 Hi I'm Pat Mersky. I'm Dan Mersky. We own Lucy's Riverside Cafe. We've been here in Freeport about four and a half years. Transplants from Boston area and we found this beautiful town Freeport. We had a cafe on Cape Cod, Massachusetts for close to 30 years and we closed it to come to come out here and be close to my family that has moved out here and also the medical community yeah that's been helpful for me. Anyways I wasn't going to do this again and we came into Freeport and and I saw all the fast food in this area not in Freeport but in western Pennsylvania and I thought no you know what it's time to have an old-fashioned homemade cooking and just come into my home or come into our home type of place and I think we accomplish that. Our main fear is no England style food which we brought with us and everybody seems to really enjoy it. Everything we've done from soups, salads, sandwiches, paninis it's just been quite well accepted by everybody. Yeah we do the traditional clam chowder that you would find in New England. We used to do our own clamming and and I think I know a little bit about making chowder. I also do and I say it right it's chowder and I also do lobster rolls pretty much about six or seven times a year and we have quite a list now of people that get on it waiting for the lobster roll. People ask me if I'm Lucy and I always tell them Lucy no. Oh I says Lucy's our dog and the story is as we named her after Lucy a ball and we say why be a Kardashian when you can be a Lucy and people love that. I always try to make a point coming out of the kitchen to say hello to everybody and we have felt such warmth in this community. Freeport is a really pretty little town and we're trying to bring new business and new people into town. And they're one of our biggest supporters the Freeport Renaissance Association who they believe in small businesses really doing well here in town and they're number one with our book. I will say the first first couple weeks I was here this man came in and he came right up to me and he introduced himself as the mayor of Freeport and I thought that that was the the neatest thing that the mayor came in and introduced himself and welcomed us to Freeport and since then he's been my number one customer as well as he has helped increase our business by talking up the small little businesses and he does he makes a point of going in and introducing himself and making you feel like you do belong here. The people that live in Freeport they give you a chance you know it is a real small hometown. I would like to see some changes in Freeport as far as the buildings. It needs some help. There's there's a lot of old buildings. They're beautiful historical buildings with all the architectural detail that need to be restored. We have the chute building down on the corner of Mockett and fifth. There's a lot of empty storefronts and I really would like to see them filled and there's a lot of opportunity here. I say I always said if I was 20 years younger I would have more than one business in Freeport. I would have a bicycle business. I would have an ice cream shop. Yeah I would have maybe a dry cleaning business. People have to leave now to go to the big superstores like Walmart and and this used to be a town that people never left. There were supermarkets and pharmacies and and whatever they needed and the buses would come in and take the men down to the mill because most of them worked at Allegheny Love one years ago. But I would like to see a lot of that come back. Revitalization of the of the town is very crucial for its existence which I think it will happen down the road and the sooner the better. We believe and I I've always thought when I looked you know moved here this is a town that's going to come back. I mean there's no reason for it not to. It's where we're like 30 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and it's so easy it's so accessible and yet you can own a house for under a hundred thousand dollars in this town and have a little bit of land. This is a great walking community and you see people walking with their dogs and they're they're we I'm an animal lover so I love seeing them but you do they see walking with their dogs they they're responsible they pick up after them with a lot of kids here. The first parade I ever came to I was surprised it was like a flash mob showed up. I couldn't believe where all these people came from all of a sudden and and the parades here the Memorial Day parade is is fabulous it really is it's real hometown Norman Rockwell type of living.