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Benefits of Shopping Local Independent local businesses employ an array of products and services that are good arguments for shopping and buying local. PAGE 4
The Shess Family in Cuba
Vol. 23 No. 6 June 2015
Just Desserts! Growing up in Brazoria, Texas, Lisa Bailey — the blonde with the wide-open smile in the photo at right — watched endless episodes of Julia Child on television and loved her visits to her grandmother’s home in Louisiana. She adored the woman’s copper pots and kitchenaid mixer and the refined Southern cuisine that she seemed to prepare so effortlessly. When she was 12, Lisa wrote a poem titled “A Chef Is What I Want To Be.” Nothing more to be said. Lisa’s future was sealed.
Cuba seemed such a far off and complicated adventure, but when North Park residents Tom and Phyllis Shess learned of a legal tour to the forbidden island, it was an opportunity too good to pass up. PAGE 6
Asset-Backed Loans A new source of capital is available and gaining in popularity — assetbacked loans. Personal-asset lenders take personal luxury assets as collateral for a short-term personal or business loan. PAGE 17
That bowl that the grown-up Lisa is holding in the photo is the trophy she received on June 1 for being named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by Dessert Professional Magazine. She’s posing with the nine other winners at the 22nd annual Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America Awards at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. The event featured a walk-around tasting of desserts from some of the most talented chefs in the nation. Lisa is owner (with husband Keegan Gerhard) of the D Bar Restaurant in Hillcrest, which they opened in 2012, four years after establishing the D Bar Desserts in Denver, Colo. The dessert that Lisa prepared for the awards event was Buttermilk Panna cotta. Peaches marinated in Rosemary, honey, lavender and vanilla. Pecan crumble. White Peach sorbet, garnished with white chocolate. It’s a Texas-style peaches and cream. It looks and tastes delicious. “With more and more remarkable talent filling the ranks of dessert professionals, being recognized as one of best has gained a new level of prestige,” noted Dessert Professional Magazine Editor Tish Boyle. “A talented and dedicated pastry chef is an invaluable asset in any
The dessert Lisa Bailey served guests at the awards ceremony.
SEE CHEF, Page 10
Paint Them Grateful Belen Jacot and Jim Childers forge an artistic and life partnership B S T Y USAN AYLOR
Veruca Salt Returns to San Diego at Soda Bar Touring in anticipation of their forthcoming album, Ghost Notes, Chicago-based Veruca Salt returns to San Diego with a show at the Soda Bar on July 8. PAGE 19
Local Postal Customer
Living in San Diego, more specifically, North Park, it’s easy to expect sunshine, friendly people, interesting places to walk to, and inviting venues for a great meal or just a good cup of coffee. We locals are fortunate, but for those who come here from harsher climates and harder circumstances, the lifestyle inspires gratitude. That appreciation is apparent in the words of Belen Jacot and Jim Childers, who
have “forged the artistic and life partnership that is Beans and Greens Studio.” The two met at Claire de Lune Coffee House — love at first sight, as Jim puts it. Belen says she knew from an early age that art would be a focal point of her life. She grew up among art books, galleries and museums and was influenced by her Mexican and Swiss-French immigrant family. SEE ARTISTS, Page 10
Jim Childers at work in a garage converted into a studio.
MARIPOSA HOMEMADE ICE CREAM 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! JUNE 27th • 1-9 PM • 3450 ADAMS AVENUE Live bands playing at Smitty’s Service across the street on Adams Ave. • Rolled back prices to the year 2000!