Have you ever looked back on your life, way back, and realized you should have seen yourself ending up where you are? Or maybe not “should have” but at least, you shouldn’t be surprised at how things turned out.

Over the years, I’ve had a few of these moments, mostly things that make me say, “oh, isn’t that interesting,” but rarely do I think back on something and see that it was all going to come back around and line up sooner or later.

I was thinking recently about the Taconic Wayside Inn, a restaurant and bar in Copake Falls, affectionately known by locals as “The T.I.” Clint’s family has owned it since the early 1970’s when his grandparents purchased it and moved the family from Cape Cod. For over 50 years, starting before Clint was even born and long before I came into the picture, it’s been a family gathering spot, a place for weddings, birthdays, holidays, or just a quick bite on the way from one place to another. We joke that if you haven’t lived there, worked there, or gotten married there, are you even really part of the family?

Clint’s and my first apartment together was upstairs at the T.I. Our living room couch was over the jukebox. We heard “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” every night. It wasn’t the best apartment, but it was cheap and we knew the landlord so we didn’t complain too much about the situation.

In late 1998, when Clint and I were first living together and planning our wedding, there was a fire in the kitchen of the restaurant. The kitchen was largely destroyed but the rest of the building was saved. That next spring, Clint’s Uncle Joe had come up from Mississippi to help with the rebuild and after a few things happened with the person who had been managing the bar and restaurant, Uncle Joe ended up finishing the construction and instead of moving back south, he stayed and took over as the manager of the place. Since we lived upstairs and this was a family business, Clint and I both ended up helping at the restaurant in various roles that summer. We helped with food prep, I waited tables, and at night, after the dining room had closed, I would take orders at the quick-service food window and Clint would run the fryer station. Together, we brought mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, and other greasy delights to the drunk college students of Columbia County.

I had never imagined a career in food service before then, and even during that summer, I didn’t think much about it. It was something to do, I made a bit of money, we were helping out family, and that was kind of it. Summer ended, they hired other people, we moved away, and that was that.

Or was it?

Over the years, we kept cooking, honing our skills, reading cookbooks, watching cooking shows, and trying out new recipes on our friends, family, and co-workers. We became cooks and entertainers, the ultimate party hosts without even realizing we were doing it. After we left the corporate rat race, I ended up in cannabis and Clint ended up cooking, and I suppose the rest is history, as they say.

Everything we are doing now, I don’t know if we would have done any of it if not for that summer at the Taconic Wayside Inn. From that experience, the first seeds were sown. Over the years, we just started doing exactly what we do now as Elevated Gatherings, except we bring it to your house instead of hosting it at ours. All those years of learning, cooking, and hosting led us to do what we were meant to all along, brought to you by a summer job helping out at a place that will always have a piece of my heart.