April 2023 - A Taste of Wilmington

Blue Coats Take Their Game to the Streets

What Is Bardea's Next Move?

A Taste of Wilmington City Restaurant Week returns for 18th year

APRIL 2023

COMPLIMENTARY

John Faye: A Songwriter’s Story

SAT | APR 1 | 8PM | $51

Acoustic guitar master known for his fingerpicking style

THUR | APR 13 | 8PM | $38

Blind jazz guitarist dubbed “an eclectic adventurist” by People magazine

YAMATO

Drummers of Japan

FRI | APR 7 | 8PM | $38-$42

Thrilling & explosive performance of Taiko drumming for the whole family

RAIN A Tribute to The Beatles

THU | APR 13 | 8PM | $45-$75

Note-for-note theatrical event that is the next best thing to seeing The Beatles

SAT | APR 22 | 2PM | $64

Supremely gifted guitarist you know from Poco and Loggins & Messina

FRI | APR 14 | 8PM | $32-$40

Smart, observational humor—her wit has become the stuff of legend

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives

SUN | APR 16 | 7PM | $40-$60

Sensory-Friendly

Fred Garbo’s Inflatable Theater

SUN | APR 30 | 2PM | $15

Imaginative sensory-friendly show with giant inflatable props

Living, breathing country music history, still releasing relevant music Graham Parker

THUR | MAY 4 | 8PM | $38

His pub-rock snarl has worked magic for a generation

THUR | MAY 18 | 8PM

Leo Kottke

Raul Midón

Jim Messina

Paula Poundstone

tickets subject to box office service charges. Artists, dates, times and programs are subject to change.

This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.

AN ILLUMINATING EVENING – AGAIN!

January through early March can be challenging in these parts. It’s cold. It’s gray. It gets dark early. In other words, it’s a perfect time of year to hold Shine A Light.

Early last month, area musicians joined forces for the 11th consecutive year to put on this benefit concert at The Queen. If you weren’t there or haven’t caught a previous Shine A Light (SAL), you’re missing out. It may be Wilmington’s best musical event of the year.

Each SAL pays tribute to a different era of music — 1968, the 1980s, the Rolling Stones… This year’s theme was the music of 1983 and attendees watched in nostalgic delight as a cast of 67 musicians (including 15 females and 11 people of color) performed 41 songs — from Lionel Ritchie to Cyndi Lauper to Talking Heads.

The performers changed for every song, yet there appeared to be at least 20 musicians on stage for each number. While quite a planning challenge, each year the SAL cast begins planning in August and rehearses throughout February; they have the changeovers down pat. They also have the talent to pull off this spectrum of songs and styles.

For me, it was once again moving to witness it all unfold. After all, Out & About has history with many on that stage.

We’ve written about virtually every performer who took part — many of them, multiple times. We’ve watched them grow up. Some have become friends. And while a few have tasted the big time, each has enjoyed a moment in the local spotlight, and no doubt entertained you at one of your go-

to nightspots. They’ve helped lay down the soundtrack for this city.

Of course, it takes more than just the musicians to pull off such an undertaking. And as I entered this year’s concert, I saw the usual ensemble of “doers” volunteering to scan tickets, apply wristbands, answer questions, hand me a glass of champagne!

“The people in this room are probably responsible for half the cool stuff that goes on in this city,” I commented to one who has helped me on many an endeavor. She nodded in agreement. Hyperbole, perhaps, but we both knew I wasn’t far off.

Oh yes, I mentioned this was a benefit concert — and not just for the benefit of those who attend. Indeed, it is.

Shine A Light has raised more than $700,000 since its inception in 2012. Last year, it not only helped fund music education programs for underserved youth at Reed’s Refuge, Christina Cultural Arts Center and Kingswood Community Center, some of the SAL musicians helped instruct. To bring the relationship full circle, Reed’s Refuge co-founder Fred Reed sang this year’s Lionel Ritchie number and has performed at SAL the past two years.

Pretty illuminating stuff for an otherwise dreary winter night. Yes, musicians have that superpower.

And when you see 67 of them wielding it all at once, well, that’s a powerful experience. But don’t take my word for it, next year come see for yourself.

— Jerry duPhily

THE WAR ON WORDS

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

By Bob Yearick

GET ON THE BUS S

There is a podcast called “Bussin’ with the Boys,” which features NFL players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. The title is a play on the camaraderie and good-natured trash talk that develops on team buses. However, the title doesn’t mean what Compton and Lewan think it means. Bussing — with the extra s — means “kissing, snogging or osculating.”

Busing, on the other hand, means either “transporting someone in a bus” or “removing dirty dishes from [as from a table].” (Some dictionaries accept bussing as a variant, but the AP Stylebook — our bible — insists on busing.)

I’ll leave it to someone else to tell “The Boys” about their error.

PHONY SOPHISTICATION

A WDEL reporter recently asked for a guest’s thoughts on a current event with this question: “What is your purview of the situation?” Purview means “the range or limit of authority, competence, responsibility, concern, or intention.“ The reporter apparently thought that purview is a more sophisticated way of saying simply “view” or “opinion.”

This reminds me of the more common mistake of using penultimate to mean the absolute best, even more ultimate than ultimate, when it actually means “the next to last.” Again, phony sophistication.

MEDIA WATCH

•I long ago ceased to be surprised by mistakes in The New York Times. Here, from a reader, is the latest: “The hint for Number 4 down in the Times mini-crossword puzzle was ‘Golf hole-in-ones.’” The correct term, of course, is holes-in-one.

•Scooby Axson, in USA TODAY, writing about University of Detroit Mercy basketball star Antoine Davis: “At first glance, Davis wouldn’t seem like a candidate to be such an opposing figure on the court.” I’m pretty sure The Scoobster meant imposing (impressive, daunting).

DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCIES DEPT.

Comment on a Philadelphia Eagles Facebook page: “It was a unicorn season for them, which doesn't come along very often .” That’s the point of the unicorn metaphor — it identifies something that is rare and treasured — something that doesn’t come along very often .

Word of the Month jeremiad

Pronounced jerry-MY-ad, it’s a noun meaning a prolonged lamentation or complaint. Also: a cautionary or angry harangue.

OUT, DAMNED OF

Reader Debbie Layton shares my annoyance with what has been called “the intrusive of” in sentences like these:

•From Time magazine, courtesy of Debbie: “The gambit might lack as wide of an appeal as conservative leaders believe.”

•From PSU OUTSPOKEN, a Facebook group devoted to Penn State sports: “If you were still wondering how good of a program Cael Sanderson has built at Penn State, the answer is really, really good.”

While using of in these constructions is not technically wrong, it’s something the careful writer or speaker avoids. Also, it’s annoying.

COMMA CONCERNS

The comma may be the second most-abused punctuation mark (the apostrophe is a solid Number 1, of course). It’s absent when it should be present and it is often misplaced, appearing where it shouldn’t. Below are examples of both problems.

Absent from a headline in USA TODAY: “Super Bowl was Blackest, most woke ever. Sorry haters!” When addressing someone, even in a headline, there should be comma after the first word (or words) in the address.

Correct examples: How are you doing, Jane? Hello, Bill. I got you, babe.

Misplaced in the subject line of a Texas politician’s fundraising email: “Let’s Talk, Texas.” Now, if this were a message sent just to Texans, that might work. But the first line — “Dear Bob, it’s time we have a talk about Texas” — made it obvious that she wanted to talk about Texas, not to Texans.

Another common misplacement of the comma occurs after titles. E.g., “Wilmington Police Chief, Wilfredo Campos.” Kill the comma.

On the other hand, “Wilmington’s police chief, Wilfredo Campos,“ refers to the position and is no longer a title. Thus, it requires commas around the name and eliminates the need for capitalizing the title.

LITERALLY OF THE MONTH

NBC News reporter Jacob Soboroff, commenting on Rihanna’s baby bump reveal during her Super Bowl halftime show: “It literally sent the social media world into a total meltdown .” News outlets periodically report that social media has gone “into total meltdown,” which in itself is hyperbole. Adding “literally” is ludicrous overkill.

stigma, is looking for the personal stories of individuals from the state who have passed away from a drug overdose/ drug poisoning.

Things worth knowing

These stories become part of a statewide art exhibition featuring that person’s portrait and narrative.

DON’T BE AN APRIL FOOL!

We’ve placed a fake ad somewhere in this issue. Find it, email us with ad name and page # that it’s on, and you could win FREE LUNCH! Deadline for submission is April 10. Three winners will be selected from those who answer correctly. Email your answer to Contact@TSNPub.com

CITY THEATER COMPANY CLOSES SEASON WITH A BANG

City Theater Company will close its 29th season with a presentation of Assassins, a show it first performed 25 years ago. Seven performances will be held April 14-22 at The Delaware Contemporary (200 S. Madison St., Wilm.)

Location: Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington DE

Date: June 1, 2023 – Dec 3, 2023

Sponsored by: DE Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health with support from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield DE

In Partnership: DE Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Office of the Lt. Governor of DE, and the DE Art Museum

Theresa Clower was inspired to create INTO LIGHT Project shortly after the death of her son, Devin Bearden, to an accidental drug overdose in February 2018 in Baltimore. Having never attempted portraiture work before, she picked up her graphite pencil and began drawing. It was a cathartic experience that allowed her to say goodbye to her son. In so doing, Theresa tapped into an entirely new calling – drawing the faces of others who had lost their lives to drug addiction. From there, INTO LIGHT Project held the first exhibition in Baltimore in 2019. Since then, exhibits have been held in 7 states, with more booked for 2023.

The Tony-Award-winning musical features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, which was based on an original concept by Charles Gilbert Jr. The dark and slyly comic show shadows a group of successful and wannabe Presidential assassins throughout U.S. history, framing their experiences in a broader exploration of American ideals. The score reflects the popular music of each era as the characters tell their stories through scenes and songs.

For more information contact:

Jane Donovan DE State Ambassador, INTO LIGHT Project 302-438-5537 ajanedonovan@verizon.net

N3RD THURSDAYS AT DELAWARE MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

To find out more about INTO LIGHT Project’s founder and Executive Director Theresa Clower, watch this biography

CTC first presented Assassins in 1998. Kerry Kristine McElrone, CTC’s artistic director, played Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in that production, and is excited about revisiting the show 25 years later.

Or visit https://intolightproject.org/

Theresa Clower Founder, INTO LIGHT Project 302-455-9595 tclower@intolightproject.org

The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science is inviting you to “embrace your inner nerd and let your geek flag fly” at N3RD Thursdays. The evening will be for adults ages 21 and older and feature a science angle to a variety of themed events. N3RD kicks off Thursday, April 20 (6-9pm) with Prom Night at the Museum. Upcoming themes include Green Carnival (June 15), A Midsummer Night’s Steam (July 20) and Back to School Field Trip (Aug. 17). The series continues through December.

Each event will feature a contest, a dress-up theme, programming from the museum and partners and cash bar. Children are not invited. Tickets are $15 members; $30 non-members. Visit Delmns.org

Thank you for considering a submission to our project. We look forward to working together to change the conversation about drug addiction and erasing the stigma of SUD by helping others to better understand this insidious disease.

Says McElrone “When deciding on our 29th season, I knew I wanted us to do a Sondheim piece,” says McElrone. “Assassins has always been an important show to me -- in part because it was one of my first professional roles, and as such was pivotal in shaping my approach to my work in myriad ways. I’ve done a number of Sondheim pieces since then, but the time felt right to restage this one for a new CTC audience.”

INTO LIGHT Project, a national non-profit organization to changing the conversation addiction and erasing stigma, the personal stories.

Tickets are $45 ($30 students). Visit City-Theater.org.

FIRST STATE BALLET PRESENTS A CLASSIC

First State Ballet, Delaware’s only professional ballet company, will present Don Quixote April 22-23 at The Grand (818 Market St., Wilm.). The Cervantes’ classic features the misadventures of Quixote and his devoted squire, Sancho Panza, and is an entertaining ballet for all ages. Tickets range $20-$57. Visit FirstStateBallet.org

JAMES BEARD SUNDAY SUPPER KICKS OFF CULINARY CELEBRATION

While Wilmington’s culinary rite of spring — City Restaurant Week — kicks off April 24 (see pg. 43), the celebration of the city’s restaurant scene kicks off a day earlier with the inaugural Wilmington James Beard Foundation Sunday Supper on April 23 at The Chancery Market Food Hall & Bar (1313 N. Market St., Wilm.). The evening is being presented by the James Beard Foundation in partnership with Johnson Commercial Real Estate and the City of Wilmington’s It’s Time campaign.

The event will feature a diverse collection of Wilmington chefs, several who are past James Beard nominees. Chefs include: Antimo Dimeo (Bardea Steak, Bardea Food & Drink), Tyler Akin (Le Cavalier at the Green Room), Joe Delago (The Quoin Restaurant), Michael DiBianca (Ciro Food & Drink, Ciro Forty Acres), Dan Butler (Piccolina Toscana, Brandywine Prime) as well Chancery Market owners and chefs Lanice Wilson (The Juice Joint), Nikita Thomas (Rooted AF), Oath 84, Fuku, Katiroll Wala, Market Street Burger and Dog, and Espresso.

The evening will open with a one-hour reception followed by a seated dinner served family-style, which features a different chef preparing each course. Limited tickets are available for $200 per person and can be purchased at EventBrite.

GOVERNOR PETE DU PONT COLLECTION AT HAGLEY

The Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation has partnered with Hagley Museum and Library to further expand the legacy and preserve the papers of Pierre S. “Pete” du Pont IV (1935–2021), Delaware’s 68th governor (1977–1985) and a Republican candidate for President of the United States during the 1988 campaign.

In addition to his role as governor and presidential run, du Pont was also an attorney, state legislator, member of Congress, commentator, and columnist. He is most wellknown for positioning Delaware as a center for the credit card industry, shifting Delaware’s unemployment rate to the lowest in the U.S. at the time.

The Hagley collection fills 28 feet of shelving, with thousands of documents, more than 500 photographs, and scores of videocassettes, scrapbooks, recordings and other materials. The archive also includes an assortment of writings, speeches, videos, and photographs from Governor du Pont’s career as a politician and political journalist, a selection of which has been digitized and is accessible through PeteDupontFreedomFoundation.org as well as Hagley.org/pdpont.

DELAWARE GRAN FONDO OFFERS ONCE-A-YEAR RIDING EXPERIENCE

The Delaware Gran Fondo, a cycling event that provides riders with a once-a-year tour through a collection of Brandywine Valley cultural attractions, returns Sunday, May 21 with a pair of new features. This year’s ride, which last year drew riders from 18 states and four countries, will begin at Wilmington’s Rockford Park and include a ride through the spectacular grounds of Granogue. It’s the first time Granogue has been part of the course. Other cultural attractions on the ride include Hagley Museum, Winterthur Museum, Delaware Museum of Nature & Science, Auburn Heights and Woodside Creamery. The ride offers distances of 12.5 (Governor’s Ride), 34 and 62 miles. A post-ride BBQ including craft beer and ride awards will be held adjacent to Rockford Tower.

The Delaware Gran Fondo is part of the threeday Wilmington Grand Prix, now in its 15th year. Visit WilmGrandPrix.com

Cyclists ride through Winterthur during the Delaware Gran Fondo. Photo by Les Kipp

MEALS ON WHEELS PARTNERS WITH TOP CHEFS TO FIGHT SENIOR HUNGER

Meals On Wheels Delaware is hosting its’ 26th Annual Celebrity Chefs’ Brunch on Sunday, April 30 (11:30am2pm) at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington. Funds raised from the event assist Meals on Wheels’ mission of providing delivered meals to homebound senior citizens. Last year, more than 6,200 Delaware seniors benefited from the program.

Chefs Jose Salazar (Mita’s, Cincinnati, Oh.) and Cassy Vires (Bailey’s Restaurants, St. Louis, Mo.) will host the fundraiser as honorary chairs. They will be joined by 23 other award-winning chefs, including Tyler Akin, Michael Blackie, Patrick Bradley, Dan Butler, Hari Cameron, Amber Croom, Mark Daggett, Antimo DiMeo, Don Drake, Dana Herbert, Ken Hodanics, Victoria Jeker, Robbie Jester, Robert Lhulier, Bruce Moffett, Loryn Nalic, Jasmine Norton, Deb Paquette, Paul Reilly, Larry Schreiber, Alex Seidel, John Tesar, and Dru Tevis.

“We are always grateful for the enthusiasm from the chefs who share their talents for a good cause,” says Regina Dodds, director of events for Meals on Wheels Delaware. “We are also fortunate to have the support of the community who join in the goal of raising funds for Meals on Wheels programs statewide.”

Tickets range $75-$175. Visit MealsonWheelsDe.org

A SPECIAL EVENING ABOARD

Salute Delaware’s revolutionary war history with festivities aboard the tall ship Kalmar Nyckel on Saturday, April 15. After a tour of the ship, guests will convene with an indoor reception hosted by the National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association (W3R-US) at the Kalmar Nyckel building. This event will support Wilmington’s preparations for America’s 250th birthday in 2026. This is an opportunity to celebrate the thousands of American and French troops who passed through Wilmington en route to win American independence in 1781 at Yorktown, Va.

“Wilmington witnessed the march of thousands of French and American troops in 1781 on what is now the Washington Rochambeau National Historical Trail,” said Larry Abell, W3RUS board chair. “The trail spans 10 states from Massachusetts down to Virginia and highlights the journey of the diverse armies and the ordinary citizens who helped them on the road to victory at Yorktown. This evening will shed light on those moments and celebrate the important role the state of Delaware played in the birth of our nation.”

Vincent de Kytspotter, France’s representative to the United Nations, will be the Guest of Honor. The evening will also include a brief talk by archaeologist Wade P. Catts. The tour starts at 4:30pm; the reception at 5:30pm. Attendees will be supporting the historic Washington Rochambeau National Historic Trail. For tickets, visit W3r-us.org/event/ wilmington2023.

Supporting Those Who Serve: How Wilmington University Works for Military-Connected Students

For many military service members and veterans, a college degree represents a key step in the transition to civilian life.

“Higher education serves as a critical component to longterm success while volunteering to serve, as well as after service,” says James Webb, director of military affairs for Wilmington University. “A wealth of opportunities exists, and when combined with military and veterans' education benefits, the pursuit of higher education ensures competitiveness in and out of uniform.”

In 2020, WilmU joined more than 2,000 colleges and universities nationwide to demonstrate a commitment to service members, veterans, and their families when President Dr. LaVerne Harmon signed a pledge to implement and uphold the Eight Keys to Veterans' Success.

The Eight Keys program, developed in collaboration between the U.S. Departments of Education and Veterans Affairs, outlines the steps that educational institutions can take to support current and former service members on their way to academic and career goals.

“The program helps to ensure that schools provide a welcoming and consistent learning environment, and WilmU is committed to the Eight Keys," says Webb. "We want to ensure that our militaryconnected students have a smooth transition from service to campus life and beyond.”

The Eight Keys to Veterans' Success recommend that colleges and universities:

1. Create a culture of trust and connectedness across the campus community to promote well-being and success for veterans.

2. Ensure consistent and sustained support from campus leadership.

3. Implement an early alert system to ensure all veterans receive academic, career, and financial advice before challenges become overwhelming.

4. Coordinate and centralize campus efforts for all veterans, together with the creation of a designated space for them (even if limited in size).

The university that

5. Collaborate with local communities and organizations, including government agencies, to align and coordinate various services for veterans.

6. Utilize a uniform set of data tools to collect and track information on veterans, including demographics, retention, and degree completion.

7. Provide comprehensive professional development for faculty and staff on issues and challenges unique to veterans.

8. Develop systems that ensure sustainability of effective practices for veterans.

“WilmU meets or exceeds the criteria outlined in the Eight Keys,” says Webb. “Plus, we're continually identifying and enhancing support services for military students and their families.”

More than 1,500 military-connected students currently attend WilmU. One of those students is U.S. Navy veteran, Stephen Strosser. He earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from WilmU prior to his service and then chose to re-enroll in a doctoral program while stationed abroad.

“As a military student, Wilmington University was very helpful to me,” says Strosser. “Every time I’m on the phone [with WilmU] or speaking to a person for the first time, the first thing they respond back to me with is ‘Thank you for your service,’ and that makes me feel welcomed and appreciated.”

Strosser cites WilmU’s flexibility and credit transfer policies as keys to his success. “The biggest thing that WilmU has helped with is flexibility,” he notes. “I was initially overseas when I first got into my program. Most of the work is done online, so it is also good for adult learners who are working.”

For more information about how WilmU works for military students and their families, please visit wilmu.edu/Military

Rick P. ‘14, Service Member

worked for me.

WORTH RECOGNIZING

Community Members Who Go Above & Beyond

EASY AS A WALK IN THE PARK

Story Walk program is an engaging way to promote literacy while getting exercise

By Adriana Camacho-Church

Otto, the octopus, wants to see the sun. He lives in the deep sea. His friends, swordfish and dolphin agree to show Otto the sun. On their way to the surface, the friends experience many adventures.

If you want to know what happens in Otto and the Sun written by Gigliola Zecchin, better known as Canela, take a walk outside the grounds of historic Rockwood Mansion in Wilmington.

Each page of the bilingual picture book is displayed on 19 individual wooden stands installed along a path of blooming trees and shrubs.

Along the way you will learn a few fun octopus facts —octopuses have blue blood; they are excellent problem solvers; they can unscrew jars.

Rockwood Park and Museum is one of three New Castle County parks participating in the county’s Story Walk program. Launched in 2021, the program aims to combine the benefits of literacy, exercise, nature, and social bonding. Carousel and Delcastle parks in Wilmington also feature Story Walk.

“It started during the pandemic,” says Enrique Morás, founder and CEO of Syncretic Press, Wilmington’s only independent publisher of children’s books in Spanish. “The county was looking for different ways to engage families with storytelling and literacy. Having outdoor reading options for kids during the summer was a dire need.”

Morás supplies the New Castle County Department of Libraries and Parks & Recreation with a list of books. After they select the books they want to use, Morás translates the books from Spanish to English and prepares them for display. A new book is displayed at the parks about every three months.

Bilingual picture books open the program to more community members and benefit those learning either

language, says Morás. Books written by authors from Spanish speaking countries also spark curiosity for other languages and cultures and introduce a diverse perspective on art and storytelling.

Books chosen for Story Walk are easy to read and follow, feature beautiful illustrations, and don’t include too much text.

“Providing bilingual Story Walks offers the community an opportunity to celebrate Delaware’s diverse and multicultural society,” says Catherine Wimberley, programs & services coordinator for the county’s libraries. “According to the 2020 U.S. Census, over 15% of New Castle County’s 571,708 residents spoke a language other than English at home and 10% identify as Hispanic or Latino.”

The Story Walk concept was founded in 2007 by Anne Ferguson who worked with the Vermont Department of Health. She wanted to create a free activity that required families to get outside and be active while engaging in literacy. In collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, a local library, the project was initiated.

Story Walks are now installed in 50 states and 13 countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, Germany and Russia. They are found outside of schools, libraries, walking trails, city settings and businesses.

Syncretic Press also has Story Walks in Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Massachusetts as well as other states. And it has installed Story Walks at Appoquinimink Community Library ►

Syncretic Press founder Enrique Morás Photo by Joe del Tufo

and Las Américas ASPIRA Academy, a dual language immersion school In Newark.

“Kids love the Story Walks,” says Ryan Grover, director of Rockwood Park and Museum. The program fits perfectly with the park’s promotion of literacy and the arts. Rockwood holds open mic poetry readings, theater performances by Delaware Shakespeare, and other adult and children programs year round.

Sarena Deglin, administrative librarian at Delaware Division of Libraries, says a few libraries in southern Delaware also offer Story Walks. Dover Public Library has a Story Walk located in Silver Lake Park. And Lewes Public Library, in partnership with Lewes in Bloom, installed a Story Walk in The Children’s Learning Garden located in Stango Park. These Story Walks are made possible, says Deglin, through donations from local businesses, organizations and community members.

— For more information, visit: syncreticpress.com/pages/book-walks

Ryan Grover (right), director of Rockwood Park and Museum, says kids love Story Walks. Photo courtesy Rockwood Park & Museum.

Friday, April 14, 2023 5pm Start

RIVERFRONT

The Delaware Contemporary

200 South Madison Street

656-6466 • decontemporary.org

Artists: How Can a Space Be Nourishing? Collaborative, Plastic Reef by Federico

Uribe, Horizons by Rich Lopez and Anne Oldach

DOWNTOWN

2nd & LOMA Leasing Office

211 N. Market Street

655-0124 • 2ndandloma.com

Artist: Colors of the Universe by Deborah Vallon

Chris White Gallery

701 N. Shipley Street

475-0998 • chriswhitegallery.com

Artist: Chapel of Tears group exhibition curated by Nanci Hersh

City of Wilmington’s Redding Gallery

800 N. French Street

576-2100 • cityfestwilm. com/redding-gallery

Artist: “Commit to Memory: The Precipice of Exhibition”

The Creative Vision Factory

617 N. Shipley Street

312-5493

Artists: Open House & Group Exhibition.

Delaware College of Art & Design

600 N. Market Street

622-8000 • dcad.edu

Artist: PROJECT X

Next Art Loop:

Friday, May 5, 2023

Blue Streak Gallery

1721 Delaware Avenue

429-0506

Gallery at Grace Church

900 N. Washington Street

655-8847 • gracechurchwilmington.org

Artist: Facing Time- always trying to understand by Pamela Flynn

The Grand Opera House

818 N. Market Street

658-7897

thegrandwilmington.org

Grand Gallery: Light Weavings, Elisabeth Bard baby grand Gallery: Form and Nature, Marisa Malone

Mezzanine Gallery at the Carvel State Building

820 N. French Street

577-8278

arts.delaware.gov

Artist: Projected Perspectives, Tad Sare

Over The Border Tacos

125 N. Market Street

442-1894

Artist: Bruce Gulick

WEST SIDE

Delaware Center for Horticulture

1810 N. Dupont Street

658-6262 • thedch.org

Artist: The Beauty of Nature by the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators

Artist: New Works: Analogue/ Digital by Valetta

Howard Pyle Studio

1305 N. Franklin Street

(978) 460-8120

Artists: Group Show by the Studio Group Artists

Kevin Melloy Studio

110 South Union Street

425-4900

Artist: SonjasEye

BEYOND THE CITY

Lumen Studio & Gallery

Independence Mall

1601 Concord Pike, Suite 89 545-3204

Artist: “Emergence” Patt Panzer, Carson Zullinger

Arden Buzz Ware Village Center

2119 The Highway, Arden

981-4811 • ardenbuzz.com

Artist: Hugh Phibbs - New Works, Mostly Maine

Bellefonte Arts

803-C Brandywine Blvd

547-2573

Artist: April Animal Art Show

COCA Pop-Up Gallery

3829 Kennett Pike

218-4411

Artists: Group show

A program of the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs

Bitten By The Theater Bug

Newark’s Nick LaMedica will appear this spring in Disney’s touring production of The Lion King. But for this Cab Calloway grad, it all began while assisting his father, Jungle John, with animal shows.

By Ken Mammarella

Zazu on stage in The Lion King is a memorable hornbill, with that big beak and those witty words. The guy in that striking blue outfit and bowler who makes him come to life? Not so much.

“I use a very affected, upper-crusty voice that sounds not at all like my own,” Nick LaMedica says. “There have been times where I’ve been out to dinner with a friend from the show, and their friends who came to see them turn to me and say, ‘Were you involved in the production?’ ”

Nick plays Zazu in the national touring company of the mega-musical, which hits the Kennedy Center in Washington June 21-July 29 and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia Aug. 16-Sept. 10.

He is a Newark native, the son of Susan (who writes poems for his birthdays, creates games for Christmas and early on brought him to see live theater) and John (a former zookeeper known since 1988 as Jungle John, who performs with reptiles and other animals and also makes balloon art).

Nick LaMedica as Zazu

Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy of Disney

So he switched to Cab, majoring in acting and musical theater, graduating in 2006. In 2010, he earned a bachelor of fine arts in acting from Marymount Manhattan College.

“I grew up around performing, occasionally doing TV spots with my dad or helping him with shows. For a long time, I wanted to perform, particularly with animals. I wanted to be an animal trainer and do that through live productions. Looking back, it was inevitable I was becoming a performer.”

Prologue

Nick was 8 when he joined his father for a magic trick that they performed for the Delaware Knights of Magic. One audience member was Marie Blood, the niece of Harry Houdini, who made of point of telling John that “Nick’s doing this because he loves it,” John recalls.

He was in third grade at Thurgood Marshall Elementary for his acting debut, playing the title character in Brian’s Brain, a play written by his classmates.

He was 12 when John took him to Los Angeles to help prepare for John’s Guinness record of being in a coffin with 20,050 cockroaches. Nick was so diligent about reviewing the script, the coffin and other details that John later pulled him out of school several times to help with his TV appearances.

“I knew then he would be a performer because he was smart, and performers are smart,” John says.

Nick’s résumé on NickLamedica.com lists more than a dozen plays, starting with War Horse. He toured in the drama for 2½ years across North America and into Japan and also credits it for developing his puppetry skills. Career highlights include five productions of Romeo and Juliet, leading roles in regional theaters across the country, leads in six film/TV/web series and episodes of the NBC series Chicago Fire and New Amsterdam

Special skills on the résumé include combat (rapier, dagger, unarmed, kung fu), puppetry (handspring, hand-rod, full body), juggling, magic, basic guitar and piano, various dialects, experience with exotic animals and the ability to raise one eyebrow.

Nick was 10 when he first saw The Lion King on Broadway, with tickets that were a birthday gift to his mother. The show re-entered his life in 2015, when studying kung fu with an actor playing Mufasa. Then a cast-mate in the 2016 Pittsburgh production of Hand to God asked if he had ever thought of being in the show. “ ‘No, I haven’t,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t even aware it had a part for me. And he said, ‘You would make a good Zazu.’ ”

BITTEN BY THE THEATER BUG continued from previous page

He returned to New York, saw the show and told his agent he was interested. His chance came in the spring of 2022, and it took multiple auditions.

“It was more than 20 years in the making to end up in this show, in a part I never dreamed of,” he says. “It’s astounding, and now I do it eight times a week.”

“This part was written for him,” Susan says, also praising his comedic timing, physical comedy and dialect. “It’s totally his personality.”

Backstage and On Stage

Nick is the third Delawarean recently cast in The Lion King Charlie Kahler of Newark played Young Simba on the national tour, starting early in 2020. Cab student KJ Jackson started playing Young Simba on Broadway in December.

Young Simbas quickly age out of the role. Adult cast members do not. Nick is now working with three performers that he saw on Broadway when he was 10.

Nick debuted on Sept. 26, and his contract runs a year. “There’s no reason to leave,” he says. “You have a great job.”

The union benefits include vacation and sick time and a housing allowance. Disney — the world’s largest entertainment company, which has so far grossed more than $9 billion with theatrical productions of The Lion King — also pays for college classes. On days with no shows, there are sometimes media appearances, professional development experiences and guest lectures, like a presentation by June Opal, often called “the grandmother of Juneteenth.”

Nick and his partner, Kate Hoffman, own a home in New York’s Hudson Valley. They recently adopted a Labradoodle named Okja (Oscar, kangaroo, Juliet, alpha, he spells out the name, channeling his interests in animals and entertainment), and Okja travels with Nick on the road. ►

Nick LaMedica was 8 when he joined his father for a magic trick and he's been performing ever since. Photo courtesy Nick LaMedica

His standard workweek includes two matinees and six evening performances. He has to be at the theater at least an hour before curtain, and his makeup takes 45 minutes to be applied. The show runs 2¾ hours, and it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get out of makeup and costume.

Zazu, whose name means “movement” in Swahili, is the show’s only true hand puppet, he says.

His costume’s color evokes the sky, he says, with magnets and other “cool things” hidden in it to offer interesting ways to move.

“I can do a lot of athletic things, jump up and down, kneel and fall and do all sorts of clownish things even though I’m in what appears to be a pretty restrictive, multi-layered suitcase. I spend most of the first half of this play running around, and it’s like cardio. I’m working with the fittest group of humans that I’ve ever met. The Lion King is a sport, hands down.”

No wonder that Nick (5-7 and about 150 during the interview) says he’s losing weight and calls the staff physical therapist “the most important person on the production.”

One of his favorite scenes begins the second act. “I just tell a lot of jokes at Scar’s expense, and it’s a lot of fun,” he says. “It has the DNA of Abbott and Costello.”

He also loves “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” Simba’s want song. “It’s over the top. It’s extremely colorful. There’s a ton of things happening on stage, and I’m just being bounced from one shocking, disorienting moment to the next. So it’s a wild roller coaster of a ride. It’s the hardest thing I have to do in the show because it’s singing and dancing and doing puppetry and diving and crawling and rolling around. It asks the most of me as a performer, but it has a great payoff, and it’s a lot of fun.”

And Offstage

“I just love these people,” Susan says of the cast. “It’s a family. They’re good humans. They genuinely care about each other, and they celebrate together whatever happens in their lives.”

Susan has helped them celebrate. “I’m the cookie mom,” she says, noting that she packed 515 chocolate chip cookies in her luggage when she saw the show in Chicago and that she’s thinking of what to do when they reach Philadelphia, besides organizing a group that already includes more than 120 people to enjoy a matinee.

Nick has developed such strong and deep theatrical skills that John now calls him to consult. “He’s like an encyclopedia of acting,” John says.

On two-performance days, Nick hangs at the theater for lunch, staying in makeup, and often playing card games like Uno, board games like Betrayal at House on the Hill or video games. He also works.

He has a business as a customer experience consultant, primarily for startups, and he is a solutions architect for lululemon Studio.

“It’s not very surprising to see [that title] alongside ‘actor’ because it’s a professional technical creative problem-solver,” he says. “That’s the same thing that you do in theater. It’s a highly technical art form but requires creative problem-solving, constantly bringing disparate systems together. How do you troubleshoot something that’s not going according to plan? On paper, it really sounds different, but I’m using mostly the same skills.

“If The Lion King was my only job, I’d be a happy, comfortable person. I have other interests and hobbies that I’d like to keep spinning as long as I can.”

Prom Night at the Museum

Thursday, April 20 | 6- 9 p.m. | 21+ $15/DelMNS members | $30 nonmembers

Dress to the nines and get the prom do-over you deserve! The museum will transform into a magical venue for dancing, drinks, snacks, contests, and more science fun. $15/ DelMNS members, $30/non-members. Must be 21+ and ready to dance your cares away.

MEAL

STARTING AT $49/month

Taking It to the Streets

Taking It to the Streets

Delaware Blue Coats don’t just rely on fans showing up. They take their game to the neighborhood.

By Kevin Noonan

The main objective of the Delaware Blue Coats is to develop players for the big-league club. After that, the priorities are to win basketball games and win over the fans, although not necessarily in that order.

And that’s where Joe Richmond — aka “Uncle Joe” — comes in.

The Blue Coats are a G League team that’s affiliated with the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. If you’re just a casual fan, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of any of the Blue Coats players, with one notable exception — guard Mac McClung, who electrified the basketball world when he recently won the NBA Slam Dunk contest with a combination of athleticism and showmanship that had the greatest players in the world singing (and tweeting) his praises. ►

Joe Richmond, the Blue Coats' Ambassador of Basketball, says engaging with the community is a labor of love. Photos courtesy Delaware Blue Coats

the official title of Ambassador of Basketball — to lead that effort, with able support from the rest of the Blue Coats management team.

“It’s really the enthusiasm and hard work by a lot of people that has made this a success,” Richmond says. “For all of us, it’s a labor of love, and the positive feedback we get from the people in Delaware is our real reward.”

How much of a success? Well, in the last year alone, the Neighborhood Hoops Tour has taken part in 147 different events in Delaware, mostly in Wilmington’s inner city, and since its inception

the program has reached more than 10,000 kids with its message of fellowship — along with, of course, a plug for the Blue Coats.

The Tour has also partnered with Nemours Children’s Health to donate more than 73,000 books for its reading program, and just so people don’t forget what the Blue Coats do for a living, the team’s community ticket assistance program has given more than 12,000 kids free tickets to their games.

And the Neighborhood Hoops Tour will tour in any neighborhood. Over the years they’ve visited schools and Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCAs and Police Athletic League facilities, not to mention various basketball camps and workshops — pretty much any place where Delawareans gather.

It starts at the top. Recently, Blue Coats coach Coby Karl visited Eastside Charter School and read to students and spoke to them about the importance of literacy and education, and he even brought along the Blue Coats’ mascot to entertain the younger students. Everyone, from team president Larry Meli on down, has taken part in the program at one time or another.

“I think the focus the Blue Coats have on literacy is great,” says Aaron Bass, CEO of Eastside Charter. “The more the community can support literacy and education for young people, the better we are for the future.”

And Bass appreciates the fact that the Blue Coats don’t use their fame and fortune to influence kids to become professional athletes like them.

“What Larry Meli and the Blue Coats understand is that their inspiration isn’t to make them basketball players — the inspiration is, how do we have an impact and build better connections with the

The Blue Coats' Neighborhood Hoops Tour participated in 147 events in 2022.

community? Their visionary leadership and understanding of the community stand out.”

The Man in the Middle

Richmond is the perfect person for his job as liaison between the team and the people. He bubbles over with enthusiasm when talking about the Blue Coats and their community programs, and his bounce-off-the-walls energy is infectious.

“We couldn’t do it without Coach Joe,” says Alex Yoh, the director of marketing for the G League team. “He has the ability that I’ve never seen before to just connect with people. He can walk into a room full of strangers and enlighten them and really make their day, if not their week.”

Says Bass: “Joe is a gem. It’s been amazing, because Joe gets it. He makes sure the Blue Coats are engaging with the community and that they’re part of the fabric and the landscape of the community.”

Richmond has a wealth of experience in combining basketball and entertainment. From 2007-2012 he traveled with the Harlem Globetrotters as an official, and he also coached the Globetrotters’ nightly opposition, the Washington Generals, the lovable losers who never, ever beat the Globetrotters. Richmond visited all 50 states and more than 35 countries with the Globetrotters, and he got an up-close-and-personal look at the way the famous group brought smiles to millions of faces, especially young ones.

“When you bring kids into it, when Coach Joe walks into the auditorium of a school, it’s a show,” Yoh says. “He has a natural ability to do that. Joe loves the Blue Coats and he believes in what we are doing and his sincerity comes across. He’s been a champion of this program since Day 1.”

The program got started because the Blue Coats, then known as the Delaware 87s of the D League, wanted to engage their fans outside of the basketball season, and the G League off-season is a lot longer than its on-season. And since players don’t hang around in the G League for long — they either move up or get moved out — the team couldn’t promote its players like an NBA team can.

So, even though the team has been successful on the court, going to the G League championship series the last two years, and attendance has been decent — they average about 1,500 fans per home game — that wasn’t enough.

“We only have 24 home games a year to get in front of people with the basketball,” Yoh says. “So, to establish ourselves in front of Delaware over a greater period of time, we came up with this program. We wanted to visit as many venues as we can with ►

For the Blue Coats, connecting with youth in the community is a year-round commitment.

this tour, with the idea of connecting with the youth in the community. And we knew it had to be a year-round effort and not be limited to just the games we play at Chase Fieldhouse.”

The program started slowly as the Blue Coats got acquainted with their Wilmington neighbors, and vice-versa.

“At first, we had to kind of track down our community partners,” Yoh says. “And now we’ve transitioned to a period when, fortunately, they’re calling us.”

Cut to the Chase

One of the main attractions of the Blue Coats’ outreach is Chase Fieldhouse, which has been the anchor for the Neighborhood Hoops Tour since it opened in 2019. The facility, on the eastern side of the Christina River, is also the centerpiece for a planned renaissance in that often-neglected area of Wilmington, just as Frawley Stadium was for the west side of the river.

“I love it when people, especially kids, walk into Chase Fieldhouse and I see that initial look on their faces,” Richmond says. “It’s a beautiful facility and a real boost for the community. It’s not like it’s a fortress that’s inaccessible to people. It’s used all the time and it’s a wonderful feeling to know that’s it’s a safe haven for kids. We make sure they know that it’s their place and not just a place where the Blue Coats play.

“That’s really at the heart of [Neighborhood Hoops Tour]. It’s about connecting with the people in the community, especially the kids, and letting them know that we’re not strangers who just walked into town. We’re a part of the community, too, and everything that affects them also affects us. And the Chase Fieldhouse is really the anchor of it all.”

So, the Blue Coats have the place (Chase Fieldhouse) and they have the personality (Joe Richmond), and together they’ve made an impact on the city and the state that goes far beyond watching a bouncing ball.

“When you walk into Chase Fieldhouse for a game, Coach Joe is the first face you see. He greets all the fans,” Yoh says. “And when you leave, he’s the last person you’ll say goodnight to.

“No other team has a Coach Joe, and we’re fortunate to have him because he’s the ultimate Blue Coat and the ultimate advocate for youth basketball in this area.”

Photo by Suchat Pederson

Market Street Magic

Market Street Magic

The team behind the Bardea restaurants is thriving in downtown Wilmington

The team behind the Bardea restaurants is thriving in downtown Wilmington

By Pam George

Photos by Joe del Tufo

Bardea Steak's popular and innovative teres major "noodles" appetizer.

It’s hard to keep Antimo DiMeo out of the kitchen. “I eat, drink and sleep food 247,” says the James Beard nominated chef. “It’s really a sickness. After 14-hour days, I’ll go home and fall asleep with a food book.”

His obsession is Wilmington’s gain. DiMeo, his father Giuseppe “Pino” DiMeo and Scott Stein have launched several downtown Wilmington eateries, including Bardea Food & Drink and Bardea Steak. Next up is a wine bar and pasta restaurant on Market Street, which should open this year if construction goes as planned. A speakeasy-style bar and an oyster bar are in the works.

Since opening Bardea Food & Drink in 2018, the community has embraced the partners’ talents — and that’s saying something considering that Delaware diners aren’t always kind to out-of-state restaurateurs.

“Never in my life — and this is no BS — have I felt as connected to a community as I do with the Wilmington community,” says Stein, a Philadelphia native. “We are comfortable in our own skin here, and that’s the secret sauce.”

With the new restaurant across from the two existing establishments, that sauce is about to get sweeter. But the partners’ success in Delaware’s largest city came after other opportunities soured — for one reason or another — and at one point, the odds of landing Bardea and its offspring were not in Wilmington’s favor. ►

The triumvirate of (l-r) Scott Stein, Antimo DiMeo and Giuseppe "Pino" DiMeo have more creative concepts in store for Market Street.

Antimo. “We talked about the industry and instantly bonded,” Stein recalls.

DiMeo agrees. “I said to my dad, ‘I really like him. We have similar mindsets and a great work ethic.’”

A Matter of Timing

Stein hesitated to team up with the DiMeos, partly because the family dynamic was “deja-vu all over again.” He considered opening a restaurant in the Chestnut Hill Hotel with Chef Jay Caputo. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Caputo owned Eclipse in Rehoboth Beach and several other resort-area restaurants. The hotel had recently lost the Melting Pot, and Stein wanted to open Bardea, an “Italianleaning American with a wood-fired pizza oven, salumi bar, pasta, wine and cocktails,” according to Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Klein.

When the liquor license was declined, Stein regrouped with the DiMeos to look at what is now Merchant Bar in Wilmington. Bryan Sikora had already taken a chance with La Fia across the street, but the out-of-towners felt it was too soon to invest in the area. Philadelphia’s Main Line, however, seemed like a safe bet — the tony suburbs were full of affluent diners.

In Pennsylvania, however, one retail liquor license is available for every 3,000 county inhabitants. Once the quota is met, the state will issue no new liquor licenses. Without a bar, Bardea became Arde Osteria & Pizzeria. The initial review from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig LaBan was not stellar, partly because he visited shortly after the opening. Moreover,

the seafood company had placed fish in the dough proofer, and the kitchen could not offer pizza that night.

However, brothers Chris and Rob Buccini of The Buccini/Pollin Group were big fans, and they were determined to bring Stein and the DiMeos to Market Street. The restaurateurs were ready.

At last, the timing was right.

Welcome to Wilmington

At this point, Wilmington reminded Stein more and more of Philadelphia’s Fishtown district, which had risen from the ashes to become a hip place for dining and entertainment. He saw the changes since he’d toured the Merchant Bar location.

The 5,000-square-foot Bardea Food & Drink took up ►

Three unique dining experiences at your doorstep.

Begin with modern wood-fired fare at The Quoin Restaurant. Take in a new side of the city with one-of-a-kind views and craft cocktails at Wilmington’s first and only Rooftop Bar & Lounge. Finally, indulge in specialty drinks in a historic locale at our cocktail bar, Simmer Down

Visit Us:

THE QUOIN RESTAURANT

Tuesday through Thursday, 5pm-10pm

Friday and Saturday, 5pm-11pm

Sunday, 4pm-9pm

ROOFTOP BAR & LOUNGE

Monday through Thursday, 5pm-11pm

Friday and Saturday, 5pm-12am

SIMMER DOWN

Tuesday through Thursday, 6pm-11pm

Friday and Saturday, 6pm-12am

Sunday, 5pm-10pm

Antimo, Scott and Pino (l-r) during a recent planning session.

What’s Next?

Between the two restaurants is The Garden, a landscaped courtyard that will open in warm weather with a menu. The new four-season restaurant across Market Street will feature fresh pasta — don’t go if you’re on keto, Stein jokes. “We want it to be a neighborhood spot — it’s more approachable.” DiMeo says the menu is inspired by the food his Italian grandmother made.

At press time, the new eatery did not have a name — the initial plan to start every concept with Bardea was scrapped. “It was too confusing,” Stein acknowledges. He wanted to name the new restaurant Addison’s after his daughter, but there is already a Michelin-star restaurant in San Diego with that name.

Like the first two restaurants, the newcomer will have innovative “snacks” and a bar, which initially was not in the plans. “But how can we open a pasta and wine bar without an actual bar?” Stein asks. Moreover, the Wayne experiment proved that a bar-less establishment is not in his DNA.

The mention of the bar brings us to the next project or two. “We have preliminary plans for an oyster bar and a speakeasy-type bar,” Stein reveals. “It’s a no-brainer with my experience.” One of the properties belongs to BPG; the other is the restaurant group’s building.

The team has received offers to open eateries in Greenville, New York and Washington, D.C. That’s not in the plans, however. “Our hearts are in downtown Wilmington,” Stein says. “For the next five years, I see us staying in our zone, being really focused on our block and the area between Eighth and Ninth on Market Street.”

Stein feels safe and comfortable walking Market Street at night, and a few more bars will only increase the traffic, he says. Many of the pedestrians are from Philly, says Stein, who tracks the area codes on the reservations. However, it is the locals who beamed with pride when the James Beard Foundation semifinalists were released, he adds.

Stein just wanted restaurants that served great food, but Pino DiMeo never doubted the team’s ability to earn a James Beard nomination. “It was weird,” Stein says. “He had the foresight. He always believed we could do it in Wilmington.”

And he was right.

8th & Union, Wilming ton

Presented By:

Sunday, April 30, 2023

VIP Entry -11:00 am General Admission -11:30 am to 2:00 pm

DuPont Country Club

Wilmington, Delaware

Outstanding brunch plates prepared by 25 award-winning national and local chefs with delicious cocktails, live entertainment and more!

A Meals on Wheels Delaware Event

Tickets

Marquee Communications Sponsors Diamond Spons ors

Presented by

April 24-29

Wilmington’s culinary rite of spring, City Restaurant Week, returns for its 18th year this month. This annual promotion provides great incentive to visit one of Wilmington’s destination restaurants and that roster has expanded significantlly over the past few years.

The 2022 lineup features 18 of Wilmington’s finest, each owner-operated. That’s one of the beauties of the city’s fine dining scene. Chain restaurants are not an option.

“City Restaurant Week is a great opportunity for people to try new items and flavors and gives our line chefs an opportunity to express their creativity” says John Constantinou, owner of Walter’s Steakhouse.

Once again, diners will be treated to an array of menus, offering everything from Asian to French to Italian. Prix-fixe, two-course lunches are $15. Three-course dinners are $35 or $50

“I have participated in City Restaurant Week since it started because the event promotes the fine dining scene in Wilmington and introduces Cafe Mezzanotte to potential new patrons,” says Sergio Pelligrino, owner of Caffe Mezzanotte.

For an overview of this year’s participating restaurants, read on. ►

BARDEA FOOD & DRINK

620 North Market St. 426-2069

Bardea’s name captures the vision that co-owners Scott Stein and Antimo DiMeo had since conceptualizing the restaurant over 5 years ago. The result: an innovative Italian restaurant that captures the energy of downtown Wilmington and brings the community together through food and drink. Chef Antimo DiMeo utilizes ingredients from local Delaware Valley farms and purveyors, and offers a diverse selection of inventive dishes that celebrate Italian cuisine through reimagined interpretations.

CAFÉ MEZZANOTTE

1007 North Orange St. 658-7050

Café Mezzanotte has built a reputation as Delaware’s premier spot to enjoy classic Pan-Mediterranean cuisine. We offer an intimate atmosphere with servers who attend to each diner with exceptional care. We look forward to seeing you.

CIRO FOOD & DRINK

321 Justison St. 543-6071

Michael DiBianca The 15-year veteran of the Wilmington dining scene and semifinalist for multiple James Beard Awards have teamed up with Venu Gaddamidi of Veritas Wines to take guests down an exciting, unique culinary experience. wo chefs preparing worldly cuisine featuring share plates and tasting menus. Ciro features an intimate dining experience with 30 seats, an open kitchen, plenty of wines by the glass and can accommodate dietary restrictions.

GRAIN CRAFT BAR + KITCHEN

1709 Delaware Ave.

647-7982

Grain Bar + Kitchen Grain was launched in 2015 by the O’Donoghue and Mikles’ families as a desire to create a warm inviting place to meet friends and enjoy a shared experience of contemporary American fare. The concept is a casual and energizing space where well-crafted food and drink happily go hand-in-hand.

BARDEA STEAK

608 North Market St. 550-9600

Bardea Steak is a boutique steakhouse for the 21st century from James Beard semifinalist, Bardea Restaurant Group. Here you can experience rare beef breeds and unique cuts grilled over a custom open hearth alongside imaginative share plates. All just steps away from our original restaurant, Bardea Food & Drink.

CHELSEA TAVERN

821 North Market St. 482-3333

Chelsea Tavern is a popular local gastropub located in downtown Wilmington directly across from the Grand Opera House. The kitchen prepares made-from-scratch comfort food with local ingredients, complemented by an ever-changing craft beer selection. Chelsea’s 33 taps, large format bottles, cans, and single-serving bottles spotlight seasonal and local brews, in addition to wine and cocktails. Chelsea is a neighborhood favorite for a quick lunch, weekend brunch with friends, pre-show dinner, group outings, and vibrant outdoor patio dining. The energetic bar scene is a gathering place always playing the game of the week on its large TVs.

DORCEA

1314 North Washington St. 691-7447

Dorcea is an inviting American bistro with lots of local beers on tap. We use the best ingredients and provide a great atmosphere.

LE CAVALIER

42 West 11th St. 594-3154

“Le Cavalier” (pronounced: luh-KAH-vuhl-YAY) honors the deep equestrian tradition in the Brandywine River Valley. In the early 20th century when the Hotel opened, visitors would arrive by horse as often as they would by automobile or by foot. Finally, the du Pont family’s history of horsemanship, from William du Pont Jr. and Marion du Pont Scott to Frolic Weymouth, provided further validation of the new moniker. The Le Cav Team is excited for you to share this unforgettable experience. Influenced by the flavors of North Africa and Provençe, Le Cavalier is a neo-brasserie offering thoughtfully sourced French classics and inventive riffs on French staples paired with natural wines designed to complement our fare. It’s space is designed to be refined and equally welcoming for intimate dates, celebratory large parties, family and social gatherings and business meetings.

MIKIMOTOS

1212 North Washington St. 656-8638

Located on Washington Street in center city Wilmington, Delaware, Mikimotos Asian Grill + Sushi Bar offers an upbeat atmosphere with modern Asian fare. The ideal location to enjoy the best + freshest sushi in town, along with an extensive chef-inspired hot menu to appease any palate. Mikimotos offers a variety of Asian inspired dished like our famous Dim Sum varieties, hand crafted Rice + Noodles, and many more.

PICCOLINA TOSCANA

1412 N. DuPont St. 654-8001

Piccolina Toscana, one of the area’s most popular and creative Italian restaurants is the beating heart of Trolley Square, the vibrant hub of Wilmington, Delaware’s nightlife. For over 30 years, Piccolina Toscana has been one of Wilmington’s favorite restaurants serving unfailingly fresh “Really Good Food”. If we didn’t make it, we don’t serve it.

TONIC BAR & GRILLE

111 West 11th St. 777-2040

At Tonic Seafood and Steak, each plate is prepared with the highestquality products and the freshest ingredients. The collaboration between our Director of Culinary Operations, Patrick Bradley, and our Executive Chef, Ivan Torres, has produced a unique interpretation of classic American dishes. To enhance your experience, our extensive wine collection and specialty drink menu offer limitless pairing opportunities. So, whether you are here to sample our lighter fare menu, our land and sea creations, or our wine and spirits … your dining experience will be one that is sure to please!

UBON KITCHEN & BAR

936 Justison St.

656-1706

UBON combines an incredible authentic Thai atmosphere with delicious, high-quality Thai food. Our recipes have been passed down through three generations of our family and represent the fusion of traditional central Thai dishes with northeastern Thai and feature a subtle modern influence that makes our menu the most unique dining experience in the area. Located directly on Wilmington’s Riverfront enhances the atmosphere and vibe of our establishment. So stroll on in and join us for an experience you will not forget!

OATH 84

405 N King St

Wilmington, DE 19801

250-8400

Oath 84 is Delaware’s newest elevated and modern restaurant, located in the heart of Wilmington. This chef-crafted establishment offers an immersive and high-quality dining experience at its core. Inspired by the sports year of 1984, Oath 84 combines modern elements with experiential elements from that time period to create a unique and unforgettable dining experience. The restaurant encourages guests to #TaketheOath and step into the world of Oath 84 to enjoy its delicious menu and drinks while connecting with others in a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Be sure to keep an eye out for seasonal attractions throughout the year, as Oath 84 always has something special in store for its guests.

SANTA FE MEXICAN GRILL

2000 Pennsylvania Ave.

482-1954

We welcome you to Santa Fe Mexican Grill with locations in Newark and Wilmington, DE. Our award-winning casual Mexican restaurants bring traditional flavors in a modern, vibrant yet comfortable atmosphere. Since March 2003, our culinary team has offered creative and thoughtful dishes influenced by the regions of Oaxaca and Mexico city “El DF” alongside some family recipes from their home state like Puebla and Jalisco.

THE QUOIN HOTEL RESTAURANT

519 N. Market St.

446-5600

The kitchen is center stage in our 155-seat restaurant and bar, and our chefs are the masters at work. They’re bringing the borders of Southern France and Northern Italy together in our modern wood-fired fare. The menu puts a contemporary spin on the Riviera to Riviera style. Indulge in thoughtfully prepared seasonal specialties built to pair perfectly with our extensive list of old-world wines and craft cocktails.

WALTER’S STEAKHOUSE

802 North Union St. 658-2537

Walter’s Steakhouse is synonymous with great beef in Wilmington & throughout the world. Serving the finest meat available guarantees the two things you want most in beef: flavor and tenderness. Walter’s, “the oldest steakhouse in Wilmington,” has been host to connoisseurs of excellent steaks, seafood, and spirits. Our Dinner Menu offers a wide array of selections, including prime rib and steaks, a classic chop house collection, seafood and poultry, and exquisite desserts.

WASHINGTON STREET ALE HOUSE 1206 North Washington St. 658-2537

Washington Street Ale House is one of the newest members of the Big Fish Restaurant Group. The Big Fish Restaurant has grown to include numerous restaurants in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania and continues to grow. A unique blend of original, homemade recipes, must have favorites and affordable prices have resulted in a dedicated following at all of our locations. Enough so to earn numerous Best of Delaware awards over the years. The secret ingredient to our success is our commitment to providing fresh, great tasting dishes, unsurpassed hospitality and impeccable customer service in a casual and fun atmosphere. We only hire the best team players with a true passion for the hospitality industry.

WILMA’S 900 N. Market St. 400-7766

A full-service dining room. Enjoy a feel-good menu of New Orleans-style staples and favorites.

2023

Presented by

April 24-29

The Winning Wine List

By Pam George

Between April 24 and 29, corks will pop in Wilmington restaurants. That’s because City Restaurant Week is returning to Wilmington, and patrons want an excellent wine to complement their dining deals. But it’s not easy to craft a memorable wine list. The program must address the restaurant’s concept, cuisine and target audience.

Here’s some insight into the process.

The Perfect Sympathy

Food and wine should work in harmony. “The kitchen makes the music, and the beverage is there to sprinkle in the lyrics,” agrees David Govatos, owner of Swigg, who helps Snuff Mill Restaurant, Butchery & Wine Bar and other restaurants with their lists.

In Bardea Food & Drink’s case, the music comes first. Italy inspires the menu, and the wines are from that country or made with an Italian varietal grown elsewhere, explains Chris Unruh, sommelier. Fortunately, options are plentiful.

Caffe Gelato in Newark, however, crosses culinary

boundaries. In addition to Italian wines, the Main Street eatery has Spanish reds and French whites. That’s partially because Caffe Gelato is also a wine bar with the accolades to prove it. The restaurant has repeatedly received the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence.

Bardea Steak’s list also takes a global approach, but the emphasis is on wines that go well with red meat. “A lot of people come to a steakhouse and want big, bold California wines,” Unruh notes.

Bold flavor profiles are also on display at Ciro Food & Drink on the Wilmington Riverfront, says owner ►

Both Ciro and Bardea have limited storage, which can affect the wine list’s size. On the larger side, Caffe Gelato has storage space for some 3,500 bottles — more than 200 wines — many of which are in a glass-enclosed wine room and a below-ground cellar.

Nevertheless, Caffe Gelato hands customers an easy-to-hold 11-by-17-inch paper with white on one side and red on the other. Some wines are grouped by varietal, while others are listed as Italian, French or “interesting.”

Tonic separates wines by varietal, while Snuff Mill groups them under red, rose, white and sparkling. (There is a separate category for after-dinner drinks.) These userfriendly formats detailed on a page — or two — are an approachable alternative to the leather-bound tomes of the past. (Think Dilworthtown Inn.)

Riley Quinn, one of the new owners of Bin 66 in Rehoboth, who previously worked in New Castle County restaurants, says many restaurants have trimmed the offerings to make the list approachable. However, there’s a place for them in the right venue, Govatos maintains. “The theater of it has a luster.”

The Price to Pay

Book or paper, wine lists in splurge-worthy restaurants will include special occasion wines. For instance, Bardea has a category called “Money Doesn’t Matter,” with wines ranging from $500 to $1,100, and there are regular customers who prefer that section, Unruh says. Bardea Steak’s higher-priced wines can cost $1,800.

These high-end wines will give most people sticker shock, but a good wine program will have a variety of prices, and yes, there is a markup to pay for glassware, storage and the server pouring the wine for you.

Don’t hesitate to order the least-expensive option if you enjoy it. “Seriously, we industry people care a lot less about this than you think,” Quinn says. But a low fee isn’t always a good thing. Indeed, stay away from wine if other patrons in the restaurant aren’t drinking it, she suggests. That restaurant clearly isn’t known for its vino.

If the restaurant lacks trained wine personnel or the server is busy, download the app Vivino, suggests Ryan German, owner of Caffe Gelato. Take a photo of the wine list or label or search by wine using the program. The app then pulls up the wine’s rating, review, price, tasting note and suggested food pairings.

Always be honest about what you’d like to spend, Quinn says. “So many people get uncomfortable when we ask about price, but the reality is that this is as important as flavor,” she says.

According to Wine Enthusiast magazine, industry-wide markups average two and a half to three times wholesale costs. So, if a bottle’s wholesale price is $10, you might pay $15 in a retail store and up to $30 in a restaurant. Generally, the higher markups are on the cheaper wines.

The price will depend on a restaurant’s overhead — wages, rent and food costs — and the menu’s price point. A casual restaurant, for instance, won’t offer $100 bottles of wine. Restaurants may also put a lower price on a wine if they can’t store it for prolonged periods.

Another way to save is to take advantage of area wine promotions. For instance, Caffe Gelato’s bottles are 50% off on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays, the restaurant features $6 glasses of featured wine.

By The Glass

Modest drinkers and those who like to change wines with their courses prefer wines by the glass. With more than 30 choices, Caffe Gelato can quickly oblige. But, again, storage space will impact the offerings. Since Bardea has more limited space, Unruh likes to feature fun varietals, such as a Nero di Troia, an ancient red grape from Italy’s Puglia region (the “boot heel”).

An extensive wine-by-the-glass program also requires a preservation system. Without one, the shelf-life of an open bottle is limited, and after a requisite number of days, it’s poured down the drain. As a result, some restaurants only offer more popular products to reduce waste.

Some experts recommend asking if the bottle for a glass of wine is newly opened to avoid getting something that’s ►

Most restaurants are limited in the space they have to store wines, which can impact their wine menu. Newark's Caffe Gelato, however, can store 3,500 bottles.

State Line

swirl the wine in the glass and lower your face to the opening — forehead close — to see if you smell vinegar, wet cardboard or nail polish remover — all signs that the wine has faults, Quinn. But refrain from refusing your selection if you don’t like the taste.

“Refusing a good, fault-free bottle of wine is a cost that has to be entirely absorbed by the restaurant or bar, where margins are already thin,” Quinn says.

Restaurants want you to be happy, so the more information you can give them, the more satisfied you will feel.

“We listen to their needs and get them what they want,” Gaddamidi says. “The best wine in the world is the one you like — this is my answer to anyone who asks.”

2023

Presented by

A Songwriter’s Story

John Faye, one of the area’s most prolific indie-pop musicians, digs deep at his roots and talks about the inspiration for his memoirs coming out April 4

Like most musicians, John Faye tells stories through song.

Most musicians, however, lack Faye’s aptitude for output.

Over the past 34 years, the Newark-bred musician has released more than 150 original songs — as a solo artist; as one half of the Philly musical duo John & Brittany; and as the lead singer for The Caulfields, The John Faye Power Trip, IKE, and his first band, Beat Clinic.

Adding to the 15 full-length albums and EPs he’s released in that time, Faye more recently has been fond of one-off singles, such as last year’s “Lightning In A Bottle,” which he wrote and produced with Sug Daniels, lead singer of Hoochi Coochi.

Faye won’t be releasing a song this month, but he does have another story for us — one that motivated him to take a five-year break from music to piece together. It’s a tale best told by Faye: the story of his life. ►

John Faye performing at last month's Shine A Light benefit concert at The Queen. Photo by Joe del Tufo

The book, The Yin and Yang of It All: Rock ‘n’ Roll Memories from the Cusp as Told by a Mixed-Up, Mixed-Race Kid, comes out in hardback and e-book format on April 4 in stores and online.

An overview of the book on Barnes & Noble’s site reads:

In 1966… John Kim Faye was born out of wedlock to a 40-year-old Korean mother and a 62-year-old Irish father. Faye grew up in the state of Delaware, where laws forbidding interracial marriage were still on the books until 1967.

As the lead singer and primary songwriter of The Caulfields, Faye was one of the only mixed-race Asian American frontmen to sign a major record contract in the alternative rock heyday of the 1990s.

Just a few days before our interview with Faye, he joined more than 60 other musicians for the Shine A Light concert at The Queen on March 4, which helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for music-education programs in underserved communities. Among the many highlights of the show were the moments Faye was on stage, entertaining a packed house on ‘80s favorites like Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” and Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes.”

Here’s what Faye had to say about that experience, how he views his ethnicity in the modern world, and what moved him to temporarily step away from music to focus on the book.

O&A: What was it that inspired you to write the book?

Faye: When my mom passed away in 2012. She was my last surviving parent because my dad died when I was really young. [Ed: Faye was six when his father died of cancer.] So, when my mom died, it made me take stock of my life. And I was obviously still doing music hardcore.

After my mom died, I got the thought in my head that I would like

to write a book that, in part, would be a way to memorialize her. And I think that I did that to some extent, in what the book ended up being.

O&A: So, your mom had a huge influence on your life?

Faye: Oh, absolutely. And I have three older half-sisters from my mom’s first marriage. They’re all a decade plus older than me. So, I grew up in a household with four Korean women.

On the plus side, they were wonderful to me. But my mom had to work full-time… and all her jobs seemed to have a pretty far commute…

Once my father passed away, it was basically on my sisters to do a lot of the day-to-day taking care of me. That part was wonderful; I’m very grateful for that. But in terms of feeling like you have siblings, the age difference was just too tremendous to have that kind of sense of connection.

I refer to my sisters in the book as more like “indentured babysitters.” They are all either in high school and early college by the time my father dies and, of course, they’re going through their own shit. I mean, they’re Korean immigrants. They’re trying to be teenagers in America, with English as their second language. They had their own lives to deal with.

The net result of all that is I felt pretty much isolated, like I was on an island. I felt alone as a kid.

The other element of this is that because [my mom and my sisters] moved here from Korea, there was no family support system nearby. Most people I know, they can call on their cousins, uncles — you know, extended family — in times when they need something. That just wasn’t a possibility for us.

As far as my father’s side of the family, I never met a single person from that side until literally last year. My half-brother and I connected when his daughter — my niece, who was actually the same age as me — found me on Facebook.

O&A: Connecting your upbringing to you being a musician: Was it a case where you got a chance to inherit some of your sisters’ records when they went off to college?

Faye: They helped me through more of like an osmosis-type process. They never like, sat me down and were like, “Listen to this, this is cool, right?” I just absorbed everything they were listening to.

They were music fans; they had lots of records because of their age. This was the ‘70s, so AM radio singles were everything. The whole Beatles/Beach Boys era; there was a lot of that. There was a lot of singer-songwriters from the early ‘70s: Carole King, James Taylor — that kind of stuff — was always there. I definitely absorbed it.

And then when I when I started making my own allowance for doing dishes, I started buying K-Tel records, if you remember those… [In a commercial-like voice] “22 original hits, 22 original stars!” Man, they put 11 tracks on one side of a vinyl record. It was horrible for fidelity, but great for value!

Yes, K-Tel was a big, early influence. It’s like a musical education in pop music. Throughout my music career, people have always sort-of made a point of saying, “This guy can write a pop song,” or “He’s got a pop sensibility.” And that’s the reason because that music basically formed my DNA. The definition of what songs should sound like are those very economical three, three-and-a-half-minute pop songs.

O&A: Your sensibility is interesting in that you have that pop flavor to your songs, but they’re not always happy-go-lucky tunes.

Faye: That’s the yin and the yang of it all! The thing about it was I was able to — at a pretty early age, — see that there’s a dichotomy that makes music more emotionally hardhitting. The tune can be something very accessible and palatable. But a lot of the songs I was drawn to had something a little more to say or maybe were a little darker. The reason I was attracted to that is because my life felt dark.

Once you hit 12, 13, 14, you’re discovering your own stuff. And for me, that was punk and new wave. Because I came to that age right around the late ‘70s, when stuff like The Clash and the Sex Pistols and the American hardcore were on the rise. But my favorite bands when I was in ninth grade were the B-52s and Blondie.

O&A: How much do you think being mixed race compounds your feelings of isolation?

Faye: There was an identity-crisis thing happening. Let’s put it this way: I’m Korean and Irish. I had no particular connection culturally to either of those things —because my father was gone. And my mother’s attitude was very much what they used to call “assimilationist.” So, basically: “We came here to America, we have to be as American as we can.”

Yes, there were obviously Korean aspects to our household. The food is really what stuck with me. But my mom didn’t speak Korean. She didn’t teach me Korean. I don’t speak it.

I would eat bulgogi and kimchi and rice; but that was the extent of my Korean at that time. Yet, when I walk out the door, I’m being pummeled with every Asian slur in the book. This is right around the end of Vietnam, don’t forget. So, I’m being made to feel very Asian. And that’s more of a blanket term because I would be called “ch--k” and “j-p.”

I am being confronted with that — while not really identifying as a Korean — and it’s really only because of my eyes.

I’ve thought about this a lot: It’s almost like having my father, while he was alive, going around with him, he was my protector against that. Here’s a white guy, basically saying, ►

John Faye's memoir examines his history, identity and love for music.

“This kid’s mine; don’t [f - - k] with him.”

When he dies, that’s gone.

O&A: You talk about yin and yang. In terms of cultural identification, there is something beautiful to that in the sense that you can connect with some traditions that have been long-held traditions and that are part of the expression of the human race.

On the other hand, you can use cultural identification as kind of tribalism where you’re separating and putting people into these stacked categories of worth. Humans have used cultural identification to look down on somebody else. We still do.

Along those lines, do you feel it’s gotten any better in this country?

Faye: I mean, that’s a big question. And I do think about it.

I can only really respond to that from my own lens, and this is what I’ll say: When you talk about ethnicity, you’re talking about someone’s culture, really. It’s often incorrectly interchanged with like, “What’s your race?” and “What’s your ethnicity?” Those are two different things.

Now, obviously, people of a certain race may share ethnicity because their culture has certain aspects of about it that they all have in common. That’s why if anybody asks me what I identify as the first thing I say is “I identify as a musician,” because that’s where my ethnicity actually lies.

I have more in common with people who love and play music than [I do] with any Korean person in terms of shared culture or any Irish person in terms of shared culture.

My ethnicity is a musical ethnicity.

O&A: What is it about music that you feel so strongly about in terms of identifying who you are?

Faye: Just take a look at what happened [at the Shine A Light concert]. You had upwards of four or five dozen different musicians all coming together for a very admirable cause, all putting their egos aside to do whatever it took to give people an experience that would be worthy to raise [money].

Look at who made up that group of musicians: You got everybody from the guys that helped start this whole thing — the veterans of the event — and then you’ve got this beautiful mosaic of musicians of all colors and ages.

Like I’m playing on stage with Dan White [on guitar], and Brian Bruce [on drums]. Those dudes are arguably half my age or maybe a little older than half my age. Yet, I feel so connected to them. When we’re playing and somebody like Tink Dorsey is up there on bass; she’s of a completely different generation than me.

And that’s the thing that I take away from being part of Shine A Light as being like, “Yes! I’m so grateful to be part of this. Because this is this is a microcosm of the way I would love to see the whole world be.”

— You can read more about John Faye’s thoughts on his music career — particularly his experiences being on a major record label with The Caulfields — in his new book The Yin and Yang of It All: Rock ‘n’ Roll Memories from the Cusp as Told by a Mixed-Up, Mixed-Race Kid, which comes out in hardback and e-book format on April 4 in stores and online. A book release celebration will be held Tuesday, April 25 at Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, Pa. Doors: 7pm; show: 7:30pm.

Making a Name for Herself

Rocker Grace Vonderkuhn and her eponymous band are firing up mid-Atlantic audiences with a third album underway

By JulieAnne Cross

One could be forgiven for hearing frontwoman and songwriter Grace Vonderkuhn’s surname and thinking it translates to “wonder kid.” That loose translation “sounded cool” to the 32-year-old Wilmington resident, born Grace Koon, when she first used the moniker as a solo performer.

Of the alleged ancestral name adopted for the stage, she says, “There was a ‘V’ in it, so it reminded me of Van Halen.”

Since 2016, Vonderkuhn has led and played guitar in an eponymous three-piece band with Newark-based bassist Brian Bartling and Philadelphiabased drummer Dave Mcgrory. The trio has been labeled everything from “’90s-influenced indie rock,” “lo-fi,” “glam-y” to “garage rock.” ►

Grace Vonderkuhn and bandmates Dave Mcgrory (left) and Brian Bartling will play The Queen on Friday, April 14.

The Pixies are often cited by reporters as influential on the band, but as bands evolve, so do their influences.

Commenting about the band’s new album, Vonderkuhn says, “My big influences would be Wire and Echo and the Bunnymen.” For those who recognize genres more so than throwback bands, she sums up her band’s recent music using three terms: postpunk, shoegaze and psych rock.

Foundations

The bespectacled Vonderkuhn, who also plays bass, piano and drums — mostly self-taught — doesn’t exactly hail from rock ‘n’ roll roots. Homeschooled in a Bible-focused Newark household, she says she “had to go through [her] rebellious teen years.”

“I played music in church, but I just kind of expanded my musical horizons, whether my parents were accepting of that or not,” she says.

As a kid, the music that made Vonderkuhn sit up and take notice that it could be her future was The Beatles, which she and her siblings would play on the turntable during chores. Her favorite Fab Four song? “Yesterday.”

Like many teens before her, she borrowed music from friends and recorded cassettes full of songs straight from radio broadcasts—stations known for indie music, such as WXPN (the public radio station run by the University of Pennsylvania) and WVUD (the University of Delaware station), as well as Philadelphia classic rock station WMGK.

“In high school, the internet was becoming a thing. That was kind of the Myspace era and I found bands through that,” she notes.

Stepping into the Spotlight

Bands came and went for Vonderkuhn: A New Dakota; Kind of Creatures; This Blows; Jung Lust.

A self-titled solo EP consisting of five tracks came out in 2015, and the next year, Grace Vonderkuhn grew from singersongwriter act to band.

In 2018, the band got signed by Richmond, Virginiabased EggHunt Records, the label on which they released the album Reveries

Vonderkuhn says, “We ran the cycle and toured and got a lot of opportunities from that. By the time we were ready with our second record as a band, the pandemic had hit.”

They were picked up by Sheer Luck Records out of New York City and that label put out the band’s second album, Pleasure Pain, in 2021.

Today, the band is in the finishing stages of recording their third full-length album.

While the isolation of the pandemic caused many artists to ramp up their artistic output just to pass the time, Vonderkuhn laments the resulting disruption.

“The whole pandemic kind of threw a wrench in our little arc. We put out Pleasure Pain in 2021 and that was cool. We got some good feedback on that. We’ve just been kind of trucking along.”

Pre-pandemic, the band had performed at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas, in 2018. Such an opportunity has led to big breaks for some bands, and it gave the trio the chance to tour Texas.

“We went to Chicago to film an Audiotree [music discovery platform] live session. I would like to get back into touring more,” she says.

“It’s kind of fun to introduce yourself to people who maybe haven’t heard you before. For a while I maybe preferred playing out of town … I don’t want people to get tired of us.”

Back on the Scene

In 2022, the band was tapped to play NON-COMM, “the premier annual industry conference for non-commercial triple-A radio stations” that typically occurs in Philadelphia every May (although NON-COMM came to Wilmington in 2011). They shared a bill with artists such as Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, Spoon and Old Crow Medicine Show.

While the artistic process is keeping her tethered to Delaware, the one-time hair stylist and current catering company staffer is enjoying regional opportunities and exploring another genre — electronic music — under the name Creep Bandita.

“Hopefully, with this third album, we can do some more touring on that album cycle,” says Vonderkuhn. “We’ve really just been playing around Philly and Baltimore; nothing flashy like South by Southwest, but we’ve definitely played a lot of shows with bands that we really like.”

The band has been tapped for a three-act show on Friday, April 14, in connection with Record Store Day (April 22). The Vinyl Countdown will feature Grace Vonderkuhn, Region, and TreeWalker in the main hall at The Queen starting at 6:30 p.m. The event celebrates local music, offering a pop-up vinyl market, with tickets priced at just $13.

Melissa Forsythe, the owner of Rainbow Records in Newark, who booked Grace Vonderkuhn for The Vinyl Countdown, says

Vonderkuhn has “been an integral part of the music scene for as long as I can remember.”

“This current line-up of people that Grace is playing with work so well together that the full potential of her songwriting, and their collective songwriting, shines really brightly,” Forsythe says. “They are truly a power trio.”

Vision for the Future

Fantasy gigs for the band, according to Vonderkuhn, would be opening for a group like Guided by Voices, or perhaps Alvvays, which Vonderkuhn considers to be a contemporary influence on her style.

Building on the NON-COMM appearance, a booking at the XPoNential Festiva l —or anything on the festival circuit, whether that be Firefly or Bonnaroo — is something the band aspires to. Reveries didn’t just inspire an album name; the term could describe Vonderkuhn’s personal playlist, too. She says her Spotify listener data (which users can request through the app’s “Wrapped” function) concluded that one of her most-played artists of 2022 was Julee Cruise, an ethereal dream-pop style singer featured on the Twin Peaks soundtrack.

“I haven’t been listening to any heavy-hitting hard rock, just relaxing and dreaming,” she says.

The respect level the band receives is no dream.

Says Forsythe: “I book a lot of shows in the area and usually my first thought is, ‘I wonder if Grace can play this event.”

“When people ask me what Delaware artists they should check out, I always say Grace Vonderkuhn. But by the amount of people that come out to see them play, I think my assessment of how good they are is spot on. They kill it 110% of the time.”

Grace Vonderkuhn performing at a past Shine A Light concert at The Queen O&A file photo/Joe del Tufo

TUNEDIN AREA MUSIC NOTES

RECORD STORES AND BANDS UNITE FOR THE VINYL COUNTDOWN

It’s been described by one major record label sales manager as the “best thing to ever happen” to independent record stores.

In just 15 years, Record Store Day has become such a celebrated cultural phenomenon that in some cities — like New York, Los Angeles, Charleston, and Las Vegas — it’s now an official holiday.

TREEWALKER GOES 'ALL IN' WITH NEW ALBUM RELEASE

TreeWalker has a brisk and exciting schedule this month.

The band releases its new album, Let It Happen , on Friday, April 7, and will hold their album release party a week later on Friday, April 14 at The Queen in coordination with their live performance at The Vinyl Countdown to Record Store Day.

“The guys and I are pretty excited to be sharing some new music!” says the band’s frontman Kirby Moore. “We started recording an album right before lockdown in 2020 — which we ended up scrapping completely. Over the last three years, I wrote all new songs, and over the last six months, we recorded our new album.”

Last month the band released the first single from the album called “All In.”

In 2019, TreeWalker won two Hometown Heroes Homey Awards: one for Best Band and the other for Best Rock Song, which was “Looks Could Kill” from the band’s last album, Terra Ingonita .

For more go to TreeWalkerBand. com.

This month for Record Store Day, more than 1400 independent, brick-and-mortar record stores across the country will open their doors — most stores earlier than usual — to long lines of vinyl fans shopping for limited-run album exclusives, re-issues, rare collectors’ items and other special offers. Some stores also will treat customers to special events like live artist performances; meet-and-greets; DJ parties; cook-outs and even parades.

On Friday, April 13, area music fans can jump into the fun early with The Vinyl Countdown to Record Store Day on Friday, April 14 at The Queen, a collaborative celebration of music brought to us by local record stores, bands, music gurus and promoters.

International Groove Records, Jupiter Records, Rainbow Records, and Squeezebox Records will be the anchors to a pop-up market in the main hall of The Queen, while the theater rocks to on-stage live performances from Grace Vonderkuhn [see interview on page 55], Treewalker [see below] and Region.

Guests can shop for records, mix and mingle with area artists, and get special offers throughout the night. Area store staff will spin tunes between sets, and a “coat check” for record purchases will be made available for those who want to shop and stick around for the fun.

According to the show’s creators, nothing like this has ever been done in our area — to this scale. The Vinyl Countdown to Record Store Day begins at 5:30pm on Friday, April 14 at The Queen. Tickets can be purchased in advance at TheQueenWilmington.com. Record Store Day is Saturday, April 22, and will be celebrated locally by International Groove Records, Rainbow Records, and Squeezebox Records. More info at RecordStoreDay.com.

THE ROCK ORCHESTRA DELIVERS BACK-TO-BACK NIGHTS OF BILLY JOEL

The Rock Orchestra will perform back-to-back nights of Billy Joel music in Wilmington next month with Deep Cuts & Live Favorites at the baby grand on Friday, May 19, and The Greatest Hits at Copeland Hall on Saturday, May 20. The shows will feature TRO partner Philadelphia-area Billy Joel tribute group Angry Young Band and will cover more than 50 songs from the rock legend. For tickets and info go to TheRockOrchestra.net.

TUNEDIN

AREA MUSIC NOTES

ROCKING THE Q’S DAY AND MORE

Guitarist E. Shawn Qaissaunee, aka Q, recently firmed up his band for his Q’s Day Tuesday gig at Gallucio’s with the addition of Larry “Teddy” Scotton [Innerjettic, Low Cut Connie] on drums. The weekly open mic runs 7-10pm weekly.

You can also catch Q on Thursday, April 6 (7-8pm) at Grace Church with Fraticelli and Shumski; on Friday, April 7 (9pm-mid) at Hummingbird to Mars with Sharon Sable and Jason Fraticelli; and on Saturday, April 8 (10am-1pm) at Brew HaHa Trolley with Sara Michaels and Sam Nobles.

RITCHIE RUBINI NEARLY READY TO RELEASE THE AGE OF FLIGHT

Ritchie Rubini is taking a new direction next month with the release of what could be called his first solo album, The Age of Flight.

The retro-futuristic ambient instrumental album marks an artistic departure for the multi-instrumentalist who has made serious headways in the pop genre — starting as the drummer for The Caulfields in the ‘90s to his more contemporary accomplishments as a musician and producer.

In 2019, then again last year, Rubini won Best Producer at the Hometown Heroes Homey Awards.

The Age of Flight will be made available next month on streaming services like Spotify. Read the exclusive interview next month here in Out & About

Creative Approach

Sensory-friendly performances are one of many ways arts organizations are making shows more accessible

By Ken Mammarella

Eight-year-old Gus Mask has grown comfortable watching live performances, thanks to several years of being in the audience for sensory-friendly performances at The Grand in Wilmington.

“I like taking him to a place where their behavior is not a negative reflection of who they are,” says his mother, Stella Mask. Both have autism. “I can definitely see the impact of his early access and exposure to theater.”

Johnny Urbanski, who’s 18 and also has autism, has experienced “magical moments” during the Grand’s sensory-friendly performances. His mother, Katie, was thrilled when he started singing along with Dan Zanes at The Grand, because her son was nonverbal until he was 9.

Although The Grand’s series is best known for families with members on the autism spectrum, its

nonjudgmental programming is open to all. “It’s an inclusive environment,” says Pam Manocchio, The Grand’s executive director.

Experts agree such programming helps people with anxiety, stress, Down syndrome and migraines, among other conditions. It’s also beneficial to people who use a restroom frequently or cannot sit for long periods. ►

The Grand's Sensory-Friendly Shows began in 2018 and welcome children and adults of all ages and abilities.

Photo courtesy The Grand

But sensory-friendly productions are just one way that local arts groups make offerings more accessible to people with special mental and physical needs. The Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania, for instance, partners with ARTZ Philadelphia to host art discussions and other programs for people with dementia and their care partners. And some productions are innately welcoming, even if they’re not conceived for special needs.

“The Pillow Plays at the Wilmington Drama are really fantastic,” Urbanski says of the shows, which recently marked 20 years of young people performing for younger audiences (who are invited to bring pillows and stuffed animals with them, hence the series’ name) in a casual atmosphere in the league’s lobby.

Since 1993, AbleArts has approached accessibility from the other side of the curtain, creating productions that feature performers with and without disabilities. After restructuring and a five-year hiatus, it resumed live shows last year.

“We are small but mighty and trying to make a comeback,” says Jill Mackey, the local nonprofit’s stage director.

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act plays a big part in accommodations. It requires many things, with a key one being wheelchair access for new buildings and when renovations occur in older ones. The Music School of Delaware, for example, will implement wheelchair-accessible seating when it renovates its concert hall, according to President Kate M. Ransom.

A Welcoming Environment

In 2007, AMC Theatres and the Autism Society created sensory-friendly showings of films, at the request of a Maryland mother of a girl with autism. At their simplest, the sound from the screen is turned down, and the lights in the house are turned up.

“Additionally, audience members are welcome to get up and dance, walk, shout or sing — in other words, AMC’s ‘silence is golden’ policy will not be enforced unless the safety of the audience is in question,” the society’s website says.

The idea spread nationwide, and AMC offers sensoryfriendly showings several times a month at Painters Crossing and the Dover Mall. Regal, which operates multiplexes in Peoples Plaza near Glasgow and the Brandywine Town Center, runs a similar program called the My Way Matinee.

The Grand began its Sensory-Friendly Family Shows in 2018, and they “welcome children and adults of all ages and abilities to enjoy the experience of live entertainment together.” Manocchio says there are usually about three shows in the series each season, and they hope to grow the number.

They’re partly supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, so NEA Chairman Mary Anne Carter visited The Grand in 2019 to publicize the first grant, for $15,000.

The series is more involved than more light and less sound. There’s open seating. Digital devices may be used with headphones. Fidget toys are welcome. Noise-cancelling headphones, quiet spaces, ASL interpreters, gender-neutral and family restrooms are available. Personal tours are available

beforehand. A downloadable social story helps patrons prepare for their visit.

The social story for the Jeff Boyer Big Bubble Bonanza, which The Grand hosted in May 2022, is a 12-page guide, in child-friendly language, of what the show entails and when (and why) to applaud. The Grand’s last sensory-friendly show this season is Fred Garbo’s Inflatable Theater, on April 30.

The Delaware Theatre Company offers “relaxed performances” and “open inclusive performances.”

“These types of performances are designed to create a theatre experience that is welcoming, judgment-free and inclusive of audience members with a wide range of sensory, learning and communication differences, including individuals on the autism spectrum, those with developmental differences, individuals with dementia, families with young children or anyone who might benefit from this relaxed environment,” says Johanna Schloss, director of education and community engagement.

At both, the theater offers a lot of what The Grand does. Patrons can use fidget toys and digital devices with headphones. Noise-cancelling headphones, soft earplugs, a quiet space and a social story are available. “The atmosphere is a welcoming, shush-free zone, and patrons are allowed to laugh, speak out loud, and otherwise respond authentically to the performance during the show.”

At a relaxed performance, tickets are general admission, and audience members can move around. The house lights remain

low, and potentially jarring sound or lighting effects might be adjusted. A touch table in the lobby might include props and costumes to examine. “Etiquette norms are relaxed.”

An open inclusive performance “integrates audiences in this experience,” she says. “It allows people to feel comfortable and still see the show as it has been directed in a traditional theatre environment that is still welcoming and judgement-free.”

A Work in Progress

“Winterthur has been investing a significant amount of time and resources for the last several years to ensure we’re ►

The Studio D art studio at the Delaware Children's Museum. Photo courtesy DCM

as welcoming as possible to visitors with unique needs,” spokesman Jason Brudereck says. “While we’ve made much progress, we recognize we still have more to do.”

The museum this spring will offer interpretive aids for those with low vision and will soon begin sensoryaccessible programs. It has partnered with Art-Reach (a Philadelphia nonprofit advocating for the full spectrum of society) and Access Smithsonian (on accommodating visitors with disabilities).

Its accommodations already include labels for hearing-challenged guests, ASL interpretation, quiet spaces, lowlevel lighting, gender-neutral and family restrooms and hearing-assist devices.

The Brandywine River Museum hosts sensory-friendly events throughout the year and offers downloadable social stories and sensory-friendly museum packs with social stories, fidget devices, noise-cancelling headphones and activity suggestions.

And the Delaware Children’s Museum is planning sensory-friendly playdates geared towards those on the spectrum, says Joe Valenti, marketing manager for the Riverfront Development Corp. “The museum always offers sensory-related activities in their Studio D art studio. The activities are available to every guest, but specifically benefit those with sensory issues.”

WIN A $50 GIFT CARD TO PIZZA BY ELIZABETHS!

Fill in the

You know the drill:

(1) Ask your friends to help “fill in the blanks” for the missing words needed below.

(2) Once completed, read aloud and watch hilarity ensue.

(3) Got a funny one? Take a photo and send it to us at Contact@OutAndAboutNow.com

Randomly drawn winner will get a $50 Gift Card to Pizza By Elizabeths

(One entry per person; must be 21+ to enter; due by the 21st of each month.). Have fun!

THE CALL OF THE WILD

It’s Springtime in ( foreign country ), which means travelers from far and wide will be arriving soon to indulge in the ( adjective ) natural wonders of a vastly popular destination called ( nonsense word ). In the native tongue it means “The ( adjective ) ( noun ).”

Many of these travelers will be human tourists — others are migrating ( animal plural ) and ( animal plural ), which return each year to ( verb ) and ( verb ) amongst the ( adjective ) ( geographic area, plural ).

Naturalists and bird-watchers are also drawn to this area each year as it is a breeding ground for the ( color ) ( noun ), a rare bird that resembles a cross between a ( type of bird ) and a ( type of bird ).

These birds travel up to ( number > 1 ) miles every year just to find a mate by emanating a distinct call that sounds much like “( nonsense word )” and repeating it again and again… and again.

To the untrained ear, the whole scene can be quite ( adjective ). But to world-class experts like ( full name of friend ), who teaches ( profession ) Studies at the University of ( city ), it can be the experience of a lifetime.

“I find these birds to be very ( adjective ) and am drawn to this area like a ( animal ) is drawn to ( plural noun ),” the professor says.

“I simply love it!”

THE CITY

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

SPRING CLEANING IN THE CITY

Wilmington’s Beautiful City Campaign continues Mon., April 3 when the Dept. of Public Works resumes its Street Cleaning Program, which runs through Tues., October 31 and involves specialized vehicles that wash and sweep City streets on scheduled days and times. Residents who live on blocks that are part of the street cleaning program must follow on-street signage that displays parking restrictions indicating when vehicles must be moved to accommodate the street sweeping machines. Tickets will be issued to vehicle owners who fail to follow the instructions. To report issues about street cleaning, please dial 3-1-1 or visit: www.WilmingtonDE.gov/311.

EARTH DAY AND ARBOR DAY 2023

Mayor Purzycki also invites you to celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day 2023 at an event sponsored by the Dept. of Public Works at Cool Spring Reservoir, 11th & Franklin streets, on Fri., April 21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This FREE event, open to everyone from around the City, is organized around the theme “Invest in our planet” and will feature fun, food, music, and educational activities. Finally, the Mayor encourages residents, community groups, and businesses around the City to take part in Wilmington’s annual Community Clean-Up Day on Sat., April 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Each year, scores of groups plan a beautification project, from collecting trash to planting flowers to starting a community garden and more. Register online at www.wilmingtonde.gov by Fri., April 14 and use hashtag #BeautifulWilmDE to share your before and after photos on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

NEW HOUSING IN QUAKER HILL

Last month Mayor Purzycki — along with Rep. Stephanie Bolden, Rachel Stucker of Housing Alliance Delaware, Eugene Young of Delaware State Housing Authority, and residents Kurtis Conix and Brian Mack — joined Lancaster, PA-based HDC MidAtlantic to celebrate the grand opening of the Quaker Arts housing community, located at 801 North West St. The $16.3 M investment in housing in the City of Wilmington will add 53 general occupancy apartments that will rent for between $310 (efficiency) and $1418 (3-BR) a month. The apartments are pet-friendly, and several units will be handicapped accessible. For more information, visit: https://hdcweb.org/ property/quaker-arts/

CITY’S FINANCE DEPT. RECEIVES GFOA AWARD

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has honored Wilmington with its Award of Financial Reporting Achievement for the City’s FY21 Financial Statements. This award, which pertains to the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2021, represents the 32nd consecutive year the City has received the highest form of recognition for financial reporting. “I congratulate Brett Taylor and his staff on this significant achievement,” said Mayor Purzycki, “which reflects the City’s commitment to meeting the highest principles of governmental financial reporting. Our Finance Department goes above and beyond each year, which is consistent with my administration’s push for increased transparency and efficiency in City government.” The City’s Annual Financial Reports and information about the City budget can be found on the City of Wilmington’s website.

US Rep. Lisa Blunt-Rochester, US Sen. Chris Coons, Grand Marshal Brian McGlinchey, RDC Executive Dir. Megan McGlinchey, Norah McGlinchey, Mayor Purzycki, and NCCo. Recorder of Deeds Mike Kozikowski Sr. before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Restaurants and Beer Garden

Banks’ Seafood Kitchen & Raw Bar

Big Fish Grill

Ciro Food & Drink

Constitution Yards

Delaware Duck Café and Catering

Del Pez

Docklands

Drop Squad Kitchen

Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant

Riverfront Bakery

River Rock Kitchen

Starbucks

Taco Grande

Timothy’s on the Riverfront

Ubon Thai

RIVERFRONT MARKET

OPEN

MON-FRI: 9AM-6PM

SAT: 9AM-4PM

Stop in and enjoy fresh produce, salads, sandwiches, pizza, sushi, Mexican, Thai cuisine, Peruvian Rotisserie, Soulfood and much more!

Dine-in or carry out

DuPont Environmental Education Center

The DuPont Environmental Education Center provides a 13,000 square foot facility along the 212-acre Peterson Wildlife Refuge, where guests can explore the marshes and look for various species of amphibians, birds and fish.

They offer guided tours, weekly drop-in classes, and have easy access to the Jack A. Markell Bike Trail.

Delawarenaturesociety.org/centers/dupont-environmental-education-center

Photo by Joe del Tufo

TASTE

Product of Holland, © 2023 Heineken® Silver Lager Beer. Imported by HEINEKEN USA, White Plains, NY.