First Place Winners, the Risney Family

30 Years with Aldo’s

We started our relationship with Aldo’s exactly 30 years ago. The restaurant was brand new and so was our first-born child, Justin. I was an Army officer stationed in Virginia Beach and my wife, Julie a brand-new Assistant Principal with the school system. We both had stressful jobs and the additional challenge of a new born. Julie decided that we needed to find a restaurant that we could weekly go to on a “date night” to, relax and reconnect, before heading back into busy lives and a new baby. (And maybe actually have an adult conversation instead of everything baby.)

Some friends had recommended a new restaurant called Aldo’s, and after our very first visit, we fell in love with everything about it: food, atmosphere, service and the total value we felt we got for the price. And the consistency. They just never disappointed, ever.

And thus, our 30 years with Aldo’s began…and it have grown from “date night” to our family’s “special place.” The place we go to celebrate our happiest moments and the place we retreat to when life has dealt us a curve ball and we need a break and a chance to regroup.

In the second year of our Aldo’s relationship was the celebration dinner for Julie’s parents to announce the upcoming birth of our second child, Ryan. Followed by several years of “date nights” and normal celebrations and events as Julie progressed through the school system and I moved amongst Army jobs.

In 1991 I went to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf War for 15 months and my wife used Aldo’s for her special retreat. She was in a demanding job and raising two little boys at the same time and sometimes used the quiet in the restaurant to write me. (This was before the age of cellphones and facetime and instant communication.) When I returned from the Gulf, my two sons were now old enough to also go to Aldo’s for their very first time in celebration of Dad’s return.

Then followed years of elementary school and middle school. Julie was promoted to a Principal’s position and I was promoted as well. My sons focused on school, baseball, video games, and getting into all the mischief that boys do. I had a busy job as General’s aide and Julie was always on the go as a Principal, but somehow, we found ways to go to Aldo’s to celebrate. Whether it was a holiday, a birthday, an anniversary, a visit from grandparents…or just about ANY good excuse.

There was my wonderful retirement dinner when I retired from the Army in 1998 followed closely by another great dinner to celebrate my new job with the school system.

There were also some somber times. My mother passed away in 2004 and we took the boys to dinner after coming home from her funeral in the Midwest. During that dinner, we all told stories about Grandma and it helped us all move on.

And in the blink of an eye it was the high school years. High school baseball, academics, preparing for college, proms…everything. Followed by the college search and then college itself. By now Julie and I were “old timers” in our jobs, more routine than excitement and all of a sudden, one of our sons kept asking if a shy little girl named Brooke could go with us to dinner. He was smitten. Many, many dinners to celebrate all the truly blessed events that were taking place within our family.

I still remember vividly the long drive home to Virginia Beach after delivering the boys to college with Julie crying more of the way. We stopped at Aldo’s as soon as we arrived in Virginia Beach and it helped calm a distraught mother.

In time of erection, the veins and arteries are increasing that makes the strength and stamina the original source commander viagra in the mind and makes the love making with confidence.

After college graduation celebrations, we had the uncertainties of job searching for two college graduates and one of our sons settling in Baltimore for his first job. When we settled him into his new home and went out to a fine Italian restaurant in Baltimore to celebrate, I can remember my son Ryan saying, “Thanks Dad, that was great, but it sure wasn’t Aldo’s”…with a smile.

Next, a period of job celebrations, weddings, retirements. That son who was smitten with Brooke married her… and we had a most memorable wedding rehearsal dinner at our favorite restaurant, Aldo’s.

My other son, Ryan married his lovely college sweetheart, Alyssa.

I retired from the school system in 2016 (with a great retirement dinner) and a year later, Julie did as well. Her last year, I took her many times to Aldo’s to discuss our future and give her a break from the job.

Now we are both retired and both sons happily married. We are very blessed. Julie and I just visited Aldo’s again last Sunday and both of us remarked that in the 30 years we have visited, the restaurant has always been superb!