'Chef Frankie' Moeller Passes Away After Brave Cancer Battle

GREENPORT, NY - Hearts are heavy on the North Fork Wednesday as friends say good-bye to Frank Moeller, who died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

"Frank died peacefully at 9 p.m.," his friend Mary Anne Thompson wrote on Facebook. "My heart aches . . . but I am so grateful Frank is resting and no longer in pain or the world of anxiety he has been living in."

As he faced his illness and daunting medical expenses, the caring Greenport community came together to help Moeller, a chef and familiar face at Noah's.

He touched many in his life, and friends mourned his loss on Wednesday.

"Frankie and I worked together for over three years while I was attending college and pulling weekend and vacation shifts at Noah's in Greenport," Matthew Daddona said.

"From day one, you could see how committed he was to his job — how seriously he took everything from cooking to plating to checking if the customers liked the food. He was a true aesthete in that way. Frankie and I worked very closely together. I was a food runner/expediter and had to stand nearly in front of him while he barked orders and shared an almost clandestine chef's language with the rest of the kitchen. After a few days of, I'll admit, not knowing what the heck to do and being terrified of Frankie's swag and bravado, we developed a communication style that developed into a friendship," Daddona said.

"By sometimes looking at him and he looking at me, we understood what had to be done in the kitchen, whether it was good, bad, urgent or non-urgent. And I believe it was this silent communication, this mere non-verbiage, that made Frankie the chef and great person he was. Sure, Frankie and I had great times partying, drinking, dining, and joking around with the rest of the staff — the stuff kitchens are made for! — but at the end of the day, after all the fanfare and loudness and business diffused, Frankie was always the one you could count on to be there, silently watching from just out of reach, a good 'ole grin on his face. I will greatly miss my friend and mentor."

In May, a fundraiser was held at Salamander's on Front Street, where Moeller, known fondly to his friends as "Chef Frankie," was surrounded by love and a sea of friends who came out to support him.

A GoFundMe page, "Friends for Frankie," which has raised $5,630 of its $5,000 goal was created by Thompson to help Moeller.

Funeral arrangement have not yet been finalized.