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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.
From Devon Manor to The Royal Devon?
Could be.
Developer Brian O’Neill confirms that he’s now the proud owner of the large and long-in-the-tooth nursing home/rehab complex on Lancaster Ave.
Residents and patients are being relocated, 124 staffers are looking for new jobs, and Devon Manor goes dark next month.
This is prime real estate, folks – 8.6 acres with lots of frontage on Route 30 and a deep lot. And just a skip and a jump from the Devon train station.
So what will O’Neill do with it?
Hey, Whole Foods: Can you build us a new Devon store, too?
We just had a sneak peek tour and tasting at the about-to-open Wynnewood market and, frankly, we were blown away.
The place is blockbuster.
We knew it would be three times bigger than the cramped Whole Foods it’s replacing around the corner.
But we had no idea how much better it would be.
Jaw-dropping, trippy and altogether original, Autograph Brasserie is like nothing the Main Line has ever seen.
And see it you must.
Not since the 2004 debut of Nectar’s big-boy Buddha has a suburban restaurant arrived with such flash and splash.
After a yearlong total makeover, Autograph is now open in the former Peppercorn/georges/Le Mas Perrier space in Wayne’s Eagle Village Shops.
So sign up now, chowhounds; reservations are going fast.
Autograph is the latest head-turner from Main Line-bred restaurateur Marty Grims, the EA/Cornell grad behind White Dog Cafés in Wayne, Haverford and West Philly, and a pack of other places.
While the Dogs are playful romps with man’s best friend, Autograph is an homage to Man himself.
Specifically, to the stars, men and women, who’ve shaped our closets, our iTunes libraries and, yes, our kitchens.
Turning the page on Bryn Mawr, Main Point Books is heading west to Wayne.
Score one for Wayne in the Main Line Downtown Showdown.
Dusty, down-at-the-heels and now officially defunct, Wayne’s old-timey Reader’s Forum will get re-incarnated as Main Point Books in mid-summer.
“I wouldn’t have moved if I hadn’t been offered this specific space,” says bookseller Cathy Fiebach, a Wynnewood mom who will pack up Bryn Mawr after a three-year run and open on North Wayne Ave. the last week of July.
‘Cause Wayne’s got what Bryn Mawr’s still pining for: foot traffic.
“People understand how to park in Wayne and how to walk around town,” she tells SAVVY. “Bryn Mawr doesn’t quite have that worked out.”
