Chez Ana opens at noon six days a week
You may have visited Chez Ana. It’s been in Cornwall-on-Hudson for almost four years. But I just discovered it after an event at the school district’s administrative office.
The student council from the elementary school interviewed Terry Dade. Each student had two questions for the superintendent of schools. When they finished, he turned the tables on them. He asked them to name their favorite subjects and suggest advice that could be given to younger students.
Mr. Dade also inquired about a good place to take his five children. The response was almost unanimous.
The kids recommended the ice cream parlor across the street from their school.
Who wouldn’t be curious? A few days later, I stopped in for crepes (a house specialty) and met the owner, Momo Sonko. He and his wife, Jessica, opened the restaurant in 2018 and named it after their second child. They tried different names and Chez Ana seemed to work the best.
The next year, after having a third child, Mrs. Sonko became critically ill. She passed away last spring.
The couple had been married in 2008 after meeting at Woodbury Common, where they both had been employed.
Jessica had learned French while growing up in Switzerland. Momo had spoken French as a native of Senegal. They dreamed of having their own restaurant and they found an ideal location – next to a dance studio and across the street from a school with grades K-4.
Then the pandemic arrived. The school temporarily closed and the dance studio had to stop its classes.
For a while, Chez Ana was limited to take out. But that’s history and it doesn’t tell you why the store is so popular.
We asked Jessica’s mother, Elizabeth Heath, for an explanation. “The place is him,” she said of her son-in-law. “His persona is what makes it successful. He remembers everyone’s name and what they like. He always has a big smile for everyone. He’s there for everybody. It’s the same way at the gym.”
The walls of Chez Ana are covered with kids’ drawings from a local art studio. Youngsters have their own charge accounts and a women’s chess group meets in the restaurant once a week.
In addition to the crepes, there’s a huge assortment of ice creams and drinks. Mrs. Heath says she’s spoiled.
After having lattes at Chez Ana, she can’t enjoy them anywhere else. “It’s an American success story,” she says proudly. “There’s a lot of poverty in Senegal. And Momo still sends money back to his family.”
His older children, Malik and Ana, are in middle school. Like their father, they’re both over six feet tall and active in athletics. On occasion, they help in the store. But most of the time it’s a one-man operation. Mr. Sonko is behind the counter from 12 to 7. In the morning, he cleans the store and orders supplies.
That’s only possible because his mother-in-law is caring for Khadija, the youngest of the three children.
The “baby” is tall, like her sister, and is always on the go. She was home with her father on Monday, April 4 when Elizabeth Heath visited the Local to talk about the store. “A lot of its success is community based,” she admitted. “People have gone out of their way to help.”