WOODBURY — Carole Peck’s Good News Restaurant and Bar, a legacy in Woodbury, opened in 1994 by world-renowned chef Carole Peck. 

Peck is a memorable figure in the Woodbury community, supporting local events by often donating food to local causes and giving generously to groups like the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department. Through Peck’s Good News Ukrainian menu, she raised more than $100,000 for even more global causes like fundraisers to support the war in Ukraine.

After 30 years of business, Good News closed earlier this spring.

Eileen Colangelo, a longtime manager at Good News, has seen Peck’s impact on Woodbury firsthand. 

“Carole always gave back to Woodbury,” Colangelo said, “with her annual benefits with all proceeds going to local service providers. [Ranging from] her constant participation in business charity events, and many donations of food for events, she always felt it was important to give back.”

What was so special about Good News? Was it just any casual restaurant?

Far from it.

Good News was not a traditional restaurant. Combined with Peck’s revolutionary, delectable, and flavorsome Ukrainian recipes and her creative taste in art, Peck was able to create a unique, colorful, and comfortable environment for customers to enjoy

While most restaurants stick to a modern, calm and comfortable look, Good News was the quite opposite: Peck used bright vibrant colors. 

Instead of a normal soft light gray in the dining room, Good News’ dining room had neon green walls, blue booths, purple plates, and accompanying your meal was a bright owl light by your side. 

On the other side of the restaurant, patrons will remember valuable local paintings hanging on a teal 3D wall which surrounded the 22-seat copper-topped bar. 

What customers will remember is the artistic taste the restaurant had to offer. Customers remarked how they could take a walk outside to the pergola enjoying a dining experience that spilled out to a patio. To the left, a colorful seven-foot bull statue; to the right, a rock patio surrounded by a hypnotizing wall full of mirrors.

But if all these vibrant, considerably eccentric experiences made Good News a one-time restaurant, why was Good News always filled with everyday regulars? 

Was it staff ,like the manager, Colangelo, who had the most welcoming, wonderful customer service, or Jon Pacific, longtime bartender-waiter, who always gave customers great service and a great time with his energetic, personable and charismatic personality that kept customers coming?

“The food and atmosphere were always great,” said Good News regular David Rivera, who fell in love with the restaurant in 2008. “The staff made the place special. I hope the new owner knows how valuable the staff is, the bartenders, waiters, and busboys, and the kitchen crew. All of them were the heart and soul of the restaurant. That’s what made it such a good place.”

Perhaps another reason Good News has so many regulars is Peck’s famous menu. For customers, the fare was always memorable, whether it was either the popular lobster mac and  cheese, schnitzel, short rib or her Ukrainian pierogies.

“I think the thing that made Good News so special was that not only was the food consistently amazing, [but] the atmosphere was too,” said Colangelo. “It wasn’t a restaurant; it was a home, a place you could go and be treated like family by not only the staff, but the customers as well. That’s what made our Good News family keep coming back. It was fine dining with a casual, upbeat, silly atmosphere, a place you could just be yourself.”

Colangelo wasn’t the only one out of the dozens of employees at Good News who felt this way.

“It was easy to work at a place where you could always stand behind the food,” said Pacific. “Carole’s culinary vision was second to none.”

The restaurant was not just a comfortable place to observe beautiful art and consume a delicious meal. Some would consider Good News their happy place. It was routine for customers to come in and chat with Pacific at the bar. Customers felt that Good News was a place that belonged. After a long day of hard work, for almost 30 years they could rely on Good News for a consistently good experience to end their day.

Now that Good News has been sold to Michael Hayek, who owns Square One and Craft Kitchen in Danbury, he has been given the task to keep that same Good News aura without Peck. 

In a meeting between Good News staff and Hayek, he informed staff that he will be keeping the same name, staff and keeping customer favorites from the menu, but he will be changing the unique artistic designs that Good News had to give it a more minimalistic, modern look. 

Undoubtedly, the best news of all for the Woodbury community, there is sure to be more Good News to come.