Rob Keohane, seen in huddle with NT JV Basketball team in 2018, has proven defining the odds pays off in the long run (Courtesy of NT Basketball)
*** As seen in Twin Cities Sun, August 7, 2020 edition ***
By Joe Kraus
Rob Keohane has always been up for a challenge.
From coaching junior varsity basketball or teaching physical education at Drake Elementary in the North Tonawanda City Schools District for almost 20 years – even serving as a principal for one year – Keohane has always been one to take on projects when others tell him he couldn’t – or shouldn’t.
Case in point is his latest endeavor – running Café on the Avenue, a retro-styled diner located on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo.
“With the restaurant, people said, ‘Are you crazy? What are you doing?’ But, I’m a go-getter and I try to do different things,” said Keohane in October 2019. “You don’t want to die and have any regrets saying, ‘Jeez, I wish I tried something…’ So I think I’ll try this endeavor and see how it works!”
Crafting his culinary art for nearly five years, Keohane fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a restaurant since he drove past that very same building as a teenager more than 40 years ago.
“I always worked at a restaurant, doing dishes during my teenage years,” said Keohane. “So I have some experience in the restaurant business. But this is a totally different thing being an owner.”
Having that experience gave him a firsthand account of daily life in a restaurant.
And he’s discovered that serving as a diner owner and as a coach are similar as both need the right ingredients for everything to sync.
“I want people that work here to love working here,” he said. “Everything’s got to come together as one. And if it doesn’t, it’s a failure, just like a losing team. Good leadership starts from the top all the way down to the bottom. I make my dishwasher feel just as important as my manager. You have to.”
The son of Theresa and Joe Keohane, who was a 36-year history teacher in NT, and one of four brothers, Keohane said being a North Towns kid in the 1980s was drastically different compared to today.
“We always had dinner at 5:00 as a family,” said Keohane. “I think that’s the biggest difference between today and the 1980s. I talk to a lot of families today and they don’t really eat dinner together… Obviously no cell phones. I tell some of my students, we did not even have a remote control for a TV. We had to get up and turn off the TV.”
Keohane played every sport growing up, but basketball was his favorite after watching Buffalo Braves games at The Aud. Watching great players like Ernie D, Randy Smith and Bob McAdoo inspired Keohane to play basketball for Kenmore West High School.
There, Keohane played for Geoff Brunger for two seasons on junior varsity and the next two seasons on varsity under 2019 Section VI Hall of Fame inductee Dick Harvey.
Keohane and the Blue Devils won the Niagara Frontier League title in the 1981-82 season and finished 16-4 and in the state semifinals the following year when Keohane was a senior.
Having the chance to play under Brunger and Harvey changed the trajectory of Keohane’s life.
“I just coach the way my coaches coached me,” said Keohane, who coached with Harvey at Kenmore West from 1990 to 1992 after starting his teaching career in Buffalo. “There’s no excuses to not work hard. You might not be the best shooter; you might not be the best defender but there’s no reason why you can’t work hard every day. I learned so much from both my coaches.”
That’s carried over to North Tonawanda, where over the past six seasons, the JV success on the court has mirrored the hard work instilled in practice.
Since Keohane took over in 2014-15, the JV ‘Jacks are 78-42 overall – including an 18-2 campaign in 2017-18. Many of Keohane’s JV starters later became game-changers at the varsity level, especially in 2017 when the Lumberjacks won the program’s first sectional title since 1961 in the Class A finals over Amherst and advanced to their only Far West Regionals appearance to date.
“He approaches coaching our Junior Varsity team with the same passion and genuine care as if he were coaching a varsity team,” added NT varsity coach Ryan Mountain. “He hates to lose, and his teams always play hard, but he also teaches discipline and teamwork which are crucial in the development process of our program. He also supports our program’s scholastic requirement by motivating the players to excel to their potential in the classroom.”
Keohane said he has been “so lucky” to have coached plenty of talented players, on and off the court, through the years.
“Without good players, we do not have that great success,” he said. “All the credit goes to my players.”
Working 12-hour days during the winter and dividing time between teaching, coaching and overseeing a business can be a lot for one person’s plate – but Keohane has no complaints.
He’s even combined them together with the addition of “The Lumberjack” breakfast on his menu. And, a personal touch – the “Joe’s Angus Burger,” for his late father’s love of hamburgers.
Despite the current uncertainty, Keohane advises his players, students, employees and whoever else to pursue what their heart desires and tune out the noise.
“There’s a lot of people that want to take that dream away from you because they’re jealous or whatever,” he said. “They say, ‘You can’t do that’ and you go out and prove them wrong… I’ll never shy away from a challenge – never. I just work really hard to reach my goals and when my teams or Café are successful, it is the greatest feeling in the world. That’s the way I look at it.”
For more information on their menu updates and current COVID-19 protocol, like Café on the Avenue on Facebook or call 716-877-2233.
Joe Kraus is a Canisius College 2020 graduate and Journalism major whose work has appeared in the Twin Cities Sun and other local publications in Western New York. If you have any comments or an idea for a future story, please send to joekrausnt@gmail.com
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