PEOPLE Atlanta actor Mitchell Anderson finds his role as a restauranteur; Greg Forbes turned an academic interest in severe weather into a TV career; Mary Capka walked through the pandemic shutdown; an artist seeks a new way to mark time in Atlanta

Atlanta actor finds sustaining role in the kitchen, behind the bar

Before he opened the popular MetroFresh restaurants in Atlanta, Mitchell Anderson was known for his roles on TV shows and films like “Party of Five,” “The Karen Carpenter Story” (he played brother Richard), “Jaws: The Revenge” and most recently an Emmy-nominated turn on the Amazon Prime series “After Forever.”

When he’s not in front of the camera, Anderson is in the kitchen and now behind the bar. His longtime partner is salonowner Richie Arpino.

Atlanta Senior Life contributor Collin Kelley caught up with Anderson to talk about the evolution of Bar MetroFresh and his upcoming acting gigs.

Q. You opened the first MetroFresh in Midtown Promenade almost 16 years ago, which predates the farmto-table and “fresh” food trend in restaurants. How did you come up with the initial concept and what’s the secret to the restaurant’s longevity?

A. Honestly my inspiration came from my mentor and friend Jenny Levison, aka Souper Jenny. When I decided to leave show business, she took me into her kitchen and taught me a very improvisational approach to fresh food. I took to it right away and MetroFresh was born. Jenny was definitely ahead of her time and, with her blessing and help, we brought farm-to-table food to Midtown all those years ago.

I think I responded to this kind of fresh cooking because it’s what my mother did. We grew up in the farm country of western New York, where seasonal produce was specific. My mother visited the farm stand daily in spring, summer and fall. Her menu was 100% based on what came in that day. Somehow, corn brought from the field and into your boiling water within an hour just tastes better!

Q. Tell us about the latest iteration – Bar MetroFresh. What can fans and newcomers expect?

A. MetroFresh Uptown opened in August of 2019 in the beautiful Midtown Plaza, a block north of the High Museum. We copied our original location with breakfast and lunch for the office crowd, but added an after-work bar experience.

Of course, that location was impossible to operate for much of last year because of the pandemic. We closed for six months and reopened in September. Since then, we have continued to do breakfast and lunch for the hearty few who ventured into their offices. I’m happy to report that our determination and perseverance has paid off and we are beginning to see an uptick as people finally return to offices.

In January of this year, I decided to open the bar on Thursday nights, with me as the bartender. I had never tended bar in my life, but like everything about the last 12 months, you just sort of create and adjust. I realized that having a safe place for people to socialize in the middle of the pandemic was incredibly fulfilling.

Based on that experience, I decided to upgrade my existing beer and wine license at the Midtown Promenade store and add liquor. Our location off the BeltLine, and the upgrade to the entire complex creates an incredible opportunity to evolve. I am thrilled we survived this last year and I was super excited to reopen for nighttime dinner service with the addition of Bar MetroFresh. We’ve always been such a great, casual, neighborhood staple that having the option to pop in for a cocktail with friends and hang out for a bit is perfect. We look forward to feeling out the potential of Bar MetroFresh, including live music and entertainment both inside and on the patio.

Q. What are some of your other favorite restaurants and bars in the city?

A. I love Kyma, where our friend Chef Pano always treats us to his amazing Greek specialties. We never put in an order, the food just keeps coming out. Canoe is our favorite special-occasion restaurant. You just can’t beat the setting and the food is always inspiring. We live right up the street from Nino’s, which is the best for traditional old school Italian. I’m also a huge fan of Ford Fry and love No. 246 in Decatur.

Q. You’re well known for your acting work in TV, films, and on stage. Which came first: your love of acting or cooking?

A. Honestly, cooking came first. But they were sort of tied together. I’m not kidding you when I tell you as a child, making cookies or pies at home, I used to pretend I was Julia Child or The Galloping Gourmet. I’d set out all the ingredients and narrate my process as I went along for an imaginary camera and an imaginary audience.

Q. You were recently nominated for an Emmy for “After Forever” – are there more acting roles coming up soon?

A. We are shooting season three of “After Forever” in September of this year. It was postponed for a year because of the pandemic. I am also working on a one-man show about my life in Hollywood and how I wound up cooking for a living. It was a New Year’s resolution that I made to challenge myself in the year I turn 60! I have just booked Synchronicity Theater for the first weekend in November. I’m scared to death, but also super excited.

I’ve never done anything like this, but I needed a project that was not “restaurant related.” It’s been awesome to be able to take a break from my day job when I can to focus on something else – something that I’ve always loved.

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Mitchell Anderson

Greg Forbes’ interest in severe storms led to a career on TV

First, Greg Forbes developed an interest in science. Then came a desire to save lives.

That combination led the Cobb County resident to a respected career as a meteorology educator and researcher, then to a 20-year, high-profile stint as the oncamera severe storms expert for the Atlanta-based Weather Channel. On days when severe weather threatened destruction, Forbes provided a familiar and comforting presence for millions of viewers.

Now retired after years of guiding nervous viewers through most of the major storms since 1999, the Latrobe, Pennsylvania, native has taken up other pursuits. But he still does some consulting and — as you might expect — checks in on the forecast regularly.

Atlanta Senior Life contributor Mark Woolsey caught up with him recently for a phone chat.

Q. Can you tell us about your journey, which led you to national TV?

A. In the eighth grade, our science teacher taught a module on meteorology, and I thought that was pretty cool. When I was shown that meteorology was an actual science, rather than the goofballs — who were sometimes, Bozo the Clown or whatever — giving the weather, I thought it was something that would work for me.

I went to school at Penn State and got my bachelor’s and, while there, heard about the pioneering work being done by

Greg Forbes

[The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ National Weather Service scientific agency that forecasts severe storms and tornadoes and issues watches]

Q. You were at Penn State from 1978 until 1999, teaching severe weather and a variety of other topics. Can you draw a line on what led you from there to The Weather Channel in Atlanta?

A. I left Penn State because I got an offer from The Weather Channel. I figured at that age that that was going to be my only chance to go be an operational severe weather forecaster and save some lives. I decided I would take the opportunity even though it meant being on television. Q. At The Weather Channel, you

both prepared forecasts and researched behind the scenes and went on the air to warn of potential severe outbreaks before guiding viewers through them. What’s the number one severe weather event you covered?

A. I would probably have to name as number one being on the air for what we now call

Dr. Ted Fujita at the University of Chicago. I went there beginning in the fall of 1972.

I had never intended on being a TV meteorologist. I’d gone to the University of Chicago to get my master’s degree and be a forecaster at what we now call the Storm Prediction Center. the super outbreak of 2011.That had so many violent tornadoes going on all at once. Just about every [severe storm] produced a strong or violent tornado and some of them long-track. One of them that got a lot of notoriety formed southwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and hit

part of that community, then tracked all the way up into parts of the Birmingham metro area. In Birmingham, it was dropping shingles from Tuscaloosa out of the sky 10 to 15 minutes in and analysis of what those were and what was causing those.

Q. Do you think the public has grown more knowledgeable about weather over the course of your career?

advance.

Q. What’s it like being on the air for something like that? You said there were days when you put in 10 hours straight or more.

A. On those days, it’s pretty much adrenaline that kicks in. I don’t get tired all that easily. [There are] tornado outbreaks that have constant tornadoes, so many that you can hardly keep up with them. I would try to find the five or six I thought were either the most dangerous in terms of communities they were about to impact or the ones that looked the most dangerous on radar and talk about them.

Q. You had a hand in revising one of the main tools of modern meteorology, the Fujita Scale, which measures tornado damage. But you also delved into other topics that have had a specific application to our part of the country. Can you talk about that?

A. I did research at Penn State on ice storms and a phenomenon we call cold-air damming. That’s where a wedge of cold air gets trapped east of the Appalachians. That can sometimes result in ice storms and anomalously cold weather even down into the Atlanta area. I was involved in some of the early documentation A. I think a lot of the public has grown more weather-savvy. One thing that has changed from my years as a student to my years of retirement is that the numerical models and other ways to analyze the weather have improved. Back in the 70s, the public viewed the forecast very skeptically. Now the public has high expectations of the forecast being accurate.

Q. What’s keeping you busy in retirement?

A. I take a hike on one of the nature trails every day unless it’s raining. Also, I have a basement full of books. I’m a part-time online used book dealer.

Q. One more thing. I hear you acquired the moniker “Stormmaster G” during your years at The Weather Channel. How did that happen?

A. Weather Channel producer David Waller gave me that nickname early in my TWC career. One of the EVPs (executive vice presidents) actually had two rap videos made—one about me and one that had me apparently doing some rap moves. They taped me with my arms in different positions and then edited it to continuous motion.

Taking the pandemic in stride with a virtual walk to Delaware

By Donna Williams Lewis

Mary Capka came up with a novel way to stay fit when pandemic restrictions closed the pool and gym at Canterbury Court, her senior living community.

“We were shut in with the COVID quarantine and literally we could not leave [the facility] for many, many months,” said Capka, a retired nurse who worked at Emory for 30 years and who lives in Buckhead.

“I wanted to continue my exercise for many reasons — one, just for general health. I also have multiple sclerosis and I need to walk for comfort reasons. I’ve had a kidney transplant, so keeping active and keeping healthy is very critical to my continuing health,” she said. “Really, the only viable option I had was to walk.”

So, walk she did, daily, logging her miles with an app on her phone. As the miles piled up, she thought, “Well, wait a minute, I can go somewhere with this. I can make this a game.”

Capka decided she would make a virtual trek from Atlanta to Millsboro, Delaware, to visit her brother.

“I missed him and missed his family,” Capka said. “Since a real visit was out of the question, I set an exercise goal to walk there virtually. I gave myself one year to make that mileage.”

Her brother, Albert Bonan, mapped out a door-to-door route, which he calculated at 749 miles. And on July 1, 2020, she was off, walking two to three miles per day through the halls and garden at Canterbury Court.

She called her brother every couple of weeks or so to give him a mileage update and ask him where she was on his map.

“I also made sure that I told a lot of people here at Canterbury what I was doing because I wanted to have, one, that support, and, two, to finalize it as a goal.”

She says she believes goalsetting is “critical to senior health.”

Capka’s neighbors became her cheerleaders, enjoying asking her where she was on her journey. Some even told her she inspired them to start walking.

She normally walks slowly, with a limp, so her daily mileage goal was already a challenge. But nothing stopped her quest, not even a fall in November that pulled a hamstring and injured a knee. After a week, she was back on track.

On May 19, six weeks before her self-imposed deadline, Capka reached her finish line, congratulated by her husband, Vince, and a few friends.

She then called her brother for some FaceTime.

“He ‘answered the door’ but he said, ‘I’m at the back door. Come around to the back,’ ” Capka said. “He lives off the Indian River Inlet, so the water is behind him. So he panned the water and the seagulls were chirping and I could see his beautiful back area with the crabbing pier and we just chatted because, you know, I had arrived!”

Capka said she feels a great sense of accomplishment for achieving a goal she wasn’t sure she could reach. Her brother says he never doubted she would succeed.

“Mary is the type of person — has been all her life — when she sets goals, she follows through,” Bonan said.

Capka continues to walk, with a goal of reaching 1,000 miles by the end of this year. She will teach belly dancing classes this summer, and she and her husband plan to drive to Delaware in September for a real visit with her brother.

“We’ll take the same route that I took on my virtual trip,” she said. “It took me six days to cross the Chesapeake Bay BridgeTunnel. We’ll do it in about 15 minutes.”

Counting time by watching the rivers flow

By Chad Radford

Conceptual artist and writer Jonathon Keats has announced plans to build a new municipal clock for the metro area based on the flow of the Chattahoochee River, Peachtree Creek and other local waterways.

The Atlanta River Time project aims to change Atlantans’ perspective on time, the natural environment, and the impact of modern human existence on both.

“We can overcome dehumanization and environmental devastation by calibrating our lives according to personal observations of seasonal changes in our natural surroundings,” Keats said in a press release.

His solution is to redefine time not just in terms of people’s lives but also based on ecology.

River Time project organizers say Atlanta may be ripe for a shift in thinking about rivers and time.

“Atlanta was built around the railroad rather than the river,” Keats said. “It’s a business-first town that was founded and continues to be driven to make the trains run on time. Although these days it’s more about UPS trucks, Delta jets and Amazon Prime delivery.”

Keats delivered the first version of River Time in Anchorage, Alaska, in 2020 by creating a digital Alaska River Time clock metered by glacial melt’s impact on regional rivers.

Now, various Atlanta organizations tied to the river and arts are collaborating to bring Keats and his alternative time-reckoning systems to Atlanta. That includes nonprofit arts group Flux Projects and the South Fork Conservancy, which works to restore the banks of the South Fork of Peachtree Creek, among others.