it's what you want to know
Well, whaddayaknow? Marbles is rolling back to Bryn Mawr.
Fifteen years after the Main Line mainstay near the movie theater went dark, it’s being resurrected – same spot, same owners, same tin ceiling.
The building’s been owned all along by local restaurateurs, George, Michel, Joseph Wakim and their sister, Fadia Wakim Abi-Khattar, who also own Aldar Bistro and Murray’s in Bala and Evviva in Narberth.
The Conestoga High School hazing scandal was a big fat, tragic mess. But look at what Penn State and one of its fraternity presidents – a young man from Malvern – are dealing with.
Brendan Young, 21, an avid golfer whom you may have seen play at Chester Valley Golf Club or working at Golf Galaxy in Berwyn, is one of 18 Beta Theta Pi brothers facing criminal charges after a pledge died in their frat house in February.
In all 200 charges were lodged against the Penn State junior.
Another local defendant, Nick Kubera, who graduated from Downingtown H.S. last year, is facing 43.
While all 18 are in hot water, the charges are scalding for Young and some of his frat brothers: involuntary manslaughter and stuff like felony aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and hazing.
Horrific.
You’ll never guess what just blew in to the King of Prussia Mall.
Legitimately hip dining.
We kid you not.
Twice we visited the new Mistral – named for the stiff “mistral’ winds that clobber the coast of south France.
Twice, we were, well, blown away.
While the usual suspects – Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux Café, California Pizza Kitchen – are corporate, aka manufactured for the masses, Mistral is:
Ah, how to describe Paoli’s new Eatnic?
Sure, we could tell you it’s a farm-fresh, morning-til-night BYOB and be done with it.
But there’s more to it than that.
Much more.
Because Eatnic comes from the same fertile brain that 30 years ago spawned the world’s first Saladworks, and with it, the now ubiquitous fast-casual dining category.
And what John Scardapane did with Saladworks – more than 100 franchisees, many millions in sales (before selling in 2015) – he just might do with Eatnic.
And it all will have started here.
In little old Paoli.
Which means this modest eatery on a non-descript stretch of Route 30 is a pretty big deal,
Coffee geeks are bouncing off the walls this week.
And not just from caffeine.
They’re jazzed because the Main Line’s first La Colombe Café has opened.
At last.
The place is a knockout – a hip makeover of the old Bryn Mawr Garage with soaring ceilings, skylights, original brick and handcrafted wood seating.
Industrial chic done right.
The Main Line never really warmed up to Xilantro, its cold, neon vibe better suited to South Beach than Central Wayne.
But its North Wayne successor, the new Goat’s Beard, well, he’s a whole ’nother animal.
Warm. Fuzzy. Friendly.
Upscale but not uppity.
It helps, too, that the guys behind the Goat are local lads Sean Coyle and Mike “Mac” MacCrory, pals since their Malvern Prep days.
The food biz in his blood, Sean handles operations. (His parents had the TexMex mainstay Binni & Flynn’s; his sister, Meridith, owns Aneu Catering and Paoli’s Fresh Ideas Market.)
Mac’s the money guy – commercial real estate exec by day, goat-herder by night.
The two buddies think they’re onto something.
