Meet Alice Dreier
Profile by Annie Hoyer
Alice was born and raised in a suburb of Indianapolis. During World War I, her father served on a troop ship and played the cornet in the Navy band. Alice grew up listening to him practice and accompanying him to military funerals, where he played taps. At a very young age, she asked if her parents would pay 75 cents to a nearby piano teacher for lessons. Quickly, she became the pianist for all school functions. She credits this early exposure for her life-long love of music.
Alice had a large extended family. Many cousins passed through Indianapolis as they served in the military during WWII. She watched her mother serenely whip up meals with little advanced notice. She feels her knack for cooking, sewing, and decorating comes from her mother. Her initiative, she believes, comes from both her parents; they were raised on rural farms, where there was a pitch-in-and-help attitude.
Alice attended Indiana University, though she was unable to graduate because she was needed to care for her aging parents. She accompanied them to St. Petersburg, where they retired. There, she met her first husband and moved with him to West Palm Beach. Their marriage produced three children, two boys and a girl, but ended in divorce.
During this time, Alice played piano at a mental health center as part of a therapeutic team. She had a friend who flew, and she decided to become a pilot. She sometimes flew across the state in a single engine plane. For a time, she became a partner in building a fly-in housing development. In addition to garages, owners had hangars and runways and could fly to their homes.
In 1972, Alice met Leslie when she walked across the street to borrow something and Leslie was there visiting the neighbor’s brother. At the time, he was running a vegetarian restaurant that was doing poorly. He says, “she met someone who would let her take care of him.” She says, “I admired him,” but she admits, “I did feel motherly toward him.”
The two had a whirlwind courtship; Leslie pressured her to marry quickly as he wanted his wedding on the anniversary of Ozzie & Harriet’s wedding. “I loved him more when I found that out,” Alice claims. She moved to Miami, planning eventually to work in Leslie’s restaurant. But after only one night, he fired the chef, and she took on the role for the next 8 years.
Alice cooked the daily specials, almost always creating dishes that were new and totally unique. Each day when the restaurant opened, she waitressed the lunch shift, usually earning $6 to $7 in tips. With this money, on the way home to her kids, she bought groceries to cook for the family dinner. She continued this hectic schedule even after she and Leslie had twin boys.
The restaurant became successful, with lines out the door. In time, the couple opened two more restaurants. The work, however, was arduous. They had visited NH on several vacations because of Leslie’s roots in Bethlehem. In 1981, they sold their businesses and moved to Bethlehem, to an old farmhouse they’d purchased and renovated the year before. The house was heated almost entirely with wood, a mighty big adjustment for a family from Florida!
This was far from a retirement, however. The couple opened a health and gourmet food store in Littleton. Alice taught cooking classes there, and says, “To this day, I’ll come across someone who tells me, ‘I still make your soup recipe.’” Later, Alice added a salesroom filled with antiques she enjoyed collecting. She also helped launch a public relations business geared to funeral directors.
From 1995 to 2005, Leslie took a job that landed the couple in Manhattan. During that time, Alice worked as a sales manager and a designer at Ethan Allen. Once back in New Hampshire, Alice started a business called Room Service. She helped clients rearrange and decorate their homes. This spoke to her artistic side, for Alice has been a painter throughout her adulthood. As if this wasn’t enough activity, Alice gave piano lessons and took lessons from a demanding retired concert pianist who auditioned prospective students, only accepting a few.
In the early part of their marriage, Alice and Leslie were not shul goers. When they came to Bethlehem, they weren’t familiar with BHC. But one Friday night, they walked into a service with their 4-year-old twins and “people made us feel they were so happy to meet us.” Since that time, Alice started the first BHC newsletter and wrote profiles of members for it. Early on, she was active in keeping the kitchen at BHC going and starting the Jewish cemetery. She’s scrubbed the shul’s steps and shampooed the carpets. From her garden, she’s brought lovely flower arrangements to services. Both her twins had their bar mitzvahs at BHC. Of everything she’s done, she says she was especially moved that Dave Goldstone asked her to mend a torn Torah cover.
Alice has 9 grandchildren, whose ages range from 10 to 29. This summer, her family has planned a celebration for her June 25th 90th birthday. One wonders if they can keep her out of the kitchen, or if any of them can prepare a feast fit for a woman who’s fed many, many friends and strangers over the years.