Category Archives: Caffe Paradiso

Celebration of Caffe’ Paradiso Pot Luck

Thursday, July 29th ยท 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Caffe’ Paradiso
45 Palmer Street
Lowell, MA
Please join our celebration of Lowell’s Caffe’ Paradiso and the DeStefano family. This time we’ll bring the food! If you can, please bring an appetizer, salad, main course or dessert to share with a few others.

Unveiling Oscar

Wednesday, July 7, 2010
7:00pm – 11:30pm
Caffe Paradiso, 45 Palmer St., Lowell, MA 01852


Artist Kathleen Gordon:
My latest artwork is Oscar. It’s my first masculine SUN and he is named in honor of Oscar DeStephano who passed away in 2007. This artwork is made from PASTA. Who doesn’t like PASTA? Please come to Caffe Paradiso for Oscar’s unveiling and to wish Adrianna well.

Caffe Paradiso to close

Chris Scott has an update to his previous story in the SUN
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_15384098?source=rss_viewed

Ted Lavash is organizing an event at the Caffe’ on July 7th at 7PM.
Artist Kathleen Gordon will be unveiling her pasta sun face called “Oskar” after Adriana’s brother.

There will also be a celecration held on Thursday evening July 29th.

Homeless Again

Adrian DeStefano has given LDNA a home since the Revolving Museum closed and we appreciate her generosity very much. As most have heard it looks as though we wil be losing our home again.
Story from SUN:

Landlord presses downtown Lowell cafe to close over debt
By Christopher Scott,
cscott@lowellsun.com

LOWELL — A downtown landlord has told the owner of Caffe Paradiso that he’ll forget about more than $100,000 he claims he’s owed if the popular eatery and bar closes, moves out by July 31 and leaves all the equipment behind.

The offer was made late Thursday afternoon by Lowell lawyer Edward Moloney, who represents Firehouse Associates LLC, to another Lowell lawyer, George Theodorou, who represents Caffe Paradiso owner Antoinetta DeStefano. The cafe is located in a former firehouse at the corner of Palmer and Middle streets.

The offer came a day before The Sun was planning to publish a story stating Firehouse Associates was seeking to evict Caffe Paradiso while demanding $100,036 in rent and “other charges.” Firehouse completed eviction paperwork in Lowell District Court and a June 24 hearing date had been set. Theodorou said DeStefano, of Stoneham, is considering the Firehouse offer. The property manager, Fred Faust, declined to discuss the matter and referred inquiries to Moloney. Elkin McCallum, who the Secretary of State’s Office lists as the resident agent of Firehouse Associates LLC, also referred inquiries to Moloney. Moloney did not return messages left at his office and home this week. McCallum, however, did discuss the matter briefly.
“It’s in legal hands now. Bottom line is Fred (Faust) is working with them,” McCallum said. “I’m not privy to all the gory details, but her lease does expire July 31. At the end of the day, it appears she is throwing in the towel because if she had the money, she would pay.” But Theodorou said DeStefano’s monthly $2,750 rent is current. Theodorou said the disagreement is centered on “common charges,” or fees a landlord charges tenants for upkeep and general maintenance of hallways, stairwells and elevators. Theodorou doesn’t deny his client owes a common-charge amount. However, he said it’s not $100,000. He declined to state a specific amount.

DeStefano speaks very little English, said Theodorou. Her daughter, Adrianna DeStefano, who manages the business, declined to comment. Adrianna’s brother, Oscar, was the public face of the business until his death in 2007. Antoinetta DeStefano does have a seven-year lease that expires July 31. Terms of the original lease called for common-area payments. However, Firehouse never sent a bill, Theodorou said. In a bill dated March 5, Firehouse lists more than a dozen invoices, each totaling $4,155, for a grand total of $100,036. Theodorou, however, said the bill is lacking in specifics and documentation. Furthermore, he explained, with Caffe Paradiso occupying a ground-level unit overlooking the cobblestoned intersection of Middle and Palmer streets, DeStefano shouldn’t have to pay expenses related to the elevator or upstairs hallways and stairways because the eatery doesn’t use them.

“At the end of each year, the landlord was supposed to bill the client for common-area charges,” Theodorou said. “That never happened and now the landlord is trying to recreate the record.”
Theodorou said DeStefano has also spent about $500,000 of her money to improve the space with such items as wood finishings and granite countertops.

McCallum, a successful businessman in the textile industry, acquired the building on May 1, 2000, for $500,000 in a cash transaction from Gilbert Campbell and Charles Matses.
In December of that year, McCallum transferred ownership of the building from Connector Park LLC to Firehouse Associates LLC for $100. According to the secretary of state’s website, the business address for both LLCs is 100 Vesper Executive Park, Tyngsboro, which has long been McCallum’s corporate office site. More recently, on July 10, 2008, a mechanic’s lien for $68,239 was placed on the property by Leclaire Roofing and Weatherproofing Inc., of 830 Livingston St., Tewksbury. That lead to a civil complaint in Middlesex Superior Court, pitting Leclaire against Firehouse. A resolution to that lawsuit is pending, said a lawyer for Leclaire, William Gramer of Tewksbury. McCallum insisted that he no longer has a financial interest in the building and said the secretary of state’s website “is wrong.” McCallum said he sold his interest to David Pickul, a doctor who has an office in the building, three years ago. He said Pickul is now the resident agent. But the same document that lists McCallum as the resident agent lists Pickul as the manager. Pickul did not return a message left at his office this week. Furthermore, Pickul’s name does not appear on any records related to the building at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds in Lowell.

Besides Caffe Paradiso and Pickul’s office, the three-story, 18,000-square-foot building is also home to several other business interests, including Eastern Minerals.

Caffe Paradiso was last in the news in early January. At the time, Adrianna DeStefano squashed rumors swirling around the city that the business would close. “We are not going anywhere,” DeStefano said in a Jan. 9 Sun story. She added the 6-year-old cafe scaled back hours due to the winter season and poor economy.

Click on over to Greg’s blog, The New Englander
http://anewenglanderinlowell.blogspot.com/2010/05/ldna-summary-52410.html
he has some remarks about our May meeting.

Update; the city council voted in favor of re-design structure. You can still find the detailed presentation on the city web site.
http://www.lowellma.gov/depts/officeofthecitymanager/presentations/100601%20ISD%20Reorg%20V2.pps/view

While you are there you can find the Manager’s proposed 2011 city budget (ok that will probably just be me).
http://www.lowellma.gov/news

The SUN also has an article about the revisions to the Mass. Open Meeting Law which the manager mentioned at the meeting.
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_15193713?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com

Happy new Year to Everyone!
As you know Caffe’ Paradiso is closed on Monday for the winter.
Adrianna has offered the use of the caffe’ for our meetings.
The next LDNA meeting will be held:
Monday, January 25th
7:00 PM
Agenda: I have not prepared an agenda. I thought it might be a good time of year to just have open discussion and see if there are issues we need to focus on in 2010 as well as preparing a guest invite list. If you have any specific issue but can not make the meeting, please let me know.

Lowell Film Collaborative

Lowell Film Collaborative “Food & Film Series”
Join us for our second film event of the LFC’s “Food & Film” series! Our DTL restaurants need all the support they can get, especially during the winter months. The LFC is doing what they can to help bring folks into downtown restaurants during this time for a little celebrating with dinner and a movie. We’ll set up the old-fashioned tripod screen, fire up the LCD projector, and dim the lights. Instant movie screening magic! And of course we encourage everyone to indulge in food and drink to round out the night. Come support the Lowell Film Collaborative, but most importantly, come support some of our favorite DTL restaurants!Join the Lowell Film Collaborative’s growing e-mail distribution list and we’ll keep you posted on all our upcoming film events! E-mail us at lowellfilmcollaborative@live.com.
Visit the LFC at http://www.lowellfilmcollaborative.org/.
Thanks for supporting Film in Lowell!