemistry, horticulture, medical and office career skills are taught. Students at the centers pay no tuition; donations support the programs….

For the complete Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_644055.html

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Bidwell Training Center
Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild
MCG Jazz

By Dennis Nishi, Wall Street Journal

Bill Strickland turned his love of ceramics into a creative outlet for disadvantaged city kids.

Mr. Strickland started a Pittsburgh program in 1968 called the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to offer arts classes to kids; now he’s CEO of the 138-employee nonprofit Manchester Bidwell Corp., which also provides vocational training to adults. He won a MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award in 1996 for economic development. Edited interview excerpts follow…

For the complete Wall Street Journal article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204047504574391001969516552.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#

By Abby Mendelson, Pop City Media

It’s a sunny Tuesday morning, and 300-plus Pittsburgh Public Schools third-graders are in the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild auditorium. Listening with rapt attention, they’re watching Roger Humphries, dean of Pittsburgh’s ultra-rich jazz community, slap the skins silly. Ripping off a drum solo of intricate rhythm and blinding speed, he has the kids staring open-mouthed. A final bam! brings down the house.

On the tune, the venerable New Orleans chestnut “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Humphries is joined by such local luminaries as trombonist Jay Ashby, bassist Dwayne Dolphin, saxophonist Mike Tomaro, trumpeter Jamie Moore, and pianist Max Leake. Simply, it’s a line-up to die for, and these cats are blowing like it’s the famed Montreaux Jazz Festival, not Metropolitan Street on the North Side….

For the complete Pop City Media article:
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/mcgyouth0819.aspx