SAVVY MAINLINE

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Dishing on Ardmore’s new Besito, a royal visitor in Malvern & designer duds at Waterloo in Devon

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hola and Bienvenida to Besito! The long-awaited successor to Suburban’s Square’s Plate will make its public debut Monday night.

I checked it out with a few friends at a “pre-opening event” this week, and yes, Besito, “little kiss” in Spanish, is more than ready to plant one on the Main Line.

Like the new Xolo Tacos in Bryn Mawr, Besito aims for a refined, authentic Mexican experience and largely delivers. Thankfully, this not the kind of place that slops the inevitable rice and beans on a ho-hum Tex-Mex “combo” plate and calls itself traditional Mexican.

From aperitivos (starters) to postres (desserts), almost everything we sampled was delicioso.

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Cornerstone, Wayne’s new “interactive” BYOB/market, Greene Street & Fancy Camper debuts & tidbits around town

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Wayne’s new Cornerstone Cheese and Charcuterie may just have the corner on cool.

Apparently, there are places like this all over Europe, Northern California and hip downtowns across the country, but I can’t think of a spot quite like it on the Main Line. The concept – a gourmet shop/BYOB/chef’s table hybrid – taps into the tapas trend and then some.

A jewel-box of a spot at the corner of North Wayne and West Avenues, what Cornerstone lacks in square footage, it more than makes up for in ambition.

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SAVVY Shorts: Papal honor for Berwyn baker, Company C Main Line & the (Jay) Wright Stuff in Wayne

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Talk about your sweet assignments.

While the hordes (me among them – yes, I’m going) jostle for even a glimpse of the Pope on the Parkway this weekend, a Berwyn baker and her family will get up close and personal with the pontiff.

Sweet Jazmine’s chef/owner Kim Cuthbert, her 12-year-old son, Jordan, and her parents, Anna and Jerry Davis, have been tapped to bring up the offertory gifts when Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Basilica on Saturday.

For those not Catholic: The four, all parishioners at St. Isaac Jogues in Chesterbrook, will process up the center aisle carrying the bread, wine and other offerings and will hand them to the Holy Father.

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Celebrity Saturday: Bethenny in Ardmore! Manolo in K of Prussia! & other coming attractions

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Good luck getting around Ardmore Saturday afternoon.

“Real Housewives” star Bethenny Frankel is coming to town to play bartender and – get this – more than 2,600 fans plan to show up, according to the event’s Facebook page. (Yeah, I know – Facebook RSVPs are notoriously unreliable, but still…)

Bethenny will be shaking up Skinnygirl cocktails and pouring samples at the Ardmore Fine Wine and Spirits store on Greenfield Ave. from 3 until 5. (Where everyone plans to park is beyond me.)

The Main Line, inexplicably, has been bonkers for Bethenny for years. Anyone else remember the crazy-long lines at Bryn Mawr’s Skirt when she did a book signing there back in 2009?  (And they weren’t even offering free booze that time.)

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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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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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