Former Star Confectionery owner’s second act: making chocolate at Southampton luncheonette

For Anthony Meras, life is  different now, but very good. 

The former owner of Star Confectionery on Main Street in Riverhead is happily making chocolate candy again for the upcoming Easter holiday. He teamed up with lifelong friend Mark Parash, who owns Sip ’n Soda in Southampton, to produce the chocolate Easter candy that generations of Star Confectionery fans loved. 

Their fathers, who both owned luncheonettes, were close friends. “We always got along well and had a fond friendship,” Meras said. “We’re like peas and carrots,” he said, referencing the lead character in “Forrest Gump,” who used the phrase to describe his childhood friend Jenny.

Parash approached him last summer, Meras said, after Meras had made the final decision to close the iconic Riverhead eatery for health reasons. Parash asked him if he wanted to make chocolate with him for Easter.  “I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So I brought over my chocolate machine,” Meras recalled.

“He was the one that got me interested in it again, because I hadn’t done it in a couple of years,” Meras said. “I just couldn’t do it. It was too much for me, after working all day. Going down in the basement at night to do the chocolate,”  he said. “That’s what gave me all my heart attacks,” he said, “It was literally right after Easter, one of the years I had two in a row. I was just worn out,” Meras explained. 

Meras, 59, suffered four heart attacks during the last few years of running his business. His doctors told him he had to stop. But he was reluctant to follow their advice. The restaurant, after all, was his life. He and his brother grew up in the business, which was run by their father Tony, their uncle Pete and their mother Kitty. Tony’s father Nick, had purchased Star Confectionery from a cousin, who established it in 1917.  And that’s how it became affectionately known to locals as “Papa Nick’s.”

Meras is enjoying making chocolate now that he’s not doing it after working a long day in the restaurant. It’s a whole different experience, he said. And the result is much better when the chocolate’s made during the day, he said, “when the air is crisp and cold.”

Meras said he believes Parash will have some chocolates on display at Sip’n Soda probably by the end of next weekend. “We figured a month before, we’d  put everything out.”

Meras said he’s excited about the endeavor. They are using “a very high end chocolate” that “melts in your mouth.” It’s what his father always used, and Parash’s family always used. It’s the best, he said.

When he’s at Sip’n Soda, he enjoys pitching in to help Parash out. 

“I enjoy going over there, you know, cleaning tables, like when we’re waiting for the chocolate to harden up or whatever. I’ll go upstairs and jump in, run food over,” Meras said. 

“And it’s always great when customers are there that were my customers [at Papa Nick’s], and then they’re like, oh my God, Anthony, what the hell are you doing here?” Meras laughs at the reaction he gets from people. “So it’s been a great, great month,” he said, “It’s been fantastic.”

A bonus: “He lets me cook my eggs,” Meras said. “I miss making my scrambled eggs. I can’t do it at home. I’m not as good. I don’t know what it is —I need that griddle. I’m terrible with the frying pans,” he said.

So, does he miss Papa Nick’s? Does he have any regrets about getting out?

“I do miss the people that worked for us. And, of course, the customers. They were like family. They were my friends. I miss them,” he said.

At Sip’n Soda, when old friends come in, “I can sit down with them, whereas before, I could never do that,” Meras said.  “So it’s kind of been a double-edged sword for me. You know, I don’t miss the seven days a week, the daily grind that put me in the hospital four or five, six times. But I certainly miss the people. I so miss the people,” he said. 

“And it’s funny, I get — and I’m not kidding you — two to three times a week, I’ll either get a phone call or a text, ‘You son of a bitch, you ruined my lunch. I’m in Riverhead and I can’t come eat chicken salad.’ And a few other choice words. I’m being kind of PG-rated,” he said, laughing.  “I miss that daily involvement with everybody. It was such a part of so many people’s daily routines,” Meras said. 

“So, that, I do miss. But I don’t miss that worry every day, that weight of running the business and is this done, is that done, that that kind of wore me out,” he said. “Both of my doctors, the cardiologist and my regular doctor, were thrilled when I stopped,” Meras said.

“In my heart of hearts, I knew it was time for me to go,” he said. “I knew it was the right decision.”