The Post-9/11 Origin of Ladle of Love

Today, and stand as two of Mount Kisco’s most well-known businesses, whose owner, Leslie Lampert, has been extensively profiled for her work and success. But her work had humble beginnings that were intertwined with tragedy.

Around the time of 9/11, Lampert, who describes cooking as both “cathartic and curative,” had already been making soups and stews for her then-husband, who had cancer and survived, and a good friend of hers who had cancer but passed on.

After the attacks, Lampert, a White Plains resident who lived in western Chappaqua at the time, began serving soups to Millwood firefighters who were among local first responders offering assistance, basically anybody who was “getting normalcy back to order” in the hamlet.

Lampert, who at the time was an editor at Ladies Home Journal – her career was in journalism – also served soups to friends and those who lost loved ones on 9/11.

“It was anybody who I thought needed nourishment and sustenance during that time," she recalled.

The feedback from her help in the tragic aftermath was one of several “driving factors,” in Lampert’s decision to open a business, along with good general reception she got from serving soups, which she turned into gift baskets upon request. Her financial situation at the time, which included needing to pay college tuitions for her daughters and son, was another reason.

During a timeframe from 2002-03, Lampert gradually transitioned away from journalism – she left Ladies Home Journal then freelanced, before diving into the restaurant business – opening Ladle of Love in a small, 400-square-foot space in a Mount Kisco retail alleyway, in December 2003.

The subsequent success of Ladle and its prominence is something that Lampert, who never had a budget for advertising, attributes to word of mouth and an interest in her story, factors that she described as serendipitous. It was also serendipity that led Lampert to expand and to open Cafe of Love several years later, when a retail space that once housed a stationary store became vacant.

Even now, Lampert hasn’t forgotten the loss, and holds a special place for 9/11 victims’ families. She doesn’t charge 9/11 victims’ families for her soups.

“I will take care of them forever,” noting that she keeps in touch with those affected.