Newly published author Tracy Viola in the family room of her Strafford home.
With her girl-next-door face and bouncy personality, it’s hard to picture Wayne mom Tracy Viola as the duplicitous, defiant, drug-addicted teen in her new memoir, Pretty Wrecked.
But maybe that’s the point of this tell-all: looks (and smarts) can be deceptive. Heck, they help you deceive. You can be pretty – and pretty wrecked for years – but you can only fool yourself for so long.
Sooner or later, you’ll crash and burn.
Tracy hit bottom seven months after her Agnes Irwin graduation when, strung out and shivering with nowhere to sleep, she crawled inside an empty Toyota parked behind the Devon Acme.
Every May, Tracy Otley Viola, Class of ’95, stands in front of Agnes Irwin’s graduating class and talks about her years of out-of-control addiction and her recovery journey. With no teachers or staff in the room, she’s raw and she’s real. Why pretty is up?
“I sat in your seat and I listened to these speakers and I was high as shit,” she tells them. “And I know a few of you are high right now.”
It’s a cautionary tale that never gets old, she says.
She cries every time.
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A year ago, Tracy decided to share her reckless youth and road to recovery in a book of frank “confessions.”
“I wanted to make it real and scary and entertaining with tangible lessons,” she says.
Pretty Wrecked opens with a string of adolescent traumas that preceded Tracy’s addiction: a flawed, alcoholic father, an abusive stepfather and the abrupt loss of her childhood home.
Tracy chronicles her double life in high school: showing up high at Agnes Irwin every day and getting “good enough grades”; dutifully doing her homework in the library after school because she knew she’d be wasted later; driving high-as-a-kite after partying with older, hard-core druggie friends; getting stoned in Valley Forge Park, a boyfriend’s apartment or someone’s basement; regularly leaving school to score drugs in West Philly.
She writes about carefully camouflaging her use of ‘90s “hippie drugs” – pot, mushrooms, acid, ecstasy and crack – with her prep-school uniform, breath mints and Visine.
“I was brought up on the Main Line so I knew how to play the game: look good enough to fit in and not turn heads or cause chatter,” Tracy tells SAVVY. “I was really good at looking like I had it together – lying and getting away with it – and that feeds the ability to deceive and manipulate.”
Remarkably, Tracy, 47, maintains fond memories of Agnes Irwin. The Violas host reunion parties for her AIS friends (who never suspected the extent of her drug use) in their Strafford home. And their two children, Ashley, 15, and Erin, 11, left public school to enroll in mom’s alma mater.
“Even in my days of drugs, I loved Agnes Irwin and my girlfriends,” Tracy says. “I felt safe there. I was a mess but I never minded showing up for school.”
As recounted in the book, Tracy didn’t fully unravel until her first semester at the University of South Carolina. She’d deliberately chosen “a big coed party school” where she thought it would be easy to “find a dealer and a crew” asap.
USC is also where, “hammered and high,” she was raped at a frat party.
Tracy Viola in her Agnes Irwin senior photo (at left) and smiling to mask her misery during a disastrous freshman semester in college (at right). “Look how fake my smile was, how yellow my skin was. I was falling apart. I had no joy,” she says.
The day after Christmas, the jig was up. Her mother told her she was flying to rehab in Minnesota.
But days after she detoxed in a padded cell, she signed herself out, came home and … cratered.
Her mom barred the door. Homeless and broke, she spent four, frigid weeks in January of ‘96 out on the streets of the Main Line.
More than half of Pretty Wrecked is a portrait of stubborn, willful self-destruction.
But bitter, defiant Tracy becomes Fighter Tracy, a damn-the-torpedoes gal who attacks her recovery with the doggedness with which she pursued drugs.
And her ferocity pays off. Fighter Tracy wins on all fronts.
She holds down jobs at Paoli Health & Fitness and Chili’s while she earns a bachelor’s degree from Villanova and a master’s from Temple.
She finds the perfect life partner in Haverford School-, Princeton- and Wharton-educated Mike Viola.
She starts her own pharmaceutical market research company.
And she relishes two “really cool, freaking amazing kids” who love Agnes Irwin as much as she did.
“I want people to know my addiction was fast and furious for four years but I’ve been sober for 28,” Tracy says. “The book poured out of me. There are train-wreck stories but the last third is about the rising, about how I found success in recovery.” A number of chapters end with Tracy’s “in retrospect” insights and sobriety tips.
Her story, she says, is for people in active addiction and the people who love them. It’s also for people new in recovery. “It’s for someone who’s young and thinking: How am I going to get through college without drinking? What about the champagne toast at my wedding?”
She wants folks to know that sobriety – as brutal as it is at first – gets easier.
Reflecting back, Tracy has come to view her recovery journey – which began with intensive, outpatient rehab at the Malvern Center and continues to this day with AA meetings – as a gift.
“I feel like I grew up with a handbook on how to human. While others are still trying to figure it out, I was 19 years old when someone said, ‘Here’s how you’re going to live your life.’ When you live in reality day after day, year after year, with no numbing of the edges, you’re constantly confronting how you want to live in this world. When you’re 100 percent grounded in who you are, unapologetically, all the time, you live a full life, sometimes a fuller life.”
We asked Tracy if she worries about going public with what she calls the “toxic trash can” of her teen years.
“What do I have to be embarrassed about? That I f***ed up as a teenager? I own that. I want people to know that it’s OK not to be fine. Ask for help and let’s get you fine.”
But what about her 15- and 11-year old daughters, we wondered. Are they OK with it?
The Violas have “open conversations,” she says. “They’re very honest with me and I’m certainly honest with them. I tell them that I made mistakes and they’re gonna make mistakes and it’s all OK.”
She’s been unspooling her story to her girls – age appropriately – over time. “They already know I’m different from other parents because I don’t drink and because I’m so vocal and comfortable in my skin.”
And before she went forward with the book, she got their OK.
Ashley read it and “asked really good questions.” Tracy has asked her younger daughter, Erin, to hold off on certain chapters.
Writing was “both painful and cathartic,” Tracy says. “It really reenergized my gratitude for my 28 years of sobriety. Life is messy but it’s also beautiful. I look back and think ‘Holy shit! Look where I am. Look at the life I built. Look at the hope I’m able to give others.”
Preorder Pretty Wrecked here. For more information, visit tracyviolaauthor.com.
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Makerspaces? Coding games? Paddle checkouts? LGBTQ events? Tredyffrin Public Library rolls with the times
Nathan Heller, 10, uses a 3D printer in Tredyffrin’s new Makerspace to create a lizard.
On its home page, Radnor Memorial Library calls itself “an antidote to loneliness.”
Lower Merion’s libraries tout their “social literacy” mission.
Easttown Library processes passports and hosts weekly Mah Jongg.
In the last few decades, our local libraries have evolved from hushed, book-centric retreats into au courante community hubs – perhaps none more so than Tredyffrin Public Library (TPL).
From its whiz-bang new “Makerspace” and growing “Library of Things” to its targeted LGBTQIA+ programming, TPL has fully embraced its 21st-century role as a place to try something new, expand your outlook, maybe make a new friend or two.
Open since late December in the library’s former computer lab, the Makerspace is a hotbed for DIY creativity. It’s equipped with, among other gizmos:
- Two 3D printers, allowing you to “try before you buy” one for your home. Price tag: $1,300/each.
- A dye sublimation printer that heat presses images on tote bags and such.
- A large form, precision cutter/engraver that makes vinyl decals, 3D paper projects, name tags and such.
- Three virtual reality headsets.
- Coding toys, robots, Legos and tablets loaded with coding games.
The community has been getting acquainted with the Makerspace during open houses and librarian-led demos and classes. Think fiber arts and craft nights for adults, a build-your-own-cryptid workshop for middle schoolers, and robotics classes for kids as young as 5.
A young patron plays a robot coding game in Tredyffrin Lubrary’s new Makerspace.
“The library has become a place to gather together, learn and pursue a passion, so this fits,” explains Rachel Kramer, TPL’s development associate.
Tredyffrin’s $40,000 Makerspace was privately funded: $25K from the McLean Contributionship (the folks who funded the old computer lab) and $15K from Friends of Tredyffrin Library.
But 3D printing and high-tech crafting are just the start of TPL’s cutting-edge offerings.
In the next year, the library plans to double the size of its Library of Things. Who knew you could check out things like:
- pickleball paddles, backyard bocce, Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation controllers, screen-free Bluetooth audio players.
- portable photo studio booth, Chromakey green screen, digital moisture and light sensors for plants.
- KitchenAid blender attachments for making ice cream, pasta and shave ice.
- Sphero, Vincibot and Matatalab coding robots and towers.
- Craft supplies like heat-press tools, quilling kits and die cutters.
- Free passes to Elmwood Park Zoo, Chanticleer, Museum of the American Revolution, The National Constitution Center, Penn Museum and more.
“The affluence of this area makes it a real challenge,” Kramer says. “A lot of people are just going to go out and buy something they want. We stock try-before-you-buy items and things you’re only going to use once or twice.”
Tredyffrin has long been a place where patrons can donate books for resale in the Red Fox Bookshop, a major funder of library initiatives. But it’s also where you can join a jigsaw puzzle swap, play your ukulele with others, or get one-on-one help with your smartphone and tablet.
And where, increasingly, LGBTQIA+ folks and their families are getting answers and finding support.
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Last fall, TPL joined with Paoli and Easttown libraries to host the area’s first Pride in the Park, a community event showcasing resources for the LGBTQIA+ community. Rain forced the event indoors but a few hundred people showed up anyway.
A recent “Trans 101” program and Trans Storytelling series have both been well-attended, Kramer tells us.
In his office at TPL, librarian Jonathan Trice shows the “READ MORE” tattoo on his fingers.
TPL’s unusually robust LGBTQIA+ offerings, its focus on STEM programs, and its menagerie of borrowable “Things” all advance the library’s public-service mission, Trice says. “They fill a community need that’s not being met and set us apart. We believe in starting conversations.”
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OMG good, Osushi expands from Ardmore to Wayne
The sleek interior of Osushi at the long-vacant Zoe’s Kitchen space in Strafford.
The Main Line’s second Osushi outpost is off to a swimming start in Wayne.
Its calling card: reasonably priced, super-fresh, top-grade Japanese fish, handpicked thrice weekly in South Philly.
“There are sushi restaurants everywhere but our fish is top-of-the-line, what an omakase restaurant would serve,” owner Sam Li tells SAVVY. “We offer hidden value.”
Five sushi chefs working behind the 8-seat sushi bar on a recent Friday night.
Li took over the lease at 613 W. Lancaster Ave., briefly a Zoe’s Kitchen, after Corner Bakery filed for bankruptcy and pulled out. He had passed on the site a few year prior, choosing to site his second Osushi (the first is in Marlton) on Greenfield Ave. in Ardmore. When the Wayne space went back on the market, Li got a call. “I feel like it was meant to be,” says the third-generation restauranteur.
When Osushi opened in Ardmore a few years ago, our story noted the BYOB’s surprisingly inviting décor. Well, the ambiance in Wayne is even better: contemporary but warm with Edison-bulb pendants, a sleek, wood-beamed ceiling, and wavy stone walls meant to evoke the undulating ocean.
His three Osushis may be rolling along but Li is hardly treading water. He’s adding a full sake-and-spirits bar to his Ardmore location and next year plans to open Hiramasa, an ambitious fine-dining concept at the old Panera in Newtown Square Shopping Center.
Osushi, 613 W. Lancaster Ave., Strafford, 484-584-4067, is open from 11 a.m. daily. BYOB. Reservations recommended on weekends. Online ordering and on-site parking.
Neighbors and township fail to block semi-Super Wawa in Wayne
Like it or not, a sizable Wawa looks likely to replace the Sunoco and BP stations across from St. Katharine of Siena in downtown Wayne.
The Pa Supreme Court has spoken: the four-year battle to keep a somewhat Super Wawa out of Wayne is over.
The state’s highest court has refused to hear Radnor Township’s and neighbors appeal – effectively forcing officials to greenlight a preliminary plan to build a 24-hour Wawa convenience store with gas pumps at Aberdeen and Lancaster Aves.
“Obviously, the township and neighbors are disappointed,” Radnor Township Solicitor Jim Rice tells SAVVY.
“The neighbors are out of appeals,” confirms Nick Caniglia, the land-use attorney who represents Gary and Peter Karakelian who want to replace the gas stations on their property with a Wawa.
The father-and-son partners own another Wawa in Wayne – without gas pumps – less than a mile west at Lancaster and Danbury Aves.
With preliminary plan approval secured, the Aberdeen Wawa project moves to the final-plan approval phase in Radnor’s land development process.
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That ward’s commissioner, Cathy Agnew, sent an email to residents on Feb. 18, suggesting they continue to voice concerns when Radnor Planning Commission evaluates the proposal.
Meanwhile, another email sent by Agnew’s husband, Bradley Mortenson, and other leaders of the Wayne Neighbors Association, asked neighbors to pitch in to pay for attorney’s fees for their failed court efforts.
The Wawa proposal was controversial from Day One – with neighbors and the pastor and school principal at St. Katharine’s objecting to extra traffic on already-clogged roads, the glare of 24-hour lights, and potentially unsafe conditions for pedestrians and kids walking to and from school.
Radnor commissioners sided with neighbors and nixed the plan in 2019 on grounds that it violated zoning code. But the Karakelians filed suit and prevailed each time the township and neighbors appealed to a higher court.
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Bryn Mawr’s Fiore Rosso tweaks menu and prices, talks about other changes
Subtle changes to enliven Fiore Rosso’s dining room – an unusual mix of industrial and clubby – could arrive this summer.
Sometimes, a gem is simply too hidden.
Tucked away in the rear of the Bryn Mawr Village shopping center, Fiore Rosso has been steadily humming along since its oh-so-soft opening in the summer of ‘22.
On weekends, it’s rockin’ and rollin’ but, barring a private party or a buyout, weeknights are curiously quiet – too quiet.
You’d think a restaurant with built-in caché as the first Main Line venture of celebrated chef Marc Vetri’s restaurant group would be a slam dunk.
Not that it hasn’t attracted a core of regulars, rightly drawn to the uncommonly elevated regional Italian fare, the balanced cocktails and well-chosen wines, the polished service, and the casually elegant dining room strewn with world-class art. C’mon, where else can you enjoy a Wagyu rib cap as you peer at a Picasso?
For so many reasons, a sophisticated, albeit narrow segment of the Main Line has come to know Fiore Rosso as a very special place, indeed.
And therein may lie the problem. Is it perhaps too special?
Fiore Rosso (“red flower”) has acquired a hard-to-shake rep as a splurge destination, a place to celebrate a big birthday, an anniversary or a business milestone.
What it wants is a spot in your regular casual rotation of girls nights, quick bites at the bar, spur-of-the moment weeknight dinners.
And so, a campaign is underway to make Fiore Rosso more … approachable.
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The menu has expanded, prices have drifted lower, and sharing is encouraged.
The $58 orata (sea bream) is now $38.
There’s a new King Salmon filet for $42.
Veal Milanese was swapped out for less pricey pork.
The signature house-aged, bone-in ribeye is 32 ounces instead of 40, $150 instead of $168, and listed as “serves up to 4.”
The T-bone has been replaced by a smaller, less pricey filet.
The current menu leans into what Vetri does better than anyone: fresh, housemade pasta. In the early going there were three pastas, now there are eight ($18 – $24). Paired with a salad or one of the veggie sides, you’ll get a full meal that won’t break the bank.
The bar menu, too, has been beefed up with $16 meatballs, a $25 burger and other fill-er-up fare.
Happy Hour – at the 14-seat bar and a smattering of nearby tables – runs Tuesday to Saturday, every night Fiore Rosso is open.
Tuesday nights are now touted as Girls Nights Out with happy-hour pricing all night (from 5 to 9).
The bar and lounge area at Fiore Rosso.
There’s serious talk about finding space for a pizza oven and cozying up the seating in the vaguely cavernous dining room.
It’s even possible the artwork will come down at some point. Some question whether the contemporary canvases – on loan from the private collections of deep-pocketed investors – bring enough life to the high-ceiling space.
And there’s a new push to put Fiore Rosso on more Main Line radars.
“Our reservations and data tell us 95 percent of the market doesn’t know we exist,” lead investor Tom Gravina tells SAVVY. Gravino says the restaurant’s slow summer rollout – no PR, no press, no party – was a mistake.
Time for a do-over.
The restaurant was a surprise sponsor of this season’s Villanova basketball games at nearby Finneran Pavilion.
Gloss PR’s Corie Moskow, who helped launch Bryn Mawr Village, was tapped to “reintroduce Fiore Rosso to the Main Line.”
Local media and food influencers were invited to special dinners.
At Moscow’s invitation and after a year-and-a-half hiatus, we tried Fiore Rosso again last week, a night that reminded us that this gem is indeed one-of-a-kind.
Executive Chef Jesse Grossman – a Vetri protégé– has helmed the Fiore Rosso since opening day. Some have been disappointed that Vetri rarely appears in Bryn Mawr.
Its eye-popping paintings may be modern, but the kitchen is decidedly old-fashioned – in a good way. We remembered that everything here is cured, aged, butchered, fileted or extruded in-house – every speck of pancetta, every hunk of bread, string of spaghetti, drizzle of sauce and scoop of gelato is scratch-made. How many Main Line restaurants can make that claim?
We noted the come-as-you-are – golf shirt or Gucci – feel-at-home vibe.
And we were blown away by the uncommonly professional staff – sadly, a rarity in the ‘burbs post-COVID. Our servers, Vincent and Bill, General Manager Iva Bruni and CIA-trained Executive Chef Jesse Grossman all take pride in what they do and it shows.
From cocktails to gelato, our meal rivaled our favorites in Philly.
So yeah, we’re with you, Fiore Rosso. You deserve a wider audience.
Fiore Rosso, 915 Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr Village, is open Tues. – Sat. from 4:30 p.m. Happy hour nightly. Call (484) 380-2059 or reserve on Tock.
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Born on the Main Line and hitting big screens across the U.S: epic, inspirational Cabrini biopic
Bryn Mawr businessman J. Eustace Wolfington (center) with seven of his 10 children and the actress who plays Francesca Cabrini at the film’s red carpet premiere at the Regal Cinema in King of Prussia. From left, Mary DeCarlo, Marta Kyle, Mimi Heany, Eustace Wolfington III, J. Eustace Wolfington, actress Cristiana Dell’Anna, Tara Wolfington, Jennifer Reid and Kelly Wolfington Kelley. PHOTO BY MAGGIE HENRY CORCORAN
Can a movie about an Italian-American Catholic saint find a wide audience?
A group of Main Line power players is banking on it.
Two months before the doors of her namesake university in Radnor close forever, a big-budget movie – with a slew of local ties – about the extraordinary life of Francesca Cabrini is opening in multiplexes far and wide.
Tellingly, it’s simply titled: “Cabrini.” Not Saint Cabrini or Mother Cabrini, as she’s often called.
Because this ambitious film – epic in scope and beautifully filmed and acted – doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a Catholic movie, or even a particularly religious one, although popes and archbishops are in pivotal scenes.
No, Cabrini is deliberately opening on March 8, International Women’s Day.
It focuses on one woman’s fight against prejudice and social injustice in the patriarchal corridors of power – at city hall but also in the Catholic Church.
In the film, a determined Francesca Cabrini goes up against Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII (left) and John Lithgow as the mayor of New York (right).
She’s a relentless civic crusader for underdog Italian immigrants in the late 1800s, who, oh yeah, happens to put on a black veil every day.
That was the vision insisted upon by the film’s creator, J. Eustace Wolfington, a Bryn Mawr businessman and devout Catholic.
“There’s no preaching,” Wolfington tells SAVVY. “It’s not a film of any one faith. It’s about her life as an example for everyone across the board. We’ve shown the film to Muslims, to Hindus – everyone loves this film and they love this woman.”
Unlike many films with religious protagonists, this is no small-budget indie. Wolfington raised $50 million – making Cabrini the third most expensive independent film ever made, he says.
The Wolfington team – which includes siblings and several of his 10 children and their spouses who live on the Main Line – assembled a topnotch crew and star-studded cast, including John Lithgow, David Morse and Giancarlo Giannini. Acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli and his 11- year-old daughter sing an original duet in the closing credits.
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(Above) On the film set in Buffalo, NY: Wolfington’s grandsons Patrick Kelley and A.J. Reid as orphans, David Morse (The Green Mile, St. Elsewhere) as Archbishop Michael Corrigan, executive producers Mimi Wolfington Heany and Martie Wolfington Gillin, and Jason Cannon, managing director of Cabrini Asset Management. (Below) Eustace Wolfington at Vatican Palace where his team showed film clips to Pope Francis.
“We spent a lot of money because we wanted a movie that would stand the test of time,” Wolfington explains. “I believe people will look at Cabrini the way they looked at Gone with the Wind and Titanic and it will last a long, long time.”
Wolfington’s affinity for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini – the first American citizen to be canonized and the patron saint of immigrants – started in 1955, where, as an ambitious 23-year-old, he wandered into morning Mass at St. Donato’s parish in Overbrook and learned about its founder. How did a penniless woman manage to open 67 orphanages, schools and hospitals around the globe? She was everything he aspired to be himself: a resourceful, tenacious entrepreneur determined to make a difference. “She was very saintly but all business,” he says. “She had great organizational gifts with no more than a high school education. She’d get the zoning, raise the money, build the building and staff it. It was just amazing and everything ran like clockwork.”
The saint’s work would inspire Wolfington to befriend the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the order founded by Mother Cabrini, and fund a social justice center at Cabrini University. He even put her name on his family foundation: Cabrini Asset Management.
And so, when former Cabrini President Sister Mary Louise Sullivan wanted a film made about the saint, she knew just whom to tap: the deep-pocketed businessman who had adopted the patron saint of immigrants as his personal patroness.
Wolfington insisted screenwriter Rod Barr read all 27 books about the saint and physically follow her footsteps for more than two years before writing a word. The two stayed ten days in the convent in her hometown in Lombardy, Italy, scoured archives at the Vatican, traced her immigration through Ellis Island, and visited her places of ministry in Philadelphia, New York, Scranton, Boston, Chicago and beyond. (She left her mark on the Main Line, too. She took the train multiple times out to St. Katharine’s in Wayne to visit Italian immigrants.)
The movie filmed for nine weeks in Buffalo, NY and ten days in Rome.
“It’s historical and accurate,” says Wolfington. “If you walked on set you’d think you were at a Notre Dame football rally. Everyone, including 1200 extras, was on fire for this woman.” ‘
Indeed, the dogged, selfless spirit of Francesca Cabrini so inspired the film crew that Wolfington had her listed as executive producer and made the film a nonprofit. “No one makes a nickel on this,” he says. “All proceeds will go back to the missionaries and charities she would have supported.”
Wolfington believes the story of a woman who stood up to men in power and fought systemic prejudice against impoverished immigrants is a movie for the ages – and for our time.
“Immigration is a loaded topic,” he allows. “In this broken world, this movie can have an incredible healing effect on everyone. It brings people together. You come to the theater upset about the world and walk out on fire to make things happen.”
Cabrini will open in more than 2,600 theaters across the U.S. this weekend.
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RAZRBAR: Cut-above, community-focused men’s grooming in Wayne and beyond
Wayne barber Eldi Kasta tends to one of his many regulars, Phil Orlando. (At right) 10-year RAZRBAR barber Stephen Romano trims Tredyffrin’s Mike Kissinger.
Technically, RAZRBARs – in Wayne, West Chester, Collegeville and soon, Phoenixville – are barbershops. Hair is cut, faces are shaved, beards are trimmed.
But stop in for a chat with owner Ed Tell and you learn they’re much more.
RAZRBARS are gathering places where men kick back, maybe pour a drink, chat with a neighbor, support a local charity and, oh yeah, get a great haircut or a luxury shave from a truly professional barber.
“Our mantra is unexpected warmth, hospitality and community,” Tell says. “I put every operational decision up to that phrase. I always ask myself: Are we living up to it?”
Sure, the complimentary Cos Amigos tequila is nice, but it’s the all-pro staff that sets RAZRBAR apart.
Instead of the revolving door at a Supercuts or Great Clips, RAZRBAR barbers stay put. “We hire and keep good, experienced people. Not only are they talented at what they do, but they’re also good human beings.”
In Wayne, barber Steve Romano has worked for Tell for a decade, barber Eldi Krasta for five years. RAZRBAR offers staff a better platform for professional growth and compensation than the typical barbershop. “We help them work smarter, not harder,” says Tell.
RAZRBAR also focuses on an “effortless customer experience” with online bookings, loyalty programs, rewards for referrals, and what Tell calls a “thoughtful menu” of services.
About 80 percent of RAZRBAR visits are haircuts ($36 – $45): from classic men’s cuts, gray blending and head shaves to the trendy Travis Kelce fade and the post-COVID shaggy style popular with today’s teens.
Beard services range from simple $20 trims to the Ultimate Exbeardience: wash, condition, blow dry, facial scrub, massage and anti-aging eye mask for $45.
Shaves are either “Classic” ($40) or “Top Shelf” with a mini facial, massage, post cooling, anti-aging mask for $60.
RAZRBAR is a second act for Ed Tell, a Delco native who started the company in his 40s after a career in banking and pharma/life sciences.
“I always loved going to the barber shop with my dad,” says Tell, who lost his father at age 49 when Tell was just 12. “I would see him yuck it up with barbers. They’re memories I cherish.”
During business trips, he would visitd “really cool barbershops … I saw the men’s market evolving into more of an upscale experience.” He also liked that barbering is a recession-proof service that you can’t get online. Hair keeps growing no matter what.
Tell launched the first RAZRBAR at the Providence Town Center in Collegeville in 2012 and expanded to downtown Wayne in 2019 and West Chester in late 2022.
He’s also partnering with Wayne developer Rockwell Custom to bring a RAZRBAR to Phoenix Crossing, a luxury condo complex coming to Bridge St. in Phoenixville.
And in late spring or early summer, RAZRBAR will have a new Wayne address.
With his lease expiring, he’ll close his Lancaster Ave. shop and move to Gateway Shopping Center where he’s planning two more barber chairs and enhanced amenities.
“While we will miss our relationship with [landlord] Stacey Ballard and the local Eadeh team, we see a tremendous opportunity to grow at a power center with ample free parking like Gateway.” The new spot is in a primo location: between Trader Joe’s and Club Champion.
Almost all of Tell’s Wayne clients assure him they’ll happily drive to Gateway.
And why shouldn’t they? RAZRBAR has built a reservoir of good will.
When a benefit was held for electrocuted T/E teen Austin Beltrante, RAZRBAR stepped up as a sponsor.
When a young Upper Merion police officer died suddenly last year when his wife was pregnant with their firstborn, the barber shop hosted a fundraiser for the family.
And if Tell can swing it, RAZRBAR will gladly support clients’ Little League teams and school fundraisers.
“At the end of the day, we’re in the relationship business,” he explains. “The bond clients build with our barbers is special. We see kids at age 8, then see them head off to college or get married. Being part of the community is what we’re all about.”
RAZRBAR, 201 E. Lancaster Ave. Wayne through the spring, then in Gateway Shopping Center in Tredyffrin, is open at 10 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays. Closed Sundays. Book online or call 484-580-6598. Other RAZRBARS are in the Providence Town Center in Collegeville and on E. Gay Street in West Chester.
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Villanova man with one kidney sets out to conquer Kilimanjaro
Brian Clapp visits his son, Noah (Radnor H.S. Class of 2016), at the Penn Medicine Transplant Institute during their recovery from kidney transplant surgery two years ago. “The hope that people like my dad give to people facing end-stage kidney failure can’t be quantified,” a grateful Noah Clapp tells SAVVY.
Radnor dad Brian Clapp is going to new heights – 20,000 feet, in fact – to prove a point: donating a kidney won’t keep you from leading an active, athletic life.
Clapp was 57 when he gave a kidney to his 24-year-old son, Noah, who has Alport Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes kidney failure. At the time of his transplant, Noah was down to 7 percent kidney function.
Within four days of surgery at Penn Medicine, Brian Clapp was up and walking around. Six months later, he ran the Boston Marathon.
Clapp’s next challenge: The One Kidney Climb, ascending Mt. Kilimanjaro with 13 other “kidney donor athletes” this month. If the six-day climb goes as planned, Clapp will reach the summit – and view the sunrise over the Serengeti from the highest point in Africa – on March 14, World Kidney Day.
The climbers want to show the world that being a living kidney donor isn’t debilitating. In fact, you can do amazing things.
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Clapp has a personal interest in spurring living kidney donations. With his new kidney, Noah is “healthy and thriving” in Manayunk and riding his bike to and from work in Philly but that could change. His dad gave him a 57-year-old kidney; he’ll need to replace it one day.
And finding a living kidney donor can be dicey. The average wait time is three to five years and 13 people die every day while they wait. (Kidneys from living donors are optimal because they last 50 percent longer.)
A lifelong athlete, Clapp is ready for the challenge but does fear the altitude sickness that forces half of Kilimanjaro climbers to turn back before the summit. He’s been training with weekday runs and weekend hikes of Mt. Misery and Mt. Joy in Valley Forge Park. Still, it’s impossible to simulate the extreme conditions he’ll face as he nears the summit: subarctic cold and extremely thin air. “Dramatically less oxygen in the air will make the physical exertion extremely difficult,” he says. “But that’s why I’m doing it!”
The Main Line will be rooting for you, Brian.
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Need help now? Check out this cutting-edge clinic for mental-health care – for women, by women
How did this one escape our radar? There’s a comprehensive behavioral health care center for women just minutes from the Main Line.
Women’s Emotional Wellness Center (WEWC) occupies a whole floor of the six-story Women’s Specialty Center, a lovely, boutique-hotel-like hub for holistic healthcare in King of Prussia near the CHOP facility that opened in 2020.
WEWC serves women who need help quickly but aren’t ill enough to check into Bryn Mawr Hospital, which recently doubled the size and scope of its psychiatric unit. (Clearly, Main Line Health knows huge record numbers of women are hurting.)
WEWC offers affordable, accessible services – some in person, some through tele-health – usually without long waits for appointments, including:
- A weekday Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) that includes psychiatry and group and individual psychotherapy for women in crisis.
- A three-days-a-week Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) – either in-person or online.
- The Nest Program: outpatient counseling and psychiatric services to women and their families before, during and after pregnancy or adoption.
- Individual therapy and couples counseling.
- Psychiatric evaluation and medication management.
- Dialectic Behavior Therapy for people with chronic issues.
A group therapy room at WEWC in King of Prussia.
“Making that first phone call to ask for help is so hard,” says WEWC Medical Director, Linda Ryan, MD. “I really want everyone to know how warm and supportive our entire team is.
Prospective patients meet with a clinician to formulate a treatment plan and evaluate insurance.
“You’d be pleasantly surprised by what’s covered,” WEWC Director Leslie Lipson (below) tells SAVVY.
WEWC is growing busier by the day and earning raves.
Lipson says it’s not unusual for patients to tell her things like: “If I’d had this experience 20 years ago, maybe my life would have a been a little less challenging.” Or even “This place saved my life.”
Nice.
Women’s Emotional Wellness Center has two locations: Women’s Specialty Center, 120 Valley Green Lane, King of Prussia, and Main Line Health Newtown Square, 3855 West Chester Pike. Call 888.227-3898.
SAVVY Picks***
News flash: LASIK isn’t for everyone. SMILE is a newer surgical vision fix that’s less invasive and has a shorter recovery time. Only two practices in the Philly area offer it and, lucky us, Corsini Laser Eye Center in Wayne is one of them. Military-trained, board-certified ophthalmologist Jonathan Corsini, MD performs SMILE, LASIK and PRK and will recommend the one that’s right for you. He’s performed SMILE on military pilots during his eight years of service and says it became their go-to option. At Corsini Laser Eye Center, care is personalized and visits are never rushed. Patients even get Dr. Corsini’s cell number. They also get easy online self-scheduling, virtual visits, free consults, same-day surgery, one simple price, and interest-free payment plans. Truly, ditching your glasses and contacts forever has never been easier.
Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday and you know what that means: you’ll be sporting skimpy clothes and swimsuits before you know it! Time to tackle cellulite, love handles, belly rolls and back fat with Cryoskin. No dieting, no needles, your relaxing 28-minute Cryoskin treatment at Strafford Chiropractic & Healing Center will melt away fat, smooth away cellulite and tone and tighten skin. You’ll lose inches and gain confidence. Cryoskin can be targeted to any problem area. Cryoskin facials ease wrinkles without Botox (!), shrink pores and make your complexion glow! Special spring savings on Cryoskin Packages: up to $250 off!!! Call 610-293-1660 today!
Searching for a beachfront home but not prepared to pay Avalon, Stone Harbor or Longport prices? May we suggest a custom, 5-bedroom beauty on an oversized lot in close-to-everything Strathmere? Six decks (!) and floor-to-ceiling windows offer spectacular views on all sides: the ocean, bay, inlet and the Ocean City skyline. You’ll relish the oversized gourmet kitchen, the stone fireplace in the living room, the wet bar in the family room, the huge primary suite with private deck, a three-stop elevator, two-car attached garage plus an extra storage garage just for beach gear. This Jersey Shore trophy home at 400 N. Commonwealth Ave. is so sensational it’s getting a feature on Magnolia TV. Motivated sellers have just cut the price to $4.5M. Contact [email protected] to take a tour.
*SAVVY Picks are shoutouts & promos on behalf of our sponsors. To learn more about becoming a SAVVY Pick, email [email protected].
Wayne development news: Condos clear first hurdle while Hamilton estate zoning hearings begin – again
The developers who want to build a four-story, luxury condo building on the municipal lot near Boyd’s in Wayne are back at the drawing board after Radnor officials attached 17 conditions to their zoning application.
After four nights of public hearings, Radnor commissioners approved CREA Wayne Partners/Concordia Group’s special use application – with these provisos, among others:
- Reduce the number of condos from 52 to 45 units.
- Set the building back farther from Lancaster so the greenspace in front with walkway and trees remains intact.
- Redesign the façade with brick and stone to blend better with existing buildings.
- Pay the township $450K or $10K per unit to fund traffic and pedestrian improvements in the adjacent neighborhood TBD.
- Resurface and stripe the West Ave. lot behind the AT&T building for public use.
- Install a green roof to mitigate storm water runoff and ensure the building is LEED certified.
- Exclude any and all recreational spaces/amenities on the roof.
- Complete studies of sewage, storm water, pedestrian connectivity, traffic, emergency vehicle access and more.
- Consult neighbors throughout the process and provide progress updates.
Even with seven fewer units, the building will remain four stories with below-grade parking, project partner Ken Kearns tells SAVVY.
And it won’t look especially different from the original design except for cosmetic tweaks.
“The design of the building is set,” says Kearns, who sounded unfazed by the township’s conditions. “They’re the result of interactions with neighbors and getting their input. Neighbors drove the process.”
CREA Wayne Partners/Concordia Group’s revised design will still include one-, two- and three-bedroom units priced at $1M to over $2M for penthouses, according to Kearns.
This initial site plan is being revised to reflect fewer units and a smaller footprint.
The conditions reflect neighbors’ concerns about traffic and scale, according to Radnor Commissioner Jack Larkin who represents that area.
“The reduction in density will ensure there are proportionately fewer cars on the road,” Larkin says. “The increased setbacks will preserve the existing garden space that would otherwise have been paved over and diminish the ‘loom’ of the building.”
Don’t expect bulldozers anytime soon. Once it’s tweaked, the project moves to Radnor’s multi-step land-development approval process which can take up to two years.
Meanwhile, Radnor commissioners begin hearings this week on a new conditional use application for the 7.75 acre estate of the late Campbell’s soup heiress, Dodo Hamilton.
The property (outlined in orange, below) sits directly behind Eagle Village Shops, the upscale shopping center she built in the early ’80s.
The new application cuts the number of proposed townhomes from 41 to 38.
The applicant is the same: Haverford Properties, an investor/developer whose principals include Wayne residents Charles Houder and whadayaknow, Dodo’s grandson Sam Hamilton.
(Above) Exteriors of the proposed townhomes off Strafford Ave. and (below) the revised site plan showing three fewer units.
Radnor commissioners two years ago nixed Haverford’s 41-unit plan on grounds it violated the township’s open space and stormwater management requirements.
Will the township hear from Strafford neighbors once again? Bet on it.
A Blue Heron alights in Malvern
Floral designer Krista Jones in her new event and workshop space on King Street. “We’re excited to bring immersive experiences to the Main Line,” she says.
By Anne E. Hill
It took Paoli’s Krista Jones two years to settle on a spot for her new business but when she did: Eureka! What better place to bring people together than a quaint storefront on King Street in Malvern, a town with its own strong sense of community?
Open since early December, The Blue Heron is a whimsical yet cozy venue that celebrates the art of gathering. Think workshops and engagement parties, showers, milestone birthdays, rehearsal dinners, even micro weddings.
The Blue Heron in Malvern, which can accommodate private parties up to 60.
Local foodie favorite ANEU Kitchen is the preferred caterer but you can bring your own food and booze.
Jones’ collection of vintage china, glassware and linens foraged from antique stores, estate sales and Dishfunctional in Frazer, a regular Jones haunt.
Jones’ own floral company, Heritage Gatherings, will gladly handle the flowers.
When it’s not rented for events, The Blue Heron hosts workshops for the community like floral arranging, cookie baking, charcuterie-making and cocktail/mixology classes. As always, the focus is on bonding with friends, family and partners.
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The venue’s name was inspired by great blue herons that nest along the Chester Valley Trail.
“They represent poise, grace and strength but also return to the same colony to raise their young in community,” Jones explains. “We loved that image of … independence nestled within a thriving community,”
For Jones, The Blue Heron’s post-COVID landing was well-timed.
“At the heart of what we do is intentional community,” she says. “People want to make memories together; we value that now more than ever.”
The Blue Heron. 13 East King Street, Malvern (next to Malvern Pizza), is open by appointment. Call 757-373-3156 or visit blueheronmalvern.com.
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Rover can still roam in this part of Radnor – but with new limits
A few of Skunk Hollow’s frequent frolickers.
After three years of township meetings, a group of Radnor dog walkers feared the worst: that their dogs – leashed or unleashed – would be banned from Skunk Hollow Park and Trails.
Skunk Hollow had become a part of their lives. Their dogs needed and loved the exercise – following sniffs, running up trails and swimming in the creek on hot summer days. And as their dogs frolicked, fellow walkers had become friends.
But the Parks and Rec Board had received multiple complaints about dogs jumping on people, leaving muddy paw prints and scaring kids. There were even reports of dogs running loose in and around nearby Willows Mansion. The board felt a response was in order.
After holding a series of public meetings dominated by off-leash advocates, the Board crafted a compromise ordinance that commissioners passed last month: dogs could continue off-leash on weekdays but not after 12 noon on weekends and holidays, presumably when families use the trail most.
Dogs could have their day – just not all day, every day.
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“I’m amazed and grateful that the Parks and Rec Board did such a 180,” says Mandy Mayock, who runs the 110-member Facebook group, Off Leash Friends of Skunk Hollow. “It seems like they really did listen to Radnor dog owners when we expressed …how much the park means to us, our families and our dogs.”
Skunk Hollow dog walker Paula Ball says she’s unaffected by the ordinance because she doesn’t walk her dogs on weekend afternoons. She believes, however, that the ordinance doesn’t address the root problem – people unknowingly walking their dogs at the Willows where dogs – leashed or unleashed – are never allowed. She wants clear signage alerting the public to the possibility of encountering unleashed dogs on the Skunk Hollow Trails and worries that the new ordinance will be tough to enforce, a concern voiced by at least one Radnor commissioner.
Time will tell. Because this is a new ordinance, Radnor Parks and Rec must reassess the situation in a year.
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Finding grace in grief: Trish Phillips creates Full of Grace florals to comfort others
Trish Phillips operates Full of Grace Florals out of Anne Schmitt Florals & Gatherings in Malvern.
When Trish McDonough Phillips lost her beloved husband, Andy, to COVID at age 53 – a tragedy recounted in SAVVY and on 60 Minutes – she thought she was done with flowers.
“I felt doing flowers for a cocktail party or a wedding – I couldn’t relate to them anymore,” says Phillips, a longtime floral designer. “I didn’t feel like I wanted to share in their joy because I felt this was just trivial to me right now.”
She would stay home with her two younger boys, then students at Malvern Prep, and take time to figure out her next step.
Malvern florist Anne Schmitt had offered her a job a few times – even spotted her at Overbrook Golf Club finalizing plans for Andy’s funeral lunch. Still, Phillips stayed firm. She was done.
But even in death, Andy stayed with her, lighting her path. When she chose the flowers for his long-delayed funeral Mass at Villanova’s chapel a year after his passing, she felt a glimmer of purpose, a glimpse at peace.
“I laughed because it looked like a woman had died. I picked peonies, lilacs, and really pretty spring-y flowers. I guess it made me feel happy. It sparked something.”
That spark rekindled her love for flowers and ignited her new specialty: funeral flowers. Instead of dated, ho-hum wreaths and casket sprays that Phillips says are often “afterthoughts,” she creates bespoke works of art from her heart, stunning celebrations of life.
(Left) Although she didn’t arrange them, Phillips chose spring flowers – peonies and viburna – for her husband’s Villanova funeral. (Right) A sympathy wreath she arranged for a Full of Grace client.
And as she carefully assembles blooms for grieving families, she offers a silent prayer. She’d been there.
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Full of Grace Florals – named for her daughter, Grace, and the “Hail Mary” – are arranged at Anne Schmitt Florals in Malvern. Phillips eventually agreed to help Schmitt with a wedding; the two have been partnered ever since.
Phillips and Anne Schmitt arrange blooms for an all-white wedding.
Funeral service flowers, cremation urn arrangements, sympathy planters and gifts for the grieving can all be ordered on the Full of Grace website.
One gift in particular has deep meaning for the Phillips: the “Love and Light Prayer Candle” she created in collaboration with Power Beads by Jen. As the candle burns, a medal of St. Padre Pio, patron saint of healing, is revealed.
A portion of candle sales are donated to A Haven in Exton, a center for young people who’ve lost loved ones, where Trish Phillips is a regular volunteer.
Phillips with the Love & Light Prayer candle she created in her late husband’s honor. When Andy Phillips was hospitalized with COVID and couldn’t have visitors, his family lit candles for him every day. Trish has kept every candle.
The Phillips have a special relationship with Padre Pio.
When Andy was in the first fight for his life, battling cancer at age 30, he claimed to feel an electric jolt when the saint’s venerated glove – then on tour in a South Philly church – was placed on his chest. During Andy’s long hospital stay decades later, his family often visited the Padre Pio shrine near Pottstown. When he passed, they set off balloons there.
Channeling her grief into comforting the living – with special candles, a kind word to grieving children at A Haven, and especially, flowers – has helped Trish Phillips heal.
“When I make these funeral flowers, I think it’s really good for me. Selfishly, it’s helping me. If I can make someone’s final farewell beautiful, that makes me feel good.”
As she creates, she carries Andy with her. She always will.
“I thought I’d wake up one day and say, OK, I feel better. But I’ve learned you never feel better. You learn to deal with it. You keep going.”
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T/E mom launches Simply Returns, a package pickup service
Laura Yancoskie is streamlining returns for Main Line families. “You shop. We return. That’s It,” is her new company’s tagline.
Berwyn mom Laura Yancoskie is too busy to shop in stores. Juggling two jobs and three sons, she knows that pretty much anything her family needs is just a few clicks away: groceries, sneakers, paper towels, sweatshirts.
For an enthusiastic shopper like Yancoskie, buying online is a fun treasure hunt. She scores some great deals and doesn’t even mind the inevitable returns. In fact, she’s turned her frequent return trips into a new side gig: Simply Returns of the Main Line.
“I’m always returning stuff so I figured I might as well return for other people while I’m there because everybody hates to return stuff,” she says.
For $8, Yancoskie will pick up your online-shopping misfires, package them up, and take them to the post office, UPS, Whole Foods, Staples, FedEx, etc. Each additional return is just $4.
For now, Simply Returns serves the western Main Line: Wayne/Radnor, Devon, Berwyn, Paoli and Malvern.
And yes, it’s simple. You choose a date, upload your return label, specify your pickup location, and pay via Venmo or PayPal.
Naturally, the entire transaction happens online, Yancoskie’s happy hunting grounds.
Your chance to pick world-class brains: MLSN’s “Let’s Talk Longevity” Villanova fundraiser
Some of Penn Medicine’s top medical minds – Zeke Emanuel, Jason Karlawish and Ravi Parikh – will share the latest on longevity and extending our “healthspans” at Main Line School Night’s annual fundraiser April 2.
Want the latest on living longer, aging smarter and keeping our brains sharp?
What’s does cutting-edge science tell us about warding off cancer, dementia and chronic disease?
How are AI and technology changing healthcare?
Has medicine become so high tech that only the rich can afford it?
Those hot topics and more will be the focus of “Let’s Talk Longevity,” Main Line School Night’s upcoming spring fundraiser.
On April 2, CBS3 Emmy-winning health reporter Stephanie Stahl will lead a live Q-and-A with three world-class experts from Penn Medicine, then take audience questions.
Panelists include:
Zeke Emanuel, MD, PhD, a world leader in health policy, widely cited oncologist and bioethicist, frequent contributor to the New York Times, CNN, BBC and the Wall Street Journal.
Jason Karlawish, MD, Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center, Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Director of the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the brain, author of a new book about Alzheimer’s.
Ravi Parikh, MD, MPP. Cutting edge health researcher and oncologist, Associate Director of the Program in Augmented and AI at the Penn Center for Cancer Innovation.
Proceeds help the Radnor-based nonprofit, Main Line School Night, continue its unique mission: provide low-cost enriching classes, workshops, talks, trips and tours to thousands of lifelong learners each year.
Full disclosure: Your friendly neighborhood SAVVY editor, Caroline O’Halloran, also serves on the board of MLSN and is chairing this event.
“Let’s Talk Longevity” will be held Tuesday, April 2, 7:30 p.m. at the Inn at Villanova & Conference Center in Radnor. Tickets are $45. Sponsorships include a cocktail party with VIPs and speakers reception before the program. For more info, visit mainlineschoolnight.org.
This and that
More big shoes to fill on Lancaster Ave. in Wayne. Margaret Kuo’s will call it quits March 19. The upscale, traditional Chinese/Japanese restaurant had a 22-year run – a lifetime in restaurant years. Margaret and Warren Kuo presumably will sell the 11,500 sq. ft. building. Their Malvern and Media locations closed after the pandemic but Margaret Kuo’s Kitchen at the Granite Run Promenade will continue under their son’s management.
As we reported last time, Tredyffrin-Easttown School District has spent the last two months doing a deep dive into its out-of-the-box approach to a new elementary school, i.e. buy an office building and covert it. TESD was given 60 days of due diligence before sealing the deal to buy an office building at 1200 Swedesford Rd. for $15.95 million. Well, the 60 days are up. What did the district learn? Is it going through with the deal? Find out at a special public meeting at Conestoga next Wed., March 13 at 7:30 p.m. Should be interesting.
Paoli-based ANEU Kitchens is going national. Sometime between 4 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, Meridith Coyle – Main Line food innovator, market café owner, caterer and “multi-hyphenate” guest on SAVVY’s first podcast – will make her QVC debut. In this first appearance, she’ll sell her signature quiches. Down the line, she’ll hawk scones and other favorites.
And that’s not all Coyle’s got cooking. She’ll christen a 60-person event space in her Paoli strip center next week – former home of Elite Hair Designs, which moved. And a fourth ANEU Kitchen will open in Bryn Mawr this spring. Coyle says she’s excited to return to that part of the Main Line after losing her Rosemont location when the building was sold during COVID. ANEU’s Margate and Ocean City customers had been begging her to open closer to their homes in Lower Merion so when a corner building near Kelly’s at 1149 W. Lancaster Ave. went on the market, she says she jumped on it.
But wait – there’s more. ANEU just launched YEU On-The-Go Bites, the first item her new healthy-foods spinoff, Nutrition Yeu Crave, at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And ANEU is poised to produce its own wine and sell it at all ANEU locations, including her fifth café, set to debut in Valley Forge Park later this year. Fancy that – potent potables in the park. Never a dull moment with Coyle & Co., that’s for sure.
Mouths are watering in Lower Merion. After a devastating fire last spring, Sophie’s BBQ is back in business in Havertown. The Darby Rd. favorite will reopen this Friday, March 8 with Four Birds Distilling pouring the artisan cocktails. Good stuff.
The Main Line has one more day to play at Devon this year. The 2024 Devon Horse & Country Fair will start on the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend instead of Thursday. According to Devon CEO and President Wayne Grafton, spreading the competition across 12 days will help Devon accommodate the ever-increasing number of entries.
And while we’re on Devon … Bring on the berets! The theme for the May 29 Devon Ladies Day Hat Contest is “Parisian Style.” Ooh la la.
Dio mio. Wayne is getting (yet) another Italian restaurant. Fearless Restaurants – owners of White Dog, Rosalie and Autograph – have announced plans to bring a Testa Rossa Italian-American Kitchen to the long-empty Bertucci’s building near Eagle Village in Strafford.
Count on a playful, colorful, casual vibe. Think of Testa Rossa (“redhead”) as Rosalie’s fun and fiery kid sister, says Sidney Grims, who runs Fearless Restaurants with her father, Marty. Rosalie chef Merrick Devine will oversee both kitchens. Fare will be tried-and-true – spaghetti-and-meatballs, pizza and such.
This promises to be a wild few months for the Fearless folks. They’re working furiously to open three new ventures at once: their fifth White Dog Café in Exton, their first Testa Rossa in Glen Mills, and a brand-new ballroom at the Radnor Hotel. Shortly thereafter, they’ll convert Radnor Hotel’s Glenmorgan Grill into Triple Crown Restaurant and build out the old Bertucci’s. Dang, we need a nap just thinking about it.
New details about Villanova’s purchase of Cabrini. It will pay $45 million to retire Cabrini’s debt and spend another $25 million on deferred maintenance and campus improvements, according to the Inquirer. No word yet on Nova’s overall plan for Cabrini’s 112 acre campus – freshmen dorms? Grad-school housing? A degree program TBD? So far, Villanova has only said it will open two centers on Cabrini’s campus to continue the school’s social justice mission: one on immigration and the other on social change. After Cabrini’s final class graduates in May, the campus will remain closed until August of 2026.
Radnor Board of Health and Main Line Health will kick off LBGTQ Health Awareness Week with a free panel presentation on March 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the township building. A father will share his family’s story about raising LGBTQ teens and experts will discuss mental health needs in the LBGTQ community and the unique challenges of trans and non-binary people. Advance registration guarantees you a seat.
Insomnia Cookies is moving into the former 1-(900) Ice Cream space in downtown Ardmore, part of an aggressive 70-store expansion this year. Since its founding by a Penn student in 2003, the warm, late-night cookie delivery company has grown to 260 U.S. stores. Its Bryn Mawr store near Villanova’s campus has been open for 10 years.
We’re sorry to report that Ardmore’s coziest music venue, The Living Room & Cricket Café, won’t be living much longer. Owner Laura Mann regretfully announced her decision to close for good April 27. “It’s been 24/7 for seven years and I really want to write, record, travel and spend more time with loved ones,” Mann tells SAVVY. A rock ‘n roll recording artist and songwriter since she was a teenager, Mann won “Star Search” with a song Robert Hazard wrote for her. “My heart is pulling me towards resuming my musical career,” she says. She has a full roster of shows until closing night including April 26 when she’ll take the Living Room stage one last time with longtime collaborator and friend Dan Navarro.
Another tasty night on tap in Radnor. Taste of the Main Line returns to the Grand Atrium of the Radnor Financial Center Thursday, March 14, thanks to indefatigable Gladwynite Alice Dagit. A benefit for The Emergency Aid of PA Foundation, the night offers savories and sweets from the area’s finest restaurants and steakhouses (Fiore Rosso, At the Table, Amada, Autograph, Blue Elephant, White Dog, Joey Chops and more), a popup beer garden (Will’s and Bill’s Brewery, La Cabra and Conshohocken Brewing Co.), and a Maker’s Mark cocktail competition. Yum. Tickets are $85 and help fund Emergency Aid’s awesome work: issuing grants to nonprofits that help local children and families and awarding college scholarships and mentoring to promising young women.
Remember the APB that went out when a stressed-out Conestoga junior inexplicably left school without a cellphone last February and went missing in Philly? After his safe return, Lukas Metz-Topadas told his mother that a homeless man named Ian had set him straight that night and urges Lou lhim to return home to his loving family which had to be worried sick about him. Lukas’ grateful mom, Alyssa, tracked Ian down to thank him for talking sense into her son and the two have remained in touch. She learned that Ian and his mom had escaped his abusive father years ago and became homeless after a series of bad breaks during COVID – not because of mental illness or addiction. Ian told her his dream was to start a nonprofit that would help homeless people get off the streets. Alyssa Metz-Topadas was so taken with Ian’s life story and so grateful for his help, she started a GoFundMe to provide seed money. Donate at “Helping Ian” GoFundMe.
It’s not a Mare of Easttown sequel but Berwyn screenwriter Brad Ingelsby has another HBO miniseries filming in Delco. Task stars Mark Ruffalo as a complicated crime investigator. His character is “badly damaged but fighting for good,” the star told Deadline. Soooo, he’s a male Mare, right? Ruffalo hasn’t discounted the possibility of a reunion with Kate Winslet’s character. Hear that, HBO? C’mon, make it happen.
Artur Kirsh, aka Hairstylist to the Stars – and mere mortals when he’s at his Bala Cynwyd salon – will dish on his dishy new book, 1,000 Questions Behind the Chair, at Autograph Brasserie in Wayne April 11. Tickets here.
What do Radnor residents want? Plenty. Radnor politicians heard from their constituents last week – more than 500 of them. That’s how many answered a community survey – the first step in drafting a new comprehensive plan for the township. Among the survey’s findings:
- The things folks treasure most: the library, senior center, parks and trails.
- What they want preserved: open space, the character of their neighborhoods and historic structures.
- They worry about over development, increased traffic, stormwater and climate change.
- They’re concerned about builders replacing older, affordable homes with expensive new homes and condos, effectively pricing young families and seniors out of the market.
- They want the downtown business district to thrive, streets to be more pedestrian and bike friendly and more effort put into improving traffic flow and landscaping along Lancaster Ave.
View full list at Radnor2035.com
And finally…
Concerned about gangs burglarizing homes, breaking into cars, picking shoppers pockets and stealing mail? Us too. In the next episode of SAVVY Main Line’s podcast, we chat with Radnor’s police chief about local crime and ways to prevent it. We also bring in At The Table’s chef Alex Hardy to dish on the Main Line dining scene. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and watch your inbox – the new episode will drop any day now.
Thanks for the mention in the article about the Tredyffrin Library! Our name is “The McLean Contributionship”. One “c”. Thanks again.
Wendy McLean
Whoops! Fixed. Our apologies…
Rich content wonderfully presented! Thank you Caroline and Savvy!
Caroline, you led with the right story. Tracy Viola’s “Pretty Wrecked” sounds like a must-read for every Main Line parent. In this terrain of perpetual entitlement, there are scores of youth crying out for help while striving for unrealistic expectations. Drugs and alcohol start out as recreational avenues and morph into ceaseless self-medication. My children saw it among classmates at Conestoga HS, several of whom never made it to graduation. I am certain that many parents may dismiss this raw reveal as too disturbing, but THAT IS WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO DO: MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE.
And spur you to greater awareness and action.
Please extend my congratulations to this brave woman, and thanks to you for this all-too-vital story about a dark underside of our wonderful community.
I ALWAYS appreciate your wise perspective. Yes, Tracy’s memoir is uncomfortably honest, but I feel strongly that her story deserves an audience. Talk about courage!
Thank you, Tracy Viola! Who among us has lived a charmed life – hasn’t experienced hardship, tragedy, misery? When, like Tracy, we begin to share things that have for too long been considered taboo, shameful, or embarassing, we build real relationships, find true community, and create a kinder society.
Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for sharing that.
Can Fearless get more creative??? Honestly another Italian restaurant in Wayne is laughable! Love our town but let’s starts thinking outside the box.
Unless I missed it, I can’t help but notice you did not include the “Galantines” event at Autograph. In case you caught it (ok, you were there), that was horrific. That event was completely over sold, a definite fire hazard and had to be illegal. I want my $75 back.
Great stuff as always! Just thought it might be good to note that Marc Vetri and co haven’t been involved with Fiore Rosso for quite some time now, unfortunately.
Thanks for your comment. The Vetri Restaurant Group still owns the business. One of Fiore Rosso’s problems was that the Main Line thought Marc would have a regular presence there – and he doesn’t. One of his talented former employees – Exec. Chef Jesse Grossman – runs the show. And does a fine job, I might add.
Always good to read about local happenings…
Elite Hair Designs, mentioned in Aneu piece, did not close. They opened nearby in the plaza with CVS and Rita’s Waterice.
Also, there is a great story on NBC News about Devon Elem Fundraiser “Hoops for Hoy.”
Yes, we knew Elite was moving – never said the salon was closing!
Hope to attend the big presentation at Devon Elementary this Friday. An amazing family!
Incredible as always!
I always enjoy this publication. I always read it cover-to-cover the minute it hits my email. Keep up the good work
We’re heartbroken over Margaret Kuo’s.
The amount of “read-worthy” content here is pleasantly overwhelming! I was moved by quite a few stories – all seem to touch our lives in one way or another.
Thank you for all your research you do to present these articles.
We will be following up with your Podcasts, too. The wealth of news, opinions and local updates keep coming. Thank you, Savvy Mainline!