SAVVY MAINLINE

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Tacos ’til you drop! Pipeline, El Limon and Xolo spicing up Wayne and Bryn Mawr

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Holy Guacamole! Are we having a taco moment or what? By the end of the week, three new taco joints will have opened along a 4-mile stretch of Lancaster Ave. in less than a month. For the owners’ sakes, let’s hope that’s not one tortilla too many.

Riding the taco wave in downtown Wayne is Pipeline Taco. A beachy-keen twist on the traditional Mexican taqueria, Pipeline opened Friday in the former Garden Grove/Sophie’s Café/Cream and Sugar/Brew Ha Ha space on Lancaster Ave. (Clearly, the new owners plan to break the address’ apparent jinx.)

Tacos here are “island-inspired” – literally. The taste-of-the-tropics menu and ultra-casual surfer vibe are a riff on Killer Tacos, a taqueria on Hawaii’s North Shore with a cult-like following.

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Life Time, a gigantic fitness & health “resort” chain (waterslides included!), wants to build in Wayne

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

A country club without golf? The Ritz Carlton of YMCAs? A spa resort minus the palm trees? It’s hard to find a perfect analogy for Life Time Fitness – the “healthy way of life company” – that plans to put one of its mammoth recreational facilities in Wayne.

But be warned, Main Line health clubs, fitness studios, spas and salons: Life Time is known as “a category killer.”

A Minnesota-based company with 117 locations and counting, Life Time wants to build its first Pa. facility at the corner of Swedesford and Old Eagle School roads, across from the Marriott Courtyard and within view of the King of Prussia Wegmans.

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Berwyn mom cries foul over racial profiling of her teen sons, ‘biking while black’ & stopped by police

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

fridaytwins

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Except if you’re Anita Friday or her 15-year-old twins. Anita alleges that her African American sons were victims of racial profiling when they were bicycling near their Berwyn home.

The boys were riding in the Greens of Waynesborough on the afternoon of July 24 when an unidentified woman in a white Jeep SUV followed them, videotaped them and called police.

The woman said the teens – the Friday twins and a white friend – were suspicious because they had “extremely large duffel bags on their backs” and there had been burglaries in the Greens of late.

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Stepping out for sarcoma with Herzlich and Maher, Ardmore’s hot condos, heroin hits Wayne & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

I had one yesterday when Mark and his lovely new bride, Danielle, joined fellow sarcoma warriors, family and friends at a “Steps For a Cure Walk/Run” at Chesterbrook’s Wilson Park.

Mark and my son, Shane, were playgroup pals in their preschool days, so seeing Mark healthy and whole always warms my heart. He stood head and shoulders above his buddies even then; of course, he would grow up to wear a Giant-sized uniform.

Mark told the crowd if he had been diagnosed five years earlier he might not have been standing before them. Still, there’s a long way to go before every warrior with this rare and insidious cancer becomes a survivor, he said.

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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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