Over the last decade, our society has shown a distinct trend towards healthy eating and living as well as an increased concern for the environment. This trend is shown in Syracuse where there is a growing culture of vegetarians, vegans and ecologically minded citizens. Strong Hearts Café caters to this crowd by providing a 100% vegan menu of largely organic and locally grown and produced food. A full all-day breakfast and lunch menu along with a wide array of dessert and beverage options are offered at moderate prices. Located in a main artery of Syracuse in between a downtown undergoing revitalization and the bustling Syracuse University, Strong Hearts Café aims to become an easily accessible and welcoming destination for a diverse crowd of patrons.

Strong Hearts Café will provide a comfortable and relaxed environment focusing on friendly customer service. Guests of Strong Hearts Café will find that the establishment is open at convenient hours, including late nights, a niche not commonly filled by health conscious eateries. By offering extended and convenient hours, Strong Hearts Café aims to become a social center of the health-oriented, progressive community as well as a comfortable place for casual dinners.

This café strives to support as much local business and agriculture as possible. Symbiotic relationships will be created with area farmers and local businesses where both the café and local businesses will benefit from increased exposure. This will allow Strong Hearts Café to offer food of a higher quality and a more ethical product. On top of supporting the local community, Strong Hearts Café will be a certified green business by only using biodegradable food packaging, minimizing waste, and meeting other standards set forth by the Green Restaurant Association, a national non-profit organization created to help the restaurant industry achieve ecological sustainability.

The owners and operators of Strong Hearts Café have a combined 24 years of experience living a completely vegan lifestyle. This experience and dedication serves as a testament to the sincerity and ethical motivation the café was founded upon and the quality of food they offer. By offering such exceptional vegan fare, the owners of Strong Hearts Café aim to spread the message of a compassionate, vegan lifestyle in the hopes that many will make the small changes necessary to resuscitate a dying planet.

Nicholas Ryan
Nicholas Ryan was born and raised in the small town of Weedsport, NY. He graduated from Weedsport High School and went on to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a Minor in Music Industry from Syracuse University. After graduation, Nick went on to pursue a professional career working with troubled children. He worked successfully for over a year and a half as a therapist for high risk emotionally disturbed and mentally disabled youth. Though he found his work with children both challenging and rewarding, Nick made the choice to follow his true passion by opening Strong Hearts Cafe.

Nick has been vegan since early 2001. He made this simple dietary choice with the intention of leading a more compassionate and less destructive life. In 2003, while attending Syracuse University, Nick became involved in the animal rights movement through the Syracuse Animal Rights Organization. During this time, Nick found that the vegan diet and all of its benefits were best advocated for by making excellent tasting, high quality, healthy foods readily available to those not familiar with veganism. Nick hopes to put this theory into practice with Strong Hearts Cafe, spreading the message of veganism through delicious food.

Joel Capolongo
Starting as a junior in high school, Joel has been a practicing vegan for half of his life. Soon after graduating from high school, Joel became active in the grassroots animal rights movement in Syracuse, NY. Joel quickly became a key organizer in Animal Defense League (ADL) heading up campaigns against local furriers, animal experimentation labs, circuses and other institutions that featured animal abuse as well educating the public about the vegan diet.

After moving to Atlanta a few years later, he established a chapter of the ADL there as well as a chapter of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade. Shortly after serving a brief period of time in an Atlanta jail for his part in a civil disobedience action against the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center on the campus of Emory University, Joel set his sights on the West Coast and settled in Los Angeles.

Picking up where he left off in Atlanta, Joel became a full-time member of the ADL in Los Angeles and devoted most of his free time advocating for animal rights. Approximately three years later in 2002, Joel was forced to move back to Syracuse when a member of his family fell sick with a terminal illness. Since his return to his hometown, Joel has continued to advocate animal rights and veganism becoming active with the Syracuse Animal Rights Organization.

In the winter of 2005, Joel and two of his closest friends took their fight for animal liberation to the high seas by volunteering with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. After flying to Australia and joining the Sea Shepherd flagship in Melbourne, the trio from Syracuse ventured to Antarctica with the group to disrupt an illegal and controversial Japanese whaling expedition. After spending 45 days at sea, the group landed in South Africa and flew back to the US. The campaign was the subject of several media articles and news programs including 2 feature articles in Syracuse's Post-Standard newspaper. The group's journey to stop whaling also became the subject of a full length documentary adventure book called "The Whale Warriors" written by a National Geographic writer who accompanied the group on their campaign.

Throughout his life, Joel has had the good fortune to have visited 45 of the 50 US States, traveled to 16 foreign countries and visited 5 different continents. Although traveling, photography, poker and sports remain passions for Joel, his key interest still lies in advancing animal rights and environmental awareness. He hopes to continue spreading his message of compassion and awareness, with his good friend and business partner Nick Ryan, by opening Syracuse's first vegan establishment it has seen in a long time, Strong Hearts Cafe. By operating the cafe in a environmentally sustainable, community oriented, animal friendly way, the duo is setting out to raise the bar for independent business and spread their vision of a peaceful planet.