Nadia Cruz
Food writer and photographer based in the Ironbound. Nadia documents Newark's immigrant food cultures — the women behind the best pastéis, the lineage of a caldo verde recipe, what a neighborhood smells like at 7pm on a Thursday. Her work appears in local publications and her own newsletter.
Ferry Street at Golden Hour
Every evening around 6:30, something shifts on Ferry Street. The lunch crowd has cleared. The dinner crowd hasn't arrived yet. The florista on the corner is closing up and the churrascaria two doors down is doing its first seating. This is the hour I go to Fernanda's. The cheese bread is fresh because Fernanda makes a second batch in the afternoon. She does this because she grew up in a house where there was always food available when people came by, and she runs her shop the same way. I've watched people stop in the doorway and just stand there, holding a warm pão de queijo, like they needed a minute before they went back out into the evening. I understand the impulse. Some places make you want to slow down without explaining why.
Report
Alberto Santos Has Been Watching Over Ferry Street for 33 Years
Alberto opened A. Santos Florista in 1991 in the space his father found after arriving from Faro. He doesn't call it a legacy. He calls it the family business, which is technically the same thing, but in the way he says it you understand the difference. The flowers come from Colombian and Ecuadorian growers he's worked with for fifteen years. He knows which varieties each family wants for which occasions — he knows this because he's been present at most of the occasions. The wildflower bouquets he builds in the morning are never planned out. He assembles them from what's right. He's been doing this long enough that "what's right" and "what's beautiful" have become the same thing.