it's what you want to know
Recession? What Recession? No sign of it here, with so many restaurants, retail and building projects taking root this spring.
We begin in downtown Wayne, where a long-time-coming Blue Elephant has finally made her grand entrance.
Frankly, we weren’t going to publish. This coronavirus crisis is too crazy/awful/unwieldy to even begin to unpack. Plus, we weren’t sure how to handle our loyal advertisers, who have enough bills to worry about.
But we’ve been monitoring the Main Line’s New Normal. And while plenty about it stinks, there’s good news worth sharing.
So we’re going ahead. You’ll see our advertisers’ banners and hear some of their corona-coping stories but they won’t be billed. It’s the least we can do.
After a string of hearings sometimes so raucous with foot stomping and chanting that officials asked police to stand sentry, Easttown’s zoning board has – drum roll – ruled on Berwyn Square.
Both sides claim partial victory – although, arguably, the bigger win went to the developers.
But this one’s far from over.
M*A*S*H fans flocked to the Cottage at Valley Forge Flowers to meet Loretta Swit, aka Hot Lips Houlihan.
The star: A longtime artist and animal rights activist, Swit, now 79, came to Wayne June 29 to sign copies of Switheart: The Watercolour Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit. Fetched from New York by a Valley Forge Flowers staffer, Swit was reportedly “lovely” and raved about the antiques and collectibles at the Cottage.
Hatted hopefuls bling it on for “Jewels of Devon” Ladies Day contest
The gathering: Ladies paid $65 in advance, $80 at the door for light bites, live music, “Devontinis” and bubbly, and goody bags that included tickets to a long list of raffle prizes donated by Country Fair vendors. Just over 130 ticketholders picked up paddles to compete in the contest. A bit of a headache in recent years, party crashers were kept out by a barricade of picnic tables and volunteers checking wristbands.
Devon is fired up over DanDan.
It hasn’t officially opened but the new restaurant – at the old Ella’s near the Devon Acme – is already packin’ ’em in.
Just like it does in Center City.
And for good reason.
They live among us, hiding but in plain sight.
They mow our lawns, mind our kids, cook our food, clean our homes.
They are Mexicans, living and working on the Main Line.
Some, of course, work under the table.
Others receive paychecks, have payroll taxes withheld, and file yearly U.S. tax returns.
Just like us.
But in many ways, not like us at all.
Because they are here without papers and have little reason to believe they’ll ever get them.
One such family – living in a rented, single-family home on the western Main Line – asked us to share their story.
They wanted us to put a human face on the immigration crisis.
But, of course, we cannot.
At least, not literally.
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 (Take 2), 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, three-pronged food biz.
The elite health & fitness company likes the Main Line so much, it’s putting not ONE, but TWO of its mega clubs here.
Our first Life Time – a scratch-built, 140,000 sq. ft. whopper with a “resort-like” outdoor pool and waterslides – will debut in June on Swedesford Rd. in Tredyffrin. (Life Time’s calling it King of Prussia, but the map says it’s Wayne, if only by a hair.)
And just announced: our second Life Time will be in Ardmore – an exclusive “diamond” level club (a notch above KOP’s “onyx premier”) in the former Macy’s building, one of two Grand Dames of Suburban Square. (The tall Times building is the other.)
No matter how you voted, you have to feel sickened by the reported assault of a black female student by a group of white male students on Villanova’s campus last week.
Here’s what reportedly went down: The young woman was walking through the SEPTA tunnel around 9 pm Thursday when a group of guys en route to an off-campus formal approached and knocked her down, shouting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” The student’s face and head hit concrete. According to her friend, she was badly shaken, suffered nausea, vomiting and dizziness and was reluctant to report the attack at first.
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