You have probably driven by the BVH Sports Bar in Barryville many times and wondered what BVH stands for. I spoke with John Bouloukos who runs the bar and restaurant for his mother Elyse who told me its “Barry Ville Hotel.”

His grandmother Pagona Bouloukos owned the Pinehurst, sold it and bought the building in 1959 which became a bar and restaurant with nine guest rooms. His mother inherited the building and in 1992 John came back to Barryville to revive the BVH.

“I grew up in kitchens my whole life he told me. My father was Greek and always worked as a chef in kitchens in the Albany area. My brother Greg and I went to his job every day after school and prepped food and learned about making various dishes and running a kitchen from my Dad Peter. We did this for years so when I came back to the BVH I was more than ready to cook.”

The BVH has a standard but diverse menu with about fourteen interesting specials. “With a nod to our late Dad's Greek roots, every day we have a Greek food special-from gyros, Greek Lemon Soup, Spanakopita Spinach Pies and everything is made from scratch including my grandmother's recipe for her homemade Tzatziki sauce- and there is some fusion cooking going on with offering such as spanakopita egg rolls to boot.”

John explained that one place his Dad worked was a deli type restaurant and his Dad knew that he always loved chicken wings and in Albany, Wednesday was payday and his Dad let him create a wings menu every Wednesday. It always sold out very quickly and with the help of his brother Greg they were up and running with developing wings and creating some new very exciting wing sauces.

In 2013 John entered some of his wings and sauces in the Hudson Valley Wing Festival and won First Prize and since that time he has landed in either first or second place. He was also the only contestant to have been awarded first place for two consecutive years. John said that as a bartender and a cook he is always experimenting with how flavors can meld together and has successfully paired the perfect drink with his wing sauces.

The BVH offers about fourteen different wing varieties on their daily menu. For instance, John loves blueberries and he created an award-winning blueberry, Indian ghost peppers and honey wing sauce and his signature “Johnnyhotz” sauce-jalapenos, honey and garlic sauce for wings or anything else you may want to put it on.

John told me he has been thinking about bottling and creating a line of his sauces for the legions of his devoted wing customers and including his brother Greg's innovative all spice meat rubs as well. Since the average American consumes about 325 chicken wings per year these creative and industrious brothers are definitely on to something with having a line of products.

Under normal conditions Greg and John not only cook but run a very popular sports bar with lots of NFL sports memorabilia and twelve TV's for loyal fans who show up sporting their team's favorite jerseys to watch football, basketball and soccer games-sometimes having twelve different games on at once. John laughed as he is a passionate Pittsburg Steelers fan.

I asked John about what he thought the summer would hold for our County and he was unsure. “I don't know how all the campers and people coming up to go on the Delaware River can be up here and still maintain social distancing and we have so many different types of camps filled with people from everywhere coming here each year. We will have to see what happens, but we are hoping for the best” he told me.

But we are not in normal times and John said that the takeout business has been good as they are following all the guidelines to keep themselves and his customers safe. They have moved all the stock from their small liquor store into the empty restaurant and now accept Venmo and PayPal payments for all sales to make things safer.

Something tells me that Peter Bouloukos would be very proud of his two sons doing so well with carrying on the family's business in such tough times. The BVH is located at 45 Barryville-Yulan Road, has adjusted their hours and are open for liquor store sales and food and prepared drink take out on Wednesday through Sundays from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. For more information you can call them at (845) 557-9903 or visit them on Facebook.

Lock Down Tip:

Last week I got a notice from our Sunshine Hall Library that RCLS libraries have partnered with the Kanopy film streaming service (kanopy.com/catalog) which is now available for free using your library card.

By signing up you will have access to more than 30,000 new films, documentaries, rare and hard to find films, classic, international and Indie movies, the Learning Company's video courses and a huge collection of kid's movies.

For more information go to sunshinehallfreelibrary.org. If you don't have a library card or want more information email pkennedy@rcls.org.

Contributed Photo| Photo by Henry Bush Jr.

John Bouloukos of the BVH Sports Bar and Restaurant in Barryvile received several of the awards he won from the Hudson Valley Wing Festival for his fantastic fan favorite chicken wing recipes.

Contributed Photo | John Bouloukos

The BVH Sports Bar and Restaurant is a local sports fan favorite hangout and has twelve tvs and features their awards winning chicken wings.