Out & About Magazine December 2016

Also In This Issue The Evolution of Delaware Education Montana Wildaxe: 30 Years of Music Area Wine Experts' Top Picks

Great gifts made in Delaware Wild Birds Unlimited

Brandywine Coffee Roasters

Etcetera & Stitches

Rainbow Records

Creations Gallery

Monserrat Elements JKB Design

O'Neill's Fly Fishing Fierro Cheese

DECEMBER 2016 CO M P L I M E N TA R Y VOL. 29 | NO. 10

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49 Out & About Magazine Published each month by TSN Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mailing & business address: 307 A Street, Wilmington, DE 19801

our staff Publisher Gerald duPhily • jduphily@tsnpub.com Director of Publications Jim Hunter Miller • jmiller@tsnpub.com

65

Contributing Editor Bob Yearick • ryearick@comcast.net

Creative Director & Production Manager Matthew Loeb, Catalyst Visuals, LLC. matt@catvis.biz Graphic Designer Tyler Mitchell, Catalyst Visuals, LLC. tyler@catvis.biz

what’s inside START

EAT

9 11 13 14 15 16 21

49 Domaine Hudson 53 Bites

From the Publisher The War on Words F.Y.I. By the Numbers Worth Trying Delaware Design Lab Choosing a Charter School

55 Grape Destinations 59 Experts’ Wine Picks 63 Sips

LEARN

LISTEN

12 Magic of Motion Capture

Contributing Writers Mark Fields, Pam George, Paula Goulden, Rob Kalesse, Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald, Robert Lhulier, Dan Linehan, Mike Little, Allan McKinley, John Murray, Larry Nagengast, Scott Pruden, Eric Ruth, Matt Sullivan

FOCUS

65 Montana Wildaxe 68 Tuned In 71 Hitting the Right Note

26 Homegrown Gifts 33 Toast to Holiday Events

WATCH

WILMINGTON

73 Moana & Loving 75 Six-pack Cinema 77 Theatre N Revived

Contributing Photographers Anthony Santoro, Javy Diaz, Jim Coarse and Joe del Tufo/Moonloop Photography, Tim Hawk, Matt Urban Special Projects Sarah Green, John Holton, David Hallberg

16 Delaware Design Lab: A Super School The two-year-old school is one of 10 awarded $10 million each over the next five years.

DRINK

Contributing Designer Ryan Alexander, Catalyst Visuals, LLC

39 Art on the Town 44 On the Riverfront

FEATURES

By Larry Nagengast

Director of Digital Media & Distribution Marie Graham Poot • mgraham@tsnpub.com

73

26 Gifts Made in Delaware

Associate Editor Krista Connor • kconnor@tsnpub.com

Look no further than The First State for you holiday shopping.

33 A Toast to Holiday Events Here’s a list of every manner of merriment to help get you into the bell-ringing, carol-singing, candle-lighting, reindeer-sighting, eggnog-guzzling, mistletoe-nuzzling mood.

By Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald

59 The Experts’ Wine Favorites

Editorial & advertising info: 302.655.6483 • Fax 302.654.0569 Website: outandaboutnow.com Email: contact@tsnpub.com

Local oenophiles share the best holiday wines to celebrate with this season.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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“Hammered” takes on a whole new meaning when you drink and drive. And the headache doesn’t stop there. You’ll get jail time, a suspended driver’s license and thousands of dollars in fines.

A DUI will always cost you. It’s not worth it.

Don’t let a DUI redefine you.

Make sure you have a safe ride. For a list of ride options near you, text SafeRide to 99000.

ArriveAliveDE.com/DriveSober

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From The Publisher

A SALES CALL I WILL MISS I

should have known when one week turned to three, then one month became two. Truth is, I never stopped to calculate the frequency of visits from Bill T. I just knew they occurred regularly. And I enjoyed them.

Bill T was Bill Talarowski, a man I began doing business with nearly two decades ago when he owned Litho-Print, a commercial printing shop on Vandever Avenue in Wilmington.

A gregarious man with a gentle manner, Bill T was old school in the best sense of the term. Hell, even then he was beyond retirement age.

In 2001, Bill T sold his business to Farley Printing, which in turn sold to Associates International. But instead of retiring, Bill T continued to work, doing business the only way he knew how—in person. Always spiffy, always ready with a photo of his garden or a story of how the bass were biting at his “secret” fishing hole, a sales call from Bill T was as easy as slipping on your favorite loafers.

“When I first bought his business in 2001, he said he wanted to keep working and I was fine with that,” said Joe Farley, Jr., COO of Associates International. “Then a year or so later we sat down and I said, ‘Bill, you know we really should talk about your retirement.’

“He said, ‘Let’s not talk about retirement. I love working.

What am I going to do, fish all day?’

“That’s the last we talked about retirement.”

Then fate ended the conversation for good. Bill T worked a full day on Tuesday, Sept 26. The next day he had a heart attack while getting ready for work. He was 89.

Bill T had battled health issues for years, and as soon as he fought off one ailment you’d see evidence of another. All of which made his regular visits to me somewhat amazing.

“I’m sick of all these damn doctor visits,” he shared with me. “They fix one thing, then it’s something else. I know what the hell’s wrong with me. I’m getting old.”

Indeed, he was, but not too old to work. So, a few months back, I followed through on a good intention I had put off for far too long. I took Bill T out for a business lunch—a simple gesture I knew he would appreciate.

Truth is, we didn’t talk much business. Instead, we talked history, politics, world affairs, fishing… We revisited his childhood in Wilmington. We reminisced about the time he took my son (then 8) to his “secret” fishing spot—a simple gesture I appreciated.

After lunch, as he gave me a firm hand shake, and a proper look in the eyes, he said simply: “Thanks for taking the time. I really enjoyed this.”

A few months later, Nov. 3 to be exact, it dawned on me that Bill T hadn’t popped by in a while. So, I called his cell phone and left a message. No return call.

Bill T always returned calls promptly, so on Nov. 4 I called Joe Farley at Associates, fearful that I already knew the answer to my question. Joe confirmed that, yes, Bill T had passed away a month or so ago. No viewing. No funeral. Bill T had made it very clear how he wanted his death handled, Farley explained.

Later that day I would speak with Bill T’s wife, Sue, who apologized that I wasn’t notified.

“But it’s funny you called today,” she said. “You know, today is his birthday. He would have been 90.”

The serendipity made me smile. Happy Birthday, Bill T. You may not have wanted the fuss, but that doesn’t keep me from sharing what a pleasure it was to have known you.

—Jerry duPhily

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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A writer/editor’s slightly snarky and relentless crusade to eliminate grammatical gaffes from our everyday communications

Compiled from the popular column in Out & About Magazine

THE WAR ON WORDS A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to defend the English language against misuse and abuse

Media Watch • From The News Journal: “With Democrat Matt Meyer and Republican Mark Blake pushing different narratives about how their background makes them fit for the job, it begs the question: What background is required to be an effective executive?” The writer meant it raises or brings up the question. Begs the question means to assume the conclusion of an argument—a type of circular reasoning. It’s a phrase writers should avoid because virtually no one knows how to use it correctly.

• From a TNJ editorial, courtesy of Dick Bugbee, of Wilmington: “In this day of iPhone7s and virtual reality and other things you kids know far better than us old fogies . . .” Should be we.

• Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Caldwell, quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer: “He (Matthew Stafford) relishes in tough situations.” No need for “in.” One relishes a situation or revels in it. It’s a term frequently mangled by athletes and coaches.

• An ESPN reporter claimed New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is “most happiest” when he’s playing football. The ol’ double superlative raises its semi-literate head once again.

• CNN is called out three times by a reader who reports she heard an executive producer for the network say “he could have went” (gone is correct)—twice—and that another used the word irregardless. There’s no such word. It’s regardless.

• From a New York Times email alert: “There’s fewer soirees in this administration.” The contraction for “there is” is frequently misused to refer to plurals—in this case, soirees—even in the best publications.

• USA Today sports pages continue to be the black hole of grammar. Latest evidence: “He had expressly wrote in the post . . .” Really? Wrote?

By Request Periodically, readers ask us to address their pet language peeves. Here’s our response to two recent requests: 1. flair vs. flare – Flair is used in relation to stylishness or originality or to describe someone with an aptitude for doing something well.

Flare means a sudden, brief burst of bright flame or light.

2. that vs. who – That should be used when referring to objects, who when referring to people. This has become something of a gray area, however, and some experts claim that can be used in reference to people. Those “experts” would be wrong.

Word of the Month

sui generis Pronounced soo-e-GEN-eris, this Latin phrase is an adjective meaning unique, in a class or group of its own.

By Bob Yearick

Problem Words Many other sets of words are often confused.

Here are a couple: • tortuous vs. torturous – Tortuous means full of twists and turns, as a route to a mountain peak, or even the path to solving a problem. Torturous means causing excruciating pain or suffering.

• exercise vs. exorcise – Exercise involves physical effort (duh!). Exorcise means to drive out or attempt to drive out (usually an evil spirit) from a person or place.

Department of Redundancies Dept.

• A press release about an upcoming event boasted that “notable VIPs” would be present. As opposed to un-notable VIPs? • From an email to me: “I have still yet to read it.” Emails are informal communication, so it’s forgivable, but still is unnecessary.

How Long, Oh Lord, How Long?

(In which we chronicle the continuing misuse of that most abused punctuation mark, the apostrophe.)

• Sign at Booths Corner Farmers Market: “Sticky bun’s.”

• And a reader tells me that our website was home to “a common apostrophe error”: “Enjoy the summer's bounty, at it's best!”

(Also, let’s lose the comma.)

Follow me on Twitter: @thewaronwords

Seen a good (bad) one lately?

Send your candidates to ryearick@comcast.net

NEED A SPEAKER FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION? Contact me for a fun PowerPoint presentation on grammar: ryearick@comcast.net.

Quotation of the Month “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been.

The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

—Isaac Asimov

Buy The War on Words paperback by calling 302-655-6483, at Ninth Street Books in Wilmington, the Hockessin Book Shelf, or on Amazon.com.

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LEARN

THE MAGIC OF MOTION CAPTURE What is it really and how does it affect you?

T

he need to accurately capture human motion goes well beyond summer blockbusters and can affect our lives on a daily basis. For example, military and law enforcement professionals use motion capture in their training to simulate combat and crisis management situations, as well as to train agents to perform interrogations. Modern motion capture is revolutionizing health care as well. Doctors and scientists have pressing needs to better understand how the body moves in order to diagnose, study and treat diseases and injuries. Think of how your orthopaedist could improve your treatment plan by interpreting a precise digital representation of your movements.

Scott Shaw, chair of the Game Design and Development and Video and Motion Graphics programs at Wilmington University explains, “They can actually use it to discern how injuries occur, and they can observe movements that stress the joints.” He adds, “It’s even used for accident reenactments or reconstructions.”

For some time, optical motion capture has been the industry standard. Optical “mocap” requires the use of special markers— either highly reflective balls or small bright lights—designed to be easily identifiable by image processing software. These markers are strategically placed on a suit worn by a subject, and using algorithms, imaging software captures the subject’s movements.

Sounds hi-tech, but there are limitations. The suits are inhibitive to a subject’s movements. Precise marker placement is time

consuming, and if movements obscure any of the markers, then the motion capture is flawed.

Now, systems that require special suits and markers are being displaced by advanced markerless motion capture technology that captures natural, unencumbered motion—ideal for animation, life sciences and military training and simulation. According to Organic Motion, a leader in the field, markerless systems use advanced computer vision technology to identify and track subjects in real-time without the need for any special suits or markers. This is especially beneficial in working with children, the elderly or other subjects whose condition makes the application of special suits difficult.

Wilmington University has partnered with Organic Motion to bring this advanced technology to its Visual Effects and Game Design programs. The University boasts a motion capture room, which affords WilmU students an unprecedented opportunity for study that most college students never get, at least on the East Coast.

“It’s the only system of its kind that has this type of technology at a student’s disposal,” notes Shaw. “To actually get in there and share that experience with students and show them how it’s all glued together is awesome.”

Students looking for cutting edge technology programs look to WilmU, where academic rigor combines with a culture of caring.

Learn more at wilmu.edu.

Need a different university experience?

• Flexible schedules • Affordable tuition • 100+ online programs Congrats, you did it!

Make 2017 different—now!

Classes start January 9.

wilmu.edu/StartNow

12 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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7

START TASTE OF THE HOLIDAYS

F.Y.I.

S

Things worth knowing CREATIVE AGING WORKSHOP

T

he inaugural Creative Aging Workshop on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover invites adults 55 and older to attend professionally-run arts programs with a focus on creative expression. There will be visual, literary and performing arts workshops that will provide the senior community with the theory and practice of creative aging and the knowledge to support and develop effective programs.

In addition, training and resources will be introduced. Attendees will leave with a framework to build individualized creative aging programs. Registration is free and open to the public. Visit modern-maturity.org for more.

UNEARTHING CHRISTMAS

A

nthea T. Piscarik, a fundraiser for local nonprofit Ministry of Caring, is also a writer whose novel Unearthing Christmas is the quintessential stocking stuffer. The book offers readers a glimpse into the past, to a day and age before handheld technology became the driving force of our everyday existence. Set in Texas, it tells the story of 14-year-old Lori, who recreates Christmas in her father’s bomb shelter. Sixty years later, 14-year-old Peggy discovers the abandoned shelter, fully preserved. Lori’s and Peggy’s worlds collide, resulting in a meeting ground between the past and present and a fate-filled adventure to self-awareness, forgiveness, and redemptive love. For more information, visit unearthingchristmas.tateauthor.com.

A SLAM DUNK HOLIDAY

S

lam Dunk to the Beach returns to Cape Henlopen High Dec. 27-29 sporting five of the top 25 high school boys basketball teams in the country. Now in its third year, the event has created more than $2 million in economic impact and drawn more than 20,000 visitors to the Delaware beach area during the off-season. Teams ranked among the nation’s best by USA Today include Patrick School (Elizabeth, N.J.), Westtown (West Chester, Pa.), Gray Collegiate (Columbia, S.C.), St. Benedict’s Prep (Newark, N.J.) and Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia). Local high school fans can see how Delaware teams stack up against national competition as Smyrna, Mt. Pleasant, Cape Henlopen and Sanford School also compete. For tickets and the complete tournament schedule visit slamdunktothebeach.com.

CREATIVE HEALING

T

he Cancer Support Community Delaware is sponsoring a knitting group every first and third Tuesday of the month from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 4810 Lancaster Pike, Wilmington. You don’t even have to know how to hold knitting needles—staff members will teach you. The group offers a chance to re-charge, talk and laugh, and to offer and receive support. Register by calling Cancer Support Community at 995-2850.

As always, all programs at the Cancer Support Community Delaware—part of a national nonprofit organization that provides support, education and hope to people with cancer and their loved ones—are offered without charge. Find more at cancersupportdelaware.org.

ample a diverse selection of beer, wine and champagne at the annual Taste of the Holidays at the Delaware Contemporary on the Wilmington Riverfront on Friday, Dec. 2.

The event benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Delaware. It is scheduled for 5 to 10 p.m., to coincide with Wilmington’s monthly Art Loop. In addition, the Delaware Contemporary will hold its annual Contemporary Craft Show, with items from 15 exhibitors. Music will be provided by teenage singer-violinist Grace Otley, and beverages and food from several vendors will be available.

Participants in the craft show include jewelry makers Mauricio Riano, Aimee Petkus and Karen Horner; ceramicists Stefani Threet, Steven Summerville and Bob Deane; printmaker Lindsay Schmittle; printmaker/photographer Eric Zippe; mosaic artist Celeste Kelly; fused glass specialist Marcie Tauber; textile artists Irina Iakomi and Belinda Orzada; 3D printmaker Matt Gorton; ceramicist/ jewelry maker Jenny Davies-Reazor, and soapmaker Carol Gingrich.

Admission is free, and tickets for drink samples $1 each. Coupons for discounted tickets may be purchased in advance at FranksWine in Wilmington.

For more information, visit decontemporary.org.

50 YEARS OF THE NUTCRACKER

T

he Wilmington Ballet Academy of the Dance is celebrating its 50th anniversary of The Nutcracker from Dec. 3-4. A provider of superior classical ballet training that fosters discipline, confidence, poise, and commitment to students of all ages in the Wilmington area, the dance company will hold the holiday performance at The Playhouse on Rodney Square.

Show times for Saturday, Dec. 3, are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and on Sunday, Dec. 4, are at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Go to wilmingtonballet.org for tickets.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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by the numbers A few holiday facts worth knowing.

17.6

The approximate number, in millions, of greasy doughnuts eaten in Israel each Hanukkah, celebrating “the miracle of the oil,” when an ancient temple's menorah stayed miraculously lit for eight days, although there was only enough oil for one day.

50 It’s been this many years since the first celebration of Kwanzaa, which honors African heritage in AfricanAmerican culture.

830 The amount, in dollars, that the average American spent on Christmas-related purchases last year, up 15 percent from $720 in 2014.

30

The approximate number, in millions, of real Christmas trees that are sold each year.

7 The number of days Kwanzaa is celebrated, from Dec. 26-Jan. 1.

14 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Worth Trying Suggestions from our staff, contributors and readers

The Great Mushroom Drop

Holiday Lights Express

Times Square has nothing on Kennett Square. For the fourth year straight, “The Mushroom Capital of the World” will ring in the New Year with its annual Mushroom Drop on Saturday, Dec. 31. What began as a lark now draws thousands and is a clever way for Kennett to draw attention to its charming downtown. Festivities are family friendly with the only admission charge being a non-perishable food item. Activities begin at 6p.m.; the raising and lighting of the mushroom begins around 7:30p.m. Visit midnightinthesquare.com.

This peaceful little train ride on the Wilmington & Western Railroad has become a holiday tradition for me and my family. It takes less than an hour and the kids love riding in the railcar, which is draped with thousands of holiday lights. Most of the homes that are visible from the tracks go crazy with their own holiday decorations as well. Rides start as early as Dec. 9. Looking for a little Santa Clause action? They also offer the "Santa Claus Express" on Dec. 10. Tickets and info at wwrr.com.

—Jerry duPhily, Publisher

—Matt Loeb, Creative Director & Production Manager

Schmidt's Tree Farm, Landenberg, Pa. Our annual trip to Schmidt’s Tree Farm is now a decade old tradition for my family, and is one of the things I most look forward to each holiday season. Each year we head to the farm in Landenberg, take a tractor ride out into the field, and select and cut down our tree (after arguing over which one is best and whether or not it will actually fit in our house, of course).

You’ll spend a little more than you would at Lowe’s or Home Depot, but you’ll support a local family-owned business and get in some wholesome family fun.

—Marie Graham Poot, Director of Digital Media and Distribution

The War on Words (the book) A writer/editor’s slightly snarky and relentless crusade to eliminate grammatical gaffes from our everyday communications

Compiled from the popular column in Out & About Magazine

At the risk of sounding outrageously self-serving, this slim paperback makes a great stockingstuffer, especially for lovers of the language. It’s a collection of every installment of the O&A column from inception in 2007 through 2011, and it charts the debut of popular features such as Department of Redundancies Dept. and How Long, Oh Lord, How Long? The book is available on Amazon, from Ninth Street Books in Wilmington, Hockessin Book Shelf, and outandabounow.com, for approximately $10.

—Bob Yearick, Contributing Editor

Have something you think is worth trying?

Send an email to Jim with your suggestion to jmiller@tsnpub.com

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28 SEPTEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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SUPER START

SCHOOL In a national competition, the two-year-old Delaware Design Lab is one of 10 schools that have been awarded $10 million each over the next five years

By Larry Nagengast

S

ometimes dreams don’t work out as planned.

And sometimes real life can turn out better than anyone could have imagined.

Just ask Cristina Alvarez and Martin Rayala, cofounders of the Delaware Design Lab High School. Alvarez, a former principal of Philadelphia’s Charter High School for Architecture and Design, turned up in Delaware in the fall of 2012, with the dream of creating a new school in downtown Wilmington. She had teamed with Rayala, a veteran educator and consultant, to write her proposal and, on the recommendation of a friend, recruited Matt Urban, president of Mobius New Media, a graphics and design firm with offices in the Grand Opera House, to head its board of directors.

The State Board of Education approved Design Lab’s charter application in early 2013, but the school opening was delayed until the fall of 2015. Alvarez was unable to find a suitable downtown Wilmington site and wound up settling in Christiana, in a building in the Faith City Church complex that had previously been used by another charter, the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security. It started with 233 students, about half of them AfricanAmerican, in grades 9 and 10. With 11th grade added this year, enrollment is now pushing 300, Rayala says.

But Alvarez and Rayala won’t be surprised to see the demand for seats soar by the Jan. 11 deadline for choice and charter applications for the 2017-18 school year.

After all, who wouldn’t want their child to attend a school that had just won a $10 million grant in a national competition to create a next-generation “super school”?

That’s right—$10 million, a cool $2 million a year for the next five years. Considering that the school’s budget is currently $4.2 million, having the ability to tap into another $2 million gives Design Lab the potential to do more—a lot more.

“It’s a huge amount of money, and we were shocked to get it,” Alvarez says.

RE-IMAGINING THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL The money is coming from XQ: The Super School Project, funded by the Emerson Collective, an education and immigration advocacy group run by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers. XQ put out a call for proposals that would re-imagine the American high school for the 21st century, and Design Lab submitted one based on its academic plan.

The competition was fierce. More than 1,400 schools expressed interest in the competition, 700 applied, and that number was whittled down to 350, then 50 semifinalists and ultimately the 10 winners.

Other winners in the competition included charter schools and traditional public schools with plans to focus on high-needs students, academically successful self-directed students, homeless students and one that would operate out of a museum.

“It’s not like anything else we have in our state. The award validates that we brought an innovative model to Delaware,” says Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network. ►

◄ Design Lab now has about 300 students in grades 9, 10 and 11. Photo courtesy of The Design Lab High School DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Photo courtesy of The Design Lab High School

SUPER SCHOOL continued from previous page

Cristina Alvarez (in red) and the Delaware Design Lab team receiving the XQ Super School award for educational innovation and excellence from famed rapper MC Hammer.

Massett, however, offers a cautionary note. “It’s still a secondyear school. Infusing money into a school does not make it perfect.

I hope nobody thinks they’re not going to have challenges. Every school has challenges. But now they have a cushion to have a failure here or there.”

The next steps for Design Lab, Alvarez says, are to prove that the model works and to create opportunities to replicate the model in other settings—one of the key objectives of charter schools.

CORE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY At the core of the school’s educational philosophy is a concept called “design thinking,” which, Rayala explains, means “taking the ideas and processes that designers use to solve a problem, learning those processes and applying them to any aspect of your life.”

Design Lab students take the same subjects that other high school students do—English/language arts, math, science, social studies, foreign language—but they learn the material differently.

Teachers don’t stand in front of the class and lecture, and students don’t memorize facts.

Instead, teachers present a problem and students use the design process to find a solution. First, they discover, examining the issue to ensure they are attempting to solve the right problem.

Then they visualize, considering all the possible solutions. Next comes prototype, testing the most promising solutions. Then they present, describing their idea or solution in a clear and compelling way to their teacher and the rest of the class—much like the presenters at TED talks or entrepreneurial hopefuls on the Shark Tank television series.

“In traditional education, the teacher is the holder of the information, the all-knowing person,” Alvarez says. But today, she says, “we’re living in a world where kids have access to information through their phones. Technological development has pointed us toward realizing that schools must change their learning model away from the teacher as the source of all information and power into something else … into students taking more control of their learning.”

Students entering Design Lab aren’t always ready for this new approach, Alvarez says, because “traditional schools are based on socialization and compliance and they spend a lot of time taking the curiosity of a child and tamping it down for them to fit this model.”

18 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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The Design Lab staff encourages curiosity. The freshman social studies class, for example, doesn’t include traditional civics lessons. It’s called “regional planning,” and students start out by learning about New Castle County and all of Delaware, its culture, geography, economics and politics. “Students have to reach out into the community, to discover what mayors do, what urban planners do,” Alvarez says.

Students do a lot of their work as teams, not only as partners but also in critiquing each other’s work—developing skills that Rayala says will be essential within a 21st-century workforce.

“Businesses are decentralizing, working toward smaller units, so workers have to be more nimble, more problem-solving, more able to take on new challenges,” he says. “We all have to be creative.

We all have to wear many hats.”

Design Lab doesn’t plan to pour its $10 million into a new building or into expanding its staff, Alvarez and Rayala say. Doing so, they explain, would defeat the purpose of the grant because it’s easy to make a model succeed when you equip it with more personnel and lots of bells and whistles.

“Our mindset is not going to be ‘how do we spend $10 million?’

It’s how we use the $10 million as leverage to get the money we really need,” Rayala says.

Design Lab students, he says, will see some improvements in the short term—things like another counselor a semester ahead of schedule and improvements in the science labs.

Over the next few years, the money will make it possible for the school to add more teachers than it would have on its regular budget, but the school’s leaders have no intention of building a staff that would have to be cut significantly when the grant money runs out.

Alvarez and Rayala anticipate using some of the prize as matching funds should they seek corporate or foundation grants to make long-term improvements, whether it’s for buying new computers or working toward construction of a new building for when their current lease at Faith City expires after the 201920 school year.

And some of the money will be used for testing new ways of putting “design thinking” to work, whether it be through more use of computers, getting students outside the classroom and into the community more often, or changing the way teachers and students interact.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS The outcomes of those learning experiments will help Design Lab leaders package a model curriculum and instructional process that it can replicate in Delaware and elsewhere in the country.

They won’t be doing it alone, Rayala says, because the award increases the probability of developing new partnerships to drive the school forward. “With $10 million and the validation of internationally known people, we can go to the business community and to universities and say ‘pay attention to what we’re doing.’”

No matter how Design Lab evolves, its development won’t go unnoticed.

In 2014 and 2015, when the school was recruiting its first students, “we didn’t have a campus, we had nothing you could touch, feel or see,” Urban says.

In January, Alvarez and Rayala won’t be surprised if they wind up with more applicants than available seats and have to use a lottery to determine which students will be admitted.

“We’ve gone from under the radar to way above the radar,” Urban says.

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Now Enrolling Grades 9-12 for School Year 2016- 2017 LIMITED SPACE. RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY! LOCATION / MAIL APPLICATIONS: Delaware Design-Lab High School 179 Stanton Christiana Road Newark, DE 19702 FOR MORE INFO: http://design-labschools.org/delaware-enrollment.php QUESTIONS: 302.660.1523

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Odyssey Charter students (from left) Sophia Yarram, Gillian Klemas, Leopold Pullella and Cooper Fink work with teacher Greg Altmeier. Photo courtesy of Odyssey Charter School

IS A CHARTER SCHOOL RIGHT FOR YOUR CHILD? If so, you’d better make your selection soon—deadline is Jan. 11.

Here’s a summary.

By Larry Nagengast

I

f you went to a public high school a generation ago, the choice was easy.

Or, more accurately, there wasn’t any choice at all. Unless you opted for a vocational-technical high school, predetermined attendance zones controlled your assignment.

Then along came choice, and along came charters, and the options have seemed to increase almost every year.

So, if your child will be entering high school next year —or if you’re an eighth grader reading this article—now is the time to figure out your next step.

Delaware’s public school choice window is officially open, and you have until Jan. 11 to make your selection.

If you’re not excited about the school that serves your community, the choice program lets parents and students pick the school whose curriculum, special programs or teaching methods appear to make it the best fit for a student’s interests and learning style.

“There are great opportunities in all choices, including charter, traditional, vo-tech and independent schools,” says Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network. ►

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Charter schools are independent, tuition-free public IS A CHARTER SCHOOL schools. They get their name RIGHT FOR YOUR CHILD? from the “charter” or contract continued from previous page granted to them, which states the school’s mission, program and goals. Most of these schools in Delaware have charters granted by the state Department of Education. Several, including the Charter School of Wilmington and the Delaware Military Academy, have charters granted by the Red Clay Consolidated School District. Charter schools are run by their own boards of directors and they do not have to follow all the rules the state has established for traditional public schools. Authorizers can revoke charters if schools do not live up to contract terms.

DIFFERENT FROM “MAGNETS” The relative independence charters possess under their contracts makes them different from so-called “magnet schools,” which offer a special-interest curriculum but are operated by a traditional school district. The best-known magnets in New Castle County are both in Red Clay—the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and the Conrad Schools of Science.

Charters must offer all the classes required for high school students in Delaware—English/language arts, math, science, social studies, world languages—but subjects may be taught in nontraditional ways or may be wrapped with a special package of electives.

“A charter by virtue of being a charter is not necessarily a better choice,” Massett says. “But a school’s model, its method of

teaching, or a smaller school size might be a reason to choose a charter for your child.”

And, she adds, in the case of eighth graders, “they have a better idea of how they learn. They can articulate that, and make choices themselves.”

And charters give students in New Castle County plenty of choices.

Interested in a career as a paramedic or police officer?

There’s a school for that.

Care to experiment in science and math? You’ve got three choices.

Are you into the arts? Good to go.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER Want to straighten up with some military discipline? Are you a Greek geek? Have you fallen behind and need some extra attention to catch up with your peers? Check, check, and check.

The list accompanying this story will help sort out your choices.

It’s also a good idea to call the school, check out its website and make a visit, either during the school day or at an open house event before you fill out the application form at the website SchoolChoiceDE. org. Note that you can apply to more than one school, and that some schools have supplemental application forms.

In exploring charters, there are some important factors to consider—so be sure to ask as you do your investigating.

Since charters tend to be smaller than most traditional high schools, they might not offer as many elective classes or as many extracurricular activities. There might not be a football team or a marching band, and you might be assessed a participation fee for team sports or certain extracurriculars.

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Transportation can be an issue too.

Because charters tend to draw smaller numbers of students from larger geographic areas, the nearest bus stop might be more than a block or two from home. You might have to drive a couple of miles to a “bus hub” in the morning and afternoon.

It’s also important to understand the enrollment process. If there are enough seats available, charters are required to accept every student who applies.

However, if there are 120 applicants for 100 seats in next year’s freshman class, a lottery is used to determine who gets in.

But it’s not purely random. Under guidelines spelled out in state law, schools may set their own “enrollment preferences.”

These preferences, depending on the school, can give preference to children of members of the school’s board of directors, children of full-time staff and siblings of current students. Geography can be a factor too.

Newark Charter uses a five-mile radius from the school as a preference; MOT Charter gives priority to residents of the Appoquinimink School District, and the schools chartered by Red Clay give preference to district residents.

Also, some schools give a preference to students who can demonstrate a “specific interest” in a school’s focus or methods, and they may use a “placement test” to measure a student’s level of interest.

Once the preferences are sorted out, the remaining applicants are placed in a lottery. While the mechanics may vary by school, each applicant is assigned a number and the numbers are drawn.

Accepted students receive notification in early February but must fill out more paperwork to complete the process. Other applicants are placed on a waiting list, usually based on their lottery number.

Finally, after a child makes his or her selection, a parent needs to keep on top of what’s going on at the school.

While some of Delaware’s charters have earned national recognition and others are part of larger successful charter organizations, the state has cited poor academic performance and administrative or financial mismanagement to shut down three charter high schools in the last four years: the Delaware MET, the Maurice J. Moyer Academic Institute ww and the Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School.

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NCCo Charter High Schools Here is summary information on all charter high schools in New Castle County.

Unless otherwise noted, all serve grades 9-12. For more details, call the school or visit its website.

Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security: Located in the former Our Lady of Fatima School on DuPont Highway in New Castle, the school’s curriculum includes training for careers as firefighters, paramedics, police officers and in the military.

322-6050 • dapsscharterschool.org Delaware Design-Lab High School (See story, pg. 16): Located in the Faith City Church complex near Christiana Mall, the school’s instructional model focuses on problem solving through “design thinking”—in essence, seeking answers by following the same steps that designers use to solve problems in their professional lives. It currently serves grades 9-11 and will add a 12th grade class in 2017-18.

292-5450 • design-LabSchools.org Delaware Military Academy: Located near Banning Park, southwest of Wilmington, it refers to students as “cadets” and they participate in a Navy Junior ROTC program. Nearly all of its graduates go on to higher education. The school is currently running a $7.5 million capital campaign to finance a new athletics/academic building and athletics fields.

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Freire Charter School: Located in downtown Wilmington, Freire is a replication of a successful charter model in Philadelphia. It offers double sessions of English and math classes to help students performing below grade level to catch up and prepare for college. Freire currently serves grades 8-11 and will add a 12th grade class in 2017-18.

407-4800 • freirewilmington.org Great Oaks Charter School: Housed in the Community Education Building in downtown Wilmington, Great Oaks has sister charter schools in New York City, Newark, N.J., and Bridgeport, Conn. Its model relies on intensive tutoring on top of classroom instruction to bring students up to grade level and prepare them for college. Great Oaks Wilmington currently serves grades 6 and 7. It will add a grade a year, becoming a full 6-12 program by the 2021-22 school year.

660-4790 • greatoakscharter.org MOT Charter High School: Located in Middletown, the school is an outgrowth of a K-8 charter and is modeled after the pairing of the Charter School of Wilmington and the Cab Calloway School of the Arts in the same building, giving students the choice of focusing on the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) or the arts. Its first class will graduate in 2018.

696-2000 • motcharter.com Newark Charter High School: On a 21-acre campus west of Newark near the Maryland state line, Newark Charter has a junior high (grades 7-8) and senior high (grades 9-12) in a single building. Many of its students began their school careers in Newark Charter’s K-6 program.

Students choose from two academies, one focusing on STEM disciplines and the other on global studies and leadership. Newark Charter is the only high school in the state to implement the College Board’s rigorous Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma Program.

369-2001 • newarkcharter.org Odyssey Charter School: Located in a former office building in the Barley Mill Plaza complex west of Wilmington, the school currently serves kindergarten through ninth grade, and will be adding a grade a year, so its first high school class will graduate in 2020. It’s a dual-language immersion school, with students receiving instruction in core subjects in both English and Greek.

994-6490 • odysseycharterschooldel.org The Charter School of Wilmington: Delaware’s first charter school, CSW shares space in the old Wilmington High School building with a magnet school, the Cab Calloway School of the Arts. The school has developed a national reputation for its excellence in the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and math.

651-2727 • www.charterschool.org

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Look no farther than The First State for your holiday shopping

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ART

DELAWARE BY HAND 406 Federal St., Dover Biggsmuseum.org 674-2111 Pieces are created by the artist and artisan members of the Biggs Museum. The retail store is located at the Biggs in Dover.

DRINK

TERRANCE VANN (pictured) terranceism.bigcartel.com The Wilmington-based artist is working with the Wilmington Renaissance Corporation on the 7th Street Arts Bridge.

ChriSTMAS DECORATIONS MARCIA POLING BIRD ORNAMENTS Wild Birds Unlimited 7411 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin hockessin.wbu.com These bird-themed Christmas tree ornaments are hand-painted in lovely detail by Dover artist and naturalist Marcia Poling. Each ornament offers a unique design, perfect for the bird lover on your list.

DEA DALY deannadaly.com From Newark, Dea Daly offers one-ofa-kind ornaments this holiday season.

She also sells incense burners and charms made from polymer clay.

Orders and custom pieces can also be placed on Facebook or Instagram.

BRANDYWINE COFFEE ROASTERS (pictured) 1400 N. Dupont St., Wilmington brandywinecoffeeroasters.com 731-0427 Price: $10 & up A great option for the local coffeelover, Brandywine Coffee Roasters offers delicious, hand-roasted blends, sourced from the world’s best coffee. Sample some at the closest Brew HaHa!, or learn more at brandywinecoffeeroasters.com.

The products feature very cool artwork as well.

HIGHLAND ORCHARDS 1431 Foulk Rd., Wilmington highlandorchardsfarmmarket.com 478-4042 Stop by this family-run fruit and vegetable farm for some delicious, seasonal apple cider, made fresh from the farm’s harvest.

Continued ► DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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FOOD

ENTERTAINMENT LOCAL MUSIC AT RAINBOW RECORDS 54 E. Main St., Newark rainbowrecordsde.com 368-7738 Price: $10 & up The entire store is a music and book haven, and we particularly recommend perusing the section showcasing area artists. It features an impressive assortment of records, CDs and tapes by local favorites.

FIERRO CHEESE 1025 N Union St., Wilmington fierrocheese.com 656-8955 Price: $10 & up This family-owned and operated maker of quality Italian dairy products, including ricotta, ricotta impastata, mozzarella, curd and queso fresco, is located in the heart of Little Italy.

MAIALE DELI & SALUMERIA 3301 Lancaster Pike, Wilmington maialecuredmeats.com 691-5269 Price: $49 & up (platters) More than 30 varieties of sausage and 10 types of salami are available here. All sausages and dried salami are handcrafted in house and made fresh daily.

WALKER'S APIARY HONEY 351 Wedgewood Rd., Newark 731-0427 Price: $10 & up Located near White Clay Creek Preserve, this apiary also produces honey—along with wax and ointment.

THE WAR ON WORDS BOOK (pictured) amazon.com 654-6483 Price: $9.95 Local wordsmith and O&A editor Bob Yearick has compiled a collection of his columns into a book.

Each page is a spot-on, somewhat snarky attempt to eliminate the grammatical gaffes that plague our everyday communications.

A writer/editor’s slightly snarky and relentless crusade to eliminate grammatical gaffes from our everyday communications

Compiled from the popular column in Out & About Magazine

Home Goods/Furnishings ETCETERA & STITCHES Newark etsy.com/shop/etceteraandstitches Price: $3-$30 This online shop by local artist Kristen Vaughn features her individually-designed cross-stitch patterns, hand-crafted kits and finished pieces.

Versatile with nerdy and pop culture references, along with modern embroidery hoop art, these pieces are a perfect stocking stuffer for anyone.

JKB DESIGN 1004 Wawaset St., Wilmington jbuckley.net 559-3547 (pictured) From custom cabinets to naturallooking wood tables and desks, Jim Buckley creates carefully crafted furniture to suit your unique specifications and reflect your personality.

KITCHEN ACCESSORIES AT CREATIONS GALLERY 443 Hockessin Corner, Hockessin creationsgallery.com 235-2310 Among the varied home items offered at Creations you’ll find the kitchen accessories that Middletown native Michael O’Grady creates from olive wood imported from sustainable sources in Bethlehem, Israel. The growth habit of the olive trees results in spectacular swirly figures—and, hence, unique conversation pieces for your home.

MICHAEL QUATTROCIOCCHI quattrociocchiwoodwork.com A member of the Delaware State of the Arts Council, Quattrociocchi focuses “on the true beauty of natural wood while providing an object with functional use.”

WELL BORN CLAY 619 Harrington St., Wilmington wellbornclay.com 443-621-4036 Price: $15-$65 Specializing in functional wares for people who like to cook and eat naturally.►

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Left to right, images provided by: Irina’s Original, Amy Valuck, and Faith A. Rosenblatt.

WINTER ARTS FESTIVAL DECEMBER 10 & 11 . 10 PM – 4 PM 2301 Kentmere Parkway | Wilmington, DE 19806 302.571.9590 | delart.org

Celebrate the holiday season at the Museum!

Browse handmade items by 20 regional artisans, enjoy live holiday music, and treats by Toscana in the Café. Free.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Jewelry

Kids/Babies

LOLAH SOUL JEWELRY (pictured) lolahSoul.com 888-771-7087 She creates “wearable art,” including rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings.

MONSERRAT ELEMENTS facebook.com/monserratelements 540-5846 Sara Monserrat Teixido has been making one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted jewelry creations and amulets for more than 22 years.

OLGA GANOUDIS DESIGNS 1313 Scott St., Wilmington etsy.com/shopOlgaGanoudis 421-9820 Olga Ganoudis’ hand-made jewelry includes some pieces with Game of Thrones theme.

MIDWINTER CO. midwinter.co Vintage and minimal classics in modern form, featuring natural gems and unique diamonds.

This husband and wife team run a socially responsible business from their home studio in Wilmington, and 10% or more of their profits go to local charities.

GETTING SEW CRAFTY gettingsewcrafty.com Price: $5-$30 A Newark-based business, Getting Sew Crafty provides stylish and functional teething and nursing jewelry and accessories for mom and tot.

Out of the Ordinary

OUTDOORS ALLEY-OOP 904 Coastal Hwy., Dewey Beach alley-oop.myshopify.com 227-7087 Price: Wearables & Accessories $21-$50 Created in 2000 by skimboarding aficionado Corey Mahoney, this Dewey Beach-based company produces its own line of skimboarding gear and skateboard decks. It also runs nationally-acclaimed skimboarding camps at the Delaware beaches—one of the top skimboarding destinations in the world.

O'NEILL'S FLY FISHING Dedicated to all aspects of fly fishing culture, including seminars, lessons, instruction and custom fly tying. Flies range from $3.95 to more than $10, depending on the pattern. Tim O’Neill operates the business out of his home in Hockessin. Contact him at tim@oneillsflyfishing.com.

SORE THUMB DESIGNS (pictured) sorethumbdesignsllc.com New Castle-based pop artist Lawrence Moore re-utilizes pages from comic book classics to create custom-designed storage trunks, which add fun and a dramatic splash of color to any playroom, studio or even an office. If you’re set on storage, Moore takes the same “pulp fiction” approach to the leather tote bags that are also for sale on his site.

ZEXCOIL GUITAR PICKUPS Lawing Musical Products, LLC lawingmusicalproducts.com 533-7548 For the musician on your list, these locallymade guitar pickups boast great tone without the nagging hum that comes from most conventional pickups. The unique design is the product of Delaware local Dr. Scott Lawing, an engineer with a PhD from MIT who also happens to be a veteran guitarist with the band In The Light.

26 OCTOBER 30 DECEMBER2016 2016 | | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Drink real.

The wine in the photo costs $11 at Moore Brothers Wine Company, where every wine is a hand crafted, sustainably farmed expression of a real place and real people, and every bottle was shipped and is stored at 56°.

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FOCUS

A Toast To Holiday Events In Wilmington and beyond

By Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald

W

e’ve compiled a list of every manner of merriment to help get you into the bell-ringing, carol-singing, candle-lighting, reindeer-sighting, eggnog-guzzling, mistletoe-nuzzling mood. Happy Holidays to all!

Longtime Holiday Traditions YULETIDE AT WINTERTHUR Now–Jan. 8, 2017 | Winterthur Museum & Gardens Yuletide is one of the most beautiful times at Winterthur, with tree displays adorning the rooms and the Conservatory; sparkling trees and American Christmas vignettes—scenes inspired by Currier & Ives, holiday decorations from Mississippi in the Civil War era and the White House in the early 1900s. New this year in The Galleries stair hall: a 6x3-foot, slate-roofed, fully electrified dollhouse inspired by Queen Mary’s dollhouse, created by Nancy McDaniel and donated to Winterthur.

A LONGWOOD CHRISTMAS Now–Jan. 8, 2017 | Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pa. The sounds of the season resonate through the gardens in this year’s musically inspired display. Highlights include an 18foot Fraser fir adorned with a garland of musical instruments in the Music Room; holiday horticulture showcasing more than 6,000 seasonal plants; organ sing-alongs, strolling carolers and performances throughout the estate; and three fire pits—at the Hour Glass Lake Pavilion, Peirce-du Pont House Plaza and Dogwood Plaza—available (weather permitting) for guests’ enjoyment from 4:30–10 pm. ►

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Family Holiday Fun

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA Saturday, Dec. 3, 11 am | Delaware Museum of Natural History Enjoy a special pancake breakfast and a visit with Santa. Get your picture taken with him and let him know if you’ve been naughty or nice. Afterward, take an afternoon tour at the Museum. Tickets are $5 for members and $9 for non-members. Pre-registration is required at delmnh.org.

HEALTHY STARTS HERE

HOLIDAY SING! Sunday, Dec. 4, 3 pm | The Music School of Delaware, Wilmington Branch This musical sing-a-long for the whole family is hosted by the Early Childhood Department of the Music School and marks their 26th annual seasonal celebration. Music School faculty and friends provide instruments, singing and fun. Free, and good for ages 1½ and up.

CHESAPEAKE BRASS BAND HOLIDAY CONCERT Saturday, Dec. 10, 7 pm Grace Episcopal Church, Wilmington This 35-piece award-winning brass band presents a high-spirited performance of classical, traditional and popular holiday favorites. This event is free.

HOLIDAY FAMILY FESTIVITIES AT THE DELAWARE ART MUSEUM Saturday, Dec. 10, 10:30 am Delaware Art Museum Enjoy a host of family-friendly activities at the Museum this holiday season. In Kids’ Corner, explore a geometric winter wonderland, add to the interactive igloo and build 3-D snowflakes. Families can also take a wintry walk through the Copeland Sculpture Garden to search for geometric shapes. Free with museum admission.

LEGOS & LATKES FOR KIDS: A PRE-CHANUKAH PROGRAM Sunday, Dec. 18, 12:15-2 pm Chabad Center for Jewish Life, Wilmington This popular, community-wide event helps parents and kids enter Chanukah with spirit—by making their own Lego Menorah and delicious latkes. Cost is $12-16 per Lego Menorah set, and online registration is required to guarantee a Menorah. Register at ChabadDE.com/register.

A membership at the Y will give you access to more than 120 FREE group exercise classes including, Step, Yoga, Pilates, Spinning, Zumba, BodyCombat and more!

JOIN TODAY!

www.ymcade.org Financial assistance is available.

CHANUKAH FAMILY FUN FESTIVAL Tuesday, Dec. 27, 5-7 pm Chabad Center for Jewish Life, Wilmington Bring the whole family to this party, which will feature a public menorah lighting, a professional entertainer, a delicious Chinese buffet dinner, a moonbounce, games, Chanukah crafts, festive Jewish Music, face painting, prizes and more. Early-bird tickets (purchase before Dec. 23) are $20 for adults and $12 for kids. Register at ChabadDE.com/ ChanukahEvents.

Holiday Theatrics EVERY CHRISTMAS STORY EVER TOLD (AND THEN SOME!) Friday, Dec. 2–Saturday, Dec. 10 | Chapel Street Players, Newark Instead of performing Charles Dickens’ holiday classic for the umpteenth time, three actors decide to perform every Christmas story ever told—plus Christmas traditions from around the world, seasonal icons from ancient times to topical pop culture, and carols too. A madcap romp through the holiday season! Tickets to $18.

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CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT Now–Friday, Dec. 23 | The Candlelight Theater, Arden Back by popular demand, this heartwarming yuletide celebration features some of your favorite holiday tunes performed by some of your favorite “Candlelighters.”

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Wednesday, Dec. 7–Friday, Dec. 30 Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington Ebenezer Scrooge returns to the DTC stage as he transforms from a stingy miser to a man who generously celebrates the spirit of the season all year long. Don't be left out in the cold for this stunning adaptation of a timeless holiday classic. Tickets are $4050 and available at delawaretheatre.org.

Sparkling Holiday Dance WILMINGTON BALLET ACADEMY OF THE DANCE — 50TH ANNUAL NUTCRACKER Saturday, Dec. 3 and Sunday, Dec. 4 | The Playhouse on Rodney Square Kick off the season with one of Wilmington's most enduring holiday traditions—the story of young Clara on Christmas night as she is tangled in a battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King in the Land of Sweets. Wilmington Ballet's performance features New York City Ballet principal dancers Abi Stafford and Adrian Danchig-Waring as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. Live music will be provided by the Wilmington Ballet Orchestra and Chorus, and the beloved Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble will perform. This year, Gov. Jack Markell and First Lady Carla Markell will make a cameo appearance in the Dec. 3 2 pm show to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

CHRISTINA CULTURAL ARTS CENTER — ELEONE DANCE THEATER’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF “CAROLS IN COLOR” Sunday, Dec. 11, 4 pm | The Grand Opera House For a unique holiday treat, check out this one-day-only performance in Wilmington. “Carols” is a stirring holiday musical that retells the story of Christ's birth according to the gospel of St. Matthew using contemporary music, exuberant dance and powerful narration. Tickets are $25-35, available at tickets. thegrandwilmington.org or 800.37GRAND. FIRST STATE BALLET THEATRE — THE NUTCRACKER Saturday, Dec. 17, 2 and 7 pm and Sunday, Dec.18, 2 pm The Grand Opera House, Wilmington Delaware's only professional ballet company presents Wilmington's favorite holiday tradition, The Nutcracker.

Experience the magical journey through the land of sweets in FSBT's lavish production. Tickets are $14.99-45 and are available at tickets.thegrandwilmington. org or 800.37GRAND. ►

NEW YEAR'S e v e 2 016

saturday, december 31st 9pm – 12:30am $ 60/person in advance $ 65/person at the door purchase tickets online at: tonicbargrille.com/events

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DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Create Some

HERE'S A TOAST TO HOLIDAY EVENTS continued from previous page

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Holiday Music!

THURSDAY NOONTIME CONCERT — CARTOON CHRISTMAS TRIO Thursday, Dec. 1, 12:30 pm | First & Central Presbyterian Church, Rodney Square Market Street Music welcomes back the Cartoon Christmas Trio for one of downtown’s favorite holiday traditions. Jazz music from the beloved cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will fill the sanctuary of First & Central. The concert is free to attend, but donations are gratefully accepted.

H un!

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PiccolinaToscana.com 302.654.8001

Holiday Parties to Go! Toscana’s To Go’s all new casual catering menu brings the party to your home or office.

ToscanaToGo.com 302.655.8600

visit: BigChefGuy.com for our NEW YEAR’S EVE $ 50 open bar package!

FIRST STATE SYMPHONIC BAND CHRISTMAS CONCERT Friday, Dec. 2, 7:30 pm | Emmanuel Presbyterian Church First State Symphonic Band gets you into the season with some of the most popular holiday music—Tchaikovsky's Suite from The Nutcracker, Symphonic Prelude on Adeste Fidelis and medleys of popular and traditional Christmas carols. The concert will conclude with the Leroy Anderson classics, “A Christmas Festival” and “Sleigh Ride.”

FESTIVAL CONCERT — MASTERSINGERS OF WILMINGTON NATIVITY CAROLS Saturday, Dec. 3, 7:30 pm | First & Central Presbyterian Church, Rodney Square Market Street Music’s holiday concert features its own Mastersingers with conductor David Schelat and organist Marvin Mills. Their program includes music by Marvin Mills, Neil Harmon, Paul Manz, Jonathan Dove and more. Tickets are $20 ($25 at the door) and are available at marketstreetmusicde.org.

A JAZZ CHRISTMAS — FEATURING THE WILSON SOMERS TRIO Sunday, Dec. 4, 7:30 pm | Laird Performing Arts Center at The Tatnall School Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist Wilson Somers leads his jazz trio—Somers on piano; Pete Paulson, contrabass, and Glenn Ferricone, percussion—along with guest artists Ed Kirkpatrick, tenor saxophone; Wes Morton, vibes; The Tatnall Singers and singer Annie Fitch in traditional and contemporary treatments of holiday favorites, all to benefit Family Promise of Northern New Castle County. Tickets are $15-20 and are available through the event Facebook page, facebook.com/jazzchristmas.

AN ALL-STAR CHRISTMAS Sunday, Dec. 4, 8 pm | World Cafe Live at The Queen, Wilmington A star-studded seasonal celebration featuring regional music scene faves Jimmy McFadden, Kevin Walsh, Billy Penn Burger, Steve Prentice, Samantha Desper Poole, Chris Duncan, Ritchie Rubini and Tony Cappella. Tickets are $12 and are available at ticketfly.com.

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THE WILMINGTON CHILDREN'S CHORUS ANNUAL CANDLELIGHT HOLIDAY CONCERT Saturday, Dec. 10, 7 pm & Sunday, Dec. 11, 5 pm | First & Central Presbyterian, Rodney Square Join the Wilmington Children’s Chorus as they celebrate the season, showcasing holiday music from around the world.

The performance features all 150 members of the Youth Choirs, Select Choir, Young Men’s Ensemble and Chamber Choir at First and Central Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $10-$20; call 763-3637 to order.

HOLIDAY CHORAL CONCERT Sunday, Dec. 11, 4 pm | St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Wilmington The Music School of Delaware’s Delaware Women’s Chorus and Adult Jazz Choir join the Choir from St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, singers from New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church and Brandywine Brass in performance. Music for chorus, chorus with brass quintet and brass quintet alone will round out the program. A community carol sing will follow the concert.

Admission is a non-perishable food item.

THURSDAY NOONTIME CONCERT — CENTER CITY CHORALE’S TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY Thursday, Dec. 15, 12:30 pm | First & Central Presbyterian Church, Rodney Square Market Street Music continues its musical holiday celebration with delightful carol arrangements sung by Wilmington’s Downtown Choir, including brilliant arrangements of wellknown carols by Howard Helvey. Guest pianists Neil Harmon and Hiroko Yamazaki join the chorale. The concert is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.

Halls that Are Decked ROCKWOOD HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE Friday, Dec. 2, 6 pm | Rockwood Museum There’s something for the entire family at the 16th Annual Holiday Open House: live entertainment, children’s activities, refreshments, free photos with Santa, museum tours and a festive light display in the gardens of the Mansion and Carriage House; and New Castle County Youth Entrepreneur’s Secret Santa Shoppe, selling gifts for the whole family. Entertainment includes Delaware Arts Conservatory performing excerpts from The Snow Queen; Delaware Children's Theatre performing a preview of Willy Wonka; the Imagination Players; Kathryn Ciminello Dance Troupe; Cab Calloway Middle School choirs; the UD Children's Choir and more. The event is free to attend, but families are asked to bring a nonperishable food item or new mittens, hats or scarves for the Giving Tree.

HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR Saturday, Dec. 10, 9 am | Delaware Art Museum The Museum’s holiday house tour enters its 30th year. Start at the museum with artisan shopping followed by a tour of historic Greenville houses decked out for the holidays. Homes open at 10 am. Proceeds benefit the Museum’s educational programs. Tickets range from $25-60 and are available at DelArtHolidayHouseTour.org. ►

Celeeating Our 50th Anniveeary at

The Playhouse on Rodney Square December 3rd - 2pm & 7pm December 4th - 2pm & 6pm

www.theplayhousede.org 302.888.0200 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Fresh seasonal cuisine.

Rustic elegant charm.

The Gables offers menus that are designed around fresh, local & seasonal ingredients.

We offer an enticing mix of European-style cuisine with New American flavors & even a touch of Southern flair!

OLD FASHIONED CHRISTMAS AT BELLEVUE MANSION Now - Dec. 18, 10 am-4 pm | Bellevue State Park Step back in time into the beautifully decorated Bellevue Mansion at Bellevue State Park. Visit with Father Christmas, sit and listen to the storyteller, view the train display, custom-designed for the holiday by the First State Model Railroad Club. The Mansion provides not only an old-fashioned experience but also many holiday picture-taking and “selfie” opportunities. Tickets are $15 (children under 2 admitted free) and are available at eventbrite.com.

Open 7 Days a Week during the month of December

Happy Hour Specials Live Piano Every Thurs, Fri & Sat Brunch on Sundays 423 Baltimore Pike | Chadds Ford, PA 19317 | 610.388.7700 | thegablesatchaddsford.com

Have yourself a

Delicious little Christmas!

Buy a $100 Gift Card in December and get A $25 Gift Card FREE!

1314 N. Washington St, Wilmington (302) 655­9463 domainehudson.com

HAGLEY TWILIGHT TOURS Tuesdays & Wednesdays, Dec.13-14 through Dec. 27-28, 4:30-7 pm Hagley Museum Enjoy a rare opportunity to see Eleutherian Mills—the first du Pont family home in America—dressed for the holidays with softly glowing lights, lace, fresh greenery, poinsettias, and dried flower arrangements. Admission is free for members and $10 for non-members.

Space is limited and reservations are required. Call 658-2400, ext. 261.

HOLIDAY GREENS WORKSHOP Saturday, Dec. 3, 9 am | Delaware Center for Horticulture, Wilmington Add sparkle and beauty to your holiday decorations at the annual Holiday Greens Workshop. Create a beautiful wreath or table arrangement from an unusual collection of fresh greens, dried flowers, seeds, fruit and ribbon. Experts will be on hand to provide guidance. Bring hand pruners and gloves to work with prickly materials. Tickets are $45 for members and $55 for non-members. Space is limited, so reserve by calling 658-6262.

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CITY OF WILMINGTON

Serendipitea, a group show at Levitea West.

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HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE REFRESHMENTS

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DOWNTOWN LOOP

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WEST END LOOP

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NORTH WILMINGTON LOOP

ART LOOP WILMINGTON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2 5 - 9 p.m. artloopwilm.org

cityfest

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Downtown Loop

artloopwilm.org

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2 5 - 9 p.m.

cityfestwilm.com/artloopwilmington cityfest

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO THE ART LOOP. STEP 1: Select exhibitions that interest you.

STEP 2: Map out your choices and select transportation. You may want to walk, drive or take the downtown DART Trolley. A limited number of seats are available on the Art Loop shuttle. Please reserve your seat by calling

The Creative Vision Factory 617 N Shipley Street Wilmington, DE www.thecreativevisionfactory.org The Creative Vision Factory end of the year Group Exhibition will feature artworks in a variety of media by our member artists, including Carl Bailey, Ken Carley, Eric Carpenter, Felicishia Daniels, Knicoma Frederick, and Brook Miller among others.

Art loop reception 6 – 9 PM. On view Mon 0 Fri 10 AM – 5 PM through January 27, 2016.

Poppycock Tattoo 115 W. 8th Street Wilmington, DE www.poppycocktattoo.com Poppycock Tattoo is celebrating their 7th year anniversary with an art opening featuring Poppycock’s own Eric Hendrickson, Tina Marabito, Dave Mele and Allison Sharpe. Art loop reception 6 PM – 10 PM. On view Mon – Sat 12 PM – 7 PM through December 31st.

302.576.2100 or email artloop@WilmingtonDE.gov.

STEP 3: Meet local and regional artists while enjoying the newest exhibitions to open in Wilmington and the surrounding areas.

STEP 4: Enjoy one of Wilmington’s excellent restaraunt or nightlife locations. Please visit the food and drink section of inwilmingtonde.com.

Artist Ave Station 800 N. Tatnall Street Wilmington, DE www.artistavestation.com Visual Arts by Students of Cab Calloway, Dotism: Acrylic showcase Rodney Woodland 9th grade student Skye T Jaden 8th grade student. Art loop reception 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM.

STEP 5: Repeat the first Friday of every month!

Zaikka India Grill 209 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE www.zaikka.com View the magic of the night through Heather Siple’s photography of Delaware and beyond. Art Loop Reception 5 – 8PM. On view Monday – Friday 11AM – 8PM through December.

LaFate Gallery 227 N Market Street Wilmington, DE www.lafategallery.com Eboni Bell, Owner of “Dream in Color”, is an educator and abstract Artist who creates inspirational art with vibrant and exciting colors. Her most recent art features depictions of shades, encompassing the beauty of women and their unique differences. Art loop reception 5 – 8 PM. On view Tues – Sat 11 AM – 5 PM through December 29th.

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Grand Opera House – Mainstage 818 N Market St, Wilmington, DE 19801 www.thegrandwilmington.org

WANDERINGS, Mary Asher. This exhibit wanders on the sea, over seas, and in our great land. It is a loosely organized chronicle of some of the places I’ve traveled to with special attention paid to Delaware’s tall ship - The Kalmar Nyckel. Art loop reception 5 PM – 8 PM. On view Mon – Fri 10 AM to 5 PM through January 3rd, 2016. Nights and weekends subject to staff availability.

Grand Opera House – Baby Grand Gallery 818 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE thegrandwilmington.org/grand-galleries Wilmington-born artist Adam Swart presents abstract oil and mixed media works on canvas in Full Circle, Full Squares. His work is largely inspired by his experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, and by his travels in Southeast Asia. Art loop reception 5 PM – 8 PM. On view Mon – Fri 10 AM to 5 PM through January 9th, 2016. Nights and weekends subject to staff availability.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

11/22/16 8:02 AM

West End Loop

artloopwilm.org The Mill 1007 N Orange St, 4th Floor Wilmington, DE www.themillspace.com

Carspecken Scott Gallery 1707 Lincoln Street Wilmington, DE www.carspeckenscott.com

Wish at the Mill, Christian Kanienberg presents his skillfully-made metal sculpture work and canvas masterpieces. Art Loop reception 5 - 8 PM. On view 7 AM - 7 PM Mon - Fri through December 31st.

New Paintings, Cleveland Morris & Matt Klos Drawings of Sicily Italian Landscapes.

Art loop reception 5:30 – 7:30 PM. On view Mon – Fri 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM through January 15, 2017.

Redding Gallery 800 N. French Street Wilmington, DE www.cityfestwilm.com

Levitea West 807 N. Union Street Wilmington, DE www.leviteawilmington.com

Identity. Recent work from photographer, Brandon Thomas Brown. Art loop reception 5:30 - 8 PM. On view Mon - Fri 8 AM - 5 PM through December 30th.

Serendipitea, Join us as we celebrate the opening of our newest location with Works by multiple artists including Alim Smith, Terrance Vann, Brandon Aufiero, Rebecca Parsons, Janiah Bradley, Rick Hidalgo and owner Tynisha Lomax. Art loop reception 5 PM – 9 PM. On view through December 31st.

Mezzanine Gallery 820 N French St Wilmington, DE www.artsdel.org

Skypointe Church 807 N. Union Street Wilmington, DE www.skypointe.org

Totem, Sarah Yeoman. A show of watercolor paintings by Sarah Yeoman, will be on view in the Mezzanine Gallery from December 2-30, with an opening reception on Friday, December 2 from 5-7 p.m. The work in the show explores Yeoman’s observations and relationships with crows and ravens. Art loop reception 5 PM - 7 PM. On view through December 30th.

Join Skypointe Church for its second Art Loop show following the Loop goes West!

The 3rd Place 1139 W 7th Street, Harrison Street entrance Wilmington, DE www.3rdplacewilm.com

Howard Pyle Sudio Group 1305 N. Franklin Street Wilmington, DE www.howardpylestudio.org

The Second Annual Ornament Show, twenty artists will exhibit handmade ornaments of a variety of materials: turned wood, glass beads, clay, paper, metal, hand-painted glass ornament. Art loop reception 6:00 – 8:00 PM. On view Wed – Fri 8 – 12 PM, Saturday 10 AM - 2 PM through December 28, 2016.

Bike Lane Café 1139A W 7th Street Wilmington, DE www.bikelinecafe.com

Blue Streak Gallery 1721 Delaware Ave Wilmington, DE 302.429.0506

Art of Darren Cruz, Darren’s art is inspired by life experiences, inspirational stories, a lot of which is from the bible. “You don’t know where you’re going, until you know where you’ve been.” Art loop reception 6 – 8 PM. On view through December 23, 2016.

Still Life Reduction, Bennett Siegel, oils on linen Annual Holiday Jewelry Show. Maggi DeBaecke, Pam Levin, Joan Nelson, Susan Schulz. Art loop reception 5 – 8 PM. On view Mon – Fri 10 AM – 6 PM; Saturday 10 AM – 5 PM; Sunday 12 – 4 PM through January 17th.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

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Winter, Artists impressions of Winter.

Join us Friday evening, and for a Holiday Open House Saturday, Dec 3 from 10-3.

Homemade ornaments, cookies, cider and a painting raffle. Art loop reception 5:30 - 8:00 PM. On view by appointment only.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Certified Fresh!

– Rotten Tomatoes

IF YOU MISSED…

the Delaware Premiere at Theatre N, rent the hit indie film everyone is talking about!

North Wilmington Loop

artloopwilm.org

The Station Gallery 3922 Kennett Pike Greenville, DE www.stationgallery.net Art Works for the Holidays, Showing a variety of art appropriate for gift giving.

Oil Paintings, Mixed Media Paintings, Graphite Drawings, Mythology Inspired Ornamental Boxes, Wood Collage, Art Glass, Jewelry. Art loop reception 5 PM – 8 PM. On view Mon – Fri 9 A – 5P; Sat 10 AM – 3 PM through December 24th.

Hardcastle Galleries 5714 Kennett Pike Centreville, DE 19807 hardcastlegallery.com Join us for the Annual Holiday Small Works Art Show at our Centreville Gallery!

Enjoy refreshments, music and great art by 75 local artists! Come view paintings, photographs, sculptures and jewelry! All available for your gift giving this season!

Art loop reception 5:30 - 8:30 PM.

Somerville Manning Gallery Breck’s Mill, 2nd Floor 101 Stone Block Row Greenville, DE www.somervillemanning.com Trees, Mary Page Evans. Mary Page Evans uses expressive color and line to evoke the ephemeral quality of movement and light found in the natural world. She works directly from nature seeking to capture the essence of the particular places she paints, returning again and again, chronicling them in different moods and seasons. Art loop reception 5 – 7:30 PM. On view 10 AM – 5 PM through December 23rd.

“All in Time rocks!”

– L.A. Times

“An inspirational, feel-good movie for all ages.”

– New York Film Critics

“Whimsical and easygoing.”

Arden’s Buzz Ware Village Center 2119 the Highway Arden, DE www.ardenbuzz.com Arden & Area Artists & Artisans. Features a plethora of artisanal wares and distinct works all in one place at the Buzz Ware VC, just in time for the holidays! Art loop reception 5 – 9 PM.

– The Village Voice

Starring Vanessa Ray (Blue Bloods, Pretty Little Liars) and Jean Luc Bilodeau of ABC’s Baby Daddy.

RENT IT TODAY ON:

www.allintimefilm.com 42 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Talleyville Frame Shoppe & Gallery 3625 Silverside Road Wilmington, DE www.talleyvillefsg.com Big Little Art Show Sneak Peek, 70 Artists A sneak peek at the hundreds of original pieces of art in all mediums, all 6 inches by 6 inches, from local and not so local artists who will join us for the official opening reception on Saturday, December 3, from 6-10 PM. Art loop reception 3 – 6 PM. On view MWF 10 – 5 PM, TTH 10 – 7 PM, Sat 10 – 4 PM through December 31st.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

11/22/16 5:14 PM

Get full details for hundreds of events going on around town!

inWilmingtonDE.com

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13. Justison Landing, Currie Hair, Skin & Nails, CURRIEDAYSPA.COM Veritas Wine & Spirits, VERITASWINESHOP.COM Starbucks on the Riverfront 14. Del Pez Mexican Gastropub, DELPEZMEXICANPUB.COM Goju Training Center, GOJUROBICS.COM 15. Delaware Children’s Museum, DELAWARECHILDRENSMUSEUM.ORG Riverwalk Mini Golf, RIVERWALKMINIGOLF.COM 16. Joe’s Crab Shack, JOESCRABSHACK.COM 17. Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, IRONHILLBREWERY.COM 18. Public Docks 19. Big Fish Grill, BIGFISHRIVERFRONT.COM

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20. Frawley Stadium, BLUEROCKS.COM Delaware Sports Museum & Hall of Fame 21. Chase Center on the Riverfront, CENTERONTHERIVERFRONT.COM 22. Dravo Plaza & Dock 23. Shipyard Center Planet Fitness, PLANETFITNESS.COM 24. Timothy’s Restaurant, TIMOTHYSONTHERIVERFRONT.COM Molly’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream, MOLLYSICECREAM.COM Ubon Thai Restaurant 25. Wilmington Rowing Center, WILMINGTONROWING.ORG 26. Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge/ DuPont Environmental Education Center, DUPONTEEC.ORG

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27 Riverfront Commuter Lot, RIVERFRONTWILM.COM/PARKING 28. Penn Cinema Riverfront IMAX, PENNCINEMARIVERFRONT.COM 29. CrossFit Riverfront, CFRIVERFRONT.COM 30. The Residences at Harlan Flats, HARLANFLATS.THERESIDENCES.NET 31. Stratosphere Trampoline Park, WILMINGTONTRAMPOLINEPARK.COM 32. The Westin Wilmington, WESTINWILMINGTON.COM River Rock Kitchen, RIVERROCKKITCHEN.COM 33. Delaware Humane Association, DEHUMANE.ORG Photo by Joe del Tufo

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Celebrate the Holidays with Us! Make your Christmas Eve and New Years Eve Reservations Today!

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www.cantwells-tavern.com 48 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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EAT

Beth Ross and her husband Mike enjoyed Domaine Hudson so much that they bought the restaurant in 2011.

Domaine Hudson Part Deux The second owners of the Wilmington restaurant have focused on food and cocktails as well as wine

By Pam George Photos by Jim Coarse & Joe del Tufo

D

omaine Hudson isn’t the type of place you’d associate with the TV show Cheers. The Wilmington restaurant, which opened in 2005 near Midtown Brandywine, has been recognized for its wine selection and fine dining. But on a recent Saturday night, two diners turned to their right to see a couple they knew through mutual friends. They then spotted a friend on her way out the door. After finishing their duck and rigatoni with kale pesto, they joined four friends who on a whim stopped by for a nosh after a gala.

The place where everybody just might know your name has gone through a transition. In 2011, Mike and Beth Ross purchased the fine-dining restaurant from founders Tom and Meg Hudson.

Both veterinarians, the Rosses had no previous experience in

the hospitality industry. At that time, the fine-dining sector was struggling in the wake of the financial crisis.

While navigating a few bumps in the road, the Rosses have brought a fresh take to the original concept. Just ask longtime customer Barry Roseman. “I knew both Meg and Tom. They had a nice concept and good execution,” he says. “Mike and Beth picked it up and ran with it. Now, Domaine Hudson features some of the best and most innovative food in the state. The special event wine-matched dinners and wine-tasting events have been a great success.”

Always a top favorite for wine on OpenTable, Domaine Hudson in October was ranked the most popular restaurant overall of the 800 Philadelphia-area establishments on the online reservation site. ► DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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EAT DOMAINE HUDSON PART DEUX continued from previous page

From the Domaine Hudson menu: seared Berkshire pork belly, with endive, persimmon, smoked pecans and champagne vinaigrette. The wine is Folk Machine, a 2015 Charbono from Suisun Valley.

A Novel Approach Domaine Hudson is the brainchild of Tom Hudson, an accountant who traveled for business. A wine lover, he noticed the number of wine bars in metropolitan areas.

Meanwhile, Delaware had none. The enterprising Hudsons took the plunge in a vacant restaurant near Wilmington Hospital. They decorated it in the same style as their home, an elegant manse on Baynard Boulevard. “My interpretation ... was that it had a Ralph Laurenclub kind of feel,” Beth Ross says. “It was very masculine.”

The restaurant was well received from the start, although many dubbed it a “special occasion place.” Jason Barrowcliff made a name for himself as the chef before moving on.

The wine list was extensive. You could order pours in three sizes, as well as bottles.

Then came the housing crisis and the recession. Total gross sales dropped from $1.1 million a year to $750,000. “It was hard to break even,” Tom Hudson says. The Hudsons had also decided to get a divorce, which became final in January 2011. That’s when they put the restaurant on the market.

Enter Mike and Beth Ross, who’d wed in 2006. The two vets shared a love of horses, food, and wine. Beth grew up in Lithuanian/German families that put a priority on huge family meals with traditional dishes. “My appreciation for food and how it brings people together originated with these experiences," Beth Ross says.

Interested in exploring a business outside of the veterinary world, the Rosses told their favorite servers, including Javier Matamoros, then at Marco’s in Greenville, about their hopes to own a restaurant. He promised to keep an ear out. (He’s now a server at Domaine Hudson.)

For Beth’s birthday in May 2011, the couple went to Domaine Hudson for the first time. “I had read the reviews, and it sounded like a place right up our alley—good food and a great wine list,” she says.

They sat at the bar, ordered a flight of rosé? and a cheese plate, and started chatting with Hudson. “We were impressed with the place,” she recalls. “Mike told him of our aspirations of owning a restaurant.” Hudson knew a few that were for sale. “Little did we know he was thinking of his own,” Mike Ross says.

New Beginnings While Ross was in Italy, where he often traveled to treat horses, Hudson called.

Domaine Hudson was available. On Aug. 16, just three months after dining at Domaine for the first time, they purchased the restaurant. Hudson stayed on as a consultant for four months. “It was a very, very good transition,” he says.

The Rosses agree. Beth Ross recalls the day Hudson told her husband: “My motivation is to do whatever I can to make you successful.” They appreciated Hudson’s accounting skills. He’d kept detailed records that helped the novices better understand the business.

The economy, however, remained challenging. “We realized it was an uphill battle,” Mike Ross says. “Fine dining was in decline.”

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Execcutive Chef Dwain Kalup is noted for his use of unusual ingredients.

The new owners moved the focus from the wine to the food. It wasn’t easy. “There was a lot of change in the kitchen for a while,” Ross acknowledged. J.D. Morton, who’d been named a Rising Star by the James Beard Foundation, left in 2012.

In 2013, they hired Dwain Kalup, who was previously with Blackbird in Chicago, which is co-owned by Executive Chef Paul Kahan, a 2013 James Beard award recipient. Kalup had worked for restaurants under the Wilmington-based Harry’s Hospitality umbrella, including Harry’s Savoy Grill.

It didn’t take long before he began attracting new guests.

Frequent diner Roseman, for one, appreciates Kalup's use of unusual ingredients. Take sweet corn agnolotti with saffron cream, tempura corn, anise hyssop, and Urfa Biber pepper. The welltraveled Roseman says Kalup’s cabrito (roast goat) is hands down the best that he has tasted.

While selections change throughout the year, whole fish has been on the menu since the Rosses purchased Domaine Hudson.

Mike Ross fell in love with it in 1991 while visiting Milan.

In addition to promoting the food, the Rosses added a cocktail menu and ramped up the beer list. The restaurant’s efforts to create a successful bar menu failed until Kalup joined the team.

The items, which start at $5, change daily but often include cheese plates and oysters. “People can now stop by for a drink and a bite after work and relax,” Beth Ross says. The combination of cocktails and noshes has boosted the bar business, she adds.

Wine is still a star. The inventory has increased 50 percent.

Not surprisingly, given how often Mike Ross travels to Italy for work, there are more Italian options, both affordable and high end. Ross has visited the vineyards and met the winemakers.

He’s also a fan of California Cabernets, and he increased the selection on the list.

For the Hudsons, watching the Rosses’ success has been gratifying. “Selling Domaine Hudson was very bittersweet,” says Meg Hudson, who now owns Lula Brazil in Rehoboth Beach. “Yet we knew that the Rosses had the ability and resources to maintain the level of hospitality that we became known for. It is very satisfying to know that not only have they done that, but they have also excelled at it. They’ve established Domaine Hudson as one of the finest dining experiences in the region.”

JUSTIN WAL CE PAINTER & MUSICIAN

WHAT’S #INTUNE THIS MONTH

Yuletide: Jazz & Wine Wednesdays, Dec 7 - 21

Jim Brickman Sunday, December 11

Hot Breakfast! Christmas Saturday, December 17

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Full details for these events & more: inWilmingtonDE.com

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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EAT

BITES Tasty things worth knowing GIVE A MEAL THIS CHRISTMAS

U

ntil Dec. 31, Feeding America, in partnership with Bank of America, provides meals to families in need with the Give a Meal campaign. For every $1 donated, Bank of America will donate $2. Tax-deductible donations can be made at feedingamerica.org. Gifts designated to "Your Local Food Bank"—the Food Bank of Delaware—will benefit the food bank.

BLUE HEN TREATS

L

ast month, five students from Blue Hen Treats, a local organization run by high school students, and their business advisor, Charles Falletta, presented the Food Bank of Delaware with a check for $500. The money came from October sales of the dehydrated food and baked goods that they sell after preparing them in the commercial kitchen of the Belvedere Fire Hall. Proceeds are donated to Delaware nonprofits. Blue Hen Treats sells dehydrated apples, pineapples, lemons, zucchini and more. The business is focused on acquiring fresh local produce, like apples from Milburn Orchards. Products can be found at Milburn’s farm market and local craft and vendor fairs. The students made their Food Bank donation in honor of their friend, Josh Fickes. His father, Jerry, a Wilmington firefighter, lost his life battling a fire on Sept. 24. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations to the Food Bank of Delaware. For more information on the nonprofit, visit bluehentreats.com.

KLONDIKE KATE’S CHANGES HANDS

L

ast month, Alan Burkhard, owner of Newark mainstay Klondike Kate’s for 12 years, sold the restaurant to Gianmarco and Gilda Martuscelli. The couple also owns Chesapeake Inn in Chesapeake City, Md., and La Casa Pasta in Newark.

The history of Kate’s traces back almost 300 years: it was a jail, a pool hall, a movie theater, skating rink and a gas station. The Martuscellis will adds more pasta dishes and seafood to the menu. The family has owned La Casa Pasta since 1978, and the couple has run the Chesapeake Inn for 20 years.

FOOD NETWORK STAR TO HOST MEALS ON WHEELS EVENT

O

ne of Delaware's premier culinary charity events, the annual Celebrity Chefs’ Brunch, is getting a star chef host and a new location next year, on April 30. The Meals On Wheels fundraiser also will be celebrating its 20th anniversary of helping raise money for hungry seniors around the state. Anne Burrell, a chef and TV personality who is on several Food Network shows, including Worst Cooks in America, will host the fundraiser. In recent years the event has been held at Hercules Plaza in Wilmington, but the new location is the DuPont Country Club in Rockland. For more information, visit mealsonwheelsde.org.

FINE FOOD MAKES A FABULOUS GIFT This holiday, surprise everyone on your list with something special from Janssen’s Market.

From unique cheeses and gourmet fare to delicious bakery treats, we have something for everyone!

WWW.JANSSENSMARKET.COM 3801 KENNETT PIKE, GREENVILLE, DE 302.654.9941

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FOCUS

Grape Destinations Want to learn more about wine?

These four tips can help you find the right source.

By Pam George

A

mericans’ love affair with wine is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the 1960s and ‘70s, many restaurants primarily sold sweet or semi-sweet wines such as Lancers and Blue Nun, Mateus.

Young adults reached for Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill. No wonder that in 1970 Americans’ annual consumption was only 1.31 gallons per person.

Compare that to 2015, when wine consumption per U.S. resident averaged 2.83 gallons a year. Total consumption jumped 242 percent from 1970 to 2015, boosting the U.S. to the top of the worldwide list, in front of even France and Italy.

Sampling and exploring different wines is now as common as sipping regional microbrews or ordering a plate of exotic cheeses. There are wine tastings, wine festivals and wine dinners.

Still, the world of wine is overwhelming, and, for many, it remains intimidating. It helps to find a store that specializes in wine. But not all are created equal. You may need to look beyond the corner liquor store. Here are four tips to help you find the right fit.

1. Visit several stores You can tell a lot simply by stepping inside a store. “We all have different personalities, without question,” says Linda Collier, who opened Collier’s in 1981 on Union Street. It's now located in Centreville.

For some, the design matters. Collier’s of Centreville is in an old building next to Buckley’s Tavern, which gives it a village vibe.

Veritas Wine & Craft Beer on the Wilmington Riverfront has a sleek bar in the shop.

David and Joanne Govatos, the owners of Swigg in Independence Mall, took their cue from hip retail stores. “We have always liked the aesthetic of Terrain [in Glen Mills] and sort of that Restoration Hardware look,” David Govatos says. “Many customers tell us they love the feel of the store.”

Feel a chill in the air? That’s a good thing. FranksWine in Wilmington, Swigg and Moore Brothers Wine Company in Trolley Square keep the thermostat at 60 degrees or lower, the recommended “cellar” temperature for wine. “Even a few weeks at more than 70 degrees degrades the condition of the wine and your enjoyment of it,” Govatos explains. Light also can damage wine, which shouldn’t sit in full sun.

If you visit on a hot day and the store is warm, the shop is not taking care of the wine, says Frank Pagliaro, the owner of FranksWine.

DECEMBER MARCH 2016 2016 || OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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FOCUS GRAPE DESTINATIONS continued from previous page

2. View the selection.

A store’s size is not as important as the selection and service. Boutique wine stores tend to have a niche. Swigg primarily focuses on family estate-grown wine, while Moore Brothers specializes in small artisan producers.

Collier looks for wines you won't find in big box liquor stores. Like many hands-on owners, she tastes every wine before it hits the shelf.

Emphasizing small vineyards or family estates doesn’t mean the wine is expensive. Swigg has a wall of wines that are all under $15. The secret is to know a good value, Collier says. If you spend $10 on a bottle of wine that’s undrinkable, it’s not a good value.

Not all stores arrange wine in the same fashion, and you might appreciate one system over another. At Collier’s, for instance, the wine is organized by varietal, because even a diehard Chardonnay drinker might not realize that it’s originally from France’s Burgundy region. As a result, white Burgundies are with the Chardonnays.

State Line Liquors in Elkton organizes wine by the region in the imported section. Domestic wine is arranged by varietal and then by area, such as Oregon or California. FranksWine in Wilmington sorts the wine by country and then by varietal.

Heading to the beach? Teller Wines in Lewes separates wine by flavor profiles, such as “Fresh and Clean” and then by price, moving from the least expensive, usually $7.99, to the highest priced.

Teller Wines’ owners write all the tasting notes, which appear on cards by the selections. Some stores use notes provided by the vineyard or distributor. Admittedly, creating tasting notes is challenging for larger stores. FranksWine does a mix of both and has a wall of wine that the staff selects.

3. Look for learning opportunities.

Exploring the world of wine should take you out of your comfort zone. “If you have a glass of Chardonnay every night, you’re not really a wine drinker,” Collier says. “You’re just using your Chardonnay as a cocktail for the evening. But if you start thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a beautiful night. I want to sit out on the back porch and have sushi with this particular wine’—then you become a wine drinker. You’re matching wine to your mood, your food, and your friends. It’s a different bottle, not the same old thing.”

Tastings are a great way to discover the nuances. Most wine and liquor stores offer them on a regular basis. Indeed, FranksWine offers them every day, with more promoted tastings on weekends.

There might be a theme, such as “varietals you’ve never heard of,” says John Murray, owner of State Line. He’s also conducted tastings just on wines from Willamette Valley in Oregon or featured one vineyard. State Line has enough room in one area to seat up to 60, and restaurants have often provided food—including whole pigs and oysters—for special food pairing events.

FranksWine regularly pairs tastings with a selection of cheeses and charcuterie from Di Bruno Bros., which it sells on site. (Many boutique stores augment wine with complementary products, such as cheese and chocolates.) Premier Wine & Spirits on Limestone Road has held a series of tastings, prepared by local chefs, in the store.

Some stores go beyond tastings. Collier’s is famous for its wine classes, which started when Collier first opened her shop. On Jan. 19, for instance, the store will focus on Meritage wines.

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4. Build a relationship.

Wine education isn’t limited to events in a fine wine shop. “There should be an employee who can answer your basic questions and your more technical questions,” Murray says. At Swigg, many employees have taken sommelier classes.

“We keep a full library in the store, and we are constantly tasting and discussing wine,” Govatos says.

Customer service is a priority.

“Frankly, it’s the difference-maker in retaining customers,” says Ryan Kennedy, director of marketing for Harvey, Hanna & Associates, which owns Premier Wine & Spirits. “Customers have dozens of options within a few miles of their home or office; we have to make sure we give them a great experience.”

Premier has two locations, but the 3,900-square-foot store in the Limestone Shopping Center caters more to the serious wine lover. Tell the sales associate what you like to drink and what you don’t like, says Tim Pettit, the general manager.

“We’re really just trying to find out what they’re looking for and help them.”

Don’t let the employee lead you in a direction that you don’t want to go, Murray says. He notes that some stores put the staff on commission. State Line does not.

Says Collier: “It should be fun. It should be relaxing. No matter how little or how much you know, you should be able to come in and enjoy the experience.”

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58 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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DRINK

2

Area Wine Experts Pick Holiday Favorites

It’s the season to give and, yes, to celebrate. Whether it’s an office holiday party, Christmas dinner with the extended family, or New Year’s Eve with good friends, here are some wine suggestions from local people in the know.

Linda Collier at Collier’s of Centreville

David Moore at Moore Brothers Wine Co.

Under $25: Domaine de Paul Blanck Old Vine Auxerrois from Alsace Lots of vanilla, caramel and spice that will wrap around all the flavors on the table at just $21.99.

Under $25: Lacrima di Morro d'Alba "Alborada" 2015 Here’s a very special and rare treat from the Adriatic coast of Italy and the tiny estate of Giorgio Brunori. This is a stunning, aromatic red made from a grape that grows only in this region. Few people outside this beautiful area have ever experienced it. Perfect for winter roasts, and only $17 (until it runs out).

Over $25: Charles de Cazanove Vielle France Brut Rose’ from Reims No holiday is complete without champagne. This one is 55 percent pinot noir, 30 percent chardonnay and 15 percent Coteaux Champagne rouge. Brioche, apple, red currant, creamy and oh, so elegant. Perfect to toast the day, it will carry through the entire meal beautifully. $41.99.

Jeff Kreston at Kreston Wine & Spirits

Over $25: Château Haut Rocher 2014 From Grand Cru St. Emilion parcels, the beautiful, plush Château Haut Rocher 2014 ($36) is a rich, delicious Bordeaux, perfect for gift giving or your Christmas roast. A judicious mix of new and neutral barrels while aging leaves the wine with ripe, soft tannins and a silky texture on the palate.

Under $25: 2015 Pessimist Red Blend from Daou Vineyards Pessimist Red Blend from Paso Robles, Calif. ($19.83), is a blend of Syrah, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Tannat and Grenache. It’s a very dark wine that offers gorgeous creme de cassis, black cherry, boysenberries, and toasted vanilla beans accompanied with sweet tannins and purity of fruit. Firm yet elegant tannins balance the powerhouse of fruit and lead to a strong, lasting finish of black pepper, pipe tobacco and spicy oak.

Ed Mulvihill at Peco’s Liquors

Over $25: Orin Swift Mercury Head 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon An alluring hue of dark garnet sits in the glass, encircled by a glowing ruby rim. Immediate aromas of ripe black cherry, blueberry and classic cassis are supported by undertones of lavender, jasmine, sage, tobacco, cigar box and the slightest touch of anise. Rich and vibrant upon entry, flavors of dark plums, figs and black fruit transform into sweet vanilla and dark chocolate framed by velvety and plush tannins. The wine finishes with great length and a touch of acidity—an elegant Cabernet Sauvignon ($124.99) from select vineyards in the Napa Valley.

Over $25: Unconditional Pinot Noir Some of the greatest Pinots can get really expensive. Unconditional from Oregon is a bargain at just $25.99. Bright and lively notes of cherry, cranberry, and Christmas spice. Medium light bodied with a fine finish. This wine is great on its own or paired with your holiday turkey or goose.

Under $25: Hedges Family Estate C.M.S Red Blend It’s always a joy to find a truly stellar wine for under $25.

The C.M.S Red Blend does not disappoint. It has it all notes of cinnamon, sweet plum and earthy pomegranate with hints of dried tobacco leaf, vanilla and dark cocoa powder. It will pair well with most traditional holiday meals and will be sure to impress any of your guests this holiday season. It’s an absolute steal at only $12.99.

Tim Petit at Premier Wine & Spirits Under $25: Conundrum Red (Wagner Family of Caymus Fame) The Premier Pick of the Fall ($19.99) and one of our best sellers right now. It’s rich, dark and offers aromas of ripe berries and plums, with a subtle hint of cocoa. Created from dark red varietals including Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, it also has the taste of chocolate-covered cherries with a light smokiness. Perfect for the holiday season. ►

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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FOCUS AREA WINE EXPERTS PICK HOLIDAY FAVORITES continued from previous page

Over $25: Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Another one of our favorites (also by the Wagner Family of Caymus Fame), it’s packed with bold vanilla and fresh raspberry/ strawberry aromas and taste. It’s dark and also brings in flavors of cherry, dark chocolate, coconut, barrel spice and smoked meat. Don’t believe us? Buy a bottle ($28.99) and try for yourself.

John Murray at State Line Liquors Under $25: Iron Horse Brut 2009 An excellent example of sparkling wine made in Sonoma California, dry and delicate. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the varietals found in this Estate Bottled wine ($19.99). Flavors of hazelnuts, apples and mandarin oranges are noticed in the flavor profile.

Over $25: Dashe Cellars Evangelho Vineyard Old Vine Carignane 2014 Bottled under Dashe Les Enfants Terribles label, this wine ($29.99) is from a vineyard planted in 1890, in Contra Costa County, Calif. Fruits of cassis, pomegranate and cherries dominate. Lush and velvety with hints of black pepper spice gives this a long finish.

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Under $25: Chateau Massiac Minervois, France 2013 Chateau Massiac ($18) is a certified organic estate located in the heart of Minervois and owned and operated by the Boudouresques family. In the glass, the wine displays sumptuous dark crimson fruit, baker’s chocolate, garrigue and cracked pepper. It’s a fantastic pairing with lamb and autumn inspired stews.

Over $25: Obsidian Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Lake County, Calif., 2013 The Obsidian Ridge Vineyard is located at an elevation of 2,640 feet on the Northern end of Napa in the Red Hills of Lake County.

The wine ($29) is finished off in Hungarian oak, and displays all the best qualities of cabernet sauvignon grown in a mountain setting. In the glass, the wine is literally obsidian black with a dense core of warm black fruit, blueberry compote and baking spices, framed with dusty tannin.

order online! Extended delivery zone!

60 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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DRINK

Beer Grainiac

Craft beer reviews from Grain’s Jim O’Donoghue

THIS MONTH:

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

KRESTON WINE & SPIRITS

Celebrating 83 Years

S

ierra Nevada’s Celebration is one of the original American style IPAs. First brewed in 1981, Celebration Ale is one of the earliest examples of an American-style IPA and one of the few hop-forward holiday beers. Made famous by its strong citrus and pine aromas, this old school ale is a great contrast to todays IBU heavy IPAs. It’s a shame this one is only available around the holidays so enjoy it while you can.

It is definitely a holiday tradition in my house. If you like Bell’s Two Hearted Ale or Bear Republic’s Racer 5, you should definitely give Sierra Nevada’s Celebration a taste.

Same Family, 4 Generations, Since 1933

BEST SERVICE • BEST SELECTION • BEST PRICE A Fine Selection of Wine, Spirits, Beers & Growlers

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WILMINGTON 904 Concord Avenue Wilmington, DE 19802 Tel: (302) 652-3792 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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62 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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DRINK

SIPS

Here's what's pouring HEAVY SEAS’ FINAL PARTNER SHIPS SERIES BREW

B

altimore’s Heavy Seas Beer’s last release in its 2016 Partner Ships series of collaboration beers is an Imperial Brown IPA with Stone Brewing Company. This series features beers produced in collaboration with other regionally and nationally recognized brewers in the spirit of friendship, creativity and adventure.

For 2016, Heavy Seas partnered with Maine Beer, Tröegs Independent Brewing, Terrapin Beer, and now, Stone Brewing Company. The Partner Ships series is brewed at Heavy Seas in Baltimore and celebrates the pioneering spirit of American craft beer today. The Stone collaboration beer, released last month, is at 9 percent ABV.

NEW GREENE TURTLE LOCATION OPENS IN CHRISTIANA

L

ast month, a new Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille opened in Christiana, at 425 Stanton Christiana Rd. With that addition, the regional chain has reached 44 locations in five states and Washington, D.C. "Our team has been hard at work preparing for our opening, and we are thrilled to open our doors to the Christiana community," said Jason Hajek, general manager of new location.

“We look forward to providing an atmosphere where both sports fans and families can come together to enjoy flavorful food, drinks and fun, all under one roof. We invite our new friends in Christiana to join us in creating new traditions and memories.”

THE RETURN OF BELOW DECKS BARLEY WINE

T

Also in the Heavy Seas world, its “Uncharted Waters” Series recently welcomed the 2016 edition of Below Decks, an English-style Barley Wine. This beer has not been included in the brewery’s portfolio since 2012. This limited edition was released last month. Aged for a full year in red wine barrels, this palate punisher has enough firepower to keep your crew satisfied for the duration of the winter excursion. The beer is opulently rich, malty and nuanced with notes of dried cherries and subtle oak.

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ther is Warm Drinks are Cold - Come Enjoy Our 2 tory Deck!

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LISTEN

Keyboardist Dan Long, guitarist Kurt Houff, drummer Glenn Walker, guitarist and lead vocalist Chip Porter, and bassist Tony Cappella have been together since 1991. Photo Jim Coarse Not pictured: Percussionist Tim Kelly.

m o ntana wi l d ax e : 30 years and still jammin' And they’re as popular as ever. Catch them at The Queen Dec. 29.

By Rob Kalesse

t

here are a handful of Delaware bands that have been around for years and years: Love Seed Mama Jump, The Bullets, Dr. Harmonica & Rockett 88 and The Cameltones are just a few that come to mind. They all include plenty of cover songs in their acts, and they’re all still playing regular gigs, whether it’s throughout the summer at the beach or even this month in Trolley Square.

But Montana Wildaxe trumps them all, having played the local scene for more than 30 years. Their unique blend of Grateful Dead and Allman Bros. covers, psychedelic rock, and jam band improvisation attracts hippies and hipsters alike. It’s a style and vibe that’s difficult to describe unless you’ve seen them live.

These days, “Montana,” as fans affectionately call them, are as popular as ever, even though they play less than a handful of

▲ Hot Breakfast! Photo Joe del Tufo

dates each year. While that statement might not make sense on the surface, it’s a matter of simple economics; the diminishing supply of live performances has resulted in an increase in popularity and demand, both with diehard fans and the venues still fortunate enough to host the band.

uncovering the cover band Back in the ‘80s, the music scene was a whole lot different, according to Montana Wildaxe bassist and vocalist Tony Cappella.

Original bands dominated the scene in the tristate area, and nowdefunct Wilmington hotspots like The Barn Door and The Coyote Café featured live and local originals most nights of the week. ► DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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MONTANA WILDAXE: 30 YEARS AND STILL JAMMIN’ continued from previous page

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“There were a ton of original bands back then, really, and if they had any chops, they had no problem finding venues to play in Delaware,” Cappella says. “I think a lot of it sparked from acts like George Thorogood and The Hooters, who really opened the door.

Everyone who could play an instrument jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to be the next big thing.”

Cappella joined Montana Wildaxe in 1987, just a few years after Kurt Houff (lead guitar, vocals) and Chip Porter (rhythm guitar, lead vocals) had started the band with a few other musicians. The current lineup that includes keyboardist Dan Long, percussionist Tim Kelly, and drummer/vocalist Glenn Walker would form in full by 1991.

Porter says he and Houff decided to become a jam band for two reasons: they wanted to improvise musically, rather than being boring or repetitive, and their vocal and guitar abilities somewhat mirrored the godfathers of the jam band, the Grateful Dead.

“I’d probably seen the Dead 100 times by the time we started the band,” says Porter. “Jerry Garcia’s guitar solos were the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.

Plus, we could sing like Garcia and Bob Weir, who were some of rock’s greatest poets ever.”

Houff says the arrangement of the songs and the style of the music are big reasons why the band has stayed together for so long, even if in a somewhat limited capacity the last decade or so. “Each song, each night is up for specific interpretation.

Each and every moment is the product of all the preceding moments.”

Houff says he knew the band would be successful from the get-go, but didn’t know it would be a lasting part of his life until sometime in the ‘90s. For Cappella, however, the first gig he played with Montana Wildaxe set the tone for decades to come.

“I remember my first show with Montana, downstairs at the Logan House. The place was packed and the smell of weed was in the air,” Cappella says. “I’m not sure I’d ever seen a cover band get a crowd like that before. From then on, any Deadhead within spitting distance knew about us, and they came out in droves to see us play.”

66 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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low supply, high demand After nearly 20 years of hitting it hard on the local circuit, the members of Montana Wildaxe decided to play fewer shows as they moved closer to middle age, with families and full-time jobs taking up much of their time. But rather than fade into the music scene ether, they’ve continued to show up.

“I think our musical chemistry is the main element that has kept us together for so long,” Walker says. “We are all very good listeners while we play and can pick up and follow subtle variations in the music as it’s being played. The crowds are proof that it works.”

Staff members at World Cafe Live at The Queen on Market Street feel as if it works pretty well, even though Montana only plays there two or three times a year (including an upcoming annual holiday show on Thursday, Dec. 29). Director of Programming Christianna LaBuz is a longtime fan who is especially looking forward to jamming with Montana.

“Their shows are a social event that everyone—the fans and our staff alike—always look forward to,” LaBuz says. “They’re wonderful humans to deal with on a professional level from beginning to end and their music is phenomenal. The guys also play with so many other folks and contribute their talents toward many of the collaborative shows we present throughout the year.”

When Kelly’s Logan House General Manager Tim Crowley was asked to plan a 60th birthday party for one of the bar’s most esteemed guests, the idea of featuring a live band upstairs was suggested.

Crowley booked Montana Wildaxe without blinking an eye.

“They’ve been playing here for years, so there is certainly a longstanding connection between Montana and Kelly’s, but it’s more than that,” Crowley says. “If we have a big event and I have my druthers, Montana Wildaxe is my first choice because they always have a great crowd and bring an incredible, fun vibe.”

For Cappella, the high praise comes as a welcome surprise. “I think we can actually be a pain in the ass to deal with,” he says, laughing. “But I guess that’s with each other since we’ve been together so long. It’s nice to hear, though.”

a literal connection So, what’s with the name, many people ask. Who is from Montana, and what does “Wildaxe” even mean? The genesis, it turns out, goes back to the band’s college days in the ‘80s at the University of Delaware.

One of Porter’s roommates, an English major, coined the name while reading the Kurt Vonnegut classic, Slaughterhouse-Five.

“It was a big house, and one of the many people coming and going gave the name to our bassist at the time, who was always wearing a cowboy hat while he was practicing,” Porter says. “The character from the book was named ‘Montana Wildhack,’ but we changed the ‘hack’ to ‘axe,’ to reference the guitar. The ‘Montana’ part fit because of the big hat he wore.”

It’s a story that every band member is familiar with, even if they’re not familiar with Vonnegut’s sci-fi story. Neither Porter, nor Long, nor Walker, nor Cappella have read the book. Only Houff, who coincidentally shares the same first name as the novel’s author, has read the World War II satire.

“The biggest parallel I made when we stuck with that name is that Vonnegut writes the book in these flashes of going back and forth in time,” Houff says. “I’ve always felt like music has the ability to do that, to transport us to different places in our minds.”

Tickets to Montana Wildaxe’s Dec. 29 show at The Queen are on sale at worldcafelive.com for $13, or $15 the day of the show.

Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 8.

Ring In 2017!!!

Saturday, Dec. 31st

Doors Open At 8pm

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DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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LISTEN

TUNED IN Not-to-be-missed music news REEDS REFUGE MUSIC VIDEO RELEASE

Reeds Refuge Center, the nonprofit on Pine Street in Wilmington that helps at-risk kids grow through the performing arts in a secure, nurturing environment, premiered a major video at World Cafe Live at The Queen on Nov. 22. The video, Believe, was created as a collaboration between 105 local children and artists in Wilmington, with varying socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, celebrating unity and oneness. The premiere included live performances by the children and artists who participated in the creation of Believe.

“This project will show that children and adults from all walks of life can come together in unity, breaking the racial barriers that divide us,” says founder Fred Reed.

Watch the video at reedsrefugecenter.org.

MEAN LADY RELEASES NEW SINGLE

Last month Newark mainstay Mean Lady dropped a new single, “The Ghost,” with the promise of an upcoming full-length album, Nature.

The duo of Sam Nobles and Katie Dill have been on hiatus for a couple of years since vocalist Dill moved to Los Angeles after recording rough demos of “The Ghost” and other songs on the upcoming album in 2014. Since then, says keyboardist/bassist/ producer Nobles, the songs have been collecting dust, but the pair recently decided to polish and release them.

“We sent the tracks back and forth online to share notes and ideas. We’re hoping to have a full, 10-song album out within the next month or two,” says Nobles.

“The Ghost” delves into human nature—or rather, its dark side, says Dill.

“It’s a song about evil. Like, ‘Hey, we are all responsible for the evil ones and what they decide to do, and hey, we are all responsible for what the little ones say because they are learning from our example.’ It’s also about not leaving people behind who are evil—if you love yourself more than you love them, then you keep the cycle of evil going.”

Listen to the single at meanlady.bandcamp.com.

68 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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‘FREAK FOLK COVER BAND’ DEBUTS DEC. 17

New Castle County Community Orchestra’s inaugural concert “Psych! Not,” is set for Saturday, Dec. 17, at 1984 in Wilmington. The self-labeled “freak folk cover band” plays ‘90s grunge songs—with a catch. This show is intended as an audience sing-a-long. Local band Cadillac Riot will join NCCCO. For more information, visit 1984wilmington.com.

VIDEO GAMES LIVE CONCERT

Video Games Live is an awardwinning immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time. Created, produced and hosted by well-known game industry veteran Tommy Tallarico, it features performances by top orchestras and choirs along with exclusive synchronized video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, well-known internet solo performers, electronic percussion, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive one-ofa-kind entertainment experience. Tickets are on sale now for the May 20 event at The Grand, featuring the Delaware Symphony Orchestra.

For more information, visit tickets.thegrandwilmington.org.

DICKINSON THEATRE ORGAN CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Celebrate the holiday season with the Dickinson Theatre Organ Society.

On Saturday, Dec. 3, some of the best musicians in the First State are joining critically-acclaimed organist Scott Foppiano at John Dickinson High School Auditorium for a Christmas music spectacular.

Seasonal favorites will be played from 7-10 p.m. featuring guest performances by Johannes Brass, Caroline Quinn, Jackson Caldwell, Alex Weir, Michael Marinelli and more.

For 40 years, the DTOS has presented concerts by the finest theater organists while enhancing the Mighty Kimball Pipe Organ into an instrument capable of presenting the full palette of musical expression from classical to pop. Housed in Dickinson High School, it is presently the fourth-largest theater pipe organ in the world.

Tickets, available at dtoskimball.org, are $15.

SINGING SOUTHERN SISTERS AT THE QUEEN

On Thursday, Dec. 8, Muscle Shoals, Ala.-natives The Secret Sisters—siblings Laura and Lydia Rogers—will bring their southern-roots sound to World Cafe Live at The Queen.

Growing up surrounded by the sounds of the South and the music emanating from Muscle Shoals, the sisters were heavily influenced by a range of American musical styles, including country, bluegrass and gospel, as well as classic rock and pop. They listened to George Jones and Loretta Lynn, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Ramones, Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright.

Now the duo is working on their third studio album, which is expected to release in early 2017.

Tickets for the show, starting at 8 p.m., are $15. Visit worldcafelive.com for more.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF SOMETHING?

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at Stanley’s is Back!

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302.475.1887 | Stanleys-Tavern.com

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BEST RIBS UPSTATE BEST SPORTS BAR

11/22/16 9:15 AM

LISTEN

HITTING THE RIGHT NOTE Dave Mauk of Sympathetic Ears collaborated with local musicians for a new album, A View of My World

D

ave Mauk has been involved with the local music scene for decades. For nearly 30 years, he worked in studios with bands like The Bigger Lovers, the Descendants and The Knobs. He was co-owner of the Stone Balloon in ’94, and saw artists like Ray Charles come through town. He worked with Bert Ottaviano at his North Wilmington, Hockessin and Newark record shops until the mid-2000s— which is where he met his long-time friend, Brad Newsom.

Now the head of the power pop/rock group Sympathetic Ears, Mauk has banded together with local artists to create his debut album, A View of My World, which released Nov. 15 and is available on iTunes, CD Baby and more. On Friday, Dec. 30, there will be an album release party at the Jackson Inn on N. DuPont Rd. in Wilmington.

Sympathetic Ears came together a couple of years ago when friends and comrades from The Knobs—Newsom and Phil Young—along with artist Andrew Stewart got together to help Mauk record some songs he had written. Along the way, a handful of other friends pitched in to help finish the record.

“For years we had recorded others, and I wanted to take a crack at it myself,” says Mauk. “I had some songs I was kicking around and decided I wanted to knuckle down and formalize them.”

On this record, Mauk plays the bass and keyboards, and at least eight other local artists, in addition to Newsom, Young and Stewart, have stepped in to help.

The project took a couple of years to complete, but not because coordinating with the other musicians was an issue. To start with, Newsom and Mauk had co-run a recording studio, Wisteria Sounds, from Newsom’s house in Wilmington beginning in 2000, so they had a free studio to work in. And Mauk says the work flowed easily with other artists, like Scott Birney from Sin City Band, Mark Kenneally from Dr. Harmonica & Rockett 88, and songwriter/producer Ritchie Rubini. Mauk and Newsom would get an idea of the direction of each song, then have someone come in to record harmonica or guitar.

“These guys are so talented and good and generous. Musically, I’m probably the weak link in that group,” says Mauk.

Which isn’t true, according to Newsom, who touts Mauk’s skills as a songwriter.

“Dave has perhaps played the role of the quiet one musically over the years and is finally coming more to the forefront with this project. Also, he’s one of the best, most dependable friends you can ask for—a truly great and humble guy who I’m lucky enough to know.”

During the recording process, Mauk retired to Mount Pleasant, S.C., but frequently travels back to Wilmington and doesn’t see the distance as a show-stopper. The group is already working on a second album, sending bits of tracks back and forth between Wilmington and Mount Pleasant.

The Dec. 30 show, featuring Newsom, Young, Stewart and second guitarist Ken Herblin, starts at 8 p.m. Local band The Cocks will join them.

For more information, visit sympears.com.

DECEMBER

MUSIC

at Kelly’s Logan House

FRIDAY, 12/02

Special Delivery - 10 p.m.

SATURDAY, 12/03

POWERi - 10 p.m.

FRIDAY, 12/09 Xtra Alltra - 10 p.m.

SATURDAY, 12/10

Green Means Go - 10 p.m.

FRIDAY, 12/16 Weekday Warriors - 10 p.m.

SATURDAY, 12/17

Chorduroy - 10 p.m.

FRIDAY, 12/23 Old Baltimore Speedway - 10 p.m.

FRIDAY, 12/30

Come Together - 10 p.m.

SATURDAY, 12/31

Radio Halo - 10 p.m.

1701 Delaware Ave. Wilmington, DE 19806 (302) 652-9493

LOGANHOUSE.COM Bands and times subject to change.

—O&A DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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302.478.3939 | 3100 Naamans road | MexicanPost.com | facebook.com/Mex.Post 72 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WATCH

Moana

4

STARS µµµµµ Newcomer Auli'i Cravalho voices the title character, Moana. Photo ©2016 Disney

ISLAND GRRR–L Disney’s Moana delivers girl power, South Pacific-style

By Mark Fields

M

oana, the latest Disney animated feature, is everything you want and expect from the celebrated studio: lyrically captivating, visually stunning, alternately adventurous and playful and vaguely empowering. Although it lacks an instant musical hit like Frozen’s “Let It Go,” it definitely deserves a spot on the keeper list of Disney cartoons.

Set in an idyllic South Pacific environment, the movie focuses on the coming-of-age story of its title character, the daughter of an island chieftain who longs to explore the vast ocean beyond her village’s reef rather than tend to her leadership responsibilities at home. Moana’s heart is torn between her people and her dreams. Already, there’s a hint that

we are continuing the recent evolution of Disney heroines from damsels in distress to girls with authority.

Her seafaring aspirations do, of course, get called into play when the fauna of her island starts to die. Her wise, if batty, grandmother convinces Moana (newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) that she must leave the safety of the familiar to put things right. The movie then shifts into full-blown Joseph Campbell territory as Moana embarks upon a hero’s quest, full of mysteries, challenges, and personal growth. Moana is aided on her quest, eventually, by the demigod Maui (a Pacific island version of Hercules, played

by Dwayne Johnson). Will everything be restored to the natural order? Are we watching a Disney movie…what do you think? ► DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Nemours Building | 1007 N. Orange Street

December 2-4

My Internship in Canada

Blue Jay

108 minutes, NR

80 minutes, NR

FRI 2, 5:30 | SAT 1, 7:30 | SUN 3

FRI 8:30 | SAT 4 | SUN 1, 6

December 9-11

The Brand New Testament

Moana is a fascinating combination of elements. It explores new ground with the ISLAND GRRR–L continued from previoius page latest yet rare Disney princess of color. It features exotically attractive settings, unfamiliar mythology, and little-known but authentically South Pacific voice talent. Nearly all the principals are voiced by Hawaiian and New Zealander actors, including Rachel House as Gramma Tala, Temeura Morrison and Nicole Scherzinger as Chief Tui and his wife Sina, and Jemaine Clement (from TV’s Flight of the Conchords) as the humorously villainous Tamatoa.

But the film also hews closely to the Disney formula in both plot points and musical numbers. It’s the animated version of comfort food, and we know pretty much where the story will end up and the path it will take to get there. Similarly, one can almost predict each musical number in the moments before it starts.

First, we have the happy villagers’ song, then segue to the wise elder “follow your heart” ballad, then cue up the heroine’s soaring anthem of self-discovery until it’s time for the up-tempo “quirky hero bragging” tune. Disney well knows the expectations of its largely adolescent audience and delivers exactly what they want.

Although Moana is clearly aimed at the younger set, it also entertains and delights the adults in the audience with the catchy music, breathtaking visuals, and reassuring story. So, in the end, everybody gets what they want, including, for Disney, another hit for its cartoon catalogue.

Loving

Coming Through The Rye

113 minutes, NR

97 minutes, PG-13

FRI 2, 8:30 | SAT 4 | SUN 12, 6

FRI 5:30 | SAT 1, 7:30 | SUN 3

4

December 16-18

STARS µµµµµ

Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

T H I S M O N T H AT

WATCH

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga play Mildred and Richard Loving.

Little Sister

Best Worst Thing that Ever Could Have Happened

91 minutes, NR

95 minutes, NR

FRI 2, 8:30 | SAT 4 | SUN 6

FRI 5:30 | SAT 1, 7:30 | SUN 3

December 23-25

Harry & Snowman

A Man Called Ove

84 minutes, NR

Swedish with subtitles 118 minutes, PG-13

FRI 5:30 | SAT 12 | SUN 12, 6

FRI 2, 8:30 | SAT 3 | SUN 3

For more information and tickets, visit

TheatreN.com

LOVING

In his handful of features (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special), writer-director Jeff Nichols has carved out a unique and compelling niche for characters on the edges of modern society: a working man convinced of impending doom; lost boys in thrall to a mysterious, perhaps dangerous drifter; and a father determined to protect his uniquely gifted song. Add Loving to this impressive, albeit short list.

Loving is based on the true story of the Lovings, a 1950s Virginia couple whose mixed-race marriage provoked a landmark Supreme Court decision that eliminated miscegenation laws across the country. With rich, quiet performances by Ruth Negga as Mildred and Joel Edgerton as Richard, Loving wisely relegates the big issues to background (the actual Supreme Court case is almost a throwaway) and forsakes the expected dramatic, righteous speeches to focus on the human drama of two characters pained and baffled by the wider social impact of their relationship.

The film’s title ultimately confirms that the real, resonant story to be told here is not that of Loving v. Virginia but instead the very act of loving another human being.

74 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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CINEMA SIX-PACK...

WATCH

and a shoT

DESERT ISLAND FLICKS

By Mark Fields

As winter comes to Delaware, enjoy the warm sun and sand from these tropical locales, but remember not all—in fact, not much—is well in paradise.

Cast Away (2000) Director Robert Zemeckis and actor Tom Hanks, who worked together effectively on Forrest Gump, re-team for this modern-day take on Robinson Crusoe. Hanks plays Chuck Noland, an efficiency expert for FedEx who finds himself stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Although the before and after-island scenes seem superfluous, the actor carries more than half the film by himself as he learns to survive on his wits…and with the repurposed debris washed up from his FedEx plane.

The Impossible

(2012)

Directed by J.A. Bayona, The Impossible depicts the impact of the devastating Thailand tsunami of 2004 on the people in its relentless path. Focused on a vacationing British couple (Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor) and their children, the film explores the human tragedy of natural disasters—powerfully re-created on film—as this family is battered (literally) and separated in an unfamiliar and horrifying landscape. I have qualms with the focus placed on a Western couple amid a Southeast Asian disaster, but the human drama still resonates.

Lilo and Stitch

(2002)

Plucky but lonely adolescent Lilo finds a strange creature that she mistakes for an especially ugly dog, but Stitch (as she calls him) is actually an extraterrestrial genetic experiment gone rogue. Feared as violent by his creators, the escaped Stitch is adopted and domesticated—somewhat—by the irrepressible Lilo. Woven into this “girl and her dog” tale is a backstory based on the Hawaiian concept of ohana, or family, where bonds of love and interdependence can overcome even an alien invasion.

South Pacific

(1958)

The big-screen translation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical about sailors and nurses on a South Pacific isle during World War II still shimmers with terrific R&H songs: “Nothin’ Like a Dame,” “Bali H’ai,” and the luminous ballad, “Some Enchanted Evening.” But the romance between Mitzi Gaynor’s Nellie and Rossano Brazzi’s Emile feels overblown on screen, in part due to the chemistry-free casting. Ray Walston as hustling Seabee Luther Billis is a delight.

Tropic Thunder

(2008)

The parts are greater than the sum in this often silly, occasionally hilarious parody of war movies, as it depicts a group of superficial, pampered actors trying to make a war movie. Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Steve Coogan, the movie contains some great moments and ideas (including Downey lamely trying to play a black character) but it suffers from Stiller’s inability as the director to stay focused. The best gag is a barely recognizable Tom Cruise as a profane studio executive.

The Year of Living Dangerously

(1982)

A sterling cast, mostly unknowns at the time (Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Oscar-winner Linda Hunt), illuminate this tense drama set during an attempted coup in 1960s Indonesia. Directed by Peter Weir, this film has a lot on its mind (political turmoil, journalistic ethics, poverty, exploitation) and conveys it compellingly. Gibson and Weaver create sparks in the central romance, which is given further depth through Maurice Jarre’s thrilling score.

And a shot…coming to Theatre N in December.

Little Sister

Screening Dec. 16-18

This offbeat dark comedy by fledgling writer-director Zach Clark centers around a strong if strained sibling relationship within a dysfunctional family. Colleen has reluctantly returned home to Asheville, N.C., to reconnect with her seriously disfigured brother, a recent Iraq War veteran. But she must also contend with parents and a community that have an outof-date understanding of who she is. Ally Sheedy plays Colleen’s passive-aggressive stoner mom, perhaps her Breakfast Club character become an adult. For a full Theatre N schedule and more information, go totheatren.com.

DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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COME BRING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH US!

Come Try Our Seasonal Craft Beers Over 22 Beers on Tap at the Polly Drummond and Peoples Plaza Locations!

New Years Eve Party w/ DJ Dance Party, Champagne Toast, & Party Favors!

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MONDAYS

½ Price Appetizers All Day

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All You Can Eat Wings $11.99 after 5pm

FRIDAYS

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76 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WATCH

THEATRE N REVIVED A partnership between The Mill, The Kitchen and The Grand brings fresh energy to the independent theater

Gift Cards

T

heatre N has new life and new management. The arthouse cinema, reopened in October, will feature independent films every weekend and classic cinema events throughout the year. For the first time since its founding in 2002, the theater, located in the Buccini/Pollin Group-owned Nemours Building in downtown Wilmington, is no longer managed by the mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs.

Early this year, concerns about the theater organization and its future led to action. Robert Herrera, founder of the communitydriven workspace The Mill—and the theater’s upstairs neighbor in the Nemours Building—approached BPG and Zach Phillips, filmmaker and founder of The Kitchen, about possibilities for the theater’s future. From there, a new vision was developed.

Herrera and Phillips joined forces with members of The Grand. That included Beverly Zimmerman, the original theater manager during its most successful years—2002-2013—as well as Bob Weir, a seasoned projectionist and the technical director at The Playhouse on Rodney Square, and Mark Fields, executive director of The Grand and The Playhouse.

“If anybody can revive the theater, it’s the team we have now,” says Herrera. “This is the second coming of the Theatre N.” The partnership focuses on targeting a young entrepreneurial demographic, expanding to special events, TED Talks and more.

One feature of the new system is that the team will now have access to films from every independent studio, not just a limited subset, which was the case previously. Zimmerman will once again take over the film schedule.

The 221-seat theater is undergoing renovation, including a new, state-of-the art projector, and a custom-built concession area designed by Herrera.

“Neighborhood movie theaters are an important feature of any modern city, and as the film industry rapidly changes we think independent cinema will have a growing role,” says Phillips. “Our plan for Theatre N isn’t just to be Wilmington’s indie theater. We want to be a leader in the re-imagination of what an independent theater can be, and make Theatre N a cinema destination in the region.”

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DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WHAT’S #INWILM THIS MONTH

CTC: La Cage Aux Folles Fri, Dec 2 - Sat, Dec 17

Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka Sat, Dec 3 - Sun, Dec 18

IN the Spirit Holiday Party Wed, December 14

Christmas By Candlelight Fri, Dec 2 - Fri, Dec 23

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Full details for these events and more: inWilmingtonDE.com

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Julia Wallace, REALTOR® Licensed in DE, MD, & PA Direct: 302-588-6572 | Office: 302-368-1621 julia.wallace@foxroach.com • facebook.com/juliawallacerealtor 78 DECEMBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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JULY 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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70 NOVEMBER 2015 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Premieres December 15

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Penn Cinema + Escape to the movies

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Escape to the movies at Wilmington’s only locally-owned and independently operated multiplex, featuring 15 state-of-theart screens including the state’s only IMAX® Theatre.

302.656.4314 | 401 S. Madison Street | Wilmington, DE 19801

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©2016 LUCAS FILMS. IMAX© IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF IMAX CORPORATION.

OCTOBER 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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