Thomas was born and raised in Astoria, before there were coffee shops and sushi restaurants on every street corner. He spent his youth engaging in the same activities as any other adolescent growing up in the city: hanging out at "the strip" in Astoria Park and hopping trains to the West Village, where he futilely tried to get a tattoo or piercing on St. Mark's Place (a practice he would not recommend to today's teenagers).  

Thomas earned his B...