it's what you want to know
“We’re looking at it from all angles.”
That’s all Philadelphia police will say about their investigation into the stunning death of high-profile Tredyffrin resident Philip Reitnour, whose body was pulled from the Schuylkill last week.
Perhaps best known as the local guy who went on Shark Tank, Reitnour, 58, had reportedly been shot once in the forehead. His corpse was found floating under the Walnut Street Bridge Thursday morning.
What a difference a decade makes.
Hang out with the Tankels’ in their Malvern living room and you’d never know this observant Quaker family was nearly destroyed by drugs.
Teasing and cracking jokes, they clearly love being together. Like the “normal” Main Line family they weren’t – for six harrowing years.
Truly, if walls could talk, the Tankels’ home would scream: of stolen money and pilfered pills, of school expulsions and shouting matches, of multiple car crashes and surprise drug tests, of Visine and baggies, of trust faithfully extended and repeatedly betrayed. All of it fallout from Eric Tankel’s addiction to pot, to pain pills, and ultimately, to heroin.
Six of his close friends died from their addictions.
But Eric, thankfully, is very much with us.
More than 3,000 collectors and car buffs oohed and aahed at a stunning parade of vintage vehicles assembled at the Malvern show grounds Sept. 10. Zipping along in its 21st year, the Radnor Hunt Concours is now internationally recognized as one of the world’s premier automotive shows.
Braving steamy temps, throngs of sarcoma warriors, survivors, their families and friends – 1,300 strong – walked or raced through Wilson Farm Park in Chesterbrook on June 11.
The teams: Identifiable by their custom tees, at least 30 teams turned out for the 5K chip-timed race and one-mile walk, many led by people battling sarcoma on crutches, wheelchairs and with prosthetic limbs.
Gang green: Some 80 family and friends wore green t-shirts in honor of Pat Maher of Devon, who tragically lost a four-year-battle with sarcoma last June at age 47. Pat led his green-shirted team in the first Steps to Cure Sarcoma event two years ago.
The hometown hero host: Conestoga ’06 star and Ewing’s sarcoma survivor Mark Herzlich, 29, who will play his 7th season for the New York Giants this fall.
A TV icon touched down in Paoli this week.
Shhhhhh.
Carol Burnett paid a hush-hush visit to overjoyed folks at Daylesford Crossing senior living Monday, charming one and all.
Nope, she didn’t know a soul there.
Suddenly, the Main Line is soaking in suds.
Sure, we have locally-owned brewpub faves like Ardmore’s Tired Hands, McKenzie Brewhouses in Berwyn and Malvern, newbie La Cabra Brewing and, slithering soon to Bryn Mawr, Tin Lizard.
And yes, we’ve got a few, but not nearly enough, cozy gastro-pubs like The Goat’s Beard and Teresa’s Next Door in Wayne.
And of course, restaurants far and nigh (Biga, Savona et. al.) have been beefing up their beer lists.
No, the BIG news in brews is this: a brand-new law permits PA peeps to take home beer by the bottle.
Holy Heineken!
Just when you thought Urban Outfitters’ deal for the old Waterloo site might be kaput comes wondrous news: Devon Yards is alive and kicking.
Urban and developer Eli Kahn have agreed on a new plan – their fourth, by our count – that nixes both bugaboos: the four-story apartment building and the parking garage.
The revised proposal is strictly retail and restaurants – nothing residential.
Just what the neighbors ordered.
Well, what do you know? We’re getting a Pizzeria Vetri after all.
Just not in Devon. Not yet. And maybe never, the way Devon Yard’s going lately.
Urban Outfitters Inc. is clustering four of its brands near its Urban Outfitters store at the King of Prussia Mall’s Pavilion.
By mid-fall, we’ll get another Anthropologie, a Free People (relocated from the other end of the Court), and yes, that Pizzeria Vetri (with bar & lounge) that we’ve all been pining for. At the mall.
Meanwhile, back in dear Devon, the Yard project is as mired in weeds and thorns as the old Waterloo plot on which it would sit.
Yuck runs amuck: Neighbor vs. neighbor. Little guy vs. “big, bad” developer. Homeowners’ concerns vs. township interests. Threats and counter-threats.
Ugh.
The latest: Red “Promote Easttown: Support Devon Yard” signs dueling with blue “Save Devon” yard signs around town. (And yup, the first homeowner to put up a red sign last week – architect John Toates – says he found it lying in his mulch the next morning – which is exactly what allegedly happened when the blue signs went up a few months ago. Oy.)
First, some seriously scary stuff.
A guy wearing a creepy Halloween mask appeared at the foot of a woman’s bed in her Strafford home (100 block of Crestline Ave.) around 1 a.m. last Saturday, bound her with duct tape, then ransacked the place, taking her car keys, jewelry, radio and ATM card. After the invader threatens her with what looks like a stun gun, the woman gives him her ATM pin code. Creep hops in her car and hits up the Devon Square Wells Fargo ATM machine, where this nightmare-clown photo was snapped.
I’ve long contended that the eastern Main Line was ripe for new Coffee Shops Not Named Starbucks. So naturally, I’m pleased to report that after a string of “soft opening” days in low gear, .Green Engine Coffee Co. is going full throttle in Haverford.
The hip new coffee bar on Haverford Station Road should appeal to commuters, college students and coffee geeks alike.
I dropped by Green Engine this week and liked what I saw: sunny bay windows, a plush couch and fireplace, re-purposed church pews and a most unusual piece of hanging art – an 81 sq. ft. “living wall” of ferns.
