Center was approximately ten blocks from where Kim was living at the time. After that tragic event, her life view changed. “It made me look beyond where I was, to where I needed to be,” she said. The air quality changed from the collapse of the Twin Towers. She said she loved living in Manhattan, but a few months after 9/11 she felt she could no longer stay there. Not only because of the trauma of that day but because of the living conditions at ground zero continued to have lingering issues as time passed. After 9/11 Kim needed a new journey and left New York. Her travel adventures landed her in Geneva, Switzerland for nine months, soaking up every learning opportunity she could find. Inspiration and knowledge from living in Switzerland are something Kim
has applied throughout her business journey. After returning to the United States, she moved to upstate New York and bought a puppet theatre. As owner and site performer of Fairy Tale Castle Puppet Theatre, Kim found a new passion and inspiration as an entrepreneur and artistic performer. Reestablishing a new rural lifestyle, Kim was running her puppetry business when she and her business partner went on a vacation to the beautiful Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. “We stopped at Castle Rock Country Inn to get our bearings and plan our trip around the island. We loved the area so much we decided we would get a place here together” she said. When they came back a year later, Castle Rock Country Inn was for sale. “The overwhelming natural beauty of the region was what
“Six months after I started working with him, I was performing… with the symphony orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. It was unbelievable. It was a great period in my life”
“We stopped at Castle Rock Country Inn to get our bearings and plan our trip around the island”
The current owner Kim Magistro was born and raised in New York City, New York. Her journey to entrepreneurship started in a corporate office. She was working in advertising and writing magazine columns, which I can relate to. Kim had a great job, but she realized her passion for food needed to be fed. So, she began working in the restaurant industry, and in no time, she became a restaurant manager and secured her place in the hospitality industry in Manhattan, New York. “I fell in love with the hospitality industry,” she said. “I enjoyed the work; it opened a lot of doors for me.” Being a restaurant manager allowed Kim to create new connections and rekindle old ones. She was reunited
with her friend’s father, who often came into her restaurant after performing next door at Beacon Theater. He was a famous magician, and she remembers watching him on television as a teenager. One day he offered her a job in the arts, Kim was not going to let the opportunity slip by. Training to become a magician’s assistant part-time while managing the restaurant full-time. “Six months after I started working with him, I was performing a children’s show with the symphony orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. It was unbelievable. It was a great period in my life” she explained. While performing magic shows in the theater, Kim learned about puppets. In the
beginning, she did puppetry part-time.
On Kim’s entrepreneurial journey, she completed a culinary degree at The Art Institute of New York City. The restaurant she managed was sold and she struggled to find a full- time position in a new restaurant of similar quality. She knew the industry was changing rapidly, especially with large corporations setting up more and more food franchises. Instead of jumping back into the restaurant setting, she took time to go back to school. Kim took a program to become a super manager, which would later be extremely helpful. “That training was invaluable,” she said.
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72 SPOTLIGHT MAGAZINE ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 24 ISSUE 5
SPOTLIGHT MAGAZINE ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 24 ISSUE 5 73
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