The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) congratulates former AHI Undergraduate Fellow Anthony Balbo for his role in developing and expanding his family’s portfolio of businesses.  On June 29 in Poughkeepsie, New York, Mr. Balbo participated in the inauguration of a new enterprise, a restaurant chain called Hurricane Wild Wings.

Hurricane Wild Wings opens

Mr. Balbo, an economics major who graduated from Hamilton College in May 2013, took the lead two years before in establishing the AHI’s Entrepreneurship Club and assisting in the organization of relevant events.  In April 2013, the AHI honored Mr. Balbo for his contributions to the AHI by presenting him with an award at the Sixth Annual Carl B. Menges Colloquium at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NY.

“Anthony Balbo is an impressive young man, intelligent, energetic, and possessed of strong moral fiber,” observed AHI Charter Fellow Robert Paquette.  “He comes from a tight-knit family with old-school values.  His father, Angelo, first-generation Italian, was born in Brooklyn and is an American Horatio-Alger story, having populated malls throughout the country with a chain of restaurants known as Cosimo’s Pizzeria.  In 2012, Angelo gave a lively and memorable presentation to the AHI Entrepreneurship Club on the importance of experience and social skills in building businesses.   Anthony is committed to developing and expanding his father’s businesses.  I will forever remember him,” Paquette added, “ as a young man who quietly came up to me after class in a course I teach on conservative thought, expressing his thanks  for providing him with the tools to articulate a sensibility that, he admitted, found itself under duress on a politically correct campus.”

Balbo family opens new restaurant

Hurricane Wild Wings near Vassar College