SAVVY MAINLINE

it's what you want to know

New Parkview at Chesterbrook homes easy sell so far but construction’s a downer for ailing center

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Ah, the steep price of beauty. Merchants at the Chesterbrook Shopping Center are paying it in spades this summer.

An unsightly, depressing mess after Genuardi’s closed in 2010, the center these days is even uglier, with chain link fences cutting off precious parking spots and earthmovers assaulting ears and kicking up dust.

But better days – make that, MUCH better days – are ahead.

Under new ownership, the dowdy gal’s going under the knife: shedding tons of excess square footage and getting a long-delayed facelift.

The makeover should help the struggling center keep old customers and make new ones – key among them: new neighbors inhabiting 123 luxury townhomes that will soon engulf her.

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Here’s hoping the just-opened Malvern Buttery churns up new business for King Street

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Quirky coffeeshop? Hip bakery café? Yes and yes but the surprisingly spacious Malvern Buttery is more like your favorite aunt’s enormous eat-in kitchen – assuming she’s a terrific scratch cook, uses state-of-the-art equipment and likes company by the carload. Fresh, pure, local, green, whole – there isn’t a healthy-eating buzzword the Buttery doesn’t embrace. Fruits and veggies come from Lancaster County farms; meats and dairy are grass-fed and organic.

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End of an era at Main Line Health & Fitness; Conestoga teacher wins top U.S. honors

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

After a 40-year run, there’s a new regime doing the heavy lifting at Main Line Health & Fitness.

The area’s original Iron Man, Roger Schwab (pictured above) has sold his Bryn Mawr fitness mainstay to the real estate group that owns The Sporting Club at the Bellevue.

So, naturally, MLH&F is being rebranded as The Sporting Club at the Main Line.

New owner Tim Rubin tells SAVVY that members will likely get reciprocal privileges in Center City at discounted rates. And some of Bellevue’s best instructors will lead special workshops in Bryn Mawr.

Rubin says he’ll take a few months to evaluate the place before he comments on any other changes – although he did hint at a facelift of the monolithic building, which he now owns.

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New casual eats – b.good Wynnewood & MOD Pizza Wayne – plus SAVVY’s first shoutouts

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

B.good, a fast-food joint catering to our better angels, has descended upon the Main Line. Not only is its first restaurant now open in Wynnewood Square, it’s also dispatching this little puppy to serve up free smoothies to Main Line businesses this month. (Pitch a visit to your workplace via [email protected].)

B.good likes to brag A LOT about how its entire menu – house-ground burgers, oven-finished fries, kale and grain bowls, salads, sides, smoothies and shakes – comes from “local farms that support humane, natural and responsible growing.”  Wall murals introduce you to virtuous guys like Farmer Rich from South Jersey.

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Two big “reveals” – The Playground in AC and Duportail House in Chesterbrook

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

It’s show time, folks. The Playground – Gladwyne developer Bart Blatstein’s big-gamble makeover of Caesar’s Pier Shops – officially opens in Atlantic City tonight.

Bart invited hundreds of his besties – me among them (although we hadn’t yet met) – to monkey around in The Playground at a VIP preview last night.

Beachy keen.

With six distinct live music venues under one roof, The Playground’s T Street is like your local multiplex: if you don’t like what’s playing in one spot, mosey on over to the next. (The walls are soundproof!)

Perfect for pre-gaming (and social climbing?) is the central Monkey Bar.

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Beautycounter has the Main Line buzzing – but take away my Retin-A? No way!

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Just when I start giving serious thought to switching from Ban to a “natural deodorant” comes word I should pitch every stinkin’ beauty product in my bathroom.

Oy.

That word comes from Beautycounter, the “safe” products line that just paid the Main Line its first official visit.

About 80 local lovelies showed up at Radnor’s Avenue Kitchen the other night for a taste of Beautycounter culture.

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Guess what’s coming to the old Waterloo Gardens? (No, it’s not Devon Yard – yet)

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

While Easttown Township mulls over Urban Outfitters’ latest plans for Devon Yard, another fashion enterprise is already moving in.

SAVVY Main Line has learned that the area’s biggest designer warehouse sale this side of Lilly Pulitzer will take place in the old Waterloo building this fall – marking the first time the lights will have been turned on since July 2012.

Setting up shop will be the Community Clothes Charity (CCC), a venerable non-profit that sells brand new and barely touched designer duds at super-low prices every October, with proceeds going to designated charities.

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Wayne’s Valley Forge Flowers to sprout another shoot: The Cottage

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Last fall brought us The Barn. Next spring comes The Cottage.

Valley Forge Flowers – that bustling shop-and-sip mecca in Wayne’s Eagle Village Shops – is on the move again.

Barbara King, VFF’s Queen Bee (and I do mean that kindly – “b” as in b-u-s-y) tells SAVVY that VFF is taking over the building that houses The Area Rug (now closed) and The Village Salon (relocating). The new venture, The Cottage, will trade in two old-timey treats: antiques and ice cream.

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Coming soon to a park near you (Valley Forge!) – a hip ’n historic wedding venue

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

I was pedaling to the park the other day and did a double take at this big old historic house on Yellow Springs Road near the covered bridge.

Turns out the place is about to become Party Central.

A popular backdrop for goo-goo-eyed engagement photos, the park is now officially getting in the wedding business, leasing an estate that had fallen into genteel decay to two Phoenixville guys: Robert Ryan Catering and Design and The Party Center.

The 5,000 sq. ft. home and gardens were once home to Philander Chase Knox, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. (Is it bad luck that knots will be tied at old Philander’s place?)

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SAVVY shorts: White Dog unleashed in Haverford; Devon Horse Show reins triumphant

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hot dawg! (Or Haute Dog, perhaps?)

My husband and I chowed down at the new White Dog Café in Haverford Square Saturday night – a top-to-tail overhaul of the former Du Jour Market.

Humanely raised, sustainable and sourced within 50 miles, the grub was doggone good.

But what truly had us panting was the inspired doggie décor.

Call it Marty’s Adventures in WoofWoofland (“Marty” being owner Marty Grims). White Dog Haverford is a whimsical world where kitchen colanders become chandeliers

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