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It’s not how much you have that makes people look up to you, it’s who you are.

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God has given us two hands–one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing.

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Heroes didn’t leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn’t wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else’s. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.

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What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

         – Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

         –  John Donne

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.

         –  Plato

Everything is connected, no one thing can change by itself.

         – Paul Hawken

Life has a way of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen as once.

         –  Paulo Coelho

Be Brave. Take Risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

         –  Paulo Coelho

Do. Or do not. There is no try.

         – Yoda, Jedi Master

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MEDIA RELEASE: Cannonball Cafe opens in new On the Dot® Neighborhood in S. Boston

December 8, 2021


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MEDIA RELEASE: Cannonball Cafe opens in new On the Dot® Neighborhood in S. Boston

BOSTON – The Cannonball Café, a new breakfast and lunch gathering spot named with the neighborhood’s historic industrial heritage in mind, designed and operated by chef Rachel Lazar, today celebrated its Grand Opening with more than 50 friends and neighbors – and baked goods and coffee overflowing.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” said Dave Pogorelc, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Core Investments, Inc., which owns 383 Dorchester Ave., the location of the Cannonball Café. “This area has traditionally been a desert for food and places for people to gather and meet.”

Introducing chef Lazar, “Pogorelc said, “She’s been an inspiration. I think she’s going to knock it out of the park — or shoot it out of cannon, as it were.” A smaller scale, working cannon rested nearby, symbolizing the area’s history, as guests mingled, munched and drank coffee.

“A little history,” Pogorelc said. “Cyrus Alger made cannons here for the North in the Civil War, and freedom was created. I’m proud to be a part of bringing that back.”

Presented with a small but weighty black cannonball, Lazar said, “There is no greater joy in life than creating an environment surrounded by food that makes other people happy. So it has been an absolute honor to work alongside Dave and Core.“

“It was a dream of Dave’s to bring more gathering space to this area, somewhere where people just want to be,” she said. “I’ve helped him create his vision in Cannonball Café.  And I truly believe this is a place that people want to be. Let’s drink some coffee!”

The café opened to the public on Monday, Nov. 29. The Cannonball Cafe, whose name recalls the rich 19th Century history of the influential neighborhood settled by Alger, hailed not only for his cannons but also for metallurgy and forging skills that placed him at one time as the most prominent industrialist in the United States, will brighten the longtime industrial district as its first dining spot.

The opening marks an important early step in the transition of the area west of Dorchester Avenue to a vibrant new mixed-use neighborhood called On the Dot®, which is being developed by Core Investments, Inc. Core hired Lazar, who has more than 10 years of experience in the food industry and is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University, specializing in the culinary arts, as Manager of the Cannonball Café. To learn more about Lazar, please go to On the Dot® website .

The café, more than a year in planning, is in a repurposed building located near Grand Ten Distilling and between the popular workout studios CrossFit Southie and Peter Welch’s Gym.

The new café features coffees, teas, smoothies, items baked in house, sandwiches and salads, and a variety of other locally produced breakfast, lunch, and snack items, for dining in or to-go. Cannonball Café is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m., possibly expanding to weekends later, and has about 20 seats.

Lazar managed food production and catering in Marblehead for six years, has overseen menus at summer camps for children in New Hampshire, and spent a year doing food-related community service for large numbers in Israel. She attended art school in New Hampshire before turning to food as a career.

Core Investments, Inc. has been planning On the Dot for a decade, along with nearby Washington Village, a five-acre mixed-use development that began construction this month. Core Investments is planning the neighborhood as a vibrant mixed-use district, consistent with the BPDA and City of Boston’s “PLAN: South Boston Dorchester Avenue Planning Initiative” and other city guidelines.

The area has unparalleled location and transportation advantages to serve South Boston with new jobs, residences, and extensive open space.


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