My Dad Was Friends with Keith Haring

Excerpts from my article in Greenpointers.

“Before my dad knew Keith, he saw his drawings in the subway and started collecting them because the MTA was just throwing them out. Keith was so happy my dad had saved them, he made a caricature of Icarus in his honor. I was actually able to open Adelina’s because my dad sold two Keith Haring pieces to help me fund the place.” — Toby Buggiani

It’s a quiet little nook in Greenpoint (159 Greenpoint Avenue) where the things he loves can thrive: inventive art, plant-based cuisine, natural wine, and an ethos rooted in simplicity.

Hanging in between two exposed brick columns is a stone sculpture by Japanese artist Ken Hiratsuka, known for his 1980s guerrilla-style stone carvings that you’ve likely walked over on NYC sidewalks. A metal sculpture by Linus Coraggio, another Lower East Side street artist, looks down from its perch above the bar that Buggiani and his father, Paolo, hand-laid with blue and white tiles from Italy.

Buggiani credits his family for his desire to recreate the simple, incidentally vegetarian food that he was raised eating. “I always grew up loving vegetables a hell of a lot more than meat. It’s so easy to do with Italian food because it’s so vegetable-centric.” This approach is evident in Adelina’s menu, speckled with more vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options than your average Italian fare.

Read the rest → Greenpointers.