Devon is fired up over DanDan.
It hasn’t officially opened but the new restaurant – at the old Ella’s near the Devon Acme – is already packin’ ’em in.
Just like it does in Center City.
And for good reason.
it's what you want to know
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
Devon is fired up over DanDan.
It hasn’t officially opened but the new restaurant – at the old Ella’s near the Devon Acme – is already packin’ ’em in.
Just like it does in Center City.
And for good reason.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
Pregnancy or new motherhood getting to you?
Join the club.
Literally.
Just open in Wayne: Hatch: A Sanctuary for Motherhood, an upscale, membership-based Mecca for expectant and new moms.
Because motherhood has its bumps – and they can’t all be covered in maternity tops.
Also because Dr. Spock and What to Expect When You’re Expecting are SO last century.
The Hatch method: an array of programs to help you “Grow, Glow and Know.” The goals: Get physically and mentally fit and get educated. Baby and hubby will thank you.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
They live among us, hiding but in plain sight.
They mow our lawns, mind our kids, cook our food, clean our homes.
They are Mexicans, living and working on the Main Line.
Some, of course, work under the table.
Others receive paychecks, have payroll taxes withheld, and file yearly U.S. tax returns.
Just like us.
But in many ways, not like us at all.
Because they are here without papers and have little reason to believe they’ll ever get them.
One such family – living in a rented, single-family home on the western Main Line – asked us to share their story.
They wanted us to put a human face on the immigration crisis.
But, of course, we cannot.
At least, not literally.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
Wait ’til you see what Main Line culinary queen Meridith Coyle’s cooked up this time. The gal who brought us Meridith’s Market, Binnie & Flynn’s (Take 2), Fresh Ideas Market and Aneu Catering has come up with, yup, a fresher idea.
Call it “ANEU Approach” to eating, dining, and throwing parties. (She does.)
In expansion mode, she just bought a whole shopping center – near Del Chevrolet and the Van Cleve Pavilion in Paoli.
A scant three weeks later, she opened her re-tooled, three-pronged food biz.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
Suddenly, the Main Line is soaking in suds.
Sure, we have locally-owned brewpub faves like Ardmore’s Tired Hands, McKenzie Brewhouses in Berwyn and Malvern, newbie La Cabra Brewing and, slithering soon to Bryn Mawr, Tin Lizard.
And yes, we’ve got a few, but not nearly enough, cozy gastro-pubs like The Goat’s Beard and Teresa’s Next Door in Wayne.
And of course, restaurants far and nigh (Biga, Savona et. al.) have been beefing up their beer lists.
No, the BIG news in brews is this: a brand-new law permits PA peeps to take home beer by the bottle.
Holy Heineken!
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
The elite health & fitness company likes the Main Line so much, it’s putting not ONE, but TWO of its mega clubs here.
Our first Life Time – a scratch-built, 140,000 sq. ft. whopper with a “resort-like” outdoor pool and waterslides – will debut in June on Swedesford Rd. in Tredyffrin. (Life Time’s calling it King of Prussia, but the map says it’s Wayne, if only by a hair.)
And just announced: our second Life Time will be in Ardmore – an exclusive “diamond” level club (a notch above KOP’s “onyx premier”) in the former Macy’s building, one of two Grand Dames of Suburban Square. (The tall Times building is the other.)
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
No matter how you voted, you have to feel sickened by the reported assault of a black female student by a group of white male students on Villanova’s campus last week.
Here’s what reportedly went down: The young woman was walking through the SEPTA tunnel around 9 pm Thursday when a group of guys en route to an off-campus formal approached and knocked her down, shouting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” The student’s face and head hit concrete. According to her friend, she was badly shaken, suffered nausea, vomiting and dizziness and was reluctant to report the attack at first.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
Hey, Whole Foods: Can you build us a new Devon store, too?
We just had a sneak peek tour and tasting at the about-to-open Wynnewood market and, frankly, we were blown away.
The place is blockbuster.
We knew it would be three times bigger than the cramped Whole Foods it’s replacing around the corner.
But we had no idea how much better it would be.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
The Main Line never really warmed up to Xilantro, its cold, neon vibe better suited to South Beach than Central Wayne.
But its North Wayne successor, the new Goat’s Beard, well, he’s a whole ’nother animal.
Warm. Fuzzy. Friendly.
Upscale but not uppity.
It helps, too, that the guys behind the Goat are local lads Sean Coyle and Mike “Mac” MacCrory, pals since their Malvern Prep days.
The food biz in his blood, Sean handles operations. (His parents had the TexMex mainstay Binni & Flynn’s; his sister, Meridith, owns Aneu Catering and Paoli’s Fresh Ideas Market.)
Mac’s the money guy – commercial real estate exec by day, goat-herder by night.
The two buddies think they’re onto something.
/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /
If life-sucking depression has a Main Line face, surely it couldn’t belong to tall, athletic, bright and charming Drew Bergman.
But more and more, the 2012 St. Joe’s Prep grad who had everything to live for – but tried twice to end it anyway – has become that face.
His demons at bay, Drew now makes the rounds of area schools, one of 11 speakers for the Rosemont-based Minding Your Mind (MYM) Foundation.
In two years, he’s told his story 250 times – to your son or daughter, perhaps.
And he’ll tell the abridged version again this Thursday at the inaugural MYM fundraiser he’s organized, “A Celebration of Life: Philadelphia.”
When Drew speaks at schools, 15 to 20 students typically line up afterward, seeking a private word with the 22-year old who just gave a public face to the anguish they’ve long felt.
Who just told them it’s OK to speak of the unmentionable.
Who gave them warning signs and coping strategies.
Who bared his soul, shared everything, so they might, too – to someone who can help.