Sweet Sue’s: not washed away, yet again

Sweet Sue's of Phoenicia still exists. Here it is shown Sunday afternoon. Photo by Eric Francis.

Sweet Sue’s in Phoenicia still exists. Despite three floods of the Esopus Creek — one on Oct. 1, 2010, the next on Dec. 1, 2010, and the most recent on Aug. 28 (from Hurricane Irene), the beloved famous pancake house, founded in 1984, is still on its feet. The restaurant is about 25 miles outside of Kingston and 15 miles from Woodstock. People drive for hours from all over the region to go there for breakfast: it’s that good. When I heard rumors that it would not reopen, I laughed. Sunday, I went for a visit and heard the story of water two feet deep in the restaurant, the four inches of mud left behind, the collapsed wall, the 18-day cleanup. Then I learned that the little hamlet, just a few feet from the Espous Creek, has been flooded two other times in the past year. The rest of the town was doing well, or so it seemed. Nearly all of the businesses were open and there were customers everywhere.

More photos below.

Sue Taylor of Sweet Sue's. Photo by Eric.
Honeybee on a sunflower outside Sweet Sue's. I am not sure how the sunflower survived the flood, but it would have looked cute sticking up above the surface of the river on Main Street. Photo by Eric.
Bridge leading into Phoenicia was trashed by the floodwaters. Photo by Eric.
Cleanup and recovery efforts continue. Photo from Sept. 18, 2011 by Eric.

4 thoughts on “Sweet Sue’s: not washed away, yet again”

  1. funny, the sunflower strikes me as animated and human, while sue seems like some mix of a male elf and female human…

  3. Thanks, Eric. Great pictures of an autumn weekend morning, with the best part being a great blunch. (Yes, blunch – that leisurely weekend meal around Saturday or Sunday midday that is a hybrid of breakfast and lunch.)

    Sign says for clean up help to call the Rotary president. Good to know that there are still Rotary Clubs that are functioning as they should (“Service above self” is the motto.) and not reduced to shadow chambers of commerce focused on business/profit/consumption as many local clubs have become. (Ten years as a Rotarian, and I left because the local club became too enamored of currying and winning favor with the business community.) Rotary is a great service organization, or at least its objectives are. Perhaps, as corny as it may sound, Rotary can be one of the “networks” that can help heal since it is supposed to be non-political.

    Thanks for the great story about resilience. Love the sunflower and the bee doing what need to be done.

    JannKinz

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