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 II, 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, now three-pronged food biz.
ANEU Approach Market replaces the Fresh Ideas Market on the corner. It’s in the old Four Seasons Fireplace shop that’s been empty for 11 years.
Walk through the market to the ANEU Approach Café, an all-organic, full-service, 60-seat breakfast and lunch spot.
Or saunter next door to plan your next party with ANEU Catering & Events, now headquartered on the corner.
First, the dish on the new ANEU Market:
It leans super-healthy but still sells some sinfully delish, housemade foods and treats.
The operative word here is “clean” – everything’s humanely raised and made from a handful of ingredients – all chemical free, Meredith tells SAVVY.
Seems our gal’s been cruisin’ round California, toting home never-seen-here healthy tricks and tidbits.
Our highlights:
*Nine all-organic smoothies without the sugar and stabilizers that some chains add (Sm $6.95/ Lg $8.25).
We slurped up the “Radiance” blend of banana, grapefruit, mango, orange, yellow pepper, turmeric and OJ. Our complexion said thank you.
Feeling fluish? Try the “Immunity” smoothie – banana, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, pineapple, orange, goji berry, flax seed and probiotics. Meridith (and scientists) say real fruit – not Emergen-C – is the best way to get your Vitamin C.
Eight organic, fresh-pressed juices (Sm $7.50/Lg $9.50). We tried “Aneu Day” –celery, kale, apple, spinach, parsley lemon. AKA V-8 gone green and healthy. Choose to amp up the nutrition with one of 9 “boosters” ($2 ea.) or design your own drink.
* Macacino ($4), a healthy tea that’s frothy and coffee-ish. Yum.
* Popcorn with a Purpose. Turns the sweet, salty stuff into a tasty and nutritious non-GMO, organic, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory, gluten-free snack. Varieties include Spirulina, East Herb, Spicy Tomato, Dusted Cacao, Black Out and, for the next month only, SAVVY.
***You read that right. Through March, SAVVY e-mail subscribers get a free bag of SAVVY Popcorn, a custom blend pumped up with two sensational superfoods: spirulina and wheat grass. Tastes way too good (slightly cheesey/herby) to be so good for you. Not a SAVVY subscriber yet? Sign up on our home page pronto. To claim your popcorn, simply whip out your phone and show either our e-newsletter or your subscriber confirmation email to the nice folks at ANEU. (P.S. We love that you “like” SAVVY on Facebook. We like you, too. But you gotta be an email subscriber (new or old) to claim your swag.)***
Back to business…. In the rear of the market, ANEU Approach Café opened quietly last week. More pizzazz is coming but for now, the simple, clean décor matches the clean, all-organic fare. Everything is scratch-made on site, save the Spring Mill bread, which is scratch made a few miles east in Wayne.
Prices are generally a few bucks more, but, hey, that’s the going rate for organic.
Some early faves from the breakfast and lunch menus:
- Breakfast Quesadilla – scrambled egg, nitrite-free bacon, cheddar cheese and guacamole, $14. Meridith’s personal fave.
- Avocado Toast (gluten free) – smashed avocado, cauliflower toast, poached cage-free eggs and potatoes O’Brien, $14.
- Black Bean Veggie Burger (vegan) – mango salsa, leafy greens, housemade southwest vegan sauce, $12.
- Mandarin Salad – sesame chicken, blue cheese, toasted almonds, cabbage, soy vinaigrette, $13.
- The Golden Valley Organic Coffee, $2.29 Drip, $3 Cappuccino, $4 Latte.
- Gluten-free pancakes (!) with fresh fruit and 100% maple syrup ($11).
ANEU Approach Market, 1556 Lancaster Ave., Paoli, is open weekdays 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., Saturdays 7 to 5, and Sundays, 7 to 3. ANEU Approach Café is open daily, 7 to 3.
ANEU too far off your beaten path?
The Juice Merchant, a Manayunk hit since its debut in 2014, is taking over the old Art of Bread space in Narberth. Organic juices and smoothies. Like ANEU but closer. And when it opens later this month, a smidge newer.
We took Haverford’s new Incline Running studio out for a nice, long (power) walk the other day.
And yes, we’re inclined to like it.
More than inclined – we’re smitten.
In the former Robinson Luggage store on Lancaster Ave., Incline is indoor, top-shelf aerobic fitness on the order of FlyWheel and Soul Cycle.
Equipment, amenities, motivating “coaches” (talkin’ ‘bout you, Scott) and X-factor cool quotient – Incline’s got it all. With prices to match. (Nope, you can’t have everything.)
And like every smart startup, Incline is a concept that solves a multitude of fitness problems. (More on those later.)
Lest you think we’re running wild with praise here, consider these goodies:
- The workouts. There are six classes to choose from, two of which are for non-runners. We chose Power Walk – 45 minutes on a treadmill that whipped our little tushies. We were working so hard – at different inclines and speeds – that we were sure the mid-workout core work on mats would be a breather. It wasn’t. (Note: Turtles AND hares are welcome here. Coaches suggest a range of speeds and inclines.)
- The vibe. You work out on a top-of-the-line and gentle-on-the-joints Woodway treadmill in a tricked-out studio with soaring ceilings. Coolest feature: the presto-chango LED lights. Early morning classes salute the sun with huge front windows left open. Later sessions go red or blue or whatever hue suits the mood. (Coming soon: Like nightclub DJs, coaches will switch to a spectrum of colors during class.)
- The ownership. It’s hands on and 100-percent Main Line made. Joshua Hirshey, Lower Merion Class of ’92, former lacrosse player and attorney, was itching to start his own biz. Sidelined from running by a sports-induced bad back, he also wanted a new way to get back in shape. Biz met Back. Months later, Incline was born.
- It’s simple. Despite the high-end frills – fluffy towels, showers, filtered water fill-ups, hip swag – all you really need here is a pair of kicks and a kick-butt attitude.
Incline solves a host of exercise problems.
It attracts, among others:
- runners who need a group/coach to keep moving but are intimidated by outdoor running clubs;
- athletes who need a place to train – for their first 5K or the Philly Marathon;
- anyone who wants to hit their stride before venturing out on the open road,
- and runners/walkers of different fitness levels who want to work out side by side.
And it eliminates the weather problem – power walks and runs cancelled by rain, ice and snow.
Incline Haverford is running ahead of the pack here. While there are similar studios in NYC (Mile High Run Club) and Boston (Heartbreak Hill, My Stride), there are no other Philly-area group ex studios dedicated exclusively to indoor running and walking.
Not yet, at least.
Josh tells us he’s already sprinting forward with expansion plans.
Next stop? Center City.
Incline Running, 519 W. Lancaster Ave., Haverford, 484-380-2412. First class is free; after that, $28/class for drop-ins; discounts for class card holders, members and students.
Pop the bubbly and cue the jackhammers. The overhaul of the Paoli train station is ON TRACK.
So it took 25 years – we’re cool with that, as long as the project keeps chugga-chugging along.
Officials from Tredyffrin, Chesco, Amtrak, SEPTA and PennDot gathered at the train station Tuesday to mark the start of Phase One, which will make the station wheelchair friendly (finally).
A cool $36 mill buys us a raised platform, pedestrian bridge, ramps, elevators and parking lot improvements.
Delivery date: early 2018.
The next phases will be even more fun.
The dumpy station that’s showing every one of its 63 years will get the heave-ho.
Taking its place: a modern “transportation hub” with a commuter parking garage, retail and better bus facilities. All of which will bring the station, one of the busiest transit spots in the Philly burbs, into the 21st century. ‘Bout time.
Of course, there’s still that little matter of relocating the N. Valley Road bridge and re-routing traffic.
Still, all systems are go.
First the transport hub, then a revitalized downtown Paoli.
We can hardly wait.
A multitude of Main Line connections at the Oscars, particularly to La La Land, the Emma Stone/Ryan Gosling musical that took home seven – oops, make that six – Academy Awards Sunday night.
First, there’s that mensch of a songwriter, Benj Pasek – the Ardmore-bred, Friends Central alum who, if only for a night, changed the channel on his high school’s Palestinian speaker saga.
Nice Jewish boy, he asked his super-accomplished mother to be his date to the Oscars.
Then, clutching his shiny statuette for “City of Stars” – and with millions watching – gave her – and dreamers everywhere – the sweetest of shoutouts:
“I want to thank my mom who is my date tonight. She let me quit the JCC soccer league to be in a musical. This is dedicated to all the kids who sing in the rain and all the moms who let them!”
His mom, Dr. Kathie Hirsh-Pasek, is a pretty big deal herself. She’s a Distinguished Fellow at the Dept. of Psychology at Temple and author of 11 books, including the NY Times bestselling “Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Children Really Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less.”
Clearly, she took her own advice when she raised Benj. And she hopes her son inspires others: “There are all those kids out there who spend their life’s dreams on those stages acting and singing their hearts out … Really, this is for all them to say, ‘It’s possible!'” Hirsh-Pasek told 6ABC.
Even Broadway’s Hamilton creator, Lin Manuel Miranda, got in on the mom-son act, tweeting:
Another local La La connection: Co-producer Mike Jackson, 44, is from Wynnewood.
And there’s more.
“Best Director” La La Land Oscar winner Damian Chazelle is in a serious relationship with the lovely actress/model/entrepreneur Olivia Hamilton. Whose parents, Oma and Steve Hamilton, just happen to hail from Haverford. Olivia played Bree the Gluten Free Girl in La La Land. Chazelle gave her a “the love of my life” nod from the Oscar stage. Aw.
Another local connection, but this one’s to Manchester by the Sea, a double Oscar winner Sunday night.
A Haverford School alum and the son of Phillies owner John Middleton, John Powers Middleton, was a Manchester exec. producer. Manchester Best Actor winner, Casey Affleck, and John Jr. formed a production company, The Affleck/Middleton Project.
Villanova U. can keep its crosses.
For months now, the University has planned to put crosses on either side of the pedestrian bridge it’s building over Lancaster Ave.
But when word spread, the prospect of two, 4 ft. 7 in. crosses made some neighbors, well, cross.
Too blatant a show of religion in a multi-cultural Radnor Township, they said.
Township commissioners and residents debated the issue at their Monday meeting, then voted 6-0 to allow the crosses (with Board Pres. Elaine Schaeffer abstaining). The board decided it didn’t have the authority to block the plan.
The bridge is on school property and part of the school’s $285 million expansion project that includes a parking garage (already open), a performing arts center and six apartment-style dorms with ground-level shops, fitness center and bistro.
Sola BYOB in Bryn Mawr is launching “Friday Night Chef’s Table” this week.
In a nifty little wrinkle, you and your pals get a personal guided tour through your multi-course meal with new Chef Scott Morozin. If you ask, they’ll even tell you what kind of wine to tote for each course.
$60 pp. Four to eight guests at the Table. Reserve at least three days in advance. Only one Chef’s Table per Friday.
“What Parents Need to Know About Social Media and the Internet.”
Worthy topic, eh?
Get the straight scoop at a free workshop Wed. March 15 at Harriton High School at 7 p.m. Among the night’s hotter topics: how employers and colleges use social media to evaluate applicants.
Panelists include teens, mental health experts, cops and college admissions and vocational pros.
Workshop host is the non-profit SPFC (Starfish Project for Children). Founded in 2013 by Main Line mom, Aeryn Fenton, the Starfish Project motivates students in grades K-12 to perform community service. Nice.
A SAVVY shoutout to Dr. Taliba Foster, just crowned a Woman of Substance and Style by a Philly style icon herself, Joan Shepp.
An award-winning psychiatrist in Ardmore who teaches at CHOP and directs its telephonic psychiatric consult service, Taliba has a national profile, too. She’s active on the AMA’s Minority Consortium, the National Leadership Summit on Health Disparities and the Congressional Black Caucus’ Health Braintrust.
Locally, she’s a trustee at the Agnes Irwin School and Minding Your Mind.
Gal gets around.
Here’s one for anyone who’d rather whoop it up than stop ‘n’ smell the flowers at the Phila. Flower Show. Or better yet, do both.
A brand-new event, “Flowers After Hours: I Love the ’90s” sounds like a hoot.
Here’s what’s on tap:
- Dancing (and rumbling?) with ’90s rocker Tommy Conwell and Best of Philly DJ Robert Drake.
- ’90s-themed, geeky games with the Museum of Art, the Orchestra and The Franklin Institute.
- Spending quality time with yourself at a show-stopping floral selfie wall, courtesy of Urban Stems.
- #FlowerAfterHours Costume Contest. Enter for a chance to win Beanie Babies, Tamagotchis and Ferbies – remember them?
Tickets to the Sat. March 11 shindig are $65, $75 at the door, but it’s a twofer. You get to visit the Flower Show without the crowds, too.
And finally, be sure to come by and say hi if you’re going to St. Katharine of Siena School’s Centennial celebration next Thursday, March 9 at Aronimink.
SAVVY Main Line is the media sponsor and yours truly will be emceeing the “Fabulous at Every Age” evening festivities. Lots of smashing vendors and a vintage fashion show featuring modern interpretations of Chanel, Dior, CVF and Twiggy/Mary Quant style from Malena’s Vintage Boutique in West Chester.
Ab fab, friends. Click here for tickets.
Liz says
We’re in Hawaii for 6 weeks. Love getting this “little taste of home” while we’re so far away. Great info, as usual!! Thx!
NICOLE Dresnin Schaeffer says
AMAZING POST! THANK YOU FOR THE KEEPING ME IN THE EXERCISE AND HEALTHY FOOD LOOP!
Caroline O'Halloran says
Our pleasure!
Sharyn Tehrani says
Glad to see the coverage on the new Aneu! Meridith is indeed a trooper!
Caroline O'Halloran says
Gotta love a gal with the guts to go for it, time and again. Reinvention = bravery.
Kathy Stevens says
I love anything and everything Meredith makes! So excited to hear about her new venture and can’t wait to go try it out. I will be bringing my Savvy newsletter and grabbing some of that delicious popcorn!
Kristin says
How often do the emails come out?
Caroline O'Halloran says
SAVVY publishes no more than once a week – we often publish once every two weeks. It depends on how much news is happening!
Joan Hirsch Rosenfeld says
Thank you for keeping me updated on my old stomping grounds. Love it.