WEST MILFORD As a child growing up in Costa Rica, Charlie Wollertz wanted to live in America. When he was 10, he told his mother who responded, “Not until you graduate high school.” To speed up the program, he completed high school when he was 16. Shortly thereafter, he was on his way to New Jersey, having been promised a job with a family friend in Lincoln Park. He’d been to the U.S. before in Nevada and California. “I didn’t know anything at all about New Jersey and I thought it would be the same, so I was a little surprised.” His job was washing dishes at the restaurant in the Lincoln Park Airport, one he says he soon found out, “wasn’t my thing.” But he worked there for a couple of years, going from dishwasher to busboy to waiter and, when he turned 18, bartender. Soon, he was running the restaurant and saving his money. Last year he found out that the Greenwood Lake Airport had a cafe that had been out of operation for several years and, at the age of 19, set about starting his own business. He has no formal training in the culinary arts, but in addition to his experience he began to study on his own. It took about six months to turn the former Connie’s Cafe into a space of his own. Called Crosswinds Cafe, the doors opened for business on Valentine’s Day. Wollertz and his three employees serve up breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday. The first week, he said, his customers were mostly just folks passing through the airport, but by the following week those people were returning with their families in tow. The young entrepreneur is hoping to draw more local families into the restaurant. Large picture windows face the runway, allowing visitors to watch planes take off and land. Plus, Wollertz gives every child a small airplane kit and offers a kids’ menu for under $5. Adult lunches run between $5 and $7, breakfasts are less. Wollertz, who is completely bi-lingual, says after three and a half years of working in airports he finally understands what the pilots are talking about. He has taken about 10 hours of flying lessons and enjoys the sensation of freedom one gets in the skies, but has been too busy on the ground to pursue that particular passion. He is the son of a retired American Navy man who served in WWII and a Costa Rican mother. He grew up in Costa Rica with his younger brother, who is now 15 and ironically studying to become a chef.