By: Madeline Stephens | Staff Writer
Sticks and Cones with its throwback charm and the alluring aroma of saccharine seventh heaven, may house the solution to your sweet tooth or be your go-to on a weekend evening. But, who makes the magic happen in this pretty-in-pink parlor?
I sat down with Sticks and Cones owner, Angelo Hoda, on a rain-drenched Sunday in the quiet shop. Immediately, he offered me a coffee, a dish of ice cream, a waffle, the menu, this gesture speaking to his hospitable character. Starting from the beginning, I asked about Hoda’s early life in Greece.
“It was a hard life,” Hoda responded, as he reflected on his upbringing in Greece’s north-western region of Epilos. Farming and other forms of manual labor, such as working three years at an Athens-based Marlboro factory, defined the majority of his adolescent years. He noted how the architecture, the roads and even the shingles of roofs were made of stone. This aspect of his Greek heritage continues to hold value for him today, a memory that planted a smile upon his face while we were speaking.
I was curious to know his first impressions when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York in 1997. “It was scary in a good way,” expressed Hoda. “I was both excited and overwhelmed.”
As we continued to speak, the theme of America’s abundance of opportunity arose again and again. Hoda mentioned how crucial it is for the younger generation to venture across and beyond our borders to fully comprehend the abundance of chance and choice that surrounds us here on our American soil. Sunday mornings in Greece, Hoda recalled, consisted of the habitants of the town collectively cleaning the cobblestone streets and later sitting down together for coffee and conversation. In America, of course, we can all get ahead by seeking out work for our individual advancement, but there is power in a concerted effort to work not just for oneself, but for others. “America must work to be more together to become stronger” proclaimed the passionate shop owner, with an emphasis on together.
“In America, the people don’t know what they have in their hands. Nobody is stopping you.”
angelo Hoda
Nobody is stopping Angelo Hoda. After owning a coffee shop in Connecticut for nearly twenty years, he and his family longed for something new. This something new was Newport, Rhode Island. Hoda, having worked on a farm in his youth, enjoys being only an island away from Rhode Island’s “countryside” lined with family farms that foster the feel of a local sentiment. Cobblestone streets that line Thames remind him of his history and the history he finds so captivating in and around Newport. “It’s paradise,” said Hoda when I questioned, “why Newport?” Some nights, one may find him walking home after closing up or walking home schlepping bags of groceries. Hoda views the choice to walk as a chance to be on these cobblestone streets, observing a world once foreign but now his home.
To pass Sticks and Cones is to experience the sweet sonata of joy, laughter, and togetherness, the backbone of Hoda’s business. As a family-owned business existing in a community with doors wide open, Sticks and Cones stands proud as an establishment that fosters the small-town charm of familiarity and connection. Sure, a business reaps financial profit, but the wide smiles on the faces of eager children, those uniting in celebration of a special occasion, or the ones that decide it’s an “ice cream for dinner” type of night- making those memories possible for others while working alongside his wife and two daughters, according to Hoda, reaps profit for a fulfilling life.
Photo Credit: Madeline Stephens
