Winter 2010 Editor’s Note

First things first: We want to thank the Somerville Chamber of Commerce for naming us the 2009 Small Business of the Year. We are flattered to have received this honor. We share it with the more than 100 Somerville businesses who have helped us bring this free publication to our community.

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Stan Koty’s fleet consists of three bobcats, two bombardiers and dozens of pickups, ten-wheelers and six-wheelers with sanders and plows attached.

Koty, commissioner of the Somerville Department of Public Works, wields a total of 42 pieces of “snow-fighting equipment.” Last year, he needed all of it, as Somerville faced a whopping 64 inches of snow (22 inches more than the average annual snowfall).

Somerville Scout learned all this and more thanks to the reporting of Kristen Grieco (“The Anatomy of a Snowstorm: How Somerville Digs Itself Out”). Kristen also dug up some fascinating stats comparing Somerville’s snow removal efforts to those of Cambridge and Arlington. We think it’s an apt feature for our inaugural Winter Issue.

Meanwhile, our reporting team of Gretchen Alther and Deb Fraize worked on another timely topic: New Year’s Resolutions. Sprinkled throughout this edition are the 2010 pledges of public officials, former candidates for office and leaders of the nonprofit community.

The changing of the calendar to 2010 means Vinny Migliore has been in business in East Somerville for more than four decades. Back in 1969, when he was 21, Migliore took over a variety/convenience store at 76 Broadway. In 1984, he established Vinny’s as a lunch-only restaurant in the back room of Vinny’s Superette – the sub shop into which he had converted the convenience store. In 1995, Migliore added dinner to Vinny’s and renamed evenings “Vinny’s at Night.” All told, Vinny’s is a culinary institution in Somerville, practically synonymous with Sicilian-American cuisine. Linsey Herman’s story (“In a Back Room on Broadway”) profiles Migliore and his cooking.

Since Scout debuted in April, 2009, one of our most popular sections has been “Sounds of Somerville” in which we typically profile musicians. For a change of pace, we focused on venues. Both Choices Restaurant & Lounge (381 Somerville Ave) and Johnny D’s (17 Holland St) were founded by the mothers of the current owners. You can find our group Q & A with those owners – Victor Ortiz of Choices and Carla DeLellis of Johnny D’s in this edition. If you thought you’d never live to see a Taylor Dayne reference in Somerville Scout, you thought wrong.

–Ilan Mochari