LifeStyle NEW JERSEY
SUMMER 2014
Experience the Excitement THE DYNAMIC DUO • TOP CHEFS ATLANTIC CITY THE BEST BEACH BOTTLES • COOL PLACES TO COOL OFF
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“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” —Henry James
THE • VIEW
The Dog Days of Summer
W
hen you’re struggling through the coldest, snowiest and iciest days of winter, it seems like Memorial Day can’t come fast enough. Then once summer rolls around, Labor Day comes so quickly. We are now embroiled in the middle. In what is commonly called “the dog days of summer.” I always thought they were the days when it’s so hot that dogs just lie around panting. Not so, says Wikipedia. “The Romans referred to the dog days as diēs caniculārēs and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the “Dog Star” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). The Dog Days ran from July 24th through August 24th.” The dog days are followed by the “shoulder season,” a euphemism coined by the travel industry when the “off peak” was thought too negative. There’s nothing negative about the shoulder season. It means festivals and apple cider and perfect temperatures. There are plenty of decent beach days left and warm ocean water takes on its “September sparkle.” Watch for it. We can bicycle on the boardwalk with little competition. There is still a plethora of entertainment. Although I adore the summer, fall weekends seem more special. They are a welcomed break as we returned to our scheduled lives. The shoulder season is what we lean on and treasure as we begin the wait for Labor Day. PS: All of us at Lifestyle would like to welcome David Spatz into our family. His first of what we hope will be many columns reviewing and previewing our area’s entertainment scene, debuts on page 24.
Dar la Hendricks Publisher
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LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 3
CONTENTS
SUMMER 2014
Dan Schlossberg visits New England and reveals the best places to cool off. See page 32.
DEPARTMENTS Local Chatter ............................................. 6 The buzz on happenings in and around our area.
Lifestyle Fashion ....................................... 10 Fun rompers and jumpsuits are one-piece perfection.
Health Watch............................................. 16 Read more about Donny and Marie in Lifestyle Entertainment. See page 24.
The art of prejuvenation and healthy skin care.
Health Spotlight......................................... 19
FEATURES The Dynamic Duo............................... 24 Beloved entertainers span the test of time.
An Unsung Legend............................. 28
Advanced Dental Associates puts a smile on your face.
First Person............................................... 20 A sit down with Starbucks Licensee John Betz.
Lifestyle Travel........................................... 32 Cool places to cool off in New England.
Revealing the passion of a local surf pioneer.
Home & Design Spotlight........................... 35
The Ultimate Club...............................44
Lifestyle On Wheels.................................... 36
Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia’s $10 million renovation.
Top Chefs Atlantic City........................ 52 We get personal with four exceptional area chefs.
The masterpieces of Kelly’s All Pro Landscaping.
A glimpse inside the 1958 Cadillac Eldorados.
Money Watch............................................. 39 Keep emotions out of investing.
Lifestyle Legends....................................... 40 The top 10 summer movies.
The Social Scene........................................ 48 Get the picture on the latest events and happenings.
Restaurant Report...................................... 55 Brûlée Catering is now producing events of all sizes.
Molly Golubcow has a one-on-one interview with our choice of the Top 4 Chefs in the area. See page 52. Pictured right is Jose Garces’ creation, Huarache De Costillas.
Best of the Bunch....................................... 56 The best beach bottles.
Dining Gallery............................................ 60 All of the details on the area’s great dining venues.
A Final Word.............................................. 64 If looks could kill. 4
Summer 2014 | LIFESTYLE
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Mercedes-Benz Builds Cars,
We Build Relationships.
COMING SOON! 2015 Mercedes-Benz
GLA
of Atlantic City 7018 Black Horse Pike • West Atlantic City • (609) 645-9000
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LifeStyle NEW JERSEY
MAGAZINE
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Darla Hendricks darlabh2@gmail.com Associate Publisher
Barbara Scarduzzio barbaras1@comcast.net Editor
Bill Henry Vice President of Sales
Kristine Kurilko Advertising Director
Charles Epstein Copy Editor
Alyson Boxman Levine Contributing Writers
Molly Golubcow Sherry Hoffman Alyson Boxman Levine Felicia Lowenstein Niven Marjorie Preston Matt and Tom Reynolds Elaine Rose Robert Sergeant Phillip Silverstone David Spatz Robin Stoloff Travel Editor
Dan Schlossberg Photographers
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NewJersey Lifestyle is published by New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC. The entire contents of New Jersey Lifestyle are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the express written consent of the publisher. New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. New Jersey Lifestyle, LLC reserves the right to edit, rewrite or refuse editorial material and assumes no responsibility for accuracy, errors or omissions. All correspondence should be sent to:
New Jersey Lifestyle One North New York Road, Smithville, NJ 08205 Telephone: 609-404-4611 / Fax: 609-404-4613 info@njlifestyleonline.com www.njlifestyleonline.com 6
Summer 2014 | LIFESTYLE
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The Dr. Jan Astin Mobile Digital Mammography Van
LIFE SAVING SCREENING MAMMOGRAMS ACCESSIBLE TO WOMEN IN SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL NEW JERSEY.
This past spring, Atlantic Medical Imaging (AMI) hit the road with the new Dr. Jan Astin Mobile Digital Mammography Van. With funding from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, RNS Cancer & Heart Fund and the AMI Foundation, the Mobile Digital Mammography Van will offer life saving screening mammograms to women throughout southern and central New Jersey. AMI has been a nationally recognized leader in mammography and breast imaging for many years. Operating the mobile van will enable AMI to extend its outreach efforts further. With scheduled stops throughout Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Monmouth, Ocean and Salem counties, the Mobile Digital Mammography Van will provide screening mammography examinations as well as educating women on the importance of early detection and breast self awareness.
MAKING EARLY DETECTION EASIER
There are many reasons why women might avoid or delay getting a mammogram. The reasons can include everything from lack of insurance, to difficulty taking time away from work or family. The Dr. Jan Astin Digital Mobile Mammography Van is a convenient option that provides women in southeastern New Jersey high quality digital mammography services. The mobile van travels throughout southeastern New Jersey to make mammography more convenient and accessible for women. Thirty minutes is all it takes to participate in this valuable health screening. In addition to featuring state-of-the-art digital mammography equipment, the Dr. Jan Astin Mobile Digital Mammography Van is
fully furnished with a comfortable waiting area and private dressing rooms. Our services meet the high accreditation standards set by the American College of Radiology and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. For women without health insurance, we offer financial support through the Foundation’s Mammography Assistance Program. Our goal is to make mammography screening accessible and affordable for every woman in our region who should receive this important diagnostic test. In addition to the mobile digital mammography van, AMI offers screening mammography examinations in its 8 locations throughout Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth and Ocean counties. For more information, please visit: www.atlanticmedicalimaging.com
TAKE THE NEXT STEP, SCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENT TODAY
Please call (609) 677-XRAY (9729) to find out when the Dr. Jan Astin Mobile Digital Mammography Van will visit your area and to make an appointment. The Dr. Jan Astin Mobile Digital Mammography Van schedule is also available on our website: www.amifoundation.net/mammovan
amifoundation.net
THE DR. JAN ASTIN MOBILE DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY VAN SERVICES THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: ATLANTIC
BURLINGTON
CAMDEN
CAPE MAY
CUMBERLAND GLOUCESTER
MONMOUTH
OCEAN
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New Jersey’s A Peach
Even the harsh winter freeze could not stop NJ peaches from succeeding this season, as these delicious treats are currently being shipped to market. According to the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council, the crop was slow to develop due to a particularly cold winter, but ideal rainfall and sunny weather has meant top-quality fruit. Growers are expecting to sell more peaches to states north of New Jersey, where crops were more severely damaged by the extreme cold. As the fourth largest peach producing state in the U.S., New Jersey has some 80 orchards and, according to the council, the locally-grown peach supply will continue through mid-September.
It’s A Bird, It’s A Seap
lane
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Get ready for seaplane travel as your flight lifts off from the waters of Manhattan for a 45-minute jaunt to Atlantic City International Airport. Known for their laid-back flights to the Bahamas and Florida Keys, Tropic Ocean Airways has begun seaplane service between New York and Atlantic City. Dubbed a hassle-free alternative to the congested highways or slow train travel between New York City and Atlantic City, flights will lift off from the East River at Manhattan’s East 23rd Street seaplane base and will land at the AC International Airport. While relaxing in the air, passengers are treated to champagne and comfy leather seats as they experience spectacular views.
Triathlon Debuts In Atlantic City
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Fitness enthusiasts rejoice as Challenge Family long distance triathlons has selected Atlantic City to host their first 140–mile challenge triathlon in the U.S. Some 1,100 athletes representing 22 countries and 42 states are expected to compete. Competitors are preparing to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon. The Challenge Family is the fastest growing global long distance triathlon series, now with 26 long distance triathlons in 15 countries. Challenge Family events focus on delivering the race of a lifetime to athletes of all ages and abilities. njlifestyleonline.com
Cupcakes Invade The Boardwalk
With their recent surge in popularity, cupcakes have become sinfully mainstream. Caesars Entertainment Executive Pastry Chef Deborah Pellegrino recently opened her own shop, Boardwalk Cupcakes, located in front of Bally’s on the famed Atlantic City boardwalk. Ocean City native Pellegrino, who has been with Caesars Entertainment since 1999, presently bakes for approximately 35 restaurants and oversees a team of some 20 pastry chefs. At Boardwalk Cupcakes, Pellegrino also offers customers delicious cupcake collections, including the Boardwalk Collection which celebrates popular boardwalk offerings — such as a popcorn-flavored cake topped with popcorn flavored buttercream; a cotton candy cake topped with pink cotton candy icing; and a lemon flavored cupcake topped with lemon buttercream. And for the 21 and older crowd, the shop offers alcohol-infused decadent delights, including the Jack and Coke — a chocolate CocaCola cake with Jack Daniels whiskey caramel ganache.
T HE BUZ Z O N HA P P E N IN GS IN A N D AR OU N D OU R A R E A Walking With Ghosts
Searching for some spooky summer fun? Explore the supernatural at Historic Cold Spring Village when they host their second “Paranormal Pursuits” weekend on August 9 - 10, featuring Ghost Walks on the grounds. Staff members will lead guests by lantern light through the shaded, shell-lined paths of the Village, stopping along the way at their restored historic buildings to speak of the mysterious happenings reported and revealed by paranormal investigation teams. Historic Cold Spring Village is a non-profit, open-air living history museum that portrays the daily life of a rural South Jersey community of the Early American period, and features 26 restored historic structures on a 30-acre site. From late June to early September, interpreters and artisans in period clothing preserve the trades, crafts and heritage of “the age of homespun.”
Local Radio Broadcaster Honored
On June 18, Brigantine resident and longtime radio broadcaster Don Williams was inducted into the New Jersey Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Williams, who currently has a morning show on News Talk 1400 WOND, was one of five inductees, including: Jules Plangere Jr., Pat Delsi, Peter Arnow, and Robert McAllan. South Jersey has been waking up to Don Williams for more than 20 years and to further honor Williams, New Jersey Assemblyman Chris Brown arranged for a resolution to recognize the beloved broadcaster. The resolution states, “The strength and success of the State of New Jersey, the vitality of our communities, and the effectiveness of our American society depend, in great measure, upon concerned and dedicated individuals, personified by Don Williams.” Congratulations Don!
Supporting Advocacy Quilting
In early June, the Advocacy Project’s (AP) collection of advocacy quilts moved to the Noyes Museum. Inspired by Bosnian weavers who lost relatives in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, 15 memorial quilts carrying the names of murdered family members were produced, and advocacy quilting was born. In 2008, women from Guatemala produced a quilt which carried the names of family members who had died in the Rio Negro massacres in 1982. Both groups of women had been deeply wounded by war, and both found quilting to be therapeutic. By 2013, most of the communities AP worked with had produced at least one advocacy quilt. They included indigenous women in Belize; people with disability in Uganda; former child laborers in Nepal; and survivors of sexual violence in the Congo. Seventeen AP partner organizations from 12 countries contributed quilts to the Noyes exhibition, which includes the Child Protection Quilt, which protests against the practice of child sacrifice in Uganda. The exhibition will run until September.
Salt Marsh Safari Goes Wild
Exciting wildlife does reside in New Jersey and a trip on a Salt Marsh Safari will certainly prove it. Explore the Cape May Coastal Wetlands Wildlife Management Area aboard the 40 foot Skimmer. Tour one of NJ’s densest populations of nesting Ospreys and see the world’s largest colony of Laughing Gulls as you get an up-close look at salt marsh ecology. Setting sail every day from either Cape May or Stone Harbor, the tour remains on placid inland waters. The informative itinerary includes: natural history, fish, crustaceans, shellfish, marine mammals, plant life, tidal flows, and bird life. njlifestyleonline.com
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Military Comes Back To Air Show
Cape May Stage Welcomes A Classic
Visit the Cape May Stage for the classic play, Blithe Spirit, from August 2 - September 19. Writer Noel Coward brings one of the funniest ghost stories to the stage in his classic, clever comedy filled with eccentric characters and witty dialogue. A smash comedy hit of both the London and Broadway stages, this play introduces fussy novelist Charles Condomine, re-married but haunted (literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, the clever and insistent Elvira who is called up by a visiting “happy medium.” Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Noel Coward (1899-1973) achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays. Many of his works have remained in the regular theatre repertoire.
After a year hiatus, one of the biggest draws of the Atlantic City Air Show returns on August 13 as both the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Army Golden Knights flight teams will be performing in the show. The Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce, the CRDA, and members of the NJ Air National Guard recently announced the return of military participation in the show. Last year, the federal sequester prevented both groups from performing. Currently in its 12th year, the annual air show drew some 400,000 visitors last year, and with the participation of the military, this year’s attendance is expected to double.
Port Of Atlantic City?
Flying to Florida to catch your cruise may be a thing of the past as Atlantic City is looking to become a port for cruise ships in the near future. Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian is seeking to ask the federal government to help establish a port in the northeastern section of the city. Historic Gardner’s Basin — a bayside park on North New Hampshire Avenue and home to the Atlantic City Aquarium — will serve as the hub. According to Guardian, the city plans to develop 22 acres on the site.
Save the Date:
Golf Fore Kids Event
Baseball legend Greg Luzinski will be the guest speaker at the annual Golf Fore Kids event held on September 16 at the Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township to benefit The Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City and The First Tee Drive. Luzinski, commonly known as “The Bull”, played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox. As a member of the Phillies, he won four National League East Division titles and a World Series Championship. The Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City provides the resources for the development of young people, from all backgrounds, to realize their full potential as responsible, caring, adults. The funds generated from this event will support the Boys & Girls Club’s school year program, which was suspended in May due to a financial shortfall. 10
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LIFESTYLE FASHION BY ALYSON BOXMAN LEVINE
One-Piece
Perfection Energize your summer style with a fun romper or stylish jumpsuit and end the season with a fashionable bang
White York Jumpsuit from Alexis
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Rope Tie Jumpsuit from ASOS
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Carenza Romper from JOIE
P
erfectly suited for the shore and smack dab in the current fashion spotlight, jumpsuits and rompers are the must-have trend this season, and Hollywood has certainly stood up and taken notice. In July, actress Cameron Diaz wore a Stella McCartney jumpsuit to the California premiere of her new film Sex Tape. And pop star Rihanna
Striped Romper from Peter Som
and actress Jennifer Garner were both recently spotted out and about in these one-piece stunners. These easy-to-wear timeless garments are comfortable, chic for every occasion and season, and are available in a myriad of styles and fabrics. The perfect items to take with you to the shore, these one-piece outfits can be dressed up or down, and will
take you successfully from day to night. The best aspect of this style is that it embodies effortless all-in-one fashion. No mixing and matching required as you simply grab some of your favorite accessories and you’re ready for the perfect weekend. Adding at least one of these one-piece wonders to your closet is a must. If you chose correctly, it will
Black and White Romper from SUNO
Lisle Jumpsuit from Young Fabulous & Broke
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LIFEST YLE FASHION
easily be one of the most flattering items in your closet. Look no further for your first romper. A playful silhouette in luxe matte silk, the Carenza romper from JOIE features a drawstring drop waist, front slant pockets, a hidden back zip closure, and tonal lace trim. Pair this romper with metallic flats for a stroll on the boardwalk or a wedge sandal for a more dressy look.
Since 2001, JOIE has been one of the most sought after contemporary brands catering to the fashion minded, modern woman. Understatedly chic, JOIE’s designs are inspired by the Southern California lifestyle and its casual, yet sophisticated way of life. The JOIE aesthetic, both modern and timeless, draws influence from vintage creations while successfully maintaining a fresh approach
to fashion. Headquartered in a downtown Los Angeles loft, owner and creative director Serge Azria’s goal is to continue the brand’s success. Looking for a bit of drama? You will certainly be turning heads in this sexy Lisle Jumpsuit from Young Fabulous & Broke. The gathered elastic waist softly defines the relaxed silhouette of this wide-leg jumpsuit with an exaggerated cowl neckline. Ideal for
Trendy Totes
Stroll on the sand in style with one of these chic beach bags
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1. Ideal for any seaside outfit, you will be the envy of all with this fun Lobster Beach Tote from Vineyard Vines, $165. 2. Perfect for the sophisticated jet-setter, this metallic coatedcanvas tote features gleaming leather trim and a water-resistant finish for a polished and practical accessory, Lilly Pulitzer “Resort” Tote, $138. 3. Featuring two leather top handles, this tote is a beautiful basket with crochet overlay, perfect for picnics, markets, and of course, the beach, MAR Y SOL Santorini Raffia & Seagrass Basket Tote, $122. 4. Printed with a beach picture on the front and a bold stripe on the back, this exciting style is finished with saffiano handles and an interior slip pocket, L.K. Bennett English Seaside Canvas Beach Bag, $145. 5. Surf, sand, and this classic bag are all you need for a perfect day at the beach, with its cool nautical stripes and the perfect shade of yellow, Lacoste Summer Holiday Beach Bag, $130. 6. In search of something whimsical? Try this fun see-thru vibrant bag with two pull-up handles and an inside zipper pocket, Lolo Flint Blue Watermelon Seahorse “Madison” Mesh Tote Bag, $70.
• SPORTSWEAR •
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Terra Mar Plaza | Tilton Road | Northfield, NJ | 609-641-2088
in New York City and produced through partnerships with ethically responsible workshops in Kenya and India. Showcase your chic fashion sense with this fun, striped romper from Peter Som for DesigNation. The colorful stripes and breezy, lightweight construction combine for effortless sophistication and endless comfort. This will become your go-to favorite this summer, as it shines alone or paired with classic accessories. Peter Som’s aesthetic of bold sophistication and eclectic elegance brings a fresh point of view to the fashion world. The San Francisco native was inspired by his architect
SHOES
impression on this SUNO romper, and raised strands create a unique, lustrous texture. Featuring on-seam pockets and an exposed back, this romper is a favorite of celebrities. Pair it with heels and you will embody true vintage glamor … and look like you are heading off to the red carpet. SUNO was launched in 2008 by Max Osterweis after he spent more than a decade collecting vintage textiles in Kenya. The overflowing natural resources, talent, and good will in Kenya inspired Osterweis to use his collected fabrics to start a company that treats workers fairly and showcases the country’s artistry, affecting positive social and economic change. The SUNO label is designed
CLOTHING
FOR MEN
Lou Marchiano
any occasion when you want to stand out, yet be comfortable. When you put a creative fashion mind together with a creative film mind, a super fashion brand is born, resulting in Young Fabulous & Broke (YFB). Launched by designer Heidi Cornell and film producer Brad Zions, YFB was conceived for the fresh, hip LA girl who happens to be both fabulous and broke. Cornell draws her inspiration from the who’s who of the party scene, and Zions uses his entrepreneurial skills in creative and innovative endeavors. The collaboration of these two minds is a line that’s fabulously sexy and comfortable. A coated print makes a graphic
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Wear It, Love It, and Live In It! johnny was n nydj n three dots n elliott lauren n white & warren n marc aurel n nally & millie n kinross n autumn cashmere n ronen chen n alison sheri n donna degnan n il bisonte handbags n ag jeans n allen allen n equestrian n dolcezza n zoe couture n
Barbara’s
A Fashion Experience 14 Central Square Linwood • 609.601.0035
BARBARA SPOLSKY REMEMBERED For those of us old enough to remember, you may recall that “The Reader’s Digest” always featured an article entitled; “The Most Unforgettable Person I Met.” Local business owner Barbara Spolsky, who recently passed away, was, in every regard, that “Most Unforgettable Person” to every one of us who experienced the beauty of knowing her or even just meeting her for the first time. Most of us in the community may have met Barbara while shopping in her upscale fashion boutique, Barbara’s in Central Square. We found ourselves returning time and time again, not just for her fashion sense, but just to spend some more time with her. Barbara’s sense of humor, her passion for life and, most of all, her warming smile that started in her soul, left you with the sense that you were in the presence of someone truly special, and not to be forgotten. Anyone who knew Barbara was always amazed at how she always remembered so much about them, from their families, children, dates, and all of those special life changing events. But soon, friends began to realize this was not her memory at work, it was simply the result of someone who sincerely cared and wanted to embrace their lives. With Barbara, life was never about her. Life will never be the same for anyone who knew Barbara, but one thing is certain. We are fortunate to have had her touch our lives. She left us with something we all have in common; that special place in our hearts that remind us we shared the gift of having spent time with a true “angel on earth.” What a treasured and magical experience!
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parents and the laid-back elegance of the Bay Area and today, continues to draw from these early influences as he designs clothes for confidently-elegant women. Known for his signature bold prints, Som’s designs are quirky, yet classic and are regularly featured in fashion publications, including Vogue, W, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. As a result, a generation of stylish celebrities have embraced his collection, including Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson, and Claire Danes. Want to stand out from the crowd? Look no further than this bright Rope Tie Jumpsuit from ASOS. The ultimate in 1970s easy glamour, this vibrant blue jumpsuit features a gathered rope-tie waist, slouch pockets, a v-neckline with thin adjustable straps, and a wide-cut leg. You will feel both confident and happy in this one-piece that will look simply stunning from the moment you slip it on. ASOS is a global online fashion and beauty retailer selling over 65,000 branded and own-label products to fashion-forward fashionistas. Their ever-growing collection of specialist own-label lines include ASOS Curve, ASOS Maternity, ASOS Tall, and ASOS. For that special cocktail event or that particular evening you have been anticipating all summer, this white York Jumpsuit from Alexis is ideal. Featuring a sexy wrap-front bodice and an elasticized waist, all body types will shine in this oh-so-chic white-hot outfit. The brainchild of designer Alexis Barbara, the Alexis label for women is a luxurious clothing line that was born out of Miami, Florida. Influenced by vintage fabrics and the designer’s travels — ranging from Cuba to Italy — this unique collection is designed for those who are delicately sophisticated and truly fashion forward. n
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*See Sales Associate for complete details and qualified models. Only valid at participating Jenn-Air brand retailers in the U.S.A. No substitutions allowed. Customer will receive an instant credit at the register for the retail price of the free appliance model(s) with qualified purchases. Free appliances do not qualify for Fire & Ice promotion. Upgrade available on select models; consumer pays the difference between the retail price of the free appliance and upgraded appliance. All products must be purchased on a single receipt. ARV of Dishwashers, $1,378. ARV of Trash Compactors, $1,149. ARV of Microwaves, $760. ARV of Warming Drawers, $1,399. ARV of Ventilation, $1,802. ARV of Built-In Refrigerator Panels, $1,299. ARV of Undercounter Refrigeration, $1,866. Pro Handles are not included and may be purchased separately. Retailer alone determines the actual resale and advertised price. ®/™ ©2014 Jenn-Air. All rights reserved. To learn more about the entire Jenn-Air brand line, please visit jennair.com. NCP-15816. Printed in the U.S.A. 11/13. Form No. JM14010237S1NCP
HEALTHWATCH
The Skin We’re In The Art of Prejuvenation and Healthy Skin Care THE SKIN WE’RE IN — IT’S THE LARGEST ORGAN of our body and while we don’t give it much thought, with everything our skin does, it really is quite amazing. Our skin is an insulating shield that guards us against damaging sunlight, extreme temperatures, and harmful chemicals. It is also a huge sensor filled with nerves that sends messages to our brain. Yet, we often take our skin for granted and don’t give it the attention it deserves. Good skin care and skin cancer prevention is actually pretty simple, according to plastic surgeon Fred Coville of Cornerstone Plastic Surgery in Linwood. He says there is a new term coined by a dermatologist in California recently called “Prejuvenation” that entails four basic steps — sunscreen, exfoliation, using Tretinoin (Retin-A), an essential stimulator for the skin, and using a neurotoxin such as Botox or Dysport
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for forehead lines and crow’s feet. Of course, avoiding smoking and good nutrition are also extremely important factors in healthy skin. Collagen and elastin are important proteins used throughout our bodies. Collagen gives connective tissue and organs rigidity so that they can function and elastin lets them stretch and return to their original state. In the skin, collagen and elastin are the primary components of the dermis — the layer right beneath the epidermis. They provide the support structure of the skin. According to Dr. Coville, while we can produce collagen throughout our lives, our body stops producing elastin around the age of 28. He says many of his patients come to him just before age 30 because they start to see fine lines and crow’s feet. While it is never too late to begin a good skin care regimen, patients who start early can have healthy skin throughout their lives. The first and most important step is to wear sunscreen. Yes, I know we have all heard that before, but are we using it correctly? Most dermatologists recommend a minimum SPF of at least 30. Dr. Coville says anything higher than 50 SPF contain chemicals that could stain our skin. He also notes that we need a broad-spectrum sunscreen. Sunscreens may be labeled “broad-spectrum” if they protect against both UVA and UVB rays (see sidebar). Be sure your sunscreen contains a metal such as zinc or titanium dioxide. Many of them don’t. According to the Academy of Dermatology, UVB rays are the primary cause of sunburn and cannot penetrate glass. UVA
By ROBIN STOLOFF
rays cause premature aging, wrinkles, and age spots and can pass through window glass. Over exposure to both can cause skin cancer. Sunscreen should be applied EVERY day, even on cloudy days or when indoors most of the day. That is important. If you are only applying sunscreen when you go to the beach, you need to rethink your sunscreen habits. Since UVA rays can penetrate glass, you are not protected when you are driving or when sitting by a window. Sun damage is cumulative. Your skin remembers every ray of sun that has ever touched it. Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours, but let’s face it ladies, when we have our makeup on, we are not going to re-apply our sunscreen. Dr. Coville says he has the perfect option — a face powder that contains sunscreen. It is a great way to protect our skin and keep our makeup fresh. And sunscreen is only one part of the equation. We should also protect ourselves from the sun by wearing a hat, protective clothing, seeking shade, and limiting sun exposure between 10 AM and 4 PM when the rays are the strongest. The next step in good skin care is exfoliation. Exfoliation involves the removal of the oldest dead skin cells on the skin’s outermost surface, and has been used for many years to help maintain healthy skin. Exfoliation be achieved through mechanical means such as exfoliating cleanser or microdermabrasion, a type of sandblasting for the face. It can also be achieved through lasers or chemical means, such as facial peels. For our regular routine, we should exfoliate our skin with a mild exfoliate at least twice a week. These gritty products help us remove dead skin cells. Our skin renews itself about every four to six weeks and exfoliating helps this process. One of the most common complaints Dr. Coville hears from his patients is that their skin is flat, dull, or lifeless. He says the multibillion dollar cosmetics industry has misled women around the planet by selling moisturizers, which actually slow down the exfoliation process. Losing the top layer of skin helps to stimulate the lower layer, which helps skin to look shiny and healthy. Men exfoliate their skin every day by shaving, but women need a little extra help. The third step in the “prejuvenation” approach is Tretinoin (Retin-A, Avita, Renova). It is a derivative of Vitamin A and is the only topical medication that has been proven to improve wrinkles. Dr. Coville calls Tretinoin “mother’s milk for the skin, stimulating skin to heal itself in a myriad of ways.” The effect of increased skin cell turnover can be irritation and flaking.
For this reason, many people stop using Retin-A after a couple of days to weeks, then think that it didn’t work. It is important to realize that Retin-A is very effective for whiteheads and blackheads, but it may take 6-9 weeks to see a noticeable difference. It takes at least six months to see a noticeable difference in wrinkles. The best benefit is seen if Retin-A is used for at least a year. As the fourth part of a “prejuvenation” approach, Dr. Coville recommends a neurotoxin such as Botox or Dysport
FDA Sunscreen Labeling Guidelines at a Glance • •
• • •
• •
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Sunscreens may be labeled “broad-spectrum” if they provide protection against both UVA and UVB radiation according to FDA-sanctioned test methods. Only broad-spectrum sunscreens with an SPF of 15 or higher may state that they help protect against skin cancer and early skin aging if used as directed with other sun protection measures. Broad-spectrum sunscreens with SPFs of 2-14 must display a warning that the product has not been shown to help prevent skin cancer or early skin aging. The terms “sunblock,” “sweatproof” and “waterproof” are no longer allowed on sunscreen labels. Sunscreens may claim to be “water-resistant,” but must specify whether they protect the skin for 40 or 80 minutes of swimming or sweating, based on standard testing. Sunscreens that are not water-resistant must instruct consumers to use a water-resistant sunscreen if swimming or sweating. A company cannot claim that its sunscreen products provide sun protection for more than two hours without submitting test results to prove this. The FDA has proposed a regulation that would require sunscreen products with SPF values higher than 50 to be labeled “SPF 50+.” The FDA is seeking additional data before making a final ruling. The FDA is currently reviewing the effectiveness of sunscreen wipes, powders, towelettes, as well as body washes and shampoo with sunscreen ingredients. No decisions have been made.
—Provided by the Skin Cancer Foundation njlifestyleonline.com
LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 19
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to help reduce some prominent facial wrinkles without surgery. By injecting a small amount into certain facial muscles, they are temporarily weakened and consequently, the wrinkles in the overlying facial skin appear smoother. This prescription medicine can temporarily improve the look of moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows and moderate to severe crow’s feet. While there are many options in the cosmetic surgery industry, the biggest change in the past ten years is advancement of volumizers and fillers. As we age, we lose fat and volume in our face. Dr. Coville says the best way to replace volume in our face is with our own body fat from another area. However, it must be done correctly. If done improperly it can have a lumpy appearance, so Dr. Coville says it is important to go to a reputable plastic surgeon. In addition to our own fat, there are many volume-adding fillers such as Voluma, which lasts about two years. Injectable skin fillers have added new dimensions to the field of cosmetic dermatology, allowing facial rejuvenation and wrinkle treatment without surgery. They are used to increase tissue volume in lips or cheeks and to fill in scars or fine lines around the mouth. While these are effective treatments, surgical options are the best choice for patients who need more extensive treatment. Fillers used in conjunction with surgery offer the best and longest lasting success. Healthy skin starts with the basics. Good skin care and healthy lifestyle choices can help delay the natural aging process and prevent various skin problems. By following some simple steps, we can have a lifetime of radiant, beautiful skin. n Robin Stoloff has been the NBC 40 Health Reporter since 1985. She produces and hosts the award-winning “Health Update” the longestrunning health series in New Jersey. A former body builder and fitness competitor, she is a lifetime fitness enthusiast, teaching fitness classes and promoting health. Her workout video, called Rock Hard with Robin, was shot on the beaches of Atlantic City and combines cardio and weight training. Visit her Facebook page, Reach Out to Robin.
Bright White
HEALTH SPOTLIGHT
by MOLLY GOLUBCOW
Advanced Dental Associates puts a smile on your face ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THAT PEOPLE NOTICE ABOUT you is your smile. Hair, make up, and clothes may give you style, but healthy, white teeth are the best accessory you can wear. At Advanced Dental Associates, Dr. Sean McIntyre and his staff are dedicated to not only helping you look your best, but feeling your best as well — healthy and vibrant inside and out. In addition, what makes Advanced Dental Associates stand out from the crowd is their three-point P.A.L. philosophy: pain-free treatments, affordable treatment, listening to patient cares and needs. As a member of New Jersey Top Dentists, American Academy of Implant Dentistry, Academy of General Dentistry, American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, The International Society of Police Surgeons, and the American Society of Forensic Odontology, Dr. McIntyre combines his highly skilled dental background to the philosophy of caring, really caring for his patients. Dr. McIntyre sums it up, “Our number one priority is to make you feel comfortable.” Pain is Not an Option As South Jersey’s premier minimally invasive dentist, Dr. McIntyre believes strongly that there is no reason for patients to feel pain during dental procedures in this day and age. Because Advanced Dental Associates uses state-of-the art equipment, procedures are performed quickly and precisely. For example, using laser technology to detect cavities before they become larger means cavities can be filled without even having to use anesthesia. Whether oral or periodontal surgery, patients leave the office totally amazed with how easy and pain-free their procedure was for them. In addition to using the latest dental technology and instruments, Advanced Dental Associates offers up-to-date sedation options resulting in pain-free treatment — even for oral surgeries and root canals. Patient Care and Caring for Patients Unfortunately for their teeth and health in general, some people avoid going to the dentist — sometimes for many years. Because Advanced Dental Associates understands the needs and hesitations of patients who may have had an unpleasant dental experience in the past, educating the patient up front in a clear and honest manner is a number one priority. By listening, Dr. McIntyre and his staff strive to understand a patient’s individual needs and address their concerns. Their goal is to show you how easy, pleasant, and pain-free your visit can be. And, you will walk out of the office feeling confident and pleased with your teeth. Whether wisdom teeth extraction or cosmetic options including teeth whitening and veneers, Dr. McIntyre will work with you
until you are comfortable about proceeding with your care. Affordable for Every Wallet Unlike other practices that may try to elongate treatments and therefore costs, Advanced Dental Associates always strives to give you the least invasive and least expensive alternative to obtain your dental goals. According to Dr. McIntyre, “It’s a great time to be a patient. I can do a full mouth reconstruction and cosmetic rehabilitation in as little as 2-4 visits after the initial examination. These are amazing results that used to take 20 or 30 visits years ago.” Even cosmetic options can be affordable at Advanced Dental Associates. For example, Invisalign clear tray braces present an easier and less expensive alternative for adult patients. In addition to Invisalign options, for those who do not want to wait months or years to straighten their teeth using traditional methods, you can now straighten and whiten teeth in one visit by having your teeth wrapped in porcelain. Other options to make dental procedures more affordable include whitening and enamelplasty (re-contouring of the outside of the teeth). This is a fast and easy alternative to get a “movie star” smile with a minimal investment compared to other alternatives. Smile and the World Smiles with You… So, have you been neglecting your teeth for too long? Envious of those pearly white teeth that you thought you could not afford? Ready to look and feel fantastic? If the answer is “yes,” call Advanced Dental Associates to schedule an appointment and discuss your dental needs with Dr. McIntyre. It’s just that easy to put a smile on your face. If you have a dental emergency while visiting the Caribbean, Advanced Dental Associates St. Maarten is there for you. Because Dr. McIntyre travels between the two offices every few weeks, he and several associate dentists are always available at both locations. n Advanced Dental Associates, 98 Route 9, Somers Point, NJ, 609-601-9300 and in St, Maarten, Dannaway Medical Center, Airport Road, Simpson Bay, St. Maarten, NA, 721-545-2911, www.advanceddental1.com. njlifestyleonline.com
LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 21
FIRST PERSON
A Sit Down with Starbucks Licensee John Betz
John Betz
Investing in the community gives this local business owner unexpected rewards by Elaine Rose Photography by Nick Valinote 22
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Above, left, owners John Betz and Pierce Keating. Top right, Starbucks location in Ocean City, NJ. Bottom right photo, from left to right, Lucian Lupu, General Manager of Tropicana Marketplace; Madeline Rivera, General Manager of Tropicana at The Quarter; owner John Betz; Joan Martin, Regional Manager of South Jersey; Adrian Danciu, General Manager of Ocean City; Milagros Breckley, General Manager of Trump Plaza; not available at time of photo, Caroline Stork, General Manager of Margate.
The Starbucks at the corner of 11th Street
andAsbury Avenue in Ocean City is definitely not a carbon copy of the chain’s other stores. The walls are paneled in cedar and covered with historic photos of the beach resort, including one of co-owner John Betz as a 14-month-old visitor. Sofas, ottomans, and a fireplace invite patrons to stay longer than it takes to consume their purchases. When New Jersey Lifestyle arrived on a recent afternoon, Betz was behind the counter, greeting guests with a warm smile. The owner of three Starbucks coffee shops in Atlantic City and one in Margate, Betz, 53, lives in Phoenixville, PA with Anne, his wife of twenty-two years.
They have four children, JB (20), Sean (17), Ryan (15) & Ellie (12). Lifestyle: Where did you grow up? Betz: I grew up in Havertown, PA. I come from seven (children). I had five sisters, four of them are older & one younger brother & sister. We had one bathroom. To this day, I still take my showers at night, because if I wanted to take one in the morning, I’d have to get up at 4 AM in the morning to beat them to it. The toughest time for my family was watching our mom suffer for 9 years with ovarian cancer. My Mom passed away when I was a sophomore in high school. My daughter Ellie is her name sake.
I was born and raised coming to Ocean City in the summer. My dad owned a gas station. He literally worked all the time, and for the summer, he would get us a shore house. He would come down late Saturday night and stay until Monday. When my dad learned I was going to the Ocean City Historical Society (to choose pictures for the store), he said, “You know, when you were fourteen months old, you were on the cover of The Weekly Guide to Ocean City. You should see if they have a copy of that.” And sure enough, they did. Lifestyle: How did you get started in business? Betz: I went to Lycoming College njlifestyleonline.com
LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 23
FIRST PERSON in Williamsport, PA. I graduated and went right to work for MCI Telecommunications. I knew I wanted to be in business for myself. I had a dear friend that had a hot-dog cart at the West Chester court house in PA, and I would run it for him on occasion while in college. Part of the job was picking up pretzels down in South Philly in morning around 7 AM. That was when they were just coming out of the oven. I usually had two of them as my breakfast on my way out to set up the cart. I heard about this place called Auntie Anne’s in Newark, Delaware that was selling pretzels right out of the oven. I ended up bringing back a dozen to my
Monday through Friday, and I worked Saturdays and Sundays. We didn’t see much of each other. Lifestyle: How did you get into Starbucks? Betz: I sponsored a golf outing for the Make A Wish Foundation in 1997 in cooperation with Trump Marina & Tony Saragusa. Larry Mullen was president of Trump Marina at the time. Each foursome got to play with an NFL football player. The food was better than the golf, as there were oysters on the half shell, shrimp cocktail, and caviar on the golf course. As part of the sponsorship, I was allowed to have my pretzels served as well. The pretzels were the biggest hit.
Starbucks. We went through the lengthy process of securing the license and opened the first Starbucks on the Atlantic City boardwalk in 2002 at Trump Plaza. We have since sold all our (eleven) Auntie Anne’s and other outlets and are fully focused on Starbucks. About two years ago, Starbucks asked me to work with them on the healthcare industry. Because of the size of the opportunity, I decided to take on a partner. After an extensive search for the right person, one of my dear friends from high school Pierce Keating, proved to the best choice. Lifestyle: How did you choose Ocean City
“I love everything about Ocean City and have since I was a kid. I knew there was demand for Starbucks and this was definitely an area underserved by the brand.” office. After that, any time I left, my coworkers said, “Don’t forget the pretzels.” I struck up a relationship with Auntie Anne (Beiler) herself & her family. In 1990, my wife and I became one of their first franchisees and we opened up our first store in the Cherry Hill Mall in 1992. When we started with Auntie Anne’s, it was a new concept and it was very difficult to get a business loan. So I stayed in my corporate job until we opened our fourth store. My wife, Anne, really ran this business and learned it from the ground up. Her knowledge and experience became a critical part of our success. Anne would work open to close 24
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At dinner that night, Mullen, who I grew up with, said that Auntie Anne’s would be awesome in a casino environment. So we worked on it, and found a location in the casino in 1998. Donald Trump stayed at the Marina on the weekends and would come down every Saturday night and get a cinnamon-sugar pretzel and a lemonade. I ended up doing an Auntie Anne’s at each of the Trump properties. Trump wanted to do a Starbucks, but because of Casino Control Commission regulations, he couldn’t. They liked how we conducted our food business, and asked if I’d look into becoming a licensee for
for your newest Starbucks? Betz: Well, I love everything about Ocean City and have since I was a kid. I knew there was demand for Starbucks and this was definitely an area underserved by the brand. If you looked at Ocean City, the nearest store was Somers Point or my store in Margate. Pierce and I bought this building and completely renovated it. There’s a four-bedroom condominium upstairs, and then we have almost 3,000 feet of retail space downstairs. I love the design aspect of opening a store. I worked with one of Starbucks’ lead designers in New York, Jill Brunstad, who was born and raised in Cape Cod. Jill is brilliant
and really had a flavor for shore resort towns. We have 19 pieces of art; 13 are historical photos obtained from the Ocean City Historical Society. Lifestyle: What is your business philosophy? Betz: I found out early in my career that, no matter what the brand, you can always add a degree of quality to it. We are totally passionate about the guest experience. We don’t have customers, we have guests. I try to get my team to think about how you would conduct yourself with a guest in your home. It’s how they’re greeted, the product that we deliver and the cleanliness of the store. I call it the “wow factor.” I can teach them to make a cappuccino, but if they don’t have as a part of their foundation the desire to serve, they’re not going to make it at Starbucks. We focus on promoting from within. Most of our managers started out as baristas, and got promoted to that supervisor’s spot. This is not an easy job. I created a bonus plan that ties our management team to profitability. Baristas make tips,
and anyone from shift supervisor to general manager gets a bonus based on sales and other factors. I’ve found you need to motivate your crew emotionally & financially. The leader within the store is our regional manager, Joan Martin. Here is a woman that is as passionate about the guest experience as she is about her team. We are so blessed, because we have a phenomenal group of caring people who take their responsibilities of running this business very seriously. They take it to heart. My wife still runs the office along with my assistant of 20 years, Liz Robertson. Liz understands the critical aspects of the business & manages them to a tee. Lifestyle: What are your future plans? Betz: In partnership with Pierce, we landed an agreement with Atlantic Health Systems in North Jersey. Over the next eighteen months, we will open seven Starbucks-branded stores within their hospital facilities. Also as a part of our partnership, we will be opening a store at the State Museum of New Jersey in Trenton. This will be only the second
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Starbucks location in a museum. Lifestyle: How do you measure success? Betz: My reward is that I have the opportunity to have an impact on people, whether they are from Russia or Bulgaria and are only here for the summer, or they’re a local high school kid. My reward is that person will do something in the future, and either consciously or subconsciously, they will say; “I handled that situation with that guest or that coworker because of what I learned at Betz & Associates.” And it’s already happened. When we had an Auntie Anne’s at the Philadelphia airport in the late nineties, I was out front sampling. This beautiful young lady came up to me, wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase, and greeted me by name. I didn’t recognize her. She said; “I used to work with you at the Cherry Hill Mall store when I was in high school. Now I’m in sales, and a lot of the stuff I do and how I conduct myself in business is what I learned working with you at Auntie Anne’s.” I was in tears by time she was done telling me. n
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LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 25
A recent photo of Donny and Marie Osmond on stage.
The Dynamic Duo Beloved entertainers span the test of time
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heir strict Mormon upbringing would make Donny and Marie Osmond the most unlikely of candidates to engage in a little toilet humor. Remember those preciously cute and talented teens who were 16 and 14 respectively when they sang their way into our hearts in the early to mid-1970s? They’re 56 and 54 today, and each is a grandparent. So they’ve probably grown beyond the days when almost nothing was off-limits when they wanted to prank one another. But there was a time when Donny and Marie loved to pull practical jokes, and one of Marie’s best gotcha moments on her older brother happened in Atlantic City. 26
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It was in 1984, during one of their last performances together before going their separate ways as solo artists for many years. The singing siblings were headlining in the intimate Palace Theater at the former Claridge Hotel & Casino, which is now the non-casino Claridge Hotel. They had opened the show together, as was their custom, before Marie left the stage to let Donny do his solo turn. As she exited stage left, a stage hand reached for her wireless microphone. But Marie wasn’t about to surrender it until she had some fun at her brother’s expense. She went to the stage tech that was mixing the monitor sound and told him to keep her mic hot, but to only feed
LIFESTYLE ENTERTAINMENT by DAVID J. SPATZ
the audio through the two upstage monitors. Although today’s singers usually use ear buds to hear themselves sing, monitors — which are speakers on stage that face the artist — were de rigueur in the mid-1980s. By feeding the audio into Donny’s monitors, only Marie’s brother could hear her microphone. Marie waited for a few minutes for the most opportune moment to pull off her little stunt. Finally, she heard what she was waiting for. Since timing is everything, she went into the small bathroom in the wings, held the microphone inside the toilet just about water level, waited for the absolute perfect moment and … flushed. The familiar sound went through the microphone and came right out of the stage monitors that only her brother could hear. It took every bit of Donny’s concentration to not LOL during his song. “And do you know what song I was singing?” Donny asked as he recalled the incident, even though it was almost 30 years ago. “Yeah, it was ‘Puppy Love.’” Donny and Marie Osmond, who are headlining a twoweek engagement at Caesars Atlantic City through August 21, remembered that incident during a backstage chat at Caesars. Both admitted they loved playing jokes on one another when they were younger. “But we’re grandparents now, so we have to act more mature,” Donny said almost somberly before bursting into laughter. It’s been six years since they were reunited on the live stage after years of working apart. In 2008, they were asked to develop a “Donny & Marie” stage show that would become a residency gig at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. “We thought we’d give it a try, but we didn’t want to make a long-term commitment,” Marie said. “We didn’t know if
it would work, and even if it did work, we didn’t know if we could sustain it long enough to make it (a residency gig).” The show was an instant hit. From the moment it was announced, they sold out every show in the 750-seat showroom — now known as the Donny & Marie Theater — and the casino kept extending their contract. Then last year, Donny Osmond received an honor that will almost guarantee Donny & Marie will see another contract extension: He was named “best singer” in the annual Best of Las Vegas Awards. All finished laughing? Good, because it’s no joke. In its 31st year of picking the best of the best in the desert gaming capital, readers of the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper picked Osmond as the best singer on or off the Strip. And no one was laughing longer and harder than the winner himself. “Can you believe that?” Osmond said between bursts of laughter. “I personally beat Celine Dion, and I’m rubbing it in her face.” The accolade wasn’t a fluke, either. In a town where A-list artists like Dion and Elton John dominate the marquees and there’s a massive Cirque du Soleil production on every corner, the Osmond siblings also won the awards for “best show” and “best all-around performers.” Younger and hipper artists and audience may see Donny and Marie Osmond as old-school and corny, but in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, corny sells. Because Donny Osmond subscribes to the “go big or stay home” theory of show business, the show he and his sister have brought to Atlantic City is the same one they’re doing in Las Vegas. No scaled back or stripped-down version to save on shipping costs to bring the sets, props, the backdrops and their nine-piece band to the boardwalk. “Marie and I worked hard to create and refine the
Because Donny Osmond subscribes to the “go big or stay home” theory of show business, the show he and his sister have brought to Atlantic City is the same one they’re doing in Las Vegas.
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Left, Donny and Marie as teenagers, circa 1974. Below, iconic comedian David Brenner.
variety show and make it as entertaining as possible,” Donny Osmond said. “Anything less than that is not a representation of what the Donny and Marie show is. It’s less than I want to give.” Memories With David Brenner t happened 60 years ago, but the late David Brenner remembered the moment in vivid detail, and he told the story I like it had happened yesterday. Brenner and his west Philadelphia posse had arrived in Atlantic City and checked into the lodging of choice for a bunch of teenaged boys: The Underwood Hotel. For the uninitiated, that’s the polite way of saying they slept under the boardwalk. Brenner, the comedian who held the record for the most appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and who had headlined in virtually every Atlantic City casino, died in March after an illness that had been kept very quiet and out of the media. But before his last Atlantic City casino gig, Brenner and I sat down to tape a TV show. It wasn’t the first time we’d done a show together, and in previous tapings, we tried to focus on comedy. But this time, Brenner was feeling nostalgic. So he kicked around some of his memories about Atlantic City long before he headlined the casino circuit here. Shrinks might call it “free association.” Brenner spent his childhood summers in Atlantic City, and after he hit it big in comedy, he bought his parents a summer home in Ventnor. Although Brenner and his friends would eventually scrape together enough money to share a single room in an Atlantic City boarding house, the “underwood hotel” was their initial lodging of choice because of the cost factor. It was free. 28
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“We would wrap ourselves in newspaper to stay warm, and laying on that cold sand was bad enough,” he recalled. “But then some idiot would kick sand through the cracks of the boardwalk and get it all over you.” But sometimes, a little more than sand would come spilling down from the boards. “Sometimes, someone would drop a quarter, and that would be a whole day’s food,” he said. The whole idea behind hanging out in Atlantic City was to meet girls, of course. The trick was to make the girls think they were young men of means, not a bunch of guys who barely had two nickels to rub together.
Lif estyl e E n ter t a i n m en t So Brenner and his buds developed a system. They may have been sleeping under the boardwalk, but they were going to create the illusion they were staying at one of the best joints in town. “We’d get up in the morning, get dressed, crawl out (from under the boards) and go down to the avenue entrance to the Chelsea Hotel,” he said, and that’s the old Chelsea he’s referring to, not the new one. They’d try and slip unnoticed into the hotel. If they were successful, they used the men’s room to wash up, brush their teeth, comb their hair and then change into something approaching clean clothes. This was an illusion, so timing was critical. “We’d wait until just the right moment and come walking out of the Chelsea Hotel slowly, like we belonged there, and we’re all cleaned up, and people would go ‘Man, look at those guys, they must have money,’” Brenner said, laughing at the memory. Brenner was one of the first acts to play Atlantic City’s first casino when what was then known as Resorts International opened in May 1978. Other members of the Boardwalk show-biz class of ’78 included Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, who opened the casino, Bill Cosby and Don Rickles. Many entertainers were reluctant to play Atlantic City in the beginning, Brenner said. They didn’t know what to expect or whether Atlantic City would measure up to Las Vegas, the casino city where the acts were accustomed to playing and being treated a certain way. “I got a lot of criticism (from other acts) because I was playing Atlantic City,” he recalled. “I said to them that you have to understand that … I spent my whole life (coming to) Atlantic City. …(And) the one thing I know about Atlantic City, New York, and Philadelphia is that’s where the gamblers are. It’s that simple. I knew it would be okay. And it was.” n David Spatz is the Emmy Award-winning host of the entertainment series “Curtain Call” and anchors “The South Jersey Edition,” the region’s only live midday radio news program on News Talk 1400 WOND.
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An Unsung Legend Revealing the Passion of a Local Surf Pioneer by ROBERT SERGEANT
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Virginia Beach Surf Group Trip, circa 1960
Local surfer Glenn Klotz, circa 1960 30
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urfing as a passion is little different now than it has ever been. I’m sure native Hawaiians greeted the dawn with the excitement and expectation of the young kids coming to the sport today. Surfing as an industry, however, has come a long way in a short time. It has moved with speed, while the populous of surfing has tried to contain it and keep it true to its rebel roots. The lucky have moved with it, making a name and a living while staying true to the lifestyle. Not all were able to do so, and were swept aside as each swell washed them further down the coast of our collective attention. We are now seeing tributes to the legends of the sport, but what about the pioneers that, for circumstance, became footnotes in history? Every beach town has one or two, the unsung participants of the sport in its infancy. They were part of the foundation and helped carry the sport to what it has become today. We have our own local legends from New Jersey, but as the incredible surf movie Dark Fall by Alex Dephillipo illustrates, it is tough to come from NJ and get recognition in the surfing industry. So, “unsung” is a fitting description of persons who are generally unknown in the surfing industry. This article is a tribute to one of the blocks in the foundation. He was far from the Southern California mainstream, but carried the passion and passed it on to generations. Ron Curcio, a mainstay of southern
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NJ surfing, had the passion. And over nearly 60 years, surfing has been a passion that he can’t leave behind. Currently in his eighties, Ron resides in Somers Point, driven from the beach in Longport by Hurricane Sandy. He still gets to local surf contests to watch his son Ronnie compete. Ron didn’t start on the beach. In his youth, he was a sportsman who thought his future lay in football or baseball. He grew up in West Philadelphia and after eighth grade moved to the Atlantic City area. While at Atlantic City High School, Ron was quite an athlete. He lettered in four sports, including both football and baseball. He went on to Admiral Farragut Military Academy for one year until he received a scholarship to Tulane to play baseball. While at Tulane, he went to visit family at a hotel in Palm Beach Florida and that was where the story of Ron’s life was to be written. It was in Florida that Ron saw his first surfboard, owned by a big Hawaiian guy who worked as a beach boy at a Florida beachfront hotel. The beach boy told him about Surfer Magazine. It was about that time that surfing was beginning to get a little press, such an article also appeared in Popular Mechanics on how to build your own surfboard. Ron was inspired. Soon Ron was back in Brigantine, where he got the materials and instructions from Dave Sweet to build a surfboard. He always thought surfboards were a thing of beauty and was challenged to build one. His first attempt failed and the board was broken in half and put in the trash, only to wind up the next day in the hands
of some local kids who he then saw playing with the pieces in the surf. Ron was eventually successful, building the initial Curcio Surfboards and opening a surf shop with his long-time friend Jim “Jittery” Bury. Jim was an industrial designer with Rohm and Haas, looking for new ways to use Rohm and Haas materials. Ron was the surf entrepreneur. They were a team, collaborating, designing, and bringing the sport to a new generation of surfers in South Jersey with a number of early innovations developed by Ron and Jim. Early in the history of the business, Ron began with the “private label” concept of surfboards. Ron designed boards that fit the conditions of local surfing, but outsourced the manufacturing to Hobie Alter. That was pretty innovative in itself, but just the first step. Boards shaped to Ron’s design and specs were glassed, shipped to NJ where they were glossed, and then fitted with fins. The fins too were part of Curcio Surfboard innovation. Years before the advent of fins with the backs cut out, Ron was fitting his boards with the distinctive Curcio Shark Fin. Ron experimented and came to the conclusion that these fins were sufficiently stable, yet faster turning than the standard full size fins of the day. Jim “Jittery” was looking for new ways to use plexiglass and so another new innovation was born. The Curcio Surfboards were available with a selection of colors of clear plexiglass fins. Nowhere in the industry could you find another surf manufacturer with such a fin. They were beautiful and distinctive. It was a trademark for Ron’s
boards, you knew from a mile away that this was a Curcio Surfboard. In addition to the unique shape and “private label” of Curcio Surfboards, Ron and Jim had two more great innovations that were way ahead of their time. They came up with a concept for the first modern hollow surfboard built from Rohm and Haas Kydex, a type of plexiglass developed to make indestructible hubcaps for cars. Jim was able to get Rohm and Haas to finance the mold based on Ron’s shape and soon Ron introduced the first prototype. It was beautiful, perfectly clear with a clear plexiglass Curcio Shark Fin. You could see through it like a glass-bottom tour boat. The Curcio hollow plexiglass board was another first, it was a virtually unbreakable surfboard. Ron recalls demonstrating this to both Hobie Alter and Dewey Weber, famous surfboard
Mac Latz’s vintage Curcio Surfboard with Knife and Fork Inn insignia
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shapers and manufacturers in California by throwing boards to the concrete from the roof of the surf shop. While impressed, they preferred the short life span of the foam surfboard and told Ron not to build it. As the market developed, Curcio Surfboards fell to the wayside. Curcio Surf Shop began to respond to market pressures. Surfer Magazine was growing in popularity on the east coast as a bimonthly and soon Ron was a dealer for Greg Noll and Hobie. Curcio Surfboards were no longer manufactured. The Curcio design and shape, the glass Shark Fin, the hollow unbreakable board were all gone. You can still see some old classic Curcio boards around. There is Mac Latz’s old board with the distinctive Knife and Fork Inn insignia at the Surf Shack in Ventnor, and another at the NJ Surf Museum in Tuckerton. After Greg Noll, there was Bing, followed by Challenger Eastern Surfboards by Carl “Tinker” West. A new era had begun and Ron continued on. His innovations may not have caught on, but he still had the shop and the Curcio Surf Team. To many of us, that is where the real story is. The number of people Ron brought to the sport where the passion was nurtured, from the first two kids that took two halves the first surfboard construction project to the beach, to the sons and grandsons of local surfers. In the late 1960s, Ron took a bunch of free-spirited teenagers from a diverse background and got them together to form one of the strongest surf teams in the Northeast. He was a guiding voice to many on the team. His concern of keeping kids out of the growing drug culture is one of his strongest legacies today. The South Jersey surf community owes a great deal to Ron Curcio, first and foremost to recognize his contribution as one of the many unsung legends of surfing. n
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LifeStyle Travel
By DAN SCHLOSSBERG
The Final Four
Cool places to cool off in New England
Cliff House Resort & Spa, between York and Ogunquit on Bald Head Cliff on Maine’s southeast coast, offers 21st century amenities in a 19th century structure. (Photo credit: Cliff House Resort & Spa)
During the dog days of summer, nothing beats the natural
air-conditioning of New England. After extensive scouting of the six-state region, four resorts seem especially appealing — not only because of their amenities but because of their location. All are within a six-hour drive of South Jersey. The final four are full of variety: an urban hotel tucked into the center of the region’s biggest city, a sprawling oceanfront resort, an enormous mansion perched on the rocky shores of southern Maine, and a mountain inn with its own theme song. Three of the four have stood the test of time for more than a century. Compared to its downtown Boston neighbors, the Hotel Ames is a newbie. Built by the Ames Shovel Company in 1893, it was once the tallest building in town. At 13 stories, the Ames still towers over the Old State House, site of the Boston Massacre that preceded the American Revolution. Because it was built from stone, with no steel in its structure, the Ames was built to last. Today, it has 114 rooms in 13 different configurations — all of them redone within the last four years. That puts the Ames exterior in the 19th century, but the interior in the 21st. Despite its presence in the financial district, just footsteps from Faneuil Hall and Quincy Marketplace, the Ames prides itself on giving guests quiet rooms. The only street noise they hear is the occasional drumbeat of street corner musicians. A short walk from 34
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Boston Common and the harbor, the Ames also has proximity to several “T” lines — short of Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. There’s no better way to get to Fenway Park, which marked its centennial in 2012, than taking the Green Line. Anyone interested in meeting the Codfather, who drives an amphibious vehicle for Boston Duck Tours, can get directions to the Prudential Center point of origin. Another worthwhile diversion is “Foods of the Freedom Trail,” which samples Boston baked beans, Boston cream pie, and other goodies while blending local history and cuisine. Cameras are a must, especially when a blue sky frames the gold dome of the Massachusetts state capital adjacent to the Common. Swan boats — once doomed for extinction — still ply the waters of the pretty park. Although the Chatham Bars Inn is also in the Bay State, its ambience is decidedly different. Blessed with a beach that stretches for a quarter-mile, the property’s buildings are laid out in a horizontal grid. It has several food options, ranging from a spectacular breakfast buffet to evening clambakes on the beach, and too many recreational choices to recite here. Suffice to say that the 100-year-old resort offers everything from bicycles to paddle-boats, with swimming, sunning, and sightseeing cruises in between. Founded as a hunting lodge for wealthy Bostonians, Chatham
Photos by DAN SCHLOSSBERG Bars Inn evolved into a five-star resort with the stately but determined grace of a Cape Cod landmark. Although it marked its centennial June 6, the resort plans to celebrate all year. The list of special events includes an ice cream social, a Roaring ‘20s costume ball, a speakeasy, and occasional room rates of $191.40 (the resort was founded in 1914, the same year Babe Ruth broke into baseball and the Boston Braves performed their worst-to-first “miracle”). Except for weekends, when traffic chokes the Cape, Boston is only an hour away by car. Predictably, a Baseball & Beer Dinner earlier this season drew a huge throng eager to see the Red Sox World Championship trophies from 2004, 2007, and 2013. Visitors to Chatham Bars Inn love to walk — left out the front door to visit the town pier, with its daily lobster catch arriving by mid-afternoon, or right, to see the Chatham lighthouse. The town of Chatham, a tiny spec on the map of the Cape, is even closer. Its shops, stores, bistros, and cafes offer a pleasant diversion, especially when occasional fog creeps over the Cape. From top to A $100 million renovation, just completed, provides plenty bottom: The goldof indoor alternatives. There’s a handsome and upscale spa, domed capitol of a spacious lounge that resembles a British gentleman’s club, Massachusetts sits and several restaurants, from casual to fine dining. ABC atop a hill adjacent to News anchor Diane Sawyer once spent a summer there as a Boston Common and waitress. There’s also a shuttle to the pier, the lighthouse, or is on the Freedom such restaurants as popular-with-locals Red Nun (hint: the fishermen are boisterous but the lobster rolls compensate for Trail. the lack of quiet). Back on the mainland but still on the coast, the Cliff Founded in 1912, House Resort & Spa couldn’t have been called anything else. Fenway Park, home of It sits atop Bald Head Cliff in Cape Neddick, Maine, on the the Boston Red Sox, rocky southern coast between York and Ogunquit. The view’s is the oldest stadium the thing at Cliff House, which offers sweeping ocean vistas in the major leagues. from every room. The spa rooms, added just a few years ago, are more spacious, with room for wood-burning fireplaces that Plush spa rooms are make perfect companions in the chill of the Maine evening. the newest addition to They also feature private balconies, premium bath amenities, the Chatham Bars Inn, and proximity to both the spa and its infinity pool. It’s a Cape Cod institution impossible to tell where the pool ends and the ocean begins. since its inception 100 Though built in 1866, just a year after the end of the Civil War, the Cliff House caters to a modern clientele with every years ago. electronic amenity. But most guests prefer to linger over dinner, enjoying the panoramic ocean vista, rather than dash Spa, sea, sun, back to their devices. and infinity pool Cliff House is close to many Maine attractions, including delight guests at Cliff summer stock theater at Ogunquit Playhouse, the scenic House Resort & Spa footpaths of Marginal Way at Perkins Cove, and the York (Credit:Cliff House beaches, not to mention the Golden Rod candy emporium that Resort & Spa). has been churning out salt water taffy since 1896. Marginal Way, one of New England’s only paved shoreline footpaths, With the Green stretches more than a mile from the compact port of Perkins Mountains as a Cove to Ogunquit Beach. Also not far away is Kennebunkport, home to the Bush backdrop, the familyfamily estate at Walker’s Point and a restaurant called Mabel’s run Wilburton Inn Lobster Claw that the Bushes and other visiting celebrities of Manchester, VT favor. Artists with easels line up daily to paint the seascapes features music, shows, near the Bush enclave. and organic produce, Like the Cliff House, which was operated by one family plus proximity to for more than a century, the Wilburton Inn is owned and some of the finest operated by the third generation of the Levis family. The 30outlet shopping in acre Vermont Victorian stands on a hill in Manchester, also New England. (Photo known as a mecca for shopping outlets. The largest private credit: Wilburton Inn) estate in Manchester Village, it comprises the main mansion, various villas and cottages, a five-room reunion house, and something called The Museum of the Creative Process. The njlifestyleonline.com
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Li fe sty l e Tr avel
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Finding The Perfect Seat Bruce’s Tickets is owned and operated by Bruce Ross, who has been in the ticket industry for 40 years. It all began when he was 12 years old and had a Phillies season ticket plan. Raised in Philly, he and his friend Joey would take the subway to see every Sunday game. The next year, young Bruce upgraded his tickets to a better location and, hence, a ticket broker was born. Over the past 40 years, Bruce has amassed an incredible amount of Philadelphia sporting events seats, as well as concert season tickets. Currently a Linwood resident, Bruce is now a major player in the wholesale online ticket industry. Check out his special access to front row center seats for all Susquehanna Bank shows, as well as private luxury suites for every event at the Wells Fargo Center. Visit brucestickets.com.
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outdoor museum includes sculptural trails, a Sanctuary of Art and Science, and the Gorski Retrospective. The pool and tennis court are busy when the weather cooperates. Guests run the gamut from families to couples seeking romantic getaways. Because the Green Mountains setting is so spectacular, many guests plan weddings there. The inn, which is open year-round, also hosts small conferences. Access is easy from Historic Route 7A, not far from Mount Snow, Bennington, and Brattleboro. “The Wilburton is a magical place, unlike any other property,” says guitar-playing general manager Melissa Levis. “It is dedicated to family, the arts, the mountains, and my brother’s organic food and artesian breads.” Virtually all of the produce used in the main dining room is grown on at Earth Sky Time Community Farm, operated by Oliver Levis, oldest son of the innkeepers, and his wife Bonnie. For guests who yearn to leave the inviting Wilburton campus, the best local restaurant is called The Perfect Wife, not to be confused with the CBS-TV show of a similar name. Locals, who call the place ‘The Wife,’ can choose from fine dining downstairs to rowdy tavern upstairs. Originally a grand country estate built in 1902, the Wilburton now holds 75 overnight guests or 100 for dinner. Special events include bi-annual murder mystery weekends, monthly cultural programming, and “Creativity for Self Discovery” seminars created and run by the GM’s father Albert, a noted therapist. Her brother also does midweek bread-baking workshops. According to Levis, “What makes our inn special are the theatrical events that were tied to my mom’s sister Wendy Wasserstein, the Broadway playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner. My mom was the model for Madeline Kahn’s Tony award-winning role Gorgeous in The Sisters Rosenswieg. Because of the family’s Broadway ties, working actors often visit. During a weekend in January, New York pros staged an autobiographical musical called Inn Trouble that Levis wrote for her NYU Master of Fine Arts thesis. For further information, see Ames Boston Hotel, 1 Court Street, Boston, MA 02108 (Tel. 617-979-8100, ames@amesbostonhotel.com); Chatham Bars Inn, Chatham, MA, www. chathambarsinn.com); The Cliff House, 591 Shore Road, Cape Neddick, ME 03907 (Tel. 207361-1000, www.cliffhousemaine.com); and Wilburton Inn, Route 7A, Manchester Village, VT (Tel. 800-648-4944, www.wilburton.com). n Dan Schlossberg is travel editor of New Jersey Lifestyle and Sirius XM Radio’s Maggie Linton Show. He is also host and executive producer of Travel Itch Radio and a contributor to TravelChannel.com.
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HOME & DESIGN SPOTLIGHT
THE CREATIVE TOUCH THE ARTISTIC MASTERPIECES OF KELLY’S ALL PRO LANDSCAPING By Felicia Lowenstein Niven Photo by Eric Weeks
LANDSCAPING IS AN ART FORM. NO ONE knows that better than Don Kelly, owner and founder of Kelly’s All Pro Landscaping, LLC. For the last 18 years, he’s been turning the blank canvas of Mother Nature into artistic masterpieces — and that’s no exaggeration. Just one peek at some of his creative designs, and you’ll realize that Kelly is no ordinary landscaper. “We continually take on larger, more creative projects,” he said. “We just completed two solid rain curtains for a homeowner in Margate. His front porch overlooked a very busy intersection, and he wanted to create some privacy. Now he can hit a remote control and it rains along the perimeter of the porch, and also along his top deck. It’s completely private and incorporates the Owner Don Kelly senses, hearing and seeing the cascading water, feeling the cool mist. We also lit the whole sidewalk, so when you walk by at night, it’s just beautiful.” That’s just one example of what has differentiated Kelly’s All Pro Landscaping since the business began in 1996. Don Kelly spent a lifetime preparing for this role, starting with mowing lawns at age 11. He trained professionally for eight years at a landscaping company until he was ready to launch his own. The results have been extraordinary. “I never dreamed that I would ever be this successful,” Kelly noted, humbly. But anyone who spends a day with him soon realizes the secret to his success. He never stops. “I am truly driven,” he acknowledged. “My mind is constantly spinning with ideas. I’m up at 3 AM doing paperwork, setting up crews. I never stop working.” Neither do his crews. In fact, you’ll see Kelly’s trucks on the road on holidays. They work seven days a week, rain or shine. “I actually get a lot of business on holidays,” he noted. “Homeowners out weeding their garden will see our trucks go by, and think, ‘wow, they’re out on a holiday; that’s a company that really cares.’” The crews serve hundreds of beachfront homes in Longport, Ventnor, and Margate, and others throughout Atlantic and Cape May Counties. They’ve also worked on large estates in Queens, N.Y., Plymouth Meeting, PA, West Chester, PA, and Cherry Hill, NJ. His business is largely built by word-of-mouth. “My clients like what I do for their shore homes and so they’ll bring me in for their year-round landscaping needs or special projects,” explained Kelly. Because Kelly’s All Pro Landscaping doesn’t just do landscapes. They offer paving and stonework, lighting and nearly every home exterior
service you might imagine. “The advantage is that our customers can make one phone call, and we get it done. We’re the general contractor if you want an in-ground pool, pergola or gazebo, outdoor kitchen, gazebos, waterfall or fountain, anything that’s custom, we’ll create it.” Kelly’s also was the first company in the area to introduce Christmas lighting and maintains a steady following of satisfied customers. It’s all about being creative.” Toward that end, Don Kelly himself is the only person that gives estimates. “First, it’s a golden opportunity to meet and get to know my customers,” he said. “But also, I like to offer creative suggestions that will take their space to the next level.” What differentiates his business, in addition to that creative approach, is that they “do it right,” according to Kelly. “I was working on a house in Longport,” he said. “She just had the outside of her house done in pavers. She called me in, and I suggested moving her air conditioners. She was shocked that that simple solution hadn’t occurred to the paver company. She said, ‘You mean, I just spent $40,000 on all of this to work around the air conditioners when I could have just had them moved?’ Yes, she did. My feeling is, you could do it right or you could do it twice. I’m going to give you ideas you never thought about.” Kelly does more than just “do it right” for his customers. He donates landscaping for charitable causes, and most recently worked with Margate restaurateur Cookie Till to create vegetable gardens by Revel for Atlantic City residents. “Giving back to the community is so important,” he said. “I have been where they are now, and having the support makes all the difference.” He credits his tremendous family and his dedicated staff for all that he’s been able to accomplish. “They’re my support system. I feel blessed. And the good news is that I’m not done. I’m just getting started.” n njlifestyleonline.com
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LifeStyle On Wheels
OLD-SCHOOL BRAGGING RIGHTS
A glimpse inside the gilded history of the 1958 Cadillac Eldorados BY ELAINE ROSE
1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville
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EFORE HIGH-END EUROPEAN cars flooded the American market, the name “Cadillac” was synonymous with luxury. And the Eldorado was the top-of-the line car for that division of General Motors, the Cadillac of Cadillacs. The Eldorado was introduced as a show car in 1952, to celebrate the brand’s fiftieth anniversary. The name is Spanish for “golden one.” Cadillac held a company-wide contest to name the new car, and Mary-Ann 38
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Zukosky Mirini, a secretary in the merchandising department, was the winner. The cars started production for the 1953 model year, but many classic-car enthusiasts say it reached its pinnacle in 1958. The cars were the epitome of elegance, style, and comfort, and contained many features that didn’t become standard on other vehicles until decades later. “Many years ago, Cadillac set its sight on a single goal — to be the standard of the world,” stated the
1958 Cadillac Data Book, a manual produced for the model’s dealers. And in that year, it succeeded. Three versions of the Eldorado were produced in 1958. The most expensive was the Series 70 Eldorado Brougham, a four-door hardtop that debuted the previous year. It sold for $13,704, a princely sum in those days. In fact, the Brougham was more expensive than the 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. It was handmade, and only 304 were produced in 1958. The interior upper-
Photos courtesy of GM Media Archive
1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz door panels were finished in leather, and the buyer had a choice of fifteen colors. Celebrities snapped up most of the 1958 Eldorado Broughams, leaving very few for members of the public. Two other versions of the Eldorado, the Seville and Biarritz, sold for a more modest base price of $7,500. The Seville was a two-door hardtop. The Biarritz, named after a seaside resort in France, was a two-door convertible. Both were among the earliest cars to have the tail fins that typified American cars of that era. Detroit produced only 815 of the Biarritz model in 1958, while the Seville had wider distribution. The 1958 Eldorado Biarritz and Seville were huge, especially by today’s standards. Both cars were 223.4 inches — or more than 18.5 feet — long and eighty inches wide. The cars weighed between 5,000 and 5,500 pounds, depending on the options, and came with 335-horsepower engine with 405 foot-pounds of torque. The V-8 engine had a Hydra-Matic four-speed automatic transmission. Power brakes and power steering were standard Cadillac features. The Eldorado’s fuel tank held twenty gallons, and the owner’s manual indicated it ran best on high-octane gasoline. The specifications at the time did not include miles per gallon. But given the fact that oil flowed freely and gasoline cost less than thirty cents a gallon in
the late 1950s, it wasn’t an issue. But it was the styling and interiors that separated the Cadillac Eldorado from the pack. Unlike most Cadillacs, the Biarritz and Seville did not have hood ornaments. Instead, they had decorative moldings on the front fenders. The Sabre-Spoke wheels were mounted on whitewall tires, coated with chromium, with chrome molding around the rear-wheel wells. The rear fin panels were marked with the Cadillac crest. Buyers had a choice of several exterior colors when they placed their orders at the dealership. The 1958 Data Book brags about a safety feature on both the Biarritz and the Seville that protected the car and its occupants at night. A light was hidden in the recesses of the interior door panel. “When a door is opened a red glow illuminates the door panel as a warning to cars approaching from the rear and as an aid for passengers entering and leaving the car,” the manual states. The concept of four headlights was introduced on the 1957 Eldorado Brougham, and were standard for the 1958 Seville and Biarritz. The outer beams were for city driving and the inner beams provided stronger light for cruising on back roads. Options included tinted glass and an “autronic eye,” which would automatically turn off the high beams when it sensed
another vehicle approach in the opposite direction. The interior of the Eldorado was like sitting in a mobile living room. The seats of the Biarritz were made of special-grained Cape Buffalo leather, available in several colors, with trim offered in metallic shades as well. The carpet was a deep-pile Nylon blend. The Seville came with a choice of fine-fabric or leather seats. Both cars had Six-Way power seats, where passengers could push a button to adjust the seats forward and backwards, vertically, or to change the angle. The Biarritz had a retractable center armrest in the front seat, while the Seville had the feature in both front and rear seats. Standard on both models were four cigarette lighters and ashtrays, two each for the front and rear seats. As a convenience for shoppers and people who had to open their vehicles for inspection, the trunk could be opened automatically by pushing a button in the glove box. Power windows, which did not become standard on ordinary vehicles until decades later, were included on the Eldorado. Vent windows (you have to be eligible to join the AARP to remember them) were also electronic. Power locks were an option on the 1958 Eldorado. For those who wanted the style of the Eldorado, but found its price to be out of their range, General Motors njlifestyleonline.com
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ON WHEELS
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offered the Buick Riviera Limited. Like the Eldorado, the 1958 Buick Riviera limited came as a four-door hardtop sedan, a two-door hardtop coupe, or a two-door convertible. The base price was just above $5,000, making it more affordable than the Eldorado. The Riviera Limited had some of the Eldorado’s bells and whistles, such as power windows, but wasn’t quite as elegant. The engine was a bit weaker, too, at 300 horsepower. The convertible came with leather seats and the hardtops were upholstered with fabric. Cadillac manufactured the Eldorado in various incarnations until 2002, the fiftieth model year. The 1976 Fleetwood Eldorado was the last convertible to roll off an American production line, with a run of 14,000 vehicles. By then, the popularity of convertibles had declined, Cadillac general manager Edward C. Kennard noted at a press event held when the last car was completed. Kennard attributed to the change in Americans’ taste to better styling of hardtops, the widespread use of auto air conditioning, and high-speed driving on the nation’s expressways. Convertibles have made a comeback in recent years, but the majority of them are European models, with a few American and Japanese selections. Only the most expensive models come close to the power and luxury found in the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. But for the price you’d pay for a new Aston Martin or Ferrari luxury convertible, you may do just as well to seek out a 1958 Eldorado Biarritz. Quite a few of the classic Caddys are available for sale, and the prices range from about $120,000 to $350,000, depending on mileage and condition. If you’re willing to put sweat equity into restoration, beat-up models can be had for as little as $10,000. If it fits your style, and of course, your budget, you’re guaranteed to turn a lot of heads as you drive down New Jersey’s roadways. n
LIFESTYLE
MONEYWATCH By Matt and Tom Reynolds
Keep Emotions Out of Investing WE HAVE ALL HEARD THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF INVESTING — BUY LOW, Sell High. Simple in theory, yet counter intuitive to what our emotions dictate. Many times as the markets are soaring to new highs, our emotions tell us to, as Jim Cramer would say, “buy, buy, buy.” March 2009 proved to be one of the best investment opportunities with a nearly 200% gain since; however, our emotions at the market bottom begged us to sell. Keeping our emotions in check — especially fear, greed, and regret — is vitally important for the long-term success of any investment portfolio. According to the recent 2014 release of DALBAR’s Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, over the 10 years ending December 31, 2013, an average investor in a blend of equities and fixed income mutual funds has earned an average annualized return of 2.6% net. This compares to a 7.4% return for the S&P 500 and a 4.6% return for fixed income. This return differential can be largely attributed to investor emotion affecting rational thinking. What can investors do to close this return gap and stop letting emotions sabotage their investment portfolios? One of the best things an investor can do is to formulate and construct a well thought out investment plan. The investment plan should include specific goals of the investment portfolio, risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, tax and legal constraints, as well as any unique circumstances. By having an investment plan, particularly a written one, investors can refer to it during times of market uncertainty, and be better able to remain focused on their goals and reduce the chance of emotions influencing short term irrational decision making. Documenting changes is a great tool for investors to track their decisions and use their past experiences as a guide to how they are likely to respond to future market moves. Understanding your personal risk tolerance is key to not abandoning your investment plan. Often times investors expect to keep pace with the market in good years, and not lose money in the bad years. This scenario is not realistic and educating oneself on the risk/return tradeoff will help shine a light on the realities of investing. The higher return we expect to earn is correlated with a higher degree of risk. How much are you comfortable losing in a single year? 5%? 15%? 30%? The markets will fluctuate, but over time, investors should be compensated for the level of risk they are willing to bear. Not understanding the downside risk of a particular return strategy will lead to investors bailing at the worst possible time — the bottom of a down market. The S&P 500 has been positive in 26 of the last 34 years; however, the average intra-year decline during that period has been 14.4%. Trying to time the market would have proven to be an impossible task and, most likely, would have led to selling after a
decline, and buying back in after a recovery. Understanding your level of comfort with market volatility will allow you to create an appropriate asset allocation to buy and hold through the market cycles. One of the easiest solutions to emotional investing is to check your investment portfolio less often. More frequent reviews lead to more worry, and ultimately, to decisions that you may regret down the road. Since 1928, stocks on a daily basis have been positive 53% of the time. Extending out to monthly, quarterly, and annually, the market is positive 62%, 68%, and 72% respectively. Think of it this way — if you check your portfolio every day, there is a 47% chance that you will feel disappointed. If you only check once a quarter, you will only feel disappointed 32% of the time!
Keeping emotions out of investing can be a difficult task. We are all human, investment professionals included, and are thus prone to the euphoria and stress of the markets. Some of the best advice we have heard is to treat a bear market the same as running into an actual bear. If you hike the woods long enough there is a high probability of confronting a bear. Experts agree that panicking and running away lessen your chance of survival, but if you keep your cool and play dead until the threat passes, you can emerge victoriously and continue on your path. n Tom Reynolds, CPA & Matt Reynolds CPA, CFP® Co-Managing Partners - CRA Financial Robert T. Martin, CFP® Investment Advisor This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as the basis for an investment decision. Consult your financial adviser, as well as your tax and/or legal advisers, regarding your personal circumstances before making investment decisions.
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LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 41
TOP 10
Summer Movies
Grab your popcorn and get comfy as we name the best films for those hot summer nights 1. Grease (1978)
It’s 1958. The kids from Rydell High have just come back from summer break. The word “hickey” is now part of their vocabulary, and they’re rolling up their jeans, wearing poodle skirts and saddle shoes and putting their cigs in the sleeves of their t-shirt. And there’s a whole lot of summer lovin’ goin’ on. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John starred in what was, at the time, the highest grossing movie musical ever made. There are a lot of things that make this film great, but check out the cast. It includes some of the screen’s all-time great character actors: Joan Blondell, Sid Caesar, Eve Arden, and Alice Ghostly. And the supporting cast boasts a new generation of character actors: Stockard Channing, Didi Cohn, and Jeff Conaway (later of “Taxi” fame). Sing-alongs with the film are popping up in theatres, especially in summer so keep a look out. Little Known Fact: Travolta’s sister, Ellen, plays a waitress. She is probably best known for her portrayal of Louisa Arcola Delvecchio, the aunt of Fonzie (Henry Winkler) on the TV sitcom Happy Days.
2. Summer of ‘42 (1971)
Robert Surtees’ cinematography and a score by Michel LeGrande gives this film a feel all its own. It’s like a nostalgic glow. It may be a coming of age story set in Nantucket during a violent time in America’s history, but it manages to be gentle and sweet. Summer of ’42 is based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher, who focused on the first major adult experience of his life. Hermie (Gary Grimes), the character based on Raucher, spends the summer in Nantucket and falls in love with Dorothy (Jennifer O’Neill) whose GI husband is killed in action during World War II. In her grief, she takes Hermie into her bed and they make love. When Hermie wakes up the next morning, he only finds a “Dear Hermie” note. The film’s last line is, “I never saw her again.” But the true story is that he did. Little Known Fact: Raucher spent years looking for Dorothy. When he finally found her, she told him that she had been guilt-ridden for years fearing she’d traumatized him and ruined his life. She said that she was glad he turned out alright, and that they had best not re-visit the past. 42
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LIFESTYLELEGENDS by SHERRY HOFFMAN
3. Jaws (1975)
4. From Here To Eternity (1953)
Hawaii, 1941. Robert E. Lee Pruitt’s (Montgomery Clift) life in the Army is hell because he won’t box. Meanwhile, Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) slinks off with the captain’s wife, Prewitt begins fooling around with a social club employee and, to top it all off, no one suspects that Pearl Harbor is about to be attacked by the Japanese. This film has what is arguably the best kissing scene ever. Pruitt and his love interest (Deborah Kerr) lie on the beach, the sea washing over them, and taught us how to French kiss. Little Known Fact: From Here to Eternity is credited with reviving Frank Sinatra’s career. Having fallen off the charts and out of favor with the movie business, he fought like crazy to win the non-singing role of Maggio. He not only won the role, but his performance won him the Oscar for supporting actor, and Ol’ Blue Eyes was back.
5. American Graffiti (1973)
Directed by George Lucas (his second shot) and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, this last vestige of innocent America stars an amazing cast of unknowns: Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, the Andy Griffith Show’s Ronny Howard (later to become filmmaker Ron Howard), Suzanne Somers, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack, and Mackenzie Phillips. It’s about cruising the same street, eating at the same drive-up, going after the same girls — just like many of us did when the ink was still wet on our driver’s licenses. Little Known Fact: Sadly, we don’t think of the casting director as the first line of defense for actors. But for this film it’s key. A great part of the success of this film is because CDs Mike Fenton and Howard Ross put their stamps of approval on a cast of unknowns.
Some photos courtesy of doctormacro.com
One of the scariest movie themes ever — really just a few ominous notes on a double bass fiddle — was the brain child of the prolific composer John Williams, who scored over 80 films in his career. This film began scaring the bejesus out of most of America in 1975 when Stephen Spielberg’s break-out film was released. What’s so scary? In Jaws, it’s not what you see that’s necessarily scary, it’s what you don’t see. It’s “implied” fright. A 25-foot great white shark terrorizes the small town of Amity by snacking on swimmers, boaters, kids on rafts and basically anything it can sink its teeth into. The town’s police chief (Roy Scheider), a young shark expert (Richard Dreyfuss) and the town’s resident shark hunter (Robert Shaw) go after the ocean’s apex predator and the rest is cinematic lore. Little Known Fact: Remember the scene where Quint (Robert Shaw) finishes drinking a beer and then crushes the can with one hand? For this summer only, Narragansett Beer, a small brewery in Rhode Island, is re-releasing the can design from that scene.
6. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
One of the most iconic images of the 20th century is housed within this film: Marilyn Monroe, standing over a subway grate, trying to hold down her dress. Richard Sherman’s (Tom Ewell) wife and children are spending the summer out of Manhattan. Richard decides he wants to relive his bachelorhood. In steps his neighbor, a model (Marilyn) who is credited as “The Girl.” Hilarity ensues. At the end of the summer, as expected, Richard and his missus are happily reunited and she is none the wiser. Little Known Fact: To promote the film, 20th Century Fox Studios placed a 52-foot banner of the Monroe dress shot on the Loew’s State Theatre, but yielded to complaints of raciness and replaced it with a more modest version. njlifestyleonline.com
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LEGENDS 7. The Endless Summer (1966)
How many of us wanted to surf the world after seeing this movie? Bruce Brown, director of this documentary, spent an endless summer in search of the perfect wave. Brown, Robert August, Michael Hynson, and Lord “Tally Ho” Blears went to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii on their quest. Even if you have little interest in surfing, the visuals alone are worth the time. Little Known Fact: The film broke important new ground upon release, bringing surfers to new parts of the world. Best waves? Cape Town, South Africa.
8. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
No list of summer films would be complete without a baseball flick. In The Pride of the Yankees, Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, one of baseball’s most iconic figures. The film follows Gehrig through his early days with the New York Yankees and his 2,130 consecutive games played before his streak — and his career — come to an end after being diagnosed at age 37 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. During his last time in a Yankees uniform, Gehrig delivered a speech that reduced half of Yankee Stadium to tears when he referred to himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Little Known Fact; Several people associated with Major League Baseball appeared in The Pride of the Yankees, but none more famous than Gehrig’s former Yankees teammate, Babe Ruth. For the Sultan of Swat, it was art imitating life. When Gehrig delivered his emotional farewell to baseball in 1939, Ruth was among the speakers that day.
10. Goldfinger (1964)
Go ahead, admit it. As soon as you saw the movie name Goldfinger, you either broke out in song or, at the very least, you heard Shirley Bassey’s voice in your head as she sang the title track. In the third installment of the James Bond/007 series, Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) is out to pull off the biggest In this darkly humorous slapstick farce, a pair of entry-level clerks heist of all time. He wants to relieve Fort Knox of all its gold. But not if (Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) at an insurance 007 (Sean Connery) has anything to say about it. Still, Bond is up against company discovers a skimming scam and reports it to Bernie Lomax a formidable opponent who has a few tricks of his own up his sleeves, (Terry Kiser) the company owner, who’s very grateful for their beginning with Pussy Galore, his personal pilot who also commands a sharp detective work. What the junior execs didn’t uncover was that squadron of female pilots who succeed in dusting Fort Knox with knock mob-connected Bernie is actually working the scam and ripping out gas that renders the soldiers off his own company. He invites his young employees to spend unconscious. Bond gets to play the weekend at his opulent beachfront summer mansion in the with lots of cool special effects, Hamptons so they can ostensibly do a little more undercover work. courtesy of his buddy Q. In But what he really wants to do is kill the junior sleuths. However, the end, of course, Bond wins the mob decides it’s Bernie who has to go, so they rub him out before everything — except the girl. (Or the two young execs arrive. Once they discover their boss is dead does he?) — which would really ruin their weekend of summer decadence — Little Known Fact: Goldfinger was they concoct hilarious ways to make Bernie seem like he’s still alive the first James Bond film ever and ready for a typical summer weekend of debauchery. shown on commercial television Little Known Fact: The actor who played Bernie’s stunt double in the United States. Nearly 50% suffered a few broken ribs during filming due to all the pratfalls of Americans watching TV on the and stunts of playing a dead man. night of Sept. 17, 1972 were tuned to ABC’s broadcast of the film. Sherry Hoffman, a freelance writer and show runner for Sherry At the time, it was the highest Hoffman Public Relations, lives in Camelot II, and is very proud Nielsen TV ratings for a single to be a part of the Lifestyle family since its inception. film.
9. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)
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LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 45
The Ultimate Club By ALYSON BOXMAN LEVINE
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ARCHITECTURE A $10 million renovation takes Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia from exceptional to exceptionally elite
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uxury and opulence are synonymous with the Trump name, but when you add $10 million to a property many considered already ideal, the result is truly extraordinary. The newly-renovated Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia is a one-of-a-kind jaw-dropping resortstyle destination that, simply put, wows everyone who is fortunate enough to enter. 46
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“We have taken this property from a club ranked #31, to one of the top private clubs in the country,” reveals Eric J. Quinn, General Manager, Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia. There is not one inch of the 43,000 square foot main clubhouse that has not been touched, enhanced, and transformed into an exceptionally-elegant venue. “We went from a typical cedar brown Adirondack-style clubhouse to a vibrant clubhouse with a black roof and
luxurious crystal chandeliers,” revels Quinn. “The decor is elegant, upscale, and very tastefully done.” Perched on top of a hill overlooking one-of-a-kind panoramic views of the Philadelphia skyline, the clubhouse sits some 200 feet above sea level. Formally known as the Pine Hill Golf Club, this exclusive venue was purchased by Donald Trump in 2009, and was well-known in its own right. Built on the site of a former ski resort
and sitting atop the highest point in southern New Jersey, guests eagerly enjoy the spectacular vantage point that celebrates the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding countryside. Designed by legendary golf course guru Tom Fazio, the elite course at Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia is a modern masterpiece. Innovative design is naturally integrated with the picturesque landscape to create a world-class private club experience for golfers of all levels. Providing views of the city skyline throughout the course, this extraordinary location will astound even the most well-travelled golfer. Fazio masterfully designed a property that is both beautiful and challenging, with 18-holes boasting distinctly different characteristics. Many people don’t know this about Mr. Trump, but golf is very important to him, reveals Quinn. “Donald Trump believes in golf and he invests in it. He is, simply put, good for golf, and I say that after being in the industry for over 20 years. His firm dedication and commitment to the game of golf can be seen in all of his properties.” When it comes to Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia, the absolute show-stopper of the renovation project is, hands down, the massive pool complex. “It is truly a gem that has brought the entire club to the next level in luxury,” explains Quinn. Sitting just to the right of the clubhouse, the pool complex is a true resort environment, lavishly outfitted with a grand salt-water heated pool, a 22,000 square foot concrete pool deck, cabanas galore, a massive bar area with 70-inch televisions, and elegant table-side service. Upon entering the recently-renovated pool complex, you get the feeling of being immediately transformed to the Hollywood Hills of California as you look down regally on the city. “The most wonderful and exclusive concept of the renovation is that we have created a barrier between our entrance and the clubhouse,” explains Quinn. “Guests really don’t know what is around them, adding to the unique sense of privacy. Stone rock
walls and intricate shrubbery add an air of seclusion to the space. There is absolutely nothing like this in the area.” And, you don’t have to be a member to experience this exclusive private oasis. “One unique aspect of the locale is that, even though we are a private club, we keep our banquet facility open for outside events for those that
are non-members,” reveals Quinn. The magnificently-renovated banquet room can hold from 250-275 guests comfortably. “As part of the redesign, we created a “Trump Patio” where we perform the ceremonies,” says Quinn. This magnificent spot is perched up in the hills with the panoramic views
LIFEST YLE ARCHITECTURE
of Philadelphia in the background. “When you experience this, it is hard to believe that you are in flat South Jersey,” chuckles Quinn. While the venue is masterfully experienced at handling large groups, the staff also gives friendly and professional attention to small parties as well. With an expert staff, incredible cuisine, state-of-the-art facilities and an unparalleled golf course, Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia is an ideal choice for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, award banquets, business meetings, corporate outings, private parties, and so much more. Members and their guest enjoy both lavish and casual exclusive social events and celebrations throughout the year. With the focus on family, members are invited to celebrate major holidays, such as Easter, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving, in the elegant banquet room. Children are celebrated at Trump National Golf Club - Philadelphia, and Brunch with Santa and Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, in addition to a “spooky” unforgettable Halloween Party, delight youth of all ages. Adult members share in the fun and elegance with social events featuring live entertainment and dancing. Both fine and casual 48
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dining is pleasantly offered throughout the afternoon and evening at the club in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments designed to meet the needs of members and their social guests or business meetings. Relax and enjoy the delicious cuisine prepared by the club’s experienced and creative culinary staff led by Executive Chef Jeff De Lawder, graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Expertly complemented by an extensive array of fine wine and beer selections, the freshly-created entrees appeal to all five senses. The extensive menu changes four times a year, offering something for everyone and every palate. And membership certainly does have its privileges. In addition to the club’s countless amenities, members will also automatically receive a TRUMP CARD, an exciting privileges program providing exclusive benefits from the Trump Hotel Collection to enjoy at hotel properties in New York (Trump International & Trump SoHo), Chicago, Las Vegas, and Waikiki. “Mr. Trump has passionately made an investment into this market, and what we have created truly stands alone,” says Quinn. “I have been very involved with Mr. Trump, and his son
Eric, in creating and overseeing this project, and have truly come out amazed. We all worked together seamlessly to benefit our members, from Center City Philadelphia to the South Jersey market.” And membership is growing by leaps and bounds, confirms Quinn, with future plans including the construction of tennis courts and overnight cottages. “The unique thing about this project is that once we completed it, many of our members with beach homes now actually cut their weekends short to come back to the club on Sundays,” reveals Quinn. “They will spend the day relaxing at the pool and then have dinner as a family.” The experience you will get from a visit to this club is truly awe-inspiring. “As an avid golfer, I can tell you that this club and setting are truly something very special,” said Donald Trump. “I invite you to experience for yourself the extraordinary grounds and sophisticated amenities of Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia.” n For more information, contact Membership Director, Donna Surrette at (856) 248-2986, dsurrette@ trumpnational.com. Visit www.trumpnationalphiladelphia.com.
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SOCIALSTUDIES
The Social Scene Gilda’s Club Annual Event Raises $42,000 The 4th Annual Cocktails by the Beach fundraiser to benefit Gilda’s Club South Jersey (GCSJ) was held on June 5th at One Atlantic in Atlantic City, overlooking the glorious Atlantic Ocean at sunset. The well-attended event raised $42,000 for GCSJ’s valuable programs for men, women, and
children touched by cancer. Premier event sponsors included CapeBank Charitable Foundation, CRA Financial Services and Technomedia Solutions. Guests participated in a one-of-a-kind silent auction featuring numerous coveted items, including a private dinner for eight prepared by Chef Luke Palladino. Photos by Nick Valinote
From left to right, Kristine Kurilko; Michelle Chalmers, GCSJ CEO; Lauren Crenshaw, GCSJ Special Projects Director
From left to right, Marla Brestle, Dr. Patrick and Ashley Calvi
From left to right, Jennifer Salad, Laura McMahon, Michael Salad, Esq. and Charles Weeks 50
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From left to right, Carla Glass, Debra Buchalski and Mark Arbeit
Rev. Elizabeth McGlinn and Chris DeMatteis
From left to right, Keisha Williams, Cami Bonsera and Tanika Brock
Mindy and Bob Rovinsky
From left to right, Kelly Scarborough, Midge Grunstra, Barbara Deaney, Beth Dunn and Nancy Brennan
From left to right, Nicole & Tim Frazier and Ryan & Marissa Sharp
SOCIALSTUDIES
AMI Foundation’s Annual Golf Outing a Success The AMI Foundation’s 12th Annual Golf Classic was held on June 17th at the Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township. Jennifer Williams, South Jersey Manager of Development for the Covenant House of Atlantic City, talked about its mission to provide shelter and services to homeless
From left to right, Sissy Feldman, Joan Glick, Miriam Hirsch and Fran Goldstein
Jennifer Williams at the podium during her speech.
children. All proceeds from the tournament benefit The Covenant House of Atlantic City. This golf classic, which has raised over $400,000 since its inception in 2002, is one of the many ways the AMI Foundation supports local charities throughout the community.
From left to right, Chris Zuccarini, Michael Henry, Betty Lorenzetti and John Lorenzetti
First Place Team; from left to right, Craig Nordberg, Brian Kurylo and Robert Desvo
Third Place Team; from left to right, Ashish Patel, Paranj Patel, Manny Sharma and Raj Patel
Second Place Team; from left to right, Ashish Shah, Deven Sharma, Dash Patel and Samir Patel
Miss America 2014 visits AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri recently visited AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Atlantic City Campus to meet with patients, staff, and physicians. She toured the hospital’s regional Trauma Center – getting a view of the city where she was crowned
Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri presents a “Miss America Princess” sash to ARMC patient Sydirah Walden
from atop the helipad. She met with patients and families, as well as the CHOP Newborn & Pediatric Care at AtlantiCare team at The Stanley M. Grossman Pediatric Center; and visited Emergency, Trauma and Medical Surgical patients.
Davuluri joins the AtlantiCare trauma team on the ARMC City Campus helipad, getting a view of the city where she was crowned.
AtlantiCare Diversity and Inclusion Employee Resource Groups met Davuluri.
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LIFESTYLE | Summer 2014 51
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Lifestyle Venues By MOLLY GOLUBCOW
NJ LifeStyle Magazine’s
Top Chefs Atlantic City WE GET PERSONAL WITH FOUR EXCEPTIONAL AREA CHEFS Chef Luke Palladino
Chef Alain Allegretti DO “TOO MANY CHEFS SPOIL THE SOUP?” Not in the Atlantic City area where the culinary gods have blessed local restaurants with some incredibly notable talent, including Chefs Allegretti, Palladino, Savarese, and Garces. Collectively, they bring years of experience and food savvy to the table (in a most literal sense), impressing and satisfying thousands of people in restaurants all over the world. You can easily learn about their backgrounds by googling them. However, New Jersey Lifestyle takes an extra “bite” to introduce you to each chef on a more intimate, personal level. So, let’s get up close to four of the best chefs in town.
Chef Jose Garces
Chef Will Savarese
CHEF ALAIN ALLEGRETTI Growing up on a farm in the French Alps, Chef Allegretti fell in love with cooking helping his grandmother prepare homemade ragouts and fresh pastas. He perfected his gastronomic skills on the Cote d’Azur under the tutelage of giants like Maximin and Alain Ducasse. In New York City, Chef Allegretti was co-executive chef at Le Cirque 2000 and then executive chef at Atelier (RitzCarlton). He opened his first establishment in New York in 2008, Allegretti’s, followed by La Promenade des Anglais. Regardless of the restaurant he is associated with, Allegretti offers his signature cuisine — a perfect culinary blend of French culinary techniques with his Italian heritage. Locally, Chef Allegretti brings his style to Azure (Revel, Atlantic City). The restaurant surrounded by stunning views of blues — ocean and sky — offers an elegant place to savor Allegretti’s Mediterranean magic, including handmade pastas, grilled whole fish, and stellar wines. LIFESTYLE: If you could have dinner with anyone past or present, who would that be and what would you eat? Chef Allegretti: For me, it’s all about memories. So I would love to be able to sit down at the table again with both of my grandmothers. One was Italian, and her tagliolini al pomodoro e basilico from the garden is something I haven’t been able to find anywhere else, even when I do it myself. The other was Vietnamese; her phao and bo bun were both knockouts with the perfect amount of spice. LIFESTYLE: What is your favorite ingredient to work with? Chef Allegretti: With so many options out there, and prepared the right way, olive oil can take any dish from ordinary to extraordinary. Plus, it’s super healthy! LIFESTYLE: In your restaurants, what is the most important part of a meal for your customers? Chef Allegretti: The appetizer is the first dish guests consume and sets
the expectation for the rest of the meal. It’s like the first date — if you don’t get that right, you may never recover. LIFESTYLE: What do you eat for comfort food? Chef Allegretti: Comfort food to me is about getting your hands a little dirty. Pizza, tacos, or guacamole with chips are my comforting go-tos. LIFESTYLE: What would you include on your menu for a perfect romantic dinner? Chef Allegretti: For me romance can’t be overly complicated. A simple tuna crudo is perfect — it’s light, simple, and looks good. LIFESTYLE: If your life were a book or movie, what would the title be? Chef Allegretti: “Blood, Sweat, and Olive Oil”.
CHEF LUKE PALLADINO Voted “most likely to succeed” by classmates at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Chef Palladino has made his mark in the culinary arena. His passion for design, service, and style combined with the art of pasta making and other traditional Italian dishes has earned him accolades including “the best unknown Italian chef in America.” Whether using local products and preparing simple, Tratoria-style meals or more complex, signature dishes that reflect his Italian heritage and artistry, he excels deliciously. Palladino’s resume is impressive as executive chef and partner at Ristorante al Covo (Venice), as well other fine restaurants all throughout Italy. In the United States, Palladino worked with top chefs including Chefs Paul Bertolli and Emeril Lagasse. In 2003, the Atlantic City area was fortunate to have Palladino grace her tables with three restaurants inside the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City showcasing his passion for Italian cuisine. Today, you can enjoy Chef Palladino’s exquisite creations at three locations — Palladino’s (Linwood), LP STEAK (Northfield), and Luke’s Kitchen & Marketplace (Revel, Atlantic City). njlifestyleonline.com
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LIFEST YLE VENUES
LIFESTYLE: If you could have dinner with anyone past or present, who would that be and what would you eat? Chef Palladino: Michelangelo. I would make something considered classic in the Tuscan Region where Michelangelo is from, like Arista di Maiale (spit-roasted pork). LIFESTYLE: What is your favorite ingredient to work with? Chef Palladino: It depends on the season, I have way too may favorite ingredients to list. LIFESTYLE: In your restaurants, what is the most important part of a meal for your customers? Chef Palladino: Every aspect of the dining experience is critical — music, lighting, temperature, service. When people come to my restaurants, they are in our care and we do everything we can to look after them. LIFESTYLE: What do you eat for comfort food? Chef Palladino: Sushi delivery! LIFESTYLE: What would you include on your menu for a perfect romantic dinner? Chef Palladino: Anything that incorporates decadent ingredients — lobster, caviar, truffles, dark chocolate. LIFESTYLE: If your life were a book or movie, what would the title be? Chef Palladino: “Stranger in a Strange Land”
CHEF WILL SAVARESE With more than 30 years of culinary experience, Chef Will has worked for some of the finest restaurants in New York City including Aureole and Le Cirque. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Savarese served as Chef de Cuisine at La Cote Basque earning a New York Times 3-star rating. In addition, Savarese spent time as a private chef for select clients and served as Executive Chef for La Cremaillere in Bedford, NY from 1999 to 2005 earning the restaurant their first 4-star review. Subsequent to that Savarese served as the culinary head for The Tap House (Tuckahoe, New York), where he earned another New York Times 3-Star rating. Currently, Chef Will serves as the executive chef for Robert’s Steakhouse (Taj Mahal, Atlantic City) where he brings his years of culinary experience as well as his background in French cooking to Robert’s making the restaurant “unique in the steakhouse sector.” Why? According to Chef Will, “I push myself and my staff to learn something new every day to make the menu work and to get consistency — it’s a passion and why I do it.” LIFESTYLE: If you could have dinner with anyone past or present, who would that be and what would you eat? Chef Savarese: I would dine with the Knights of the Round Table, including King Arthur and Robin Hood. It would be a great feast including big chunks of meat — steaks and whole roasted pig. LIFESTYLE: What is your favorite ingredient to work with? Chef Savarese: Working with any ingredient means it has to work — it has to come from within. But, to pick one ingredient, I would say salt. From sea salt to fleur de sel — it has its own component and special use on a plate. LIFESTYLE: In your restaurants, what is the most important part of a meal for your customers? Chef Savarese: Butter, it makes the meal. If the butter is good — taste, fat count — that’s the key. Following good butter, comes good bread and the rest of the meal. LIFESTYLE: What do you eat for comfort food? Chef Savarese: My all-time comfort food is a breaded chicken cutlet with Italian seasoning — and extra garlic, of course. 56
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LIFESTYLE: What would you include on your menu for a perfect romantic dinner? Chef Savarese: Simply said, it would be things to share — like roasted rack of lamb for two, Grand Marnier, soufflé, and chocolate — a must have especially if it’s dark chocolate! LIFESTYLE: If your life were a book or movie, what would the title be? Chef Savarese: “The Passionate Cook” — presented as a TV reality show!
CHEF JOSE GARCES Chef Garces was first introduced to food preparation in his paternal grandmother’s kitchen. In the pursuit of perfecting his skills, Garces enrolled and then graduated from Chicago’s Kendall College School of Culinary Arts, worked in New York City, and then moved to Philadelphia. Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic region by the James Beard Foundation and Iron Chef winner (2009) are only a few labels used to describe Chef Garces and his successes. He owns seven restaurants in Philadelphia, including Volver and Village Whiskey. In addition, Garces operates restaurants in Arizona and California making his style of cuisine available coast to coast. In Atlantic City, Chef Garces brings his “authentic” and “innovative” cuisine to three restaurants at Revel: Amada, Village Whiskey, and Distrito Cantina. LIFESTYLE: If you could have dinner with anyone past or present, who would that be and what would you eat? Chef Garces: Ernest Hemingway. Due to his well-known affinity for all things Cuban, I’d whip up one of my specialties inspired by the island: Enchilado de Langosta (lobster in spicy tomato sauce), accompanied by a salad made with hearts of palm and lots of proper daiquiris. LIFESTYLE: What is your favorite ingredient to work with? Chef Garces: At the moment, my favorite ingredient is any vegetable that grows on my 40-acre farm in Bucks County, Luna Farm. I love combining these veggies and fresh herbs in different ways, like on a pizza or in a big, fresh salad. LIFESTYLE: In your restaurants, what is the most important part of a meal for your customers? Chef Garces: Flavor, flavor, flavor! The food absolutely has to be topnotch, but warm and hospitable service is of paramount importance, too. LIFESTYLE: What do you eat for comfort food? Chef Garces: I love pizza in all of its various shapes and forms, from the deep-dish pies I grew up with in Chicago to a fresh, veggie-focused gardener’s pizza, and everything in between. LIFESTYLE: What would you include on your menu for a perfect romantic dinner? Chef Garces: I’d start with the Ceviche de Atún — tuna ceviche — from our menu at Distrito. The freshness of the tuna plus the luxuriousness of the coconut-serrano puree is one of my favorite combinations. Then it’d be the Pescado a la Veracruzana for the main course: whole grilled fish with tomatoes, capers, green olives and jalapeños. It’s always fun to show off a little bit when there’s a romantic element, and filleting the whole fish for myself and my dinner date is a perfect way to do it. Dessert undoubtedly would have to be something chocolate. LIFESTYLE: If your life were a book or movie, what would the title be? Chef Garces: The title of my second cookbook, “The Latin Road Home,” already sums it up pretty nicely. The recipes and the stories surrounding them truly do make up my journey on this earth. When you grow up around great cooks and great food like I did, the journey’s culinary element appears very early! n
RESTAURANT REPORT by BILL HENRY
Celebrating Deliciously Brûlée Catering by Chef Jean-Marie Lacroix now producing events of all sizes at The Claridge Hotel Ballrooms ChefJean-Marie Lacroix Photos by STAVRA Photography PARTICULARLY DURING THE summer months when their well-heeled clients spend time entertaining in their shore homes, Philadelphia’s Brûlée Catering has for the past several years brought the renowned cuisine of legendary Chef-Partner Jean-Marie Lacroix to all New Jersey shore points. Now this distinguished and experienced events team can offer all types of celebrations year-round in spaces throughout The Claridge Hotel, including The Claridge Ballroom, Southampton Room and Ocean View Grand Ballroom. Brûlée was recently chosen as the exclusive caterer for the newly re-opened Claridge Hotel. Under new ownership, the Claridge has recently refurbished the historic 1920’s landmark hotel. Centrally located on the world famous Atlantic City boardwalk, the Claridge Hotel is a perfect spot to host parties and events — including elegant weddings in the hotel’s Ocean View Grand Ballroom. Chef Lacroix and his brigade of chefs are committed to creating customized menus and are dedicated to executing them for events of all sizes. Together, Brûlée Catering and The Claridge Hotel will offer exclusive hotel room and catering packages. n Brûlée Catering, Tel: 215-923-6000, info@brulee-catering.com, Brulee-Catering.com
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The Best Beach Bottles A
Relax at the shore with family, friends, and a refreshing, affordable elixir
t the end of May, I decided to steal a couple of days in Cape May with my wife for the promise of sea breezes, a new inn experience, and some spectacular food and wine and to bring the sun back into our long-winter skies. The best address in Cape May, as far as I’m concerned, is occupied by Peter Shields Inn & Restaurant at 1301 Beach Ave. There is a feeling of small European understated refinement within this 100 year old property, built by architect Lloyd Titus as a summer cottage for the Shields family. The Peter Shields Inn is a Select Registry Romantic Seaside Getaway, with nine beautifully-decorated guest rooms, oceanfront views that you normally only enjoy on glossy magazine covers, and the finest restaurant I’ve ever dined in along the New Jersey coastline. This 1907 Georgian Revival mansion, a Bed and Breakfast Diamond Collection boutique inn, is owned by Jeff Gernitis, with Executive Chef Carl Messick in absolute control of the kitchen and Manager Sean Brown keeping the place in impeccable order. At precisely 4 PM, an assortment of cheeses and wines are served, 58
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compliments of the inn-keeper, featuring gems from Cape May wineries. You can also enjoy Cape May wines with your dinner, or bring in your own wines (no surcharge). My meal was absolutely brilliant: Roasted Beet Salad, Chevre, Arugula, Peppercorn Aioli, Beet Paint ($12); Pan Roasted Scottish Salmon, Bok Choy, Shiitake Mushrooms, Pearl Onions, Carrot Ribbons, Seasoned Rice, Coconut Froth, Warm Miso Vinaigrette ($30); and Chocolate Lava Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream, Berry Puree ($9). The dessert alone is worth the drive to Cape May. Breakfast is amazing, and the best room is the one we stayed in, Number 9. This third floor room has a dormer ceiling, king bed, new bath with tile and glass shower and is tucked away down the hall to the Hospitality Room, with 24-hour complimentary soft drinks and snacks. No prizes for guessing which room we have booked for weekend getaways all summer. Summer is the time for old friends getting together down the shore or at home around the barbeque, so I have a cunning plan for you. I recently re-visited an old friend; a beautiful decanter
PHILLIP SILVERSTONE’S BEST OF THE BUNCH
style bottle with a cork closure containing an astonishing elixir that I poured into a wine glass. There was some vanilla, a little smokiness, wood, cigar, and a touch of sweetness. It was an extraordinary drink and an experience I can happily enjoy many more times until the last drop is drained from the bottle. And NO it wasn’t a wine. It was an American whiskey. And for those of you with a penchant for Tennessee whiskey and a bank balance that is pretty healthy, have I got some news for you. The Jack Daniel Distillery is offering consumers the rare opportunity to purchase an entire barrel of 94-proof Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey. Available in limited quantities, each barrel yields approximately 240 (750 ml) decanter-style bottles with a cork closure. With the purchase of an entire barrel of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey, barrel owners receive the bottled whiskey and the empty barrel in which the whiskey matured, customized neck medallion, a brass plaque and a framed certificate of ownership. According to Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Jeff Arnett, each barrel of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey has a subtle difference in nose, color and taste, due to the differences in the new, charred white oak wood used for each barrel, as well as the location of each barrel in the warehouse. “Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel is as individual as the oak barrel in which it matures,” explained Arnett. “So, we thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the uniqueness of each barrel by offering folks the opportunity to buy a whole barrel for themselves.” Back to wine. I have some great suggestions for the wines to include on your shopping list this Summer, especially for presunset quaffs on the beach. Cupcake Vineyards, www.cupcakevineyards.com, has become a buzz word among the young, cool set over the past couple of years and, unlike many wines which tend to be trending (as opposed to trendy), I have to admit that for every day quaffers, Cupcake is doing a brilliant job. Not only do they produce wines in California, but they also produce wines on other continents so their selection is nicely diversified and brings a wonderful education to the new wine drinkers. And the wines are very affordable. Here are three Cupcake wines I recently enjoyed. Their Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from the best region on the planet for this grape variety: Marlborough, New Zealand, and for the price it’s a steal. Everything you expect is in this wine. Citrus and grapefruit predominate, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The wine is fresh, zingy and easily enjoyed on long, humid summer nights. The Pinot Noir is grown in Santa Barbara County, in California. If you enjoy Pinot for those luscious red berry flavors,
you won’t be disappointed. The wine has nice complex characters with some dark depths to the flavor from the nine months of aging in American and French oak. And, as always I highly recommend, ten minutes in the fridge for this wine for extra yumminess. And last, but by no means least, Prosecco. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I could easily be marooned on a desert island with an endless supply of this wine and I’d be a very happy man indeed. Cupcake produce the wine from Glera grapes from vineyards in Italy. It is an effervescent, spritzy wine, and well chilled it will see you through the summer months with a huge smile and a limited budget. Bianchi Winery, www.bianchiwine.com, is located in Paso Robles, and it’s my kind of winery, family-owned and operated. Bianchi just released some new vintages and I was fortunate enough to sample the terrific trio of reds. And, yes, my friends these are three red wines and, yes, I drink red wines in the summer months. The Bianchi 2011 Pinot Noir (approximately $21.99), from their Garey Ranch, in Santa Maria Valley, definitely has the red berry flavor I adore in a good Pinot and, with a slight chill, I would enjoy it with some meatier fishes like cod or simple fare such as burgers and barbecued chicken. For me, it has the smoothness of velvet and a yummy aftertaste that sits on your tongue and is the BFF you never want to leave. The Bianchi 2011 Zinfandel (approximately $17.99), from Zen Ranch, Paso Robles, is blended with (25%) Primitivo grape (a variety of Zinfandel whose distant relative is grown in Puglia, Italy). The nectar in your glass is a rich, dark spicy wine which will satisfy all true Zin fans, yours truly included. The wine is aged for 19 months in new French and neutral oak barrels for the full spectrum of fruit forward flavor and mouth feel characteristics. The Bianchi 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon also produced from grapes in Paso Robles (approximately $18.99) is text book Cab with the scent of a cigar box, some chocolate notes and the deep, dark berries one expects. There was plenty of times spent aging in French oak barrels to add complex layers of flavor and depth to this superb example of an amazingly affordable bottle. With wines like these, this summer is going to be the most refreshing and quaffable on record. Just remember to use sunscreen and drink lots of water … and let me know what you think of these wines. Happy Summer. Cheers! n Phillip Silverstone’s “Time Out With Phillip Silverstone” is a weekly podcast heard exclusively on TuneIn radio. You can also LIKE Phillip on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Phillipsilverstone and follow him on Twitter, @wining. njlifestyleonline.com
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$29.95 Prix Fixe Three-Course Dinner
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“Home of The World’s Best Spaghetti for over 70 years, and so much More!”
Joe Italiano Jimmy Italiano
For almost 70 years Joe Italiano’s Maplewood has been known for its consistently Good, GOOD Food! We believe that freshness and loving preparation are keys to satisfied customers! We have high standards for our food. Consistency can and should be expected. Our food is fresh, salads are made to order, and pasta is boiled right before sauce is poured over it. Our “Gravy” or red sauce is made fresh daily and is loved by the people in the area. We only use the finest ingredients. The Original Maplewood. Two locations — Same Great Food. Your Choice.
470 White Horse Pike 6126 Black Horse Pike Hammonton, NJ Mays Landing, NJ 609-561-9621 609-625-1181 www.maplewood.me njlifestyleonline.com
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DINING Gallery Library IV Berkshire Grill
6105 Black Horse Pike, Egg Harbor Twp 609-272-8808 berkshiregrillnj.com Superbly prepared entrees including aged USDA Choice steaks, slow roasted Prime Rib and Grilled Chicken Portofino. Signature entrees include Mandarin Glazed Salmon, Spinach Pecan Salad, and Shrimp & Mussels Linguine. A large selection of sandwiches, salads, wraps, steaks, chicken, seafood and pasta is offered.
1030 N. Blk Horse Pike, Williamstown 856-728-8064 www.libraryiv.com The area’s greatest steakhouse under the direction of owner Brian O’Keeney. Offering quality prepared food and friendly service. Serving hand-cut steaks by the ounce, prime rib, seafood, veal and chicken. The Library IV restaurant has been the area’s top steakhouse for 30 years. A recently completed remodel includes a new kitchen, new 30-foot long salad bar and dining rooms. A casual and cozy atmosphere sets this restaurant apart from the others, and their commitment to top quality has stood the test of time.
Girasole Ristorante & Lounge
3108 Pacific Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 609-345-5554 www.girasoleac.com An Italian boutique restaurant with a strong Mediterranean influence. Fresh ingredients and simple preparations, served in style, with Versace banquettes and place-settings. A beautiful bar with a noteworthy selection of custom cocktails and quality wines are offered.
Tun Tavern Barista’s Coffee House
199 New Road Ste. 10, Central Square Linwood, NJ 609-904-2990 baristascoffeehouse.com Owners Mark and Debbie Becker have created the perfect “neighborhood” atmosphere coffee house. Brewing up more than just coffee, customers come back time and time again for Barista’s espresso, tea breakfast, Liege waffles, Brussels waffles, gourmet desserts, and italian gelato. Once you walk through the doors, you instantly become part of the “Barista’s Family”. Open Mon. - Fri., 7AM-6 PM and Sat., 8 AM-6 PM.
LP STEAK — Steakhouse & Seafood
Plaza 9 Shopping Center, 1333 New Road, Northfield, NJ 609-646-8189 www.lukepalladino.com The latest concept from Luke Palladino, LP STEAK is a bold steakhouse with something to please everyone. The menu features classic cuts of Prime beef, modern twists on traditional side dishes, as well as veal, chicken, and seafood. This stylish BYOB allows diners to experience Chef Palladino’s culinary flair in an American Steakhouse.
LUKE PALLADINO Seasonal Italian Cooking The Melting Pot
2112 Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 609-441-1100 www.meltingpot.com At The Melting Pot, fondue truly becomes a memorable four-course dining experience. Patrons can dip into something different — and discover all the ingredients for a unique dining experience including a relaxed atmosphere, private tables, attentive service, fine wines and signature fondue dinners. 62
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199 New Road, Central Square, Linwood 609-926-3030 www.lukepalladino.com Newly relocated and expanded, this Atlantic County BYOB features authentic Italian cuisine that honors tradition, yet is boldly spontaneous. Chef Palladino’s pride and passion is evident in the menu, featuring hand-crafted pastas, seasonal local produce, and expertly prepared fish and meats. The beautiful design provides the perfect setting for your next private party. Open daily for dinner 5-10 PM and lunch M-F, 11-3 PM.
2 Convention Blvd, Atlantic City, NJ 609-347-7800 www.tuntavern.com The Tun Tavern takes pride in being a fine restaurant as well as a brewery. Whether it’s inside soaking up the atmosphere or outside on the deck, the Tun Tavern provides a great dining experience. Take a look at the menu and see what wonderful delights they have in store for you. Tun Tavern Serves the Finest Black Angus Steaks, Filets and Burgers. We also serve fresh seafood including our Tun favorite Ahi Tuna Wasabi, also Calamari, plus the original Philly Cheesesteak, with healthy salad options and tempting appetizers. Lunch and dinner served daily, and parking is free.
Crab Trap
2 Broadway, Somers Point, NJ 609-927-7377 www.thecrabtrap.com Overlooking the Great Egg Harbor Bay in Somers Point is the Crab Trap Restaurant. Flourishing as a 400-seat full service restaurant serving the finest seafood in South Jersey. As many businesses expand, they often lose touch with the quality and small personal touches that made them special. At the Crab Trap, they don’t believe that has happened, or ever will.
We’ll be the first to admit our name doesn’t tell the whole story. Ram’s Head Inn
9 W. White Horse Pike, Galloway, NJ 609-652-1700 ramsheadinn.com The Ram’s Head Inn continues the longstanding tradition of superior quality food and service that the Knowles family brought to Southern New Jersey in 1979. This started at the Manor in the 1950s, and also continues at the Highlawn Pavilion and Pleasantdale Chateau (all located in West Orange NJ). Traditional food and beverage is served with a contemporary flair at various venues within this one-of-a-kind restaurant. Executive chef Elio Gracia has provided outstanding culinary excellence for seventeen years, incorporating as many seasonal organic and locally-grown foods as possible. Walk-ins are always welcome.
Bountiful Seafood. Succulent Steaks. Perfect Pastas. And yes, Award-Winning Crab Cakes. Voted “Best Place for Dinner” by the 2013 Press Readers Poll
On the circle in Somers Point 609-927-7377 Maplewood
470 White Horse Pike, Hammonton, NJ 6126 Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, NJ 609-561-9621, 609-625-1181 www.maplewood.me For almost 70 years, Joe Italiano’s Maplewood has been known for its consistently great food! They believe that freshness and loving preparation are keys to satisfied customers. They have high standards for their food. Consistency can and should be expected. Food is fresh, salads are made to order, and pasta is boiled right before sauce is poured over it. “Gravy” or red sauce is made fresh daily and is loved by the people in the area. They only use the finest ingredients at the Original Maplewood. Two locations — Same Great Food. Your Choice.
Smithville Inn
1 N. New York Road, Smithville, NJ 609-652-7777 www.smithvilleinn.com A lovely historical inn on 40 acres of pristine gardens and lakes. The Smithville Inn offers a wide selection of cuisine and is one of South Jersey’s premiere restaurants. Minutes away from Atlantic City, in the Historic Towne of Smithville. Serving sophisticated comfort food in a warm environment. Specialties include Chicken Pot Pie, Crab Cakes, and Osso Bucco Frico. A tradition of hospitality that has been carried on since 1787. Banquets and private parties offerd, plus Sunday brunch.
Serving from 11am Children’s Menu Available Lunch • Dinner • Cocktails Live Music • Deck Bar
Great Food. Great Drinks. Great Atmosphere.
One Visit and You’ll Feel Like a Regular
Mon - Thurs 4-11 Fri -saT 4-12 sun 3-10
Introducing our After 8pm Special Menu
(609) 272-8808
www.BerkshireGrillnJ.coM
6105 Black horse Pike & enGlish creek, eGG harBor TownshiP
Have an appetizer or sandwich with a beer or our glassAfter of wine... Introducing 8pm Special Me Only $8 from 8pm till closing every night. Have an appetizer or sandw Available in the bar, and dining room.
with a beer or glass of win
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CASINO DINING RESORTS
THE PIER AT CAESARS
Gallagher’s Steakhouse
N. Carolina & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-340-6555 gallaghersresorts.com Gallaghers is located on the 2nd floor of Resorts Casino. A classic steakhouse serving hearty salads, dry-aged meats, wonderful fish and shellfish. Their glass-enclosed meat locker is in the front of the restaurant for all to view; and all of the beef is dry-aged for 21 days at a constant 36 degrees to insure tenderness. Offering the finest selections of seafood as well. An ambiance of warm woods and deep reds. Friendly, efficient and gracious service. Open for dinner Sunday thru Thursday 5-9:30 pm, Friday 5-10 pm, Saturday 5-11 pm.
Capriccio
N. Carolina & Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-344-6000 www.resortsac.com No passport needed for this Italian experience. Capriccio’s all new menu features gourmet Italian cuisine in an exquisitely comfortable Mediterranean atmosphere, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Capriccio’s has beautiful murals on the walls featuring Old World Italy. Try the lobster with shiitake mushrooms and sweet peppers served on a baked polenta round; or the Costolette di Vitello alla Lombardese; or absolutely the Ossobuco di Vitello alla Lombardese, braised in a red wine and tomato sauce served with saffron risotto. The food is as spectacular as the view.
Phillips Seafood
Pier at Caesars, Atlantic City 609-348-2273 phillipsseafood.com Phillips Seafood brings guests a classical American seafood menu boasting an array of fresh seasonal fish and Phillips’ famous jumbo lump crab cakes. Renowned chef Robbin Haas has designed a menu that offers guests the freshest, finest seafood available, complete with a rolling oyster cart where regional varietals are shucked tableside and a double-decker live lobster tank stocked with 3-10 pound lobsters. Experience an upscale, interactive dining experience with their exhibition kitchen and sweeping ocean views.
REVEL
Azure by Allegretti
500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City 609-225-9870 www.azureatrevel.com Located at Revel Resort, Azure by Allegretti is a seafood restaurant that captures the glamour of the French Riviera. Chef Alain Allegretti offers exceptional seafood utilizing locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Guests will marvel at the soaring ocean views inside this beautiful restaurant. Menu items include an extensive raw bar, Spicy Boullabaise, fish, chicken, and beef.
American Cut at Revel 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City
609-225-9860 americancutsteakhouse.com American Cut signature steakhouse by Iron Chef Marc Forgione, is a tribute to American Place, the iconic restaurant founded by Marc’s father, famed chef Larry Forgione. Located inside Revel Resort, American Cut highlights Marc’s rock and roll personality with a modern spin on fine dining. Signature dishes include the Tomahawk Rib Eye Chop, an impressive 28-day dry aged 48-ounce steak, Ultimate Surf & Turf, and Chili Lobster. 64
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BORGATA
Wolfgang Puck American Grille
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com The man who revolutionized the culinary industry carries an undeniable cachet, synonymous with bold, innovative cooking and an unmistakable panache and passion that redefined dining in America. Offering contemporary American cuisine, the restaurant offers two distinctive dining areas ranging from casual and relaxed to elegant and upscale.
Award-Winning Seafood
Old Homestead Steak House
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com Their domestically-raised, hand-massaged Kobe beef is not only the envy of the trade, it’s trademarked. But that isn’t the only reason the venerable Old Homestead has been a New York City landmark for 137 years. “It’s consistency on all fronts,” says Marc Sherry who, with brother Greg, opened their second location at Borgata. The menu nearly mirrors New York’s — and for good reason.
Izakaya
One Borgata Way, Atlantic City 609-317-1000 www.theborgata.com A modern Japanese pub that defies comparison. Extraordinary sushi, sake, and robatayaki served in a sensual, yet modern atmosphere. Izakaya’s tempting cocktails and sharable plates make it the premier spot for an after-hours nosh and drinks, or a delicious late night meal.
BALLY’S
Arturo’s Ristorante
Bally’s Casino, Atlantic City 609-340-2300 www.ballysac.com Bally’s own Little Italy! Chef Maurizio prepares Milk fed Veal any way your heart desires, Picatta, Marsala, Francese, and of course, their famous Veal Parmigiana. Vibrant Italian mosaics abound as this restaurant offers tranquil views of the boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean.
phillipsseafood.com atlantic city
609.348.2273
complimentary parking at caesars self-park Facebook.com/PhillipsSeafood
@PhillipsSeafood
DINING GALLERY ADVERTISING RATES $95.00 per month All units in full color. Rates include all production. All rates are based on a 12-month period from the date of the first insertion.
NJ LifestyLe MagaziNe CALL 609-404-4611 FOR RESERVATIONS
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A Final Word
By MARJORIE PRESTON
If Looks Could Kill Why I adore the sirens and skirts; bad girls and femme fatales of film noir
I
think of myself as a polite, mild-mannered and fairly nonconfrontational person. I sidestep controversy, prefer harmony to conflict, and value order over chaos. I always say please and thank you, and am respectful to my elders, fellow motorists, and telemarketers. To some people, these traits may make me a milquetoast, and for years I thought I lacked moxie because I don’t go out each day with my dukes up and my elbows out. But I’ve made peace with my peace-loving nature. It suits me. I like this quality, and think of it as my gift to the world. But sometimes I wish I could be bad, like the glorious antiheroines of film noir. Who wouldn’t love to be a drop-dead seductress like Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity; a two-faced hussy like Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice; the street-smart torch singer played by Ida Lupino in Road House; an unrepentant murderer like Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon; or any role inhabited by Joan Crawford, who is truly the queen bee of tough movie broads? When the Lady Was a Tramp These are the wicked women of noir, a class of great old movies — mostly made in the 1940s and ’50s, mostly filmed in stark, highcontrast black and white — that take viewers for a delicious stroll on the dark side. Film noir is populated by world-weary gumshoes and treacherous dolls, churlish mugs and sexy molls. They slink in and out of the shadows like stray cats. And like cats, if cornered they’ll scratch, claw, and willingly draw blood. Ironically, film noir reached its zenith when Hollywood was hamstrung by the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code after its enforcer, Postmaster General Will Hays. The code required that no picture should ever “lower the moral standards of those who see it” and ensured that “the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.” In a cinematic world where good always trumped evil, and the white-picket American way was advanced as the ideal, film noir provided an exact photo negative, a look at life and love that was sinful, cynical and oh, so sultry. When it came to treachery, the women were more than a match for the men. They loved ’em and left ’em — sometimes in a pool of their own plasma. The Big Smackdown Along with all the conventions of film noir — the fedoras and trench coats, the back alleys and smoky bars — came the snappiest hard-boiled patter, written by the best writers who ever toiled over a hot Underwood: Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, even Ernest Hemingway. There’s no way to improve on dialogue like this: “She can love you with every card in the deck, then pull a knife across your throat the next morning.” — Johnny Eager, 1942 “Didn’t you hear about me, Gabe? If I’d been a ranch, they would’ve named me the Bar Nothing.” — Gilda, 1946 66
Summer 2014 | LIFESTYLE
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“Nobody’s your pal now. You’re dead. Lay down.” — Johnny O’Clock, 1947 “Personally, Veda’s convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young.” — Mildred Pierce, 1945 “They’re all for ya as long as you’re in the chips. I never seen a dame yet that’s still around when you hit the skids.” — The Set-Up, 1949 “What kind of a dish was she? The 60-cent special: cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy.” — The Narrow Margin, 1952 “I don’t think I’ll have to kill her. Just slap that pretty face into hamburger meat.” — The Killing, 1956 That kind of smart talk has inspired wonderful parody. This line from Steve Martin’s 1982 comedy “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” would certainly have twisted Will Hays’ celluloid dickey: “If you need me, just call. You know how to dial, don’t you? You just put your finger in the hole and make tiny little circles.” Those Lips, Those Eyes — Those Shoulders! You can tell a broad by her languid stroll and appraising stare, her flaring nostrils, arched brows, and ripe, blood-red lips. Her hips seem to shift to some inner bossa nova. In many films of the 40s, the villainess of the piece was known by her broad-brimmed hats and broad-shouldered suits. (Check out Crawford in her Oscar-winning turn as Mildred Pierce. Those shoulders make Reggie White look like Steve Urkel.) She wore mile-high heels and often had the pelts of dead animals slung seductively around her neck. Dressed to kill, she could make a mouse out of any man, even the toughest: Richard Widmark, Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, John Garfield, and of course, Bogie. They rarely made it to happily-everafter. But they generated a lot of steam along the way. And boy, they made it look like fun. For me, watching these mugs and molls is sort of a Walter Mitty thing. I may never have the icy wickedness of Gene Tierney or the leonine allure of Lauren Bacall. But when my favorite old movies come on, I can turn off the lights, grab some Jiffy Pop, and live vicariously through these fabulous, fearless females. I hope to pass it on. Recently, as I tucked my baby granddaughter Autumn into her crib, I tossed aside the Golden Book and riffed on the plot of my No. 1 noir favorite, Double Indemnity: “Once upon a time, in a mythic kingdom by the sea, lived a beautiful girl named Lola and her wicked stepmother, Phyllis Dietrichson. Phyllis wanted to kill her husband for the insurance money. So she recruited Walter Neff — 35, insurance salesman, no visible scars — to do the dirty work. Walter decided to throw her husband from a slow-moving train. What the heck was he thinking? Hadn’t he ever read an actuarial table?” n
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Annette Thomas and Terri Rodino, APN APG Primary Care Plus Northfield
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