[talk] RIP Romeo of Suspenders

[Peter Varga]

His hospitality and food were always above par.  He attended the back room meeting like it was a special event and stayed after closing at times to make sure no idea was left undiscussed.  R.I.P. Romeo

On Tue, Apr 14, 2020, at 20:02, Isaac (.ike) Levy wrote:
> 
> > On Apr 14, 2020, at 8:12 PM, George Rosamond <george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:
> > 
> > FYI, this past Sunday, April 5th, Romeo from Suspenders passed from
> > COVID-19.
> > 
> > Some of us knew Romeo before the first NYC*BUG meeting at the old
> > Suspenders location at 111 Broadway. The first meeting there was in 2007
> > with Ivan about Subversion
> > (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10076).
> > 
> > True story: Steve Jobs went out of his way to bump us out of the Soho
> > Apple Store, since no attendees were capable of answering questions
> > aobut shortcuts in Quark.
> 
> They wanted us to do our presentations using Keynote or PowerPoint, on 
> a Mac.  The upcoming topic was Mickey porting OpenBSD to HP-RISC, which 
> ended up being one of the best meetings ever, and the last at the Apple 
> store that I remember.
> 
> Suspenders didn’t care.  Romeo and crew were welcoming, low pressure, 
> it felt like they somehow knew what we were doing better than we did at 
> the time.
> 
> Romeo didn’t care when we’d overstay our welcome and close the bar, I 
> can remember Romeo closing the doors behind a gaggle of us *late* many 
> times.  They also didn’t care when we’d pack the room for a meeting 
> when most folks were too strapped to buy dinner or drinks, (I can 
> certainly remember a few of those thin nights when almost no drinks 
> were ordered, 2008 financial crisis impacted so many folks well into 
> 2010...)
> 
> Romeo was always so welcoming, no matter how we came in.  Always made 
> us feel like the place was ours, even if he was asking us to move out 
> of the way or close the bar.
> 
> > We didn't "fit in" there, and remember, at
> > that time, the Soho Apple Store was the flagship of Apple.
> > 
> > We held a lot of meetings in the backroom of the old Suspenders, then
> > again at the new Suspenders on Maiden Lane. We very much became
> > identified as "that group that met in the backroom of Suspenders."
> > 
> > We even held our last NYCBSDCon at the old Suspenders in 2014
> > (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10344). Oh, god, even MWL
> > looked young then. We worked with Romeo who gave us the whole place for
> > the day, and dealt with food and drinks at a very reasonable price.
> > After previous NYCBSDCons, it was a breath of fresh air, and really low
> > stress for the organizers.
> > 
> > We also held one NYC-wide holiday party there in 2012
> > (https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10331), which again, Romeo
> > helped us out with.
> > 
> > Anyways, I was fortunate to have Romeo hold me hostage at the bar just
> > before this whole thing broke out a few months ago. I was already at a
> > Suspenders event, and had no intention of staying, but it was a blast.
> > We drank late night and had "the usual" discussion, food and family.
> > 
> > Romeo leaves behind his wife and very young daughter, plus a load of
> > siblings.
> > 
> > Cheers Romeo!
> 
> Indeed, Cheers Romeo!
> 
> Rocket-
> .ike
> 
> 
> > 
> > g
> > 
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> 
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