Out & About Magazine June 2016

Also In This Issue Wilmington's Summer Festivals Our Town Series: Smyrna Hijinks of Getting Hitched

A Balanced Brunch The weekend meal is enjoying its second golden age

JUNE 2016 CO M P L I M E N TA R Y VOL. 29 | NO. 4

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Get Your Share!

Dan Butler received almost $50K from Delaware’s Downtown Development Districts Program to renovate and re-open Tonic Bar and Grille.

Whether to re-invest and re-boot was a tough decision. The Downtown Development Districts program made the decision easier.

I’m thrilled that Tonic is now a vibrant part of a redeveloping Downtown Wilmington.

Dan Butler, Co-Owner, Tonic Bar & Grille

Visit DeStateHousing.com/DDD to learn more about Delaware’s Downtown Development Districts program.

Small commercial and residential investments in Downtown Wilmington may qualify for state and local incentives!

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

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

our staff Publisher Gerald duPhily • jduphily@tsnpub.com

57

Director of Publications Jim Hunter Miller • jmiller@tsnpub.com Contributing Editor Bob Yearick • ryearick@comcast.net Associate Editor Krista Connor • kconnor@tsnpub.com Director of Digital Media & Distribution Marie Graham Poot • mgraham@tsnpub.com Creative Director & Production Manager Matthew Loeb, Catalyst Visuals, LLC. matt@catvis.biz Graphic Designer Tyler Mitchell, Catalyst Visuals, LLC. tyler@catvis.biz Contributing Designer Ryan Alexander, Catalyst Visuals, LLC

Contributing Writers Mark Fields, Pam George, Paula Goulden, Rob Kalesse, Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald, Robert Lhulier, Dan Linehan, Karl Malgiero, Allan McKinley, John Murray, Larry Nagengast, Scott Pruden, Eric Ruth, Matt Sullivan Contributing Photographers Joe del Tufo, Tim Hawk, Les Kipp, Anthony Santoro, Javy Diaz, Matt Urban Special Projects Sarah Green, John Holton, David Hallberg

31 what’s inside START

EAT

7 From the Publisher 9 The War on Words 11 F.Y.I. 12 By the Numbers 15 Summer Festivals

51 Sinful Sunday Brunch 55 Bites

LEARN

DRINK 57 80 Years of Peco’s 63 Sips

10 It’s All in Your Mind

LISTEN

FOCUS

65 The Seafaring DJ 68 Tuned In 71 Teen Men at Firefly

19 Brunch Innovations 24 Resurgence in Smyrna 31 Hijinks of Getting Hitched

WILMINGTON

WATCH 73 Reviews 75 Talking Like the Animals

38 On the Riverfront: Extended 45 Art on the Town 77 Snap Shots 49 Theatre N

PLAY

FEATURES 15 Feeling Festive? Wilmington Is! The area’s festival season stretches from June into the fall.

By Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald

19 Brunch: Feeding on Innovation Three area chefs have added creative dishes to the Sunday meal that is enjoying its second golden age.

By Matt Sullivan

24 Resurgence in Smyrna The state’s fifth largest town is walkable, friendly, inexpensive and filled with entertainment options.

By Larry Nagengast

57 80 Years of Peco’s This month, the fourth-generation liquor store owners celebrate a milestone.

By Dan Linehan

On the cover: Bacon, egg and pound cake sandwich at Grain.

Photo by Joe del Tufo.

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

65 The Seafaring Radio Host Newark resident and 91.3 WVUD’s Don Berry explores warmer climes during winter and spring on his sailboat.

By Krista Connor

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From The Publisher

THE RIGHT TO RIDE T

he conversation began innocently enough.

It was casual chatter on the front porch of Buckley’s Tavern with a couple I hadn’t seen in a while. As we talked, the traffic streaming past in both directions was disruptive, and the conversation segued to the riskiness of crossing the street in front of this popular Centreville watering hole.

Unwittingly, I mentioned that as a cyclist I was keenly aware of the hazard this location presents. It was then that the conversation veered sidewise, like a bike tire that had just hit a patch of gravel.

"Oh, you're one of those guys," she said, dismissively.

"One of what guys?" I responded, already annoyed.

"One of those guys all decked out in Spandex that thinks he's in the Tour de France," she fired. "They're all over the place out here...holding up traffic. It's dangerous. They belong on bike paths, not on the roads with cars. Don't you think it's dangerous?"

Well, ah, yes…to the cyclist. And mostly because of people like you, I thought to myself. But I'll come back to that.

First, yes, I am a cyclist. No, I do not think I'm in the Tour de France. The reason for the tight-fitting outfit? Practicality.

I'll be the first to admit that when I began riding about 15 years ago I was not a fan of wearing bike shorts. And the chuckles from my wife and kids didn't persuade me otherwise. But after a couple of rides where I flapped around like a flag on a breezy day, I recognized the prudence in eliminating things that create wind resistance while riding a bike. Trust me, few middle-age men are choosing to wear bike shorts as a style statement.

But a lot of us are choosing to ride bikes. Women, too. And for many good reasons. Let me list a few: • You can ride when your schedule permits • You don’t need to be on a team or find a partner • You don’t have to rent time • You dictate the pace, the distance, the time • It’s a great cardio workout without punishing your feet or knees • After the initial investment in a bike and gear, it’s basically free • It’s actually great stress relief, except for the more-often-thanreasonable buzzing by a car

Bear in mind, the points above are strictly benefits from the recreational side. I didn’t even touch upon bicycling as an environmentally-friendly, alternative mode of transportation in this age of climate change. Not to mention the positive economic impact enjoyed by towns, cities and even countries that are bike friendly.

Did you know that more than two million people ride a bike once a week in Great Britain? And that nearly 50 million people in the U.S. went for at least one bike ride last year? I am not talking about outlier behavior here.

But back to my conversation at Buckley’s. I am sorry for the seconds of inconvenience my cycling may cause motorists.

Please get over it. I have every right to ride my bike on the road.

When there are bike paths, I use them. When there are not, I stay as far to the right as I can.

However, riding my bike on the road is legal. Coming within three feet of me in a car is not.

It’s not my rule, it’s Delaware law (in Pennsylvania, the legal distance is four feet). For the record, here is that law: The driver of a motor vehicle, when approaching a bicyclist traveling in the same direction, shall ensure the safety and protection of the bicyclist by: a. Proceeding with caution and yielding the right-of-way by making a lane change into a lane not adjacent to that of the bicyclist, if possible, with due regard to safety and traffic conditions, if on a roadway having at least 4 lanes with not less than 2 lanes proceeding in the same direction as the approaching vehicle; or, b. Proceeding with caution and reducing the speed of the vehicle to a safe speed and leaving a reasonable and prudent distance by providing a minimum of 3 feet of clearance while passing such bicyclist, if changing lanes would be impossible or unsafe.

For some eye-opening statistics on the societal benefits of bicycling, visit PeopleForBikes.com. For some personal benefits, hop on a bike.

— Jerry duPhily

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

Compiled from the popular column in Out & About Magazine

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

Department of Redundancies Dept.

Alexandra Coppadge, spokesperson for Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams, quoted in the Wilmington News Journal: “This alternative use for the funding could represent an effective way to improve the effectiveness of a police department without threatening a takeover.”

Word Warrior Walt DelGiorno received an invitation containing that age-old gaffe, “Please RSVP.” RSVP is an abbreviation of the French phrase répondez, s'il vous plaît, which means "please reply."

Local fuel supplier Shellhorn & Hill’s commercial advises us to “prepare for future winters to come.”

And Janssen’s Market advertises that it is “truly unique.” As we know, unique means “one of a kind,” so it needs no modifiers.

And sportscasters no longer find simply a key to the game; now it’s “a big key.”

Could Care Less of the Month (A new category, in which we attempt to stop the pervasive mangling of the phrase “couldn’t care less.”)

From a letter to the editor in Sports Illustrated: “I now believe most pitchers could care less if they had to hit in a game or not.”

Nuances Many words fall under the “close, but no cigar” category because people think they know what the words mean, but they’re slightly off the mark. With writers, it’s sometimes a case of wanting to use a new or different word. One example, covered in a recent column, is don, which means to put on an article of clothing. Some writers have used it to mean “wear,” as in “Mike Schmidt took the field donning a long wig.” There is a difference between putting on a wig and wearing it.

Similarly, we recently came across a misguided use of the word tout, which means to advertise or attempt to sell (something), typically by pestering people in an aggressive manner. In a story on the Penn State football team, the reporter wrote that “Penn State touts a full allotment of 85 scholarship players.” We’re guessing he simply meant “has,” since there was no implication of advertising or selling.

Sew and sow also are sometimes confused—even, according to reader Karen Foster, by such a renowned writer as New York

By Bob Yearick

Times columnist Maureen Dowd. According to Karen, Dowd recently wrote that Hilary Clinton “sewed suspicion.” What she meant was “sowed,” meaning planted or scattered.

Hanged and hung can cause much confusion. Clothing is hung in closets, and pictures are hung on the wall. In some jurisdictions, murderers are hanged. But note: this word applies only in cases of execution or suicide. If a person is otherwise suspended, and death isn’t the intended result, use hung. For instance, Benito Mussolini and his mistress were executed in 1944. Afterward, their bodies were hung upside down.

And, to end today’s lesson, it’s derring-do (showing manhood or chivalry), not “daring-do.” Space does not allow for the lengthy explanation.

Extra Prepositions Like me, reader Jane Buck has noticed the proliferation of prepositions in our language. She calls out The Chronicle of Higher Education for this abomination: “Jim Cracraft describes how he changed up the way he handled students' portfolios.” Jane asks: “What's wrong with simply saying ‘changed,’” adding that she’s noticed similar phrases, including “swap out.”

And one of my spinning instructors tells us to “add in” resistance, while another says “add on,” when a simple “add” would do.

Meanwhile, ESPN hosts no longer just welcome guests to their shows; they welcome them “in.”

Also . . .

These phrases are incorrect because of extra (italicized) words: “not that difficult of a game” and “he performs as best as he can.”

Excusez-moi!

Last month, “War” made the mistake of venturing into foreign territory when we incorrectly stated that Word Warrior Walt DelGiorno was “ever alert to Golf Channel faux pax.” A bilingual reader quickly pointed out that it is faux pas (French for “step”), adding that “pax” is Latin for “peace.” We should know better than to stray from good ol’ American.

Follow me on Twitter: @thewaronwords

Word of the Month

petrichor Pronounced PET-ri-kuhr, it’s a noun meaning the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.

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

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LEARN

WilmU alumnae, Karen Barwick (left) and Jessica Packer Gordon teach children mindfulness.

IT ’ S A L L IN YOUR MI ND B eing aware of your thoughts, physical sensations and surroundings. Living in the present instead of the past or preparing for the future. Using breathing to center the mind and focus on the here and now.

This describes the practice of mindfulness, according to Karen Barwick, a 2006 graduate of WilmU’s master’s degree in community counseling program (now known as clinical mental health counseling). Barwick, a licensed mental health therapist working in Sussex County, Del., and former adjunct instructor in the psychology program, has joined another WilmU alumna, Jessica Packer Gordon (MPA, 2006), and other practitioners in a new effort to bring mindfulness education to students, educators, families and community members of the Delmarva Peninsula. Their nonprofit, Minds over Matter, is utilized at Delaware’s Cape Henlopen School District.

“Teaching children how to self-regulate—to respond instead of react—is a key life skill,” says Barwick.

Teachers receive in-service training and are shown ways to integrate mindfulness practices into the school day. “The mindfulness program is like (using) cutlery to break down what

is on teachers’ and students’ plates,” says Gordon, the agency’s creative director. Teachers like the program because it treats the whole student through social-emotional learning, not just academics. “Mindfulness focuses on a growth mindset of ‘I can’t do this yet,’” says Barwick, “recognizing that children’s behavior is a developmental process.”

Research suggests that mindfulness actually calms the brain’s “alarm center,” which, in the classroom, can translate to fewer behavior problems and put kids into the proper mindset for learning.

“Mindfulness practice helps disconnect kids and adults from the constant bombardment of technology,” says Barwick.

“Too much screen time can be dysfunctional. Mindfulness can help people refocus on themselves and their relationships.”

The partnership between Gordon, Barwick and the other practitioners is based on their complementary strengths. They maintain jobs outside the nonprofit, but they’re all moms raising kids. They share a commitment to helping students and adults in their community.

—Lori Sitler

Experience the WilmU Difference Fall Classes start August 29

Top-ranked online programs | Expert instructors, exceptional education Flexible course schedules and formats | Supportive, student-centered focus Find out how to get started at: wilmu.edu/StartNow

10 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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F.Y.I. Things worth knowing

DELAWARE CADILLAC CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

D

elaware Cadillac has reached a milestone that is rare for businesses today—the Wilmington dealership at 1606 Pennsylvania Ave. turns 100 years old this year. The celebration will begin with a Cadillac LaSalle Club antique auto show on Saturday, June 11, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Delaware Cadillac was founded in 1916 as Delaware Motor Sales Co., with a showroom located in the center of town at 10th and King Streets. A once-busy pedestrian and trolley district gave way to more and more vehicles, many brought to town by Delaware Motor Sales, and the showroom was moved to its current location in 1939.

For more information, visit delawarecadillac.com.

WALK TO END LUPUS NOW

W

hen you take part in a Lupus Foundation of America's Walk to End Lupus Now event, you experience firsthand the power of the movement. The Lupus Foundation of America is the only national organization devoted to solving the mystery of lupus while supporting those who suffer from it.

On Sunday, June 26, the Eighth Annual Walk to End Lupus Now event will take place at Dravo Plaza on the Riverfront.

Participants can walk solo or start a team, whether it’s family, friends or co-workers.

For prices and information, visit lupus.org.

FREE DAY IN THE PARK

T

o celebrate Delaware State Parks’ 65th Anniversary, Visit Delaware/ Delaware Tourism Office will sponsor a fee-free “Day in the Park” on Sunday, June 5.

Every state park will be free to enter that day—excluding Fort Delaware, State Line Beach and the Brandywine Zoo. Park-goers can enjoy beaches, woodland trails, waterways and much more throughout Delaware. For additional fees, families can experience things like zip-lining through the trees or horseback riding at Lums Pond, and biking with the Rail Explorers on the Wilmington-Western Railroad through Auburn Heights.

For more information, visit destateparks.com/65years.

DE TURF TO BREAK GROUND ON NEW MULTI-SPORT COMPLEX

L

ast month, the DE Turf Sports Complex (Kent County Regional Sports Complex) broke ground on a state-of-the-art, 85-acre multi-sports complex slated to open next spring in Frederica. It will be home to a dozen synthetic turf fields for sports like soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey. The fields will surround a world class indoor field house complex complete with restrooms, concession stands, office space, locker rooms and a multipurpose room. There will also be a 1,500-seat stadium. Athletes will have access to a training space, for warmups, stretching and more. The complex is expected to generate millions of dollars in sports tourism revenue for Delaware.

For more information, visit deturfcomplex.org.

elaware Theatre Company, under the leadership of Executive Director Bud Martin and Managing Director Melissa Zimmerman, reached $1 million in ticket sales for the first season in the theater's 38-year history.

The 2015/2016 season is projected to sell over 31,000 tickets, the highest total since 2006 and a significant increase since the new artistic leadership took over in 2012.

PET-A-PALOOZA RESCHEDULED TO JUNE 12

G

et ready for a day of furry fun for pets and pals on Sunday, June 12.

That’s the new date for 99.5 WJBR’s Pet-A-Palooza, originally scheduled for May 1 but cancelled because of bad weather.

The Carousel Park event (at 3700 Limestone Rd.), New Castle County’s biggest fun day for cats, dogs and all their friends, will be from noon to 5 p.m.

Pet-A-Palooza, produced by Barry’s Events, will feature pet contests, demonstrations, food and fun for the entire family—with free admission and, of course, a pet-friendly environment. The Take Me Home Zone will feature animal adoption agencies and rescue groups, including Brandywine Valley SPCA, Delaware Humane Society, Faithful Friends and more, all with adoptable friends to visit.

Animal-related nonprofits such as PAWS for People and Lost Dogs of Delaware will exhibit. The event will also feature familyand pet-related products and services, and the New Castle County Mounted Patrol will be on hand.

Pet Contest registration will be on site at the event. Contests and times are: Coolest Pet, 12:30 p.m.; Movie Mutt, 1:30 p.m.; Most Creative, 2:30 p.m.; Hottest Dog, 3:30 p.m.; Zootopia, 4:30 p.m.

Refreshments will be available for purchase in the Tail Gate area, courtesy of Matt Slap Subaru. All pets must be on nonretractable leashes.

For more information, visit barrysevents.com.

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3 0 2 - 5 7 1 - 1492

2216 Pennsylvania Ave Wilmington, DE 19806 www.ColumbusInn.net

by the numbers Some statistics on weddings.

110 MILLION Number of dollars spent on the most expensive wedding in history—Princess Diana and Prince Charles’.

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bridal showers weddings

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52.7 MILLION Number of dollars spent on the world’s most expensive wedding cake, which was covered in 4,000 diamonds and displayed in Chester, England.

150

Number of carats in the diamonds on the most expensive wedding gown ever—the Diamond Wedding Gown made for a bridal fashion show in California— costing $12 million.

126 8,526

The record-breaking number of bridesmaids at a wedding (for a Sri Lankan couple, Nisansala and Nalin).

Length, in feet, of the longest wedding dress train in history and made in Xiamen, China in 2015.

120 The age of the oldest-ever reported groom, Hazi Abdul Noor.

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LOOK!

ANTI-BIOTIC FREE

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TROLLEY SQ. • BRANMAR PLAZA • MAIN ST. NEWARK

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MARCH 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WEB & GRAPHIC DESIGN→FINE ARTS→INTERIOR DESIGN→JEWELRY DESIGN→PHOTOGRAPHY→YOUNG ARTIST

DELAWARE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

CONTINUING EDUCATION

www.dcad.edu/CE

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS @

Spring semester begins Monday, June 6. Register now at (302) 622-8867 X 110

EXPLORE YOUR CREATIVITY TODAY! The Delaware Art Museum offers a wide range of classes, workshops, and Friday night socials in the Studio.

Painting Drawing Metalsmithing Ceramics

Jewelry Photography Open Studios Youth & Teen

Visit delart.org for details and to register.

2301 Kentmere Parkway Wilmington, DE 19806 302.571.9590 | delart.org

Supplies, beer, wine, and light snacks provided for Friday night socials.

Must be 21 or older to participate. Preregistration required.

14 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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FEELING FESTIVE? THIS SUMMER,

WILMINGTON SURE IS! The 4th of July celebration on the Riverfront. Photo Joe del Tufo

The area’s festival season stretches from June into the fall

By Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald

S

ummer’s coming, and that doesn’t just mean perfecting your bathing suit bod and planning your glamping trip to Firefly (See page 71 for that). It’s also time for Wilmington to party like it’s…Festival Season!

Here’s a rundown of all the “Best Fests” to indulge in this summer.

THE “TRADITIONS” Greek Festival (June 7-11), 8th & Broom Streets, Wilmington Known as the Delaware Valley’s largest Greek Festival, the 41st Annual Holy Trinity Greek Festival truly launches Wilmington’s festival season, opening the week prior to the Italian Festival. Not only does it serve up a mouthwatering menu, Greek Fest also offers everyone’s favorite lunch option— free shuttle pickup at 9th and Market every 10 minutes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, through Friday, June 10. Each night, DJs kick off live music at 5:30, followed by Greek music and performances by the Terpsichorean Dancers of Holy Trinity.

Get full details at greekfedstde.com.

Italian Festival (June 12-19), 9th & Dupont Streets, Wilmington This year, the Festival turns its focus to the beauty and richness of Renaissance art and culture, taking inspiration from masters of the time, including Botticelli and Vespucci. And this year welcomes back an event I enthusiastically endorse—the Home Winemakers Competition on Sunday, June 12. Entries in categories of red, white and cordial (think limoncello) will be accepted, at just $5 per entry. Musical performances highlight each night of the Festival—including First State Ballet and Wilmington Ballet, Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, Italian Festival Orchestra & Chorus and more—starting with the Gala Concert on Sunday.

Admission is $5 for ages 14-61. Those under age 14 (accompanied by parent/guardian) and over age 61 are free! Obtain passes and more details at stanthonysfesival.com. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Photo Tim Hawk

FEELING FESTIVE? THIS SUMMER, WILMINGTON SURE IS! continued from previous page

The 2015 DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival.

New Castle County Ice Cream Festival (June 25-26), Rockwood Park, Washington Street Extension We all scream for this annual County festival, billed as Delaware’s largest family picnic. For a nominal $5 admission (kids 12 and under are free), you can seek out wares from loads of craft vendors and artisans, dance the weekend away to live music, and enjoy delectable treats from local restaurants and creameries, including faves like Woodside Farm and UDairy Creamery. Find out more at rockwoodicecream.com.

CITYFEST’S FESTS DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival (June 21-25), Rodney Square, Wilmington This is the 28th anniversary of the festival recognized as one of the largest free musical festivals in the region. This year, the lineup also includes nationally known artists Nicholas Payton, Myles Jaye and Robert Glasper, along with local favorites like Nadjah Nicole, Maya Belardo, the Clifford Brown Tribute Band and the Clifford Brown Super Group. “Sax in the City” returns as the official after-party for the over-21 crowd, held at the Chase Center on the Riverfront from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. and featuring live music, food and premium beverage tastings. Friday, June 24, will see the annual Silver Trumpet Block Party take over the heart of Wilmington on Market between 8th and 10th Streets, immediately following the mainstage performances. The free, family-friendly block party will offer live music, refreshments and an energetic atmosphere. Get full artist lineups and more details at cliffordbrownjazzfest.com.

July 4th Celebration, Rodney Square Summer Stage & Riverfront Blues & Bar-B-Que (July & August), Various Wilmington Locations Additional summertime events sponsored by Wilmington’s CityFest include the 4th of July Celebration on the Riverfront, presenting live music and fireworks; the new Rodney Square Summer Stage, which brings free music to downtown for three weekends in July—Fridays and Saturdays, July 15 and 16, 22 and 23 and 29 and 30; and the Riverfront Blues & Bar-B-Que Festival, running the weekend of Aug. 5, 6 and 7, featuring artists like Mr. Sipp, the Alexis P. Sutor Band and the Selwyn Birchwood Band.

For full details on these festivals and more, visit cityfestwilm.com.

16 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Photo Joe del Tufo

2015 Ladybug Music Festival.

THE SEASON’S STAPLES Ladybug Music Festival (July 21), 2nd & LOMA, Wilmington As Ladybug and Gable Music Ventures both celebrate their fifth anniversary, they continue to shepherd excellent live music into Wilmington. This year, the all-female artist Ladybug presents 50 acts and an expanded footprint—a main stage near Fourth and Market and a new venue at Bobbi Rhian’s Executive Lounge.

“We challenge ourselves to add more each year,” says Jeremy Hebbel, co-owner of Gable Music Ventures. “Attendance has nearly doubled, with 3,000 people attending last summer. We encourage everyone—kids, parents, adults, from Boomers to Millennials—to enjoy free live music from all along the East Coast in the beautiful LoMa neighborhood." Caroline Rose from Burlington, Vt., will headline the event, with Delaware’s own Nadjah Nicole as the additional headliner. Genres from jazz, hiphop, rock and singer-songwriters will be represented by Andrea Nardello, Aziza Nailah Music, Cecilia Grace, Kitty Mayo and the Emperess Band, The means, Midnight Mob, Rachael Sage and Sharon Sable. Check out details at theladybugfestival.com.

The People’s Festival (July 30), Tubman-Garrett Park, Wilmington Riverfront This festival is a music and arts tribute to reggae legend Bob Marley, who called Wilmington his home after coming to the U.S. from Jamaica. The 22nd annual family-friendly event boasts headliners such as Ky-Mani Marley (one of Marley’s children), Dumpstaphunk, Alika, Quino Sol and our own Richard Raw. General admission tickets are $25 and VIPs are $75. More artists will be announced soon, so stay tuned to the website: peoplesfestival.com.

Shady Grove Music Festival (July 16), Arden Shady Grove One of my go-to summer “hangout” fests is held in the tranquil hamlet of Arden’s (literal) shady grove. Originated in 2002 as the Arden Music Fest, the event has evolved into Delaware’s sole music festival focused on promoting local original talent.

Proceeds benefit the Arden Club’s Gild Hall Restoration Fund.

Bring your family, kids and a comfy blanket or lawn chair (but no pups or outside food/drink, please), and settle in for an afternoon showcase of some of our diverse local music scene’s best. Food truck fare and beverages are available onsite. Look for full lineup and ticket details at shadygrovemusicfest.com. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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FEELING FESTIVE? THIS SUMMER, WILMINGTON SURE IS! continued from previous page 2015 Delaware Burger Battle.

HEALTHY STARTS HERE

Delaware Burger Battle (Aug. 27), Cauffiel House, 1016 Philadelphia Pike Also celebrating its fifth “birthday” this year is everyone’s favorite Homage to Hamburger. Last year, more than 30 restaurants competed for six trophies and statewide bragging rights, including Critic's Choice (selected by “DELebrity” judges) and People's Choice. The competition gets fiercer every year, so don’t miss your chance to taste Delaware food history in the making and support a worthy cause in the process. The Delaware Burger Battle supports the Ministry of Caring and has raised more than $28,000 for the Ministry’s Emmanuel Dining Room. Tickets will be on sale this month, so watch the Battle’s website for details: deburgerbattle.com.

NEW FESTS ON THE BLOCK Richard Raw Week (June 4-11), Various Wilmington Locations This weeklong celebration of arts, culture and community was created by local hip-hop artist/educator/activist Richard Raw to, he says, “…give our city a different experience.” Raw partners with an array of arts organizations and entrepreneurs— Christina Cultural Arts Center, The Delaware Art Museum, Levitea, Artist Ave Station and the City of Wilmington to name a few—to present programming for everyone to come together, be educated and entertained. Things kick off with the Park Jam in Rodney Square on Saturday, June 4, featuring live performances, vendors & food. The remainder of the week includes an entrepreneur mixer, documentary screening, family fun day and a panel discussion on the Black Arts Movement. The week will culminate in the release concert for Raw’s new album, Word Warrior. For details, visit richardraw.com.

Delaware Taco Festival (June 25), Frawley Stadium, 801 Shipyard Dr. This new festival has gotten major local buzz, and why not? But why tacos? “The simple response would be, who doesn't love tacos?” says festival organizer Rob Brazas. “They’re one of the hottest food items right now, so our goal is to put together amazing samples from 40-plus of the area’s best restaurants and food trucks.” Brazas assured me there will be options for vegetarians and vegans too. Silver level tickets are $40, Gold level are $60, and each comes with a number of taco samples. Kids under age 6 are admitted free. Brazas recommends buying tickets in advance, so get over to the website: delawaretacofest.com

HEADING INTO FALL Arden Fair (Sept. 3), Arden The 109th annual Labor Day Weekend fair has something for everyone: the Antiques Market; live and local music in The Grove; Shakespeare Gild’s children’s games and rides; food vendors; the Library Gild Book Sale and Gardeners’ Gild Plant Sale.

Wilmington Hispanic Festival (Sept. 9-11), Wilmington This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Wilmington Hispanic Festival and Parade, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and the accomplishments of our Hispanic community, leaders, organizations and supporters.

JOIN TODAY!

www.ymcade.org Financial assistance is available.

Brandywine Festival of the Arts (Sept. 10 & 11), Brandywine Park, Wilmington Fall’s arrival (to me, anyway) is marked by this festival, featuring hundreds of artists exhibiting one-of-a-kind works in nearly every medium, live music, children’s activities and local food vendors.

Analog-A-Go-Go (Sept. 17), Bellevue State Park, Wilmington The celebration of all things indie craft will move to Bellevue State Park with six live bands, a cask beer festival and distillery garden, an artisan marketplace and food trucks from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

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BRUNCH: FEEDING ON INNOVATION Chef William Wallen displays Grain' s bacon, egg and pound cake sandwich, made with pound cake from Bing's Bakery. Photo Joe del Tufo

Three area chefs have added creative dishes to the Sunday meal, once in danger of growing stale, that is enjoying its second golden age

By Matt Sullivan t the tail end of the 19th century, the world cried for brunch. Well, pleaded, anyway.

British writer Guy Beringer wrote “Brunch: A Plea” in 1896, calling for an alternative to the “post-church ordeal of heavy meats and savory pies,” laying out a plan for a meal that would start around noon, begin with teas and jams and then slowly turn to heavier fare, making “life brighter for Saturday-night carousers.” It would be a “talk-compelling” meal to put people into “a good temper… satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings.”

H.G Wells predicted space flights to the moon. Jules Verne foresaw the submarine. But Guy Beringer may have invented the 20th century Sunday.

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The world awoke to brunch and basked in its sunny-side-up glory for a century. But after years of delicious creativity—the popularization of Lemuel Benedict’s eggs, the Belgian waffle diaspora that spread from the 1964 New York World’s Fair—brunch began to grow stale, pancakes flattened, bacon strips went flaccid. And when Anthony Bourdain took to the pages of The New Yorker in the final days of the 20th century to reveal that our precious hollandaise sauce was made from last night’s bacteria-infested leftover table butter, we came close to losing out brunch appetite altogether.

But brunch did not die. Instead, it has fed heartily on something it hadn’t tasted in decades: innovation.

Welcome to the second golden age of brunch, and meet three Delaware chefs who are redefining the taste and trajectory of the most important meal of the week. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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BRUNCH: FEEDING ON INNOVATION continued from previous page

Robbie Jester

“Potstickers. We like doing potstickers.”

This is Robbie Jester, chef at Stone Balloon Ale House in Newark. This is how he thinks about brunch.

“We wanted to do something else with sausage gravy. We played with ideas, like some sort of sausage gravy pancake or things like that. Is it a biscuit pancake with sausage gravy on top? Do we do sausage gravy soup? That's different. But potstickers. And we figured by changing the proportion of sausage to gravy in there, it's what basically goes into a potsticker anyway. We think a lot like that. Like, ‘Ahhh, I just went to 7-11 and I had a taquito. It was pretty good. I'm a little drunk, but it was pretty good. I think maybe we should do something with this.’ And then all of a sudden, two and two together, sausage gravy and potstickers, and should we test it?

Yeah, we should test it.”

The result: brunch potstickers with a cheddar cheese hot sauce.

This is the brunch of the 21st century, with dishes that may once again make us a people who are satisfied with ourselves and our fellow human beings.

This is bacon-crusted French toast shooters. Sausage-eggcheese biscuit risotto. Everything pancakes with smoked salmon and dill cream cheese. Chorizo cumin pancakes.

The Stone Balloon kitchen crew finds inspiration everywhere, in late night 7-11 trips, in Slim Jims, in jail food and in classic Disney songs. (“We sing a lot in this kitchen,” Jester says.)

Will every idea make it to the menu? Will every combination taste good? Will you necessarily be able to fit into your pants on Sunday evening? No, no and no. But that’s not the point of what Jester is trying to accomplish.

“People are not coming out for a half-hour brunch,” he says.

“They're coming out for two, three hours. That's the plan."

Whatever plan people had when they walked through the door often changes when friends find other friends at brunch, Jester says. Tables get pulled together. Things get loud. So how can the Stone Balloon extend the length of its service to keep people engaged and happy and eating as brunchers linger for hours, when one couple sits down while another couple is finishing their steak and eggs?

Ordering a tabletop cocktail for four is a place to start. You’ll get a carafe of orange juice (with a splash of Triple Sec) and a bottle of prosecco. It’s been so popular, more shareable cocktails are coming. Then maybe start out your meal with a brunch appetizer – a sticky sweet cornbread doughnut or the classic “Glass of Bacon,” which is … yeah, you get what it is. Main courses follow. Maybe a red velvet cupcake waffle?

"Could you argue that it's dessert?” Jester asks. “Sure. But the sweet side of brunch is the beautiful side."

William Wallen

"We have a dinner nacho, we have a dessert nacho. So we need a breakfast nacho.”

This is William Wallen, chef at Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen in Newark. This is how he thinks about brunch.

“So, breakfast nachos, what do we use? Tater Tots are your best base. I can make them as crispy as I want and they're still going to hold up. Our Sunrise Nachos have chili, peppers, onion, bacon and cheese sauce. And I didn't want to use home-fry potatoes, but everybody likes a Tater Tot. I can overcook them just a little, give them that crunch."

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He recently walked into the kitchen with an idea and walked out with a prototype to test on a table of college students—chorizo sloppy joe with cheese inside a donut bun. ("I've been trying to put something on a glazed donut for six months,” Wallen confesses. He made it happen.) It’s a hot, sweet, spicy, sticky mess of a thing, but all the flavors balance, and those college kids, they Instagrammed the hell out of that sandwich."

Grain restaurateurs Lee Mikles and Jim O'Donoghue have found a kindred comfort-food soul in Chef Wallen, who seems willing to pick up any ideas they throw out and make it work. Could pound cake be used as the bun for a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich? It can and it will, with pound cake from Bing’s Bakery, right down the street.

Wallen puts beef jerky into the Bloody Mary and wraps lobster tails with Old Bay cheese sauce and scallions inside some pancakes. And don’t forget the Cap’n Crunch. Could Cap’n Crunch be used to make French toast? Yes. What about Cap’n Crunch ice cream? Working on it. (While Mikles might seem to have a bit of a Cap’n Crunch problem, it seems to be working out for Grain, which was recently Delaware’s entry on Yahoo’s Best Places to Have Easter Brunch in Every State, for its “inventive and indulgent breakfast offerings.”)

Innovation works its way into the craft beer selection as well, where Dogfish Head Namaste provides the bubbles in a surprisingly complex manmosa, with fresh orange juice and notes of peach and raspberry. The cocktail is the Shavasana, named for the yoga pose of complete relaxation.

Come to think of it, yoga pants are starting to sound like a good idea.

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Creative brunch cocktails at Grain include the Bloody Mary made with beef jerky and a manmosa, called Shavasana, that's made with Dogfish Head's Namaste.

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dining room

price bottles of wine

with purchase of 2 entrées

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every day

Bill Hoffman

"We break down a pig and save the whole head, and any trim from around the belly and the breast, when we're scraping bone, any bit that comes off the side … all that goes into the scrapple.”

This is Bill Hoffman, chef/owner at The House of William and Merry in Hockessin. This is how he makes scrapple.

“A lot of times, I'll chop up a little fat and throw it in there for extra unctuousness. There's some cuts off the back, some cuts off the shoulder that I like to put in there. I take one cut that I love off every part of the pig—a section of the front leg, a section of the neck, all the livers, the kidneys, the heart goes in there, the tail, the ears, the trotters, the jowls. Chefs who make great scrapple don't use the crappy parts. You use the best parts because you want your scrapple to taste the best. And those bits are what give it its traditional gamey flavor, which is what sets apart people who love scrapple and people who don't. ►

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Photo O&A

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Chef Bill Hoffman's scrapple, served on toast, topped with an over-easy egg.

“We take that and we cook it for 24 to 30 hours in water, mirepoix and a tea bag with peppercorns, some rosemary and thyme, coriander, fennel seeds, some bay leaves, and we let it just stew down. Sometimes we add a little white wine if we're feeling fancy, sometimes we don't. And we take all that and put it in the walk-in [refrigerator], and let it sit overnight.”

Then we take it, we pulse it up, mix in cornmeal, a special batch of seasonings— that's where chefs put their own touch on things—and then add some stock, and it becomes a porridge, like pork grits. And when we get it going in here, this whole place smells like southern heaven.”

It takes five days to make 30 pounds of Hoffman’s scrapple, enough to last two or three weeks at the restaurant. It is a revelation of breakfast meat. The exterior has that salty, crispy crackle you’d want and expect, but inside, this scrapple is like a creamy pork pâté, delicate and almost spreadable. Serve it as a side and you could imagine slathering it onto some freshly toasted bread.

And with that scrapple, we have come full circle. The hottest innovations in brunch, the fuel that feeds the fire in the belly of these three chefs, these guys who dress in their neatly pressed chef coats on a Sunday morning while the rest of us lounge around in pajama pants…the newest trends all return us to that 19th-century plea for a Sunday meal to make life brighter. Family. Friends. Love. Community.

Brunch EQUALS Grandma

There is one common inspiration for brunch, one person who came up in conversation over and over, at every restaurant I visited. Her name is grandma.

"Brunch reminds me of the past,” Hoffman says. “It reminds me of breakfast with my grandmother, when the family was together. There's something about memory and brunch, about this meal. I don't remember many great lunches, but I remember a lot of great brunches."

For Hoffman, honoring the spirit of brunch means making everything he can from scratch—the breads, the sausages and yes, the scrapple. He uses modern cooking techniques—circulating the eggs in a hot water bath and crisping them up in a fryer instead of a traditional poach—but the dishes on his brunch menu come back to the flavors and familiarity of family. Chocolate chip banana pancakes. House-made sausage gravy and fried egg on top of a house-made cheddar biscuit. Open-faced scrapple sandwich with local pepper jam, black garlic, fried egg and arugula.

All of it is brunch, that great meal at the end of the long week, that last chance to see visiting loved ones and to catch up with friends and family before we all go our separate ways, back to the weekly grind.

“I don't see many cell phones out. I see them out at fancy dinners, but not at brunch,” says Hoffman. “Brunch should have some panache, it should have that vibe, you know, it should have fresh local fruit or whatever you have, but it’s always special with the people you spend it with. And I think our generation has not lost touch with that. We're still holding onto it.

“People say, brunch, oh, it's just eggs and bacon. It's not. It's not short-order diner cooking. It's got soul, man."

22 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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This is the third in a series of profiles about communities throughout Delaware.

ENCE IN SMYRNA The state’s fifth largest town is walkable, friendly, inexpensive, accessible, filled with entertainment options and business-friendly

By Larry Nagengast Photos by Joe del Tufo and Jim Coarse of Moonloop Photography

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s a manager for Hercules Inc. for 41 years, Joanne Masten traveled the world, but she has lived in the same house since she was 18 months old— on West South Street in Smyrna.

In her childhood, the location was convenient. “I went to school for six years across the street and for six years up the street,” she recalls.

And it’s just as convenient now, since it’s only four blocks from Town Hall, where Masten, now Smyrna’s mayor, spends much of her time.

“She’s the best unpaid ambassador I could get my hands on,” says David Hugg, the town’s manager since 2002. ►

“We recognize the importance and value of the downtown core,” says David Hugg, the town's manager. “We’re not going to sit back and wait. We’re going to make things happen.”

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Mayor Joanne Masten in front of the home she's lived in all her life.

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For proof, just ask Carol Forsythe.

Earlier this year, Forsythe and her husband, Eric Svalgard, decided to relocate and rename their Wilmington-based music education business. Forsythe and her daughter hopped in a car and headed south toward Dover. Only they decided to stop at Smyrna.

“There’s a very big net that we like to throw up on Route 1,” Forsythe jokes.

They dropped in at the Drunk’n Baker, the year-old downtown bakery and coffee shop, where co-owner Janet Straughn Forrest extolled the virtues of the rapidly growing town that straddles Duck Creek, the Kent-New Castle county boundary. She ended the chat with an offer to put Forsythe in touch with the mayor.

Masten called Forsythe, invited her back and gave her a guided tour of the town.

Forsythe was sold. The new business, called That Performance Place, is opening in a temporary site downtown and, by the end of the year, expects to be offering music and theater lessons to preteens and teens in the former Thomas England House, a long-closed restaurant on Route 13.

“I spent a day taking them around town. We’re excited that they’re coming,” Masten says.

“I’m pleased to be working with people who put community and children first,” Forsythe says.

Forrest, whom Forsythe calls “my new best friend,” isn’t bashful about promoting the town either. She grew up in nearby Townsend, then spent the last 25 years or so in southern New Jersey, where her late husband was a police officer. Following her husband’s death, she wanted to move back home, and her daughter, Breanne Blair, was looking for work as a pastry chef.

INVESTING IN THE TOWN

They came upon a renovated building at the corner of Main and Commerce streets, decided it was an ideal location, and instantly received a warm reception for the alcohol-infused pastries that are the house specialty.

“I’m investing in the town, I’m investing in my daughter, and the shop gives me something to apply my time to,” Forrest says.

Owners of other businesses in Smyrna express similar sentiments—and that helps explain how the town is expected to triple its turn-of-the-century population of 5,679 by 2020 and how an area first settled in 1716 is becoming a popular dining and entertainment destination, drawing visitors from Wilmington and Bethany.

“You can find industrial space anywhere, but it was a really neat opportunity to locate downtown,” says Mike Rasmussen, co-owner of the Painted Stave Distillery, housed in the former Smyrna Theater on Commerce Street.

Hugg, Masten and other town officials persuaded Rasmussen and his partner, Ron Gomes, to consider locating in Smyrna and, Rasmussen says, “really rolled out the red carpet for us,” even throwing a party so they could meet other business owners and residents.

34 OCTOBER | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM 26 JUNE 20162015 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Ron Gomes and Mike Rasmussen, co-owners of Painted Stave Distillery.

Painted Stave’s opening in late 2013 launched an alcoholicbeverage-making boomlet, with Ron Price opening Blue Earl Brewing last year in the Smyrna Business Park and the Brick Works Brewing and Eats brewpub, a partnership between Kevin Reading of Abbott’s Grill and Eric Williams of Mispillion River Brewing, both in Milford, almost ready to open on Route 13.

Smyrna’s resurgence started slowly, beginning in 2003 when Joe and Shirley Sheridan decided to sell their pub in Ogletown and head south. They came to Smyrna looking to buy a house, Shirley says, “and then I saw a big For Sale sign in the window of a building that had been a bar or a liquor store for about 100 years.”

The location was good, the price was right, and Sheridan’s Irish Pub soon became a popular gathering place in town.

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“When we first moved here, there wasn’t much of anything,” she says, but “people with vision, people who have the means to take a chance” are remaking the town.

The first stages of the revitalization have focused on dining and entertainment. Howard Johnson opened the Odd Fellows Café three years ago, then sold it after a year-and-half when Masten approached him about another project. He formed a partnership with Smyrna businesswoman Donna Ignasz and, with the help of some economic development incentives made available by the town from a $300,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, opened the Inn at Duck Creek last December in an 18th-century building at the corner of East Commerce and North Main streets.

“We say it’s the perfect spot,” says Johnson. The restaurant features upscale dining with a farm-to-table approach, beverages from Delaware brewers, distilleries and wineries, and live music on Friday and Saturday nights.

To give the entertainment vibe more momentum, the town has enlisted Strongpoint Marketing and Wilmington-based Gable Music Ventures to produce events like Smyrna at Night 2016, set for June 10. The program will feature 25 performers at 12 locations around town, with four indoor and outdoor stages at the Smyrna Opera House, two stages each at Painted Stave, Sheridan’s and the Inn at Duck Creek, and Blue Earl running a beer garden in the center of town. Children’s activities, vendors and food trucks will round out the program, says Gable Music’s Gayle Dillman. ►

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Poster child for the hoped-for retail resurgence is Karen Gill, who, along with her husband, Woody, runs Smyrna Cards and Gifts.

With about a dozen bands, the event drew about 2,000 last year, Dillman says. This year, with good weather, a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 is possible.

“It’ll be mostly American, rock, country, singer-songwriters; nothing too edgy,” Dillman says. “We’re helping Smyrna establish itself as an entertainment destination. From Wilmington, it’s an easier drive than to Center City Philadelphia.”

While dining and entertainment may be Smyrna’s meal ticket to prosperity, there’s near-unanimous agreement that there’s much more to be done, especially in re-establishing a retail core downtown.

“You can have a drink at Painted Stave and a dinner at Sheridan’s, but you can’t walk downtown to get a loaf of bread and a newspaper,” Hugg laments.

NEED FOR MORE RETAIL

Yes, there is some retail—Sayers Jewelers and Gemologists has been around since 1950, and Smyrna Sporting Goods, known to the locals as “the gun shop,” for nearly as long. And there’s a hardware store too.

“We need fresh new businesses in town. Same old, same old doesn’t cut it for me,” Masten says.

She would like to see more boutiques, “like a miniature Berlin, Maryland,” she says, as well as a mid-sized department store that would cater to shoppers at a broad range of income levels.

While she’s a strong supporter of locally-owned businesses, Masten believes that “we will need some chains and, when one company comes, another will follow.”

The poster child for the hoped-for retail resurgence, Hugg says, is Karen Gill, owner of the adjoining Smyrna Cards and Gifts and Royal Treatments home décor shops.

After running a home-based window treatment business for years, Gill opened Royal Treatments on South Main Street in October 2013. The business took off rapidly, and Gill’s husband, Woody, joined the operation fulltime in June 2014. Four months later, they rented the space next door and opened the gift shop.

“Smyrna is really hopping right now. There’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for being downtown,” Gill says. “People who have lived here all their lives are surprised at what’s going on.”

Sheridan, whose pub weathered the economic downturn eight years ago and came back strong, can see the progress.

“We’re a step further along than we were. You can see that there’s pride in downtown again,” she says.

36 OCTOBER | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM 28 JUNE 20162015 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Forrest, of the Drunk’n Baker, would like to see Smyrna evolve into an “artsy, eclectic community like Asheville, North Carolina.”

She sees much potential in the town’s “mix of the old and the new” and has been impressed with the way retailers and restaurateurs work together to cross-promote each other’s businesses.

“When you partner with others, everyone wins,” Sheridan adds.

“When I was elected mayor three years ago, I wanted to reinvigorate downtown, but I had no idea how to do it,” Masten says.

“I am not a shy person. I am going to push and push to get it done,” she says, explaining how she quickly built collaborative relationships with residents, business owners and members of the town council. “I have a wonderful team on the council. We work as a team, we play as a team, and we communicate,” she says.

By 2014 the town had approved a new strategic plan, and is working aggressively to implement it. It had also created a redevelopment authority, a semiprivate spinoff from the town, with five directors who have business and finance experience, and gave it the power to make loans and grants to small businesses.

“We recognize the importance and value of the downtown core,” Hugg says. “We’re not going to sit back and wait. We’re going to make things happen.”

Some of Smyrna’s initiatives resemble initiatives under way for nearly a decade on Wilmington’s Market Street.

The town has funneled $50,000 or so a year in penalties assessed against owners of vacant properties into grants to help store owners improve their facades, Hugg says. The $300,000 federal grant serves as a sort of revolving fund; initial loans jumpstart redevelopment projects and loan repayments are used to get new projects up and running.

Rick Ferrell, a Wilmington-based consultant, helps identify businesses that would be a good fit downtown and offers helpful advice.

“Our approach is to work with property owners to find a way to say ‘yes,’ not to say ‘no,’” Hugg says. “It’s more than saying ‘Smyrna is open for business.’ We’re committing the town to being ‘business-ready.’”

As a longtime Smyrna resident, Masten has made revitalizing the town her personal mission. “I’m having fun doing it. It’s not work yet,” she says. “It’s the lowest-paying job in the world and the best group of people to work with.”

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Ron Price opened Blue Earl Brewing last year in the Smyrna Business Park.

Smyrna’s population has nearly doubled since the year 2000, reaching an estimated 11,170 in 2014. The state predicts that the number of residents will reach 18,000 to 20,000 by 2020.

“We will probably meet or exceed that. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing, but it will come whether we want it or not,” Masten says.

“We talk to a lot of young couples who come into the distillery,” Rasmussen says. “This is a more affordable place to buy a house and it certainly doesn’t hurt that there are neat things going on in town to attract them.”

Much of the actual and projected increase, Masten says, has been from the development of 55-plus communities that have attracted retirees (and soon-to-be retirees) from higher-tax states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Hugg says approvals granted before the housing crash in 2008 authorized construction on about 2,000 lots. Permits will have to be reactivated before any work begins.

In addition, he says, many downtown buildings have secondfloor apartments, and some of them are currently vacant.

HAPPY BEING NO. FIVE

While the town’s population is growing, Smyrna has no interest in catching up to Wilmington, Dover, Newark or even Middletown.

“We don’t have any desire to be Delaware’s second- or thirdlargest town. We’re comfortable being number five,” Hugg says.

While no one is chanting “We’re number five” (around Smyrna High School, it’s more appropriate to shout “We’re number one” in recognition of its state championship football team) many residents are quite happy with where they are.

The Sheridans enjoy walking to work, having bought a home across the street from the pub.

While Painted Stave was under construction, Rasmussen and his wife looked around and bought an old house downtown. “We’re two blocks from just about everything. In the morning, we walk to the Drunk’n Baker for bagels and cupcakes. On Sunday afternoon, we can walk to Sheridan’s porch for dinner. A couple nights ago we walked down the street and had a nice dinner at the Inn at Duck Creek,” he says.

Walkable, friendly, inexpensive, accessible, filled with entertainment options and the promise of more retail—it’s a combination that’s making Smyrna an increasingly popular place to call home.

“I just love it,” Masten says. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

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FOCUS

Kerry Kristine McElrone and local musician Joe Trainor got married where they live—on Kirk Avenue in Wilmington.

The Hijinks of Getting Hitched Big or small, weddings can be full of surprises

By Scott Pruden Photos by Joe del Tufo and Jim Coarse of Moonloop Photography

E

very couple wants to create a joyful wedding day that also adds a special spin that says, “Here’s who we are. Let’s celebrate it!”

But when it’s time to plan the wedding, there are those couples content to tread the well-worn path formed either by family tradition or wedding traditions fed to us through pop and consumer culture. Those are the weddings that, in the minds of guests, tend to run together over the years.

But weddings are, by their nature, meant to be memorable.

Sometimes those memories result from careful planning and flawless execution. Other times, thanks to nature, lousy luck, the random inebriated guest or the curmudgeonly father of the bride/ groom, the day is unforgettable for entirely unexpected reasons.

And those who eschew the traditional church wedding and reception hall party can find themselves faced with challenges.

Take, for instance, Kerry Kristine McElrone. In planning her wedding to well-known Wilmington musician Joe Trainor last September, she knew she wanted to get married someplace different. What she found, however, was that all the “different” places had realized their appeal as marriage locations and created pricey wedding and reception packages to take advantage of that appeal.

The couple lived on Kirk Avenue in Wilmington, and the one-block street between North Jackson Street and North Van Buren Street is known for its annual block parties. So, early on in the planning, the joking suggestion was that Kerry and Joe should get married right there.

“We probably should have just stuck with that idea from the get-go, because that’s exactly what we did,” she says. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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With the help of friends and neighbors along the close-knit block, the pair put together what was to be an event that was low on formality but high on fun. Streets were swept, front porches were spruced up and the weather leading up to the happy day was gorgeous.

“Our biggest fear wasn’t just rain, but sideways rain,” says Kerry.

Unfortunately, sideways rain is exactly what they got.

Just in time for the couple to return from a photo session on the Riverfront, the skies opened, and 150 well-turned-out guests got soaked.

But aside from the inconvenience, there was charm in the moment, Trainor says.

“It was just a sea of umbrellas on Kirk. We had strung lights over the trees, and it was really just beautiful. Then it rained harder and harder during the ceremony. The more we got married, the more it rained.”

And then, when the ceremony ended, so did the rain. The DJ began the music, the sky cleared and the celebration commenced.

“I have never been to a wedding as cool as this,” Trainor says. “It was outside and beautiful and everyone knew everyone else. It wasn’t stuffy. It was probably the most ‘us’ I could have imagined.”

Bringing It Home

There are some who gauge the success of their wedding by the number of attendants, the grandiosity of the cocktail reception and the money spent on the dance band.

Others, like Jeremy and Dawn Sheiker of North Wilmington, use different criteria, such as whether the bride and groom are to be found at 5 o’clock the morning after the nuptials, glowing and sleepless, eating breakfast at the Marsh Road Diner.

They were with six other intrepid souls, she in her wedding dress (only $300—the one that made her mother weep for joy, and in which she’d earlier performed cartwheels), her new husband dressed down to his faux tuxedo t-shirt, chowing down on diner grub after their small ceremony in the Arden back yard of the groom’s mother.

32 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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HAPPY HOUR should start at lunch time (yeah, we thought so too)

Jeremy and Dawn Sheiker got married in Arden, in the back yard of the groom's mother.

“The madness was that if you’re having a party in your motherin-law’s back yard, there’s no end time,” says Dawn.

Jeremy’s childhood home in Arden sits adjacent to the village’s Sherwood Forest, which is among northern Delaware’s most pristine and well-preserved woodlands.

“It’s a really special place,” Dawn says. “[It’s] the last house and you’re in the woods. Before he was even thinking about being a husband his plan was to get married there.”

Dawn, meanwhile, admits she isn’t the type of person who normally wants to keep special occasions small. But when it came to her wedding, she had a very specific number in mind: 60 people.

“I’m a very grandiose person and I do everything big, but taking our vows was really important to me and I wanted to make it very intimate,” she says. “It was important being able to celebrate with our friends, who are our family to us.”

They also insisted on seating all the guests together for dinner —served from a food truck driven onto the property—to further emphasize that intimacy.

“I had a big thing where I didn’t want to have individual tables,” Dawn says. “It was really important to me that we all sat together as a family. We basically sat in a big square as opposed to little pods.”

A Wedding Among the Redwoods

Former Delawareans Brian and Kori Truono, who now live in Cincinnati, took their small, set-in-the-woods wedding a step further. With his family in Delaware and hers in Kansas, the prospect of trying to bring both sides together in a single location wasn’t practical. So, they didn’t invite anyone.

They were married in the Prairie Creek Redwoods near Eureka in northern California, with only them, an officiant and two photographers.

“We sort of eloped, in a sense,” Brian says. “The price of everything had just skyrocketed, and we had other things we wanted to do besides spend $50,000 on a wedding.”

One of those things was travel, which the couple can do thanks to his job as a freelance photographer and web designer and hers as a pediatric oncology pharmacist. ►

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U.S. national parks are a favorite destination. So, on a trip to see the redwoods, Kori researched and found a local officiant, who performed their ceremony in a towering, cathedral-like space among the trees. Kori rode to the spot in the officiant’s truck—“It probably smelled a little bit like pot,” Brian says.

After vows were exchanged, the officiant presented the couple with a redwood sapling and a spade engraved with their names and the wedding date inscribed on the blade.

“We planted it there in the woods, which was probably highly illegal,” Brian says. “Maybe when we go back we’ll check the spot to see if it’s growing.”

Memorable Mishaps

In spite of all the planning, there’s always the uncontrollable variable of human behavior. No one—planner, couple, guest or vendor—can tell what’s going to happen when family and friends gather with all their emotional baggage, personality quirks and human foibles.

Jim Coarse of Wilmington-based Moonloop Photography can attest to that.

As someone paid to observe and capture special moments, he’s seen plenty that ended up not being so special.

Coarse recalls one wedding in which the order of toasts got mixed up and seemed to throw the DJ into a surlier mood each time he was called to correct himself and let wedding party members speak.

The crowning catastrophe came when, just as the reception dancing began, the DJ’s Windows 8 laptop suddenly began its mandatory update.

“In the middle of the dancing the music was just…gone,” Coarse says.

“Everything just stopped. They had to wait for the whole computer to restart. It was definitely awkward.”

Coarse says fathers of the bride can be particularly difficult, occasionally living up to the comic potential alluded to in the movies of the same name. Sometimes the divorced father of the bride refuses to participate in a photo with his daughter and his ex-wife; or butlered hors d’oeuvres may lure him away, Homer Simpson-like, from a family shot.

34 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Cool Spring Park N Jackson St & W 10th St, Wilmington Fathers of the bride can sometimes be difficult members of the wedding.

“It’s a frequent occurrence at weddings where the ceremony and reception are in the same place,” Coarse says. “The father of the bride will just walk out of the frame to follow someone with a tray.

Then I’ll send someone to get him and he won’t come back either.”

But as wedding party members go, some might be surprised that the groomsmen are rarely the ones who misbehave on the day of the wedding. Coarse says it’s the bridal party that’s often the source of inappropriately early inebriation.

“The groomsmen will sometimes pull out a beer early on, but that’s about it,” he says. “The girls are all about the mimosas the day of the wedding. It’s always the girls with the mimosas and the champagne.”

A Blending of Cultures

With large, formal weddings, a wedding planner is charged with taking elements from the lives of the couple and bringing those out in the celebration.

Consider the wedding of Stephania and Henry Costa, a Wilmington couple with family traditions that stretched from the United States to Italy to the African nation of Liberia. Planned

by Christina Maddox of Wilmington’s Heaven Sent Wedding Consultants, their nuptials at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia included all the trimmings.

One key to planning a successful ceremony, says Maddox, is to ask a lot of questions.

“My initial consultations are very detailed,” she says. “I probably ask about 100 questions. For me, with 15 years doing this, when I walk away from a consultation the wedding is planned, and now it’s just time for me to execute it.”

One of those questions is how the couple met. Knowing that helps Maddox add extra touches throughout the wedding day, such as a cake that might reflect the moment that first brought the couple together.

“It’s those little things that I can incorporate into their day and personalize it for them,” Maddox says. “And any good wedding planner would be able to do that.”

With the Costa wedding, one of the ways she ensured the couple were reflected and celebrated was with food.

“Dinner was five courses, very extravagant and very detailed, and that’s how they wanted to show their Italian and Liberian cultures,” she says. “The Four Seasons had a special chef come in and do a tasting for us. And that chef, he got it. He tweaked it for exactly what they were expecting. Everybody was talking about the food.” ►

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Another important consideration is the officiant, Maddox says.

Couples who have a more active and formal faith will require one type, while those who aren’t religious or might be coming into the marriage from diverse religious backgrounds would require quite another.

For some, like the Sheikers, the officiant might be a member of the family, or perhaps part of a house of worship they already attend.

Others, like the Truonos, will hire an outside officiant who will help them make the type of service they envision a reality.

Neither of the Truonos were particularly religious, “and the vows were representative of that,” Brian says. “We mixed cultures and incorporated different things into the ceremony. And in that sense it was fun and meaningful.”

Newark’s Lynda Daring, an ordained non-denominational minister in the Universal Life Church, has administered many vows over the years.

“There’s a big culture shift right now,” she says. “I wouldn’t be in business if everyone was getting married in churches. I approach things passionately and way outside the box to help [a couple] focus on that bottom line” that they’re committing to a lifetime together.

One of her first questions to couples is what their beliefs about marriage are. Are they more religious or secular, and what elements of religion might they want kept in or left out?

“I tell them it’s OK if you don’t go to church. I’m just a person who loves bringing people together,” says Daring.

In the end, regardless of unique venues, unexpected mishaps, the whims of weather or combining cultures, bringing people together is what weddings are all about. And it’s in that spirit that love—the true purpose of the day—wins above all.

TIPS ON CREATING A SPECIAL WEDDING • Sit down with your future spouse and figure out what’s most important for the wedding. “Once you’re on the same page for marriage, that will help you navigate the challenges of family, finances and staying true to your goal and your dream wedding,” says bride Dawn Sheiker.

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“Budget is crucial. It’s everything,” says Christina Maddox of Heaven Sent Wedding Consultants. “It helps me narrow down venues and vendors. It is the beginning of your wedding and your reception.”

• Know your beliefs and the tone you want the ceremony to set. That informs what kind of service you want, says wedding officiant Lynda Daring. “I want to find out what this is going to be about, because a couple is usually so wrapped up in plans about the tuxes and the dress.”

• Even if you go totally non-traditional, know the traditions you want to acknowledge in the ceremony. “It’s a fine line when you go off the beaten track between keeping the sanctity of the ceremony without going too far into ‘we’re just having a big party,’” Sheiker says. “You have to balance that and really think.”

36 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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1. Amtrak Station 2. Opera Delaware Studios/City Theater Co. 3. Wilmington Youth Rowing Assn., WYRA.ORG 4. Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park 5. Residences at Christina Landing 6. Harry’s Seafood Grill / Riverfront Market, HARRYS-SAVOY.COM 7. Delaware Theatre Co., DELAWARETHEATRE.ORG 8. FireStone Roasting House, FIRESTONERIVERFRONT.COM 9. Cosi at the Barclays Crescent Building, GETCOSI.COM 10. Hare Pavilion/Riverwalk 11. AAA Mid-Atlantic Travel Center, AAAMIDATLANTIC.COM 12. The Delaware Contemporary, THEDCCA.ORG

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

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

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

5/24/16 2:03 PM

NEW TO TREE PAVILION AT THE DELAWARE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM 550 Justison St. (302) 650-2336 delawarechildrensmuseum.org The Delaware Children’s Museum is bringing the outdoors inside with its newly opened Tree Pavilion. Stop in anytime for a fun, unique and new way to appreciate nature—while also seeing all the museum has to offer. Bring the kids by on Five Dollar Fridays (admission is just five bucks after 6 PM!) to crawl through the hollowed-out trunk of a 350-year-old sycamore tree, found in Wilmington’s Alapocas Woods and finished by Delaware native Dave MacCleod, who donated it to the museum.

Check the DCM online calendar for $2 nights, or just show up on a whim. Regular admission is just $8.75, and you can combine it with a round of putt-putt at Riverwalk Mini Golf for just $13. But as always, members get in free, so join today. From the touch tank aquarium to field trips, birthday parties and special programs, DCM brings out the kid in everyone.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND WILMINGTON’S RIVERBOAT QUEEN 700 Justison St. Located on the dock just behind Iron Hill Brewery along the Riverwalk (302) 827-3344 riverfrontwil.com.com Go back in time aboard the 110-foot deck of the Riverboat Queen—a full-size, fully operational replica of a Mississippi River steam boat that’s open to the public! Take a dinner cruise this summer for an affordable family adventure. Folks looking for something more private can schedule a customized party for any occasion where you and your guests can live it up. Let the sun setting upon the Christina River be your backdrop as you enjoy your trip aboard a real stern-wheeled steamship - straight out of the stories of Mark Twain!

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Other Developments & Updates On The Riverfront In addition to the new Tree Pavilion at The Delaware Children’s Museum and dinner cruises on the Riverboat Queen, here are some important Riverfront happenings and updates.

• Penn Cinema and Premiere Wine and Spirits are continuing their Movies on Tap series. Once a month a different local brewery will set up shop at the theater and moviegoers can sample different beers and chat with the brewers before taking in a cult-classic film. All proceeds will go to the brewer’s favorite charity! Check premierewinespirits.com/movies-on-tap for movies, dates, times and tickets.

• Hot on the heels of Big Fish Restaurant Group’s Trolley Square Oyster House comes CEO Eric Sugrue’s next Riverfront dining experience, Taco Grande Mexican Grille and Tequila Bar. The 6,000-square-foot space—scheduled to open in late fall—will be nestled between the group’s Riverfront Big Fish location and Iron Hill Brewery and is sure to add to the variety of casual places for hungry mouths to grab a bite.

• Riverwalk Minigolf offers a fun time for the family, friends, or as a team building venue for your business. Or simply practice your short game! This year the snack shack features water ice and soft pretzels in addition to eight flavors of soft-serve ice cream. Golf is open seven days a week - weather permitting - and starting in June, it will be open until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays -- $8 per person, kids 3 and under are free.

• The DCCA continues its rebranding phase—moving forward as The Delaware Contemporary—incorporating design and technology with its already established core of visual arts. Additional symposia and workshops will allow artists and designers to better understand the “intersection of art, design, and technology.” As always, the museum is free and open to the public, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and noon to 5pm on Wednesday and Sunday. And expect food trucks every month during the First Friday Art Loops.

• The Kalmar Nyckel will be docked at Dravo Plaza from late June through the 4th of July. Charter a 1 ½-hour trip down the Christina River on Delaware’s Tall Ship. Sailors and land lubbers of all ages will enjoy the ship’s regular Pirate Sails as captain and crew don pirate gear and head out for adventure! Get in all the fun you can before the replica 17th century Dutch trading vessel heads north for the summer months. kalmarknyckel.org JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Ongoing Events Family Night on the River Taxi

FAMILY NIGHT 7/2/2013, 5pm/6pm/7pm Bring the kidsTAXI down to the Riverfront ON THE RIVER every Tuesday and Thursday night in

June, July & August for a 45 minute ride

TUESDAYS THURSDAYS THROUGH Starting June 7 on&the Christina River. $15 AUGUST per family• of 4. Receive a coupon for 10% off at Molly’s

+ the DeliRiverfront after yourforride!

Bring the Ice kidsCream down to a 45 minute ride on the Christina riverfrontwilm.com River. $15 per family of 4. Receive coupons for 50% off Jump Pass at Dravo Plaza Dock Stratosphere Trampoline Park and 10% off at Molly’s Ice Cream + Deli. riverfrontwilm.com Dravo Plaza Dock

WEDNESDAYS ON THE WATER WINE CRUISE WEDNESDAYS THROUGH AUGUST Starting June 8 Enjoy a wine tasting on the Christina River. Perfect for happy hour or an after-dinner drink! Reservations are required. Must be 21 years of age or older. $15 per person. riverfrontwilm.com Dravo Plaza

KALMAR NYCKEL SAILS June 25-June 26 July 1-July 4 July 8-July 10

DELAWARE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM PIRATES AHOY Fridays and Saturdays 5pm-6pm Arrrgh, mateys! Meet at our new pirate ship exhibit for a funfilled adventure led by the DCM’s own pirate-in-residence.

Read a pirate story, learn to talk like a pirate, and construct an important tool to aid you on a Museum-wide treasure hunt for hidden booty!

SUMMER KICK OFF June 17, 5pm-8pm Walk across a giant pool of oobleck, see a special performance by the Wilmington Ballet Academy, blow giant bubbles, and more! $2 NIGHTS Every 3rd Wednesday of the month

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THE DELAWARE CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE TOWN 1st Friday of Every Month 5:00pm

On the Town

Also known as “The Art Loop,” this is a great way to view the exhibitions in our galleries and view the artist studios during our extended gallery hours. The event is free and open to the public with the museum remaining open until 9pm (unless otherwise noted).

TheDCCA.org

WILMINGTON BLUE ROCKS FRAWLEY STADIUM Bluerocks.com

RIVERBOAT QUEEN DINNER CRUISE Looking for something fun and exciting to do this summer in the Wilmington area? Enjoy a family-friendly cruise aboard a 110-foot replica of a Mississippi River steamboat while cruising down on the Christina River. Reservations are required and space will be limited again this year, so purchase your tickets online now to reserve your spot! riverfrontwilm.com Located at dock behind Iron Hill Brewery

FOR A FULL LISTING OF EVENTS, PLEASE LOG ON TO:

JUNE Blue Rocks vs. Lynchburg Hillcats (June 1-3) Blue Rocks vs. Salem Red Sox (June 9-12) Blue Rocks vs. Winston-Salem Dash (June 13-15) Blue Rocks vs. Lynchburg Hillcats (June 27-29) Blue Rocks vs. Winston-Salem Dash (June 30)

JULY Blue Rocks vs. Winston-Salem Dash (July 1-3) Blue Rocks vs. Myrtle Beach Pelicans (July 8-11) Blue Rocks vs. Lynchburg Hillcats (July 16-19) Blue Rocks vs. Frederick Keys (July 28-31)

AUGUST Blue Rocks vs. Salem Red Sox (August 1-3) Blue Rocks vs. Frederick Keys (August 9-11) Blue Rocks vs. Potomac Nationals (August 15-18) Blue Rocks vs. Carolina Mudcats (August 19-21) Blue Rocks vs. Myrtle Beach Pelicans (August 26-28)

RIVERFRONTWILM.COM

JUNE 2015 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Music Along the Bank Wednesday, June 1

The INSpire Lot Series Friday, June 3

Market by Moonlight Saturday, June 4

CCAC’s Annual Student Concert Pufferbelly Steampunk Express TheDCH’s City Garden Contest Saturday, June 18 Sat, June 11 & Sun, June 12 Saturday, June 11

JULIA CHRISTIE-ROBIN BREWER & BIKE MECHANIC

Basil Restaurant Ani DiFranco 2 for specials Friday, June 24

Delaware Taco Festival Saturday, June 25

NCC Ice Cream Festival Sat, June 25 & Sun, June 26

Richard Raw Week Sat, June 4 - Sat, June 11

Extreme Deep...

Sat, June 18 - Mon, Sept 5

Jeff Boyer’s Bubble Trouble Thursday, June 30

Full details for these events, plus hundreds more at:

inWilmingtonDE.com

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CITY OF WILMINGTON

On the Town

Nick Grigsby at Tilton Cool Cafe.

w

HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE REFRESHMENTS

K

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

DT

DOWNTOWN LOOP

WE

WEST END LOOP

NW

NORTH WILMINGTON LOOP

NC

NEW CASTLE LOOP

THE WILMINGTON ART LOOP FRIDAY, JUNE 3 5 - 9 p.m. artloopwilm.org

ALSO IN THIS SECTION: This Month at Theatre N

cityfest

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Downtown Loop

artloopwilm.org

THE WILMINGTON ART LOOP FRIDAY, JUNE 3 5 - 9 p.m.

On the Town

cityfestwilm.com/artloopwilmington cityfest

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

STEP 2: Map out your choices and select transportation. You may want to walk, drive or take the downtown DART Trolley. A limited number of seats are available on the Art Loop shuttle. Please reserve your seat by calling 302.576.2100 or email artloop@WilmingtonDE.gov.

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

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

STEP 5: Repeat the first Friday of every month!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS WHERE DOES THE ART LOOP START? The Art Loop is a self-guided, go-at-your-own pace tour that can start at any of the locations listed in this guide. There is no designated route for the Art Loop.

HOW DO I APPLY TO EXHIBIT ON THE ART

The Delaware Contemporary 200 S. Madison Street Wilmington, DE 302.656.6466 • thedcca.org

Opening receptions for the 2016 Members’ Juried Exhibition and studio artists Lynda Johnson and Hugh Atkins; Game Jam hosted by the Wilmington University Game Club featuring a showcase of video games created during a week of competition among talented designers; Rolling Revolution food trucks; and a cash bar. Art Loop reception 5-9 PM. On view Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat - 10 am-5 PM; Wed, Sun - 12 - 5 PM through June 30th.

Zaikka Indian Grill 209 N Market Street Wilmington, DE www.zaikka.com Conceptual Portraiture, Artist and photographer, David Heitur, of H8Rfish Fotography, will be displaying pieces of fine art conceptual portraiture varied with images of Delaware landmarks. Live music featuring Kevin Cross, Brandon Mesen, Greg Boulden, and other guests. Art Loop Reception 5 – 8PM. On view Monday – Friday 11A – 8 P through June 28th.

LaFate Gallery 227 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE arteun@aol.com www.lafategallery.com A Visual experience of nature in sunrises, sunsets, landscapes. and creative images.

By Photographer Florence Collins-Hardy. Art Loop reception 5-8 pm. On view Tue - Thurs.

11am – 5 pm, Fri-Sat 10 am – 6 pm through June 27th.

LOOP? Participating galleries book and curate the exhi-

bitions and should be contacted directly at the contact information provided in this guide.

HOW DO I TAKE THE ART LOOP SHUTTLE? Reserve one of the limited number of seats by calling 302.576.2100 or email artloop@WilmingtonDE.gov. The bus will pick-up and drop-off at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.

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2nd & LOMA 211 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE 302.655.0124 2ndandloma.com The Musical Allegory of Color, Brian Hearns The show is a representation of the use of color and the heart felt interpretation of the world I see. My purpose is to visually stimulate the senses and question perceptions of movement and rhythm. Art Loop Reception 5 – 8pm. On view Mon – Fri from 9am – 5pm through June 24th.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

5/24/16 10:46 AM

Downtown Loop LOMA Coffee 239 Market Street Wilmington, DE

The Grand Opera House 818 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE www.thegrandwilmington.org

Brandon Moorie, Brandon Moorie is a 22 year old self-taught artist based in Newark, DE who works with traditional and digital art as well as animation. Art Loop Reception 5-8 PM. On view Monday – Friday 6AM – 5PM; Saturday 7AM – 2PM through June 30th.

Water is Life, Kenya (WILK) has transformed the life of 35,000 women and children by bringing clean water to their communities. Yolanda Chetwynd’s show Art for Water will exhibit her watercolors, monoprints and oil paintings. 100% of the sales will go to WILK. Art Loop Reception 5-8 PM. On view Monday thru Friday, 10 AM – 5PM, weekends subject to staff availability through March 29th.

Cherne’ Altovise 316 N Market Street Wilmington, DE 302.565.7710 chernealtovise.com

Artist Ave Station 800 N. Tatnall Street Wilmington, DE www.artistavestation.com

Artists JaQuanne Leroy Dwight Lacy Isabel Jean-Louis Julian Finklea K.M. Tapman. Art Loop Reception 5-9 PM. On view Monday thru Saturday 10 A – 6PM through June 6th.

Overgrown, Patricia Latrice The idea of the higher self not able to be contained by “the box” that has been unnaturally incasing what is meant to be free to be. Art Loop reception 5-10 PM. On view Mon - Fri 10 AM - 3 PM through June 6th.

Delaware College of Art and Design 600 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE www.dcad.edu

Levitea 228 W. 9th Street Wilmington, DE 302.565.9802 leviteawilmington.com

Delaware Charter School Art Show: Enjoy K-12 student art from charter school students across the state. Participating schools include: Family Foundations Academy, Providence Creek Academy, First State Montessori Academy, School, Odyssey Charter School and more! Art Loop Reception 5 – 8 PM. On view Monday – Friday 9 AM – 9PM, Saturday and Sunday 10 AM – 4PM through July 17th.

Freire Charter End of the year Art Exhibit Showcasing original works by Freire Charter Students. Art Loop reception 5-9 PM. On view Tues - Fri 11 am - 6 PM; Sat 11 - 3 PM through June 17th.

Jerry’s Artarama 704 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE 302.268.1238 wilmingtonde-jerrys.com

Mezzanine Gallery 820 N. French Street Wilmington, DE artsdel.org

Artist Rudy Johnson, Rudolph’s talents were inspired and encouraged by his father, Rudolph Sr. who himself was considered a portrait artist. Art Loop reception 5:30 – 8:00 PM. On view 9 AM – 6PM through June 30th.

Recent Paintings, Denise Dumont, The Delaware Division of the Arts is pleased to present a selection of recent work by Denise Dumont. Art Loop reception 5 – 7 pm. On view Mon – Fri 8:30 am – 4:30 pm through June 24th.

Christina Cultural Arts Center 705 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE 302.690.8092 • ccade.org

The Delaware Center for Horticulture 1810 N. Dupont Street Wilmington, DE www.thedch.org

Nature’s Expressive Spirit, by Joy Littleton.

Inquisitive artistic vision by capturing the rhythmic interaction of form and light found in nature. Bursts of color, dramatic light and powerful forms are revealed in her paintings and photographs. Art Loop reception 5:30 - 8 pm. On view Monday through Saturday 9 AM – 6pm through April 29.

Ikebana Exhibit, The inspirational Japanese art of flower arranging by members of the Sogetsu Brandywine Study Group with Midori Tanimune, Advisor, will be on display.

Art Loop reception 5:30 – 8 PM. On view 9 AM - PM through June 3rd.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

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West End Loop

artloopwilm.org

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North of Wilmington Loop Tilton Cool Cafe 1139A W 7th Street Wilmington, DE 302.425.4900 www.facebook.com/TiltonCool

Works of Neighbors, Native American Nick Grigsby’s art is influenced by his heritage and love for superheroes, comic, and animation. Rakeem Coleman, author influenced by Langston Hughes, Spike Lee, and David Baldwin will be on stage doing a reading. Collages by Nicholas Nicoletos Art Loop Reception 5-8 PM. On view Wed – Sat 8AM – 12 PM through June 18th.

artloopwilm.org FIT Fitness presented

by Blue Streak Gallery 2119 the Highway Arden, DE ardenbuzz.com ColorForm Paintings 2016, Jean Diver Repurposed plastic and mixed media paint on corrugated plastic. Art Loop reception 5 – 7 PM, Mon – Fri 6 A – 9PM, Sat 7:30 – 5PM, 9:30 – 5:00 PM through August 31st.

The Howard Pyle Studio 1305 N. Franklin Street Wilmington, DE 302.652.7847 www.howardpylestudio.org

Buzz Ware Village Center at Arden 2119 the Highway Arden, DE ardenbuzz.com

All Studio Member Group Show, An exhibit showcasing the work of all of the members, which include a variety of mediums and styles ! Image is : In a Yellow wood, a watercolor,

by Nancy James. Art Loop reception: 5:308pm. On view by appointment only through June 30th, 2016.

Sir Francis Galton Goes to the Zoo, Illustrations by Monika Bullette. Art Show and Book Signing. View the complete set of gouache paintings and a group of complementary sculptures and enjoy a book signing by the author, Thom Hawkins.

Art Loop Reception 6-9PM. On view again evening of June 10th & by appointment.

Blue Streak Gallery 1721 Delaware Avenue Wilmington, DE 302.529.0506 Salon Paintings, James Havard internationally know artist James Havard is painting enchanting figures with oil sticks on board and paper. Art Loop reception 5–8 pm On view Tue – Fri 10 am – 5 pm, Sat 10 am – 4 pm through July 16th.

Station Gallery 3922 Kennett Pike Greenville, DE 302.654.8638 stationgallery.net Group Show, Gallery Artists. A mix of art coordinated harmoniously by our Gallery curators. Art Loop reception 5-8 pm. On view Mon – Fri 9 am – 5 pm, Sat 10 am – 3 pm through June 25th.

Colourworks Photo/Art Space 1902 Superfine Lane Wilmington, DE www.coulourworks.com A Place to Find, Susan Procario Images from recent journeys “I often search for an unassuming location, simply to make the best use of light and color, which tend to take over in my work.” Art Loop reception 5 – 7 PM. On view Monday through Friday 8:30 – 5:30 PM through August 31st.

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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

5/24/16 10:49 AM

Theatre N at Nemours

theatren.org

PRICES: $8 | general admission $6 | seniors and children 302.576.2565 Monday - Friday 1007 N. Orange Street Wilmington, DE 19801

302.571.4075 Nights & Weekends theatren.org CASE OF THE THREE SIDED DREAM NR | 1 hr 28 mins | June 2-5 Thurs. 7pm | Fri. 4pm | Sun. 4pm

Rashaan Roland Kirk was a one of a kind musician, personality, satirist and windmill-slayer who despite being blind, becoming paralyzed and facing America’s racial injustices – did not relent.

RAMS

R | 1 hr 3 mins | June 3-8 Fri. 1pm, 10pm | Sat. 2pm | Sun. 1pm Tues. 4pm | Wed. 7pm In a remote Icelandic valley, two brothers who haven’t spoken in 40 years have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.

FIRST MONDAY IN MAY

PG | 1 hr 29 mins | June 4-8 Sat. 5pm | Sun. 7pm | Tues. 7pm | Wed. 4pm Follows the creation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most attended fashion exhibition in history, “China : Through The Looking Glass,” an exploration of Chinese-inspired Western fashions by Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton.

20 FEET FROM STARDOM

PG-13 | 1 hr 29 mins | June 9-14 Thurs. 7pm | Fri. 7pm | Sat. 2pm | Sun. 4pm Tues. 7pm Award-winning director Morgan Neville shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. Triumphant and heartbreaking in equal measure, the film is both a tribute to the unsung voices who brought shape and style to popular music and a reflection on the conflicts, sacrifices and rewards of a career spent harmonizing with others.

VIVA ACTIVA

PG-13 | 1 hr 29 mins | June 9-14 Fri. 1pm, 10pm | Sat. 5pm | Sun. 7pm Mon. 7pm This thought provoking and spirited documentary, with its abundance of archival materials, offers an intimate portrait of the whole of Arendt’s life, traveling to places where she lived, worked, loved, and was betrayed, as she wrote about the open wounds of modern times. Through her books, which are still widely read and the recent release of Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic Hannah Arendt (also a Zeitgeist Films release) there is renewed interest in Arendt throughout the world, especially among young people who find her insights into the nature of evil, totalitarianism, ideologies, and the perils faced by refugees, more relevant than ever.

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO OUT & ABOUT MAGAZINE

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*Theatre N reserves the right to change the film schedule at any time.

Please visit our website at www.theatren.org for the most up to date information for all film and events at Theatre N.

THE CONGRESSMAN

R | 1 hr 38 mins | June 10-15 Fri. 4pm | Sat. 8pm | Sun. 1pm | Wed. 7pm After being caught on video failing to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, Maine Congressman, Charlie Winship, knocks out another House member, confronts his angry exwife, and faces denunciation by the media for attacking one of the most cherished patriotic symbols in America. As his life spirals out of control, Charlie embarks on a journey to a remote island. Treat Williams stars as the Congressman in this humorous and moving film that raises the important question of what it means to be an American.

AFERIM

NR | 1 hr 48 mins | June 17-21 Fri. 1pm | Sat. 2pm | Sun. 1pm | Tues. 7pm Set in early 19th century Wallachia, when a local policeman, Costandin, is hired by Iordache, a boyar (local noble), to find Carfin, a Gypsy slave who had run away from the boyar’s estate after having an affair with his wife, Sultana. Costandin sets out to find the fugitive, beginning a journey full of adventures. Gypsy slavery lasted from the 14th century up until the middle of the 19th century, a situation which is very little known and almost nonexistent in the public debate today, although its impact continues to influence Romania’s social life.

BEING CHARLIE

NR | 1 hr 37 mins | June 17-21 Fri. 4pm, 10pm | Sat. 8pm | Sun. 4pm Wed. 7pm Charlie is a troublesome 18-year-old who breaks out of a youth drug treatment clinic, but when he returns home to Los Angeles, he’s given an intervention by his parents and forced to go to an adult rehab. There, he meets a beautiful but troubled girl, Eva, and is forced to battle with drugs, elusive love and divided parents.

BEING AP

NR | 1 hr 30 mins | June 17-23 Fri. 7pm | Sat. 5pm | Sun. 7pm Thurs. 7pm Antony Wonke’s documentary about record-breaking rider AP McCoy offers valuable insights into what motivates a sports hero.

MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY

PG-13 | 1 hr 48 mins | June 24-29 Fri. 1pm, 7pm | Sat. 2pm, 8pm | Sun. 4pm Mon. 7pm | Tues. 4pm | Wed. 7pm Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy

VIKTORIA

NR | 1 hr 30 mins | June 24-28 Fri. 4pm, 10pm | Sat. 5pm | Sun. 1pm, 7pm Tues. 7pm Unwanted by her mother, Viktoria is being born with no umbilical cord and doesn’t need Boryana until the hardships of life bind them together.

AS TIME GOES BY IN SHANGHAI

NR | 1 hr 30 mins | June 30 | Thurs. 7pm In this documentary, The Peace Old Jazz Band from Shanghai prepares for a journey to the North Sea Jazz Festival.

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WHAT’S #INWILM THIS MONTH

AAFKE KLARA REALTOR & ARTS LOVER

My Son the Waiter Thurs, June 2 - Sun, June 19

Arsenic and Old Lace Fri, June 3 - Wed, June 22

Wilm Drama League: Closer Fri, June 10 - Sun. June 19

Titanic the Musical Sat, June 18 - Sun, June 26

Full details for these events, plus hundreds more at: inWilmingtonDE.com

50 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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EAT

Caramel apple pancakes at Drip Café.

SINFUL SUNDAY BRUNCH DISHES They’re calorie-packed, but oh, so good.

Here’s a round-up of some of the area’s tastiest.

By Pam George Photos by Anthony Santoro

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anish boring oatmeal. Forget an egg white omelet. When it comes to brunch on the town, many Delaware diners have stopped counting calories, cholesterol, and fat.

“It’s once a week, usually, so people often go for something a little less dietconscious,” says Chuck Lewis, general manager of Buckley’s Tavern in Centreville, where Sunday brunch is a social gathering with a built-in cause for celebration.

Donny Merrill, chef/owner of Skipjack in Newark, would agree. He’s seen an increase in the number of brunch diners, particularly between 2 and 4 p.m. Perhaps that’s because he offers such rich alternatives as crab imperial Benedict, lobster-potato hash with poached eggs and a citrus-tarragon hollandaise, and Nutella French toast. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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With their entrees, diners at Buckley’s receive a complimentary plate of bacon, sausage, and scrapple that comes from Kirby & Holloway in Harrington. “When we first opened, we sent it all out,” Lewis says. “Now we ask them if they want to try scrapple.”

While some decline the mush of pork scraps and trimmings, few refuse the sausage and bacon. Unless, that is, they’re vegetarian.

“It’s not something typically you have every morning,” Lewis notes. “If you’re going to eat French toast made out of sticky buns, what’s a piece of sausage?”

Lewis and his wife, Michele Mitchell, the pastry chef at the Hotel du Pont, first created the sticky bun French toast at home. “It was so good,” he says, “that we had to put it on the brunch menu.”

Purchased from the hotel, the pecan sticky buns are sliced and soaked in a custardy batter. They’re sautéed in the griddle so that the pecans become toasted and caramelized. “It’s not just custardy goodness; it’s also sweet and crunchy,” he says.

FRENCH TOAST VARIATIONS French toast comes in many diet-busting variations. Many include brioche, a bread made with eggs and butter. At the Rail, located at the White Clay Creek Country Club, offers brioche with a cheesecake-like filling. Chef Andrew Ramage also makes French toast bread pudding, which is rolled up, steamed, allowed to set overnight, and then sliced and pan-seared.

At Corner Bistro, Le Bus brioche is dipped in a batter with Grand Marnier, eggs, and cream, and then added to the skillet.

Once it’s crisp, it’s bathed with caramel sauce and decorated with Rice Crispies that have been tossed in cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon,

and sugar. At Caffe Gelato in Newark, crème brulee serves as the batter. The brioche toast is stuffed with whipped ricotta cheese and topped with candied walnuts and roasted bananas. Krazy Kat’s in Montchanin has served brioche French toast with a mango compote, coconut milk syrup, spiced rum, and a pineapple compound butter.

Brioche also makes an appearance at Piccolina Toscana’s brunch buffet. This time, however, grilled brioche is the stage for creamy chipped prosciutto di Parma, made with shallots and a peppery cream sauce.

Like creamed chipped beef, eggs Benedict is a traditional yet rich dish that chefs love to tweak. “Benedict with any kind of seafood seems to work well,” Lewis says. Instead of the usual Canadian bacon, Buckley’s has used its house-made smoked salmon. Kid Shelleen’s has incorporated soft-shell crab, and Drip Café has used scrapple. “In the three years that we’ve been open, that’s probably been the item with the most calories,” Maiale’s Vogeley says. He took it off the spring menu because it’s so heavy.

For those who really want to ignore calories, there’s always the buffet. The Hotel du Pont has long held bragging rights as one of the best. You can pamper your palate with smoked fish, pastries, cheese, and rich entrees in the hotel’s opulent environment. At the Rail is also a buffet. Brandywine Prime Seafood & Chops in Chadds Ford mixes it up. For $19.95 per person, diners can belly up to a buffet of soups, salads, cheeses, smoked salmon and sweets.

They also choose a hot entrée. The price is $30 per person for two.

Worried about over-indulging? No problem. Come Monday, you can always get back to the gym and the usual lo-cal cereal bar and cup of black coffee.

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Great Weather Is Here! Come Enjoy Our Patios at All 3 Locations!

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

Every Wednesday:

DJ DANCE PARTY

Join Us Everyday for Our Great Weekly Specials!

MONDAYS

½ Price Appetizers All Day

TUESDAYS

½ Price Burgers All Day $1.50 Domestic Drafts after 7pm

WEDNESDAYS

All You Can Eat Wings $11.99 after 5pm

THREE CONVENIENT LOCATIONS: 108 Peoples Plaza (Corner of Rtes. 40 & 896) | Newark, DE | 302-834-6661 8 Polly Drummond Shopping Center | Newark, DE | 302-738-7814 800 North State Street | Dover, DE | 302-674-0144

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS

At All Locations!

All You Can Eat Shrimp $12.99 after 5pm, Prime Rib $18.99

Prime Rib $22.99, $2.50 Taylor’s Grog 7pm-close

SHOWTIME TRIVIA

DJ DANCE PARTY

All Locations!

All Locations!

Be our friend on Facebook!

SATURDAYS

$1.00 Off Craft Bottles All Day

SUNDAYS

Beef and Beer $8.99, Steak Night $12.99

www.mcglynnspub.com

GALLUCIO’S DAILY SPECIALS & NIGHTLY ENTERTAINMENT!

Mondays

3 Course Meal $25 includes App, Soup or Salad, and Entrée (5-9pm) Anthony Gallucio & The Retreads 10-1am

Tuesdays

Family Night Kids under 10 eat FREE (Kids Menu) ”Q’s” Day Open Mic w/ Shawn Qaissaunee. 8-11pm

Wednesdays

½ Price Pizza (5-10pm) Quizzo w/Keith 8-11pm

Thursdays

½ Price Burgers All Day! Live Jazz Series 8-11pm

Happy Hour M-F 2-6pm Check out our craft selection! Just $4 during Happy Hour.

Take-Out Party Trays Available

Fridays

½ Price Bottle of Wine (5-10pm) With purchase of 2 Dinner Entrees Open Mic w/ Anthony Gallucio Acoustic 6-9pm

Saturdays

All-Star Karaoke 9-1am

Sundays

23oz. Yuenglings and Miller Lite Drafts COUNTRY WESTERN SUNDAY 1st & 3rd Sunday *ALL NIGHTLY SPECIALS IN-HOUSE ONLY

Join us after the Greek & Italian Festivals!

Take Pop Out to Brunch!

June 19, 10am-2pm Book Your Private Parties Today!

1709 Lovering Ave • Wilmington • (302) 655-3689 • Gallucios-de.com

54 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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5/25/16 12:58 PM

EAT

BITES Tasty things worth knowing

AAA HONORS GREEN ROOM AND MORE

T

he Green Room at the Hotel du Pont in downtown Wilmington, known for elegant, lavish design elements and fine food, was honored this year with the AAA Mid-Atlantic 2016 AAA Four Diamond Award.

The hotel has received the award every year since 1985. Others receiving Four Diamond Awards were the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel in Rehoboth Beach (24-year recipient), The Hotel du Pont (23-year recipient), and Dover Downs Hotel and Casino in Dover (13-year recipient).

FIRST ANNIVERSARY FOR OLIVE TREE CAFE

ICE CREAM FESTIVAL IS JUNE 25-26

D

elaware’s largest family picnic returns to New Castle County’s Rockwood Park on the weekend of June 25-26 with its delectable array of ice cream, mouth-watering foods, live music and activities for children and adults.

The New Castle County Ice Cream Festival, which typically draws 10,000 to 12,000 people per day to Rockford Park, features the popular “Best Sundae on Sunday” competition among ice cream vendors, live music on two stages, a children’s area filled with animals, games and entertainment, and a diverse group of crafters and local businesses displaying their products and services.

The festival, sponsored by the county government and produced by Barry’s Events, was named one of the nation’s Top 10 Food Festivals by USA Today in 2014.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 25, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 26. Admission is $5 for adults, with children 12 and under accompanied by an adult admitted for free. Free shuttle bus service will be provided between Rockwood Park and nearby parking areas.

The festival and shuttle buses are dogfriendly to dogs on leashes.

Updated information on festival performances and participants will be posted at rockwoodicecream.com.

N

ewark’s Olive Tree Café is celebrating its first anniversary after a year in which it received much praise and several awards, including the Delaware Small Business Chamber's award for Best Restaurant - Judges Choice. Olive Tree features traditional dishes from the Mediterranean and highlights olives and olive oil for unique health, taste and cooking properties. Located at 13 Chestnut Hill Plaza, the café offers sandwiches, traditional Mediterranean dishes, snacks and appetizers, entrees, sit-down dinners and lunches.

at the queen

WHERE WILMINGTON COMES TO CELEBRATE! Showroom, Boardroom, or Ballroom, Make it Your Room

PLANT A ROW FOR THOSE IN NEED

A

s the growing season gets into full swing, the Food Bank of Delaware encourages individuals to plant a few extra seeds to help feed hungry Delawareans.

Donations from produce growers, farmers and backyard gardeners help the Food Bank distribute nutritious foods to Delawareans in need. Surplus produce can be donated to the Food Bank’s warehouses in Newark and Milford, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Summer crops such as peppers, Swiss chard, eggplant, cucumbers, green beans, squash/zucchini, tomatoes, okra, Brussels sprouts, beets, herbs, melons and berries are ideal. Cool-season crops including spinach, lettuce, cabbage, radishes, turnips, arugula, carrots and more also are accepted.

To learn more, contact Matt Talley at mtalley@fbd.org.

INQUIRE FOR

SPECIAL RATES ON SPRING & SUMMER EVENTS FOR 50-1000 PEOPLE

CONTACT EVENTS@WORLDCAFELIVE.COM 302-504-9550

500 N MARKET ST. WORLDCAFELIVE.COM JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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ERNEST HEMINGWAY

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

302.482.3333 ChelseaTavern.com 821 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19801

CigarFellas A SMOKIN’ JOE CIGAR DINNER

LOUNGE OF WILMINGT ON ERNE ST & SCOT T TAPROOM and SIKA R TY INCLUD ED TH • 6PM – 10PM • $ 75 PER PERS ON GRATUI 16 A CIGA R DINNER • THURSDAY, JUNE ER DINN URSE 5-CO IAL CIGA RS • ITALIAN • INCLUDES • PREMIUM OPEN BAR 3 SPEC MENU FOR M TT.CO • VISIT ERNE STAN DSCO FOR RESERVAT IONS CALL 302.3 84.8113 PRESEN T

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302.384.8113 | ErnestAndScott.com 902 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19801

Our patios are open. come enjoy dining outdoors!

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DRINK

Ed Mulvihill, with his mother, Francine Mulvihill. Photo Javy Diaz

80 Years Of Peco's From jug wine to craft beer, these fourth-generation liquor store owners adapt and survive. This month, they celebrate a milestone.

By Dan Linehan

P

eco’s Liquors enjoyed its proudest moments during its most trying hours.

In May 1986, an electrical fire devastated the familyowned liquor store in the Penny Hill area of north Wilmington.

Nourished by the store’s flammable liquor, the blaze should have knocked the store out of commission for half a year, at the very least.

But from the beginning, owner Frank Gazzillo resolved to beat that timeline. He never lost his cool, grandson Ed Mulvihill remembers.

“Everybody was so willing to line up and do him a favor,” Mulvihill says, beaming. For a guy who didn’t get out much —14-hour days at the shop were typical—Gazzillo had built strong relationships.

He even found a connection for, of all things, structural steel. It ended up being over-sized for their needs (Mulvihill jokes their foundation could hold up a skyscraper) but the store was open by Labor Day.

And those relationships—along with innovation and community involvement—have sustained Peco’s, a fourthgeneration business, amid growing corporate competition.

Their 80th anniversary party, to be held on Saturday, June 25, is a way to thank customers and employees while paying homage to Peco’s history. It will be tinged with sadness, though.

Gazzillo and his wife, Rita, married for 59 years, died last year within two months of each other. They had run the store for more than 50 years.

“Together, what those two did was very impressive,” Mulvihill says. “The love and devotion never went away.”

The story of Peco’s Liquors is inseparable from that of the family, starting with the building itself. The store’s office is the family home’s former kitchen, and the whiskey room long ago took over the dining room. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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DRINK 80 YEARS OF PECO'S continued from previous page

Special Menus Tailored to

Over 40 Featured

BREWS Newark FoodAnd BrewFest .com

Photo courtesy of Peco's Liquors

Saturday, July 23, 2-9pm Joseph and Rita Peco, in the general store that is now Peco's Liquors.

An Immigrant’s Story That intertwining history began with Joseph Peco, Mulvihill’s maternal greatgrandfather.

He emigrated to the United States in 1906 at the age of 15. He worked plenty of jobs, including driver of a horse-drawn carriage hauling beer barrels. He saved his money, but would need a final push to start his business.

That came after his marriage to Frances, whom he met during a trip back to Italy.

“She pushed him into it,” Mulvihill says.

They picked a location in what was then the fast-growing suburbs of Wilmington, along a Boston-to-Baltimore transportation corridor—Philadelphia Pike, or Route 13. The initial shop was small, about 400 square feet.

It was a general store, selling bread, milk and eggs along with alcohol. Around 1942, though, Peco had to choose between selling liquor or food.

As with the choice of location, his decision would be seen as prescient by his descendants.

Given the competition local grocers face, Mulvihill doubts Peco’s would have survived until today as a general store.

for more details visit:

Passing the Baton When Joseph Peco died in 1953, Frances took over the store for a few years. By 1956, dayto-day operation had passed to the man their daughter Rita had married, Frank Gazzillo.

A bricklayer and Korean War vet, Gazzillo began working at the store one fall as construction cooled off for the winter. It was supposed to be temporary, but he never left.

Mulvihill describes his grandfather—“Pop-Pop” to him—as the “kindest, gentlest, most generous person”—the type of guy with whom people felt close even if they saw him only occasionally.

For years he worked from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m., a sacrifice he made both because he enjoyed it, Mulvihill says, and because it helped his family.

Customer service was Frank Gazzillo’s calling card.

“It didn’t matter who you were. If you came through that door you were important,” Mulvihill says.

Frank and Rita were also lifelong members and patrons of St. Helena's Roman Catholic Church, just a stone’s throw away. (Joseph and Frances Peco donated the church’s altar.)

The store would continue to expand into the family home while the business adapted to a changing industry.

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5/24/16 2:40 PM

Photo courtesy of Peco's Liquors

State Line Liquors Family owned & operated Since 1937 — 4 Generations!

www.statelineliquors.com In 1963, Frank Gazzillo stands proudly in front of the store’s new fine wine selection.

By the early 1960s, customers were increasingly looking for fine wines instead of the jug wines of the past.

In a photo taken in 1963, Gazzillo is shown beaming in front of the store’s new selection of fine wines. It would be the picture that ran with his obituary, as he’d always wanted.

In those days, beer coolers were downstairs. So if a customer wanted a cold one, they’d have to ask Gazzillo to go down and grab one.

He learned customers wanted to pick their own beer, so he added coolers to the main floor. It was convenient, and added credibility to his “coldest beer on the Pike” boast.

It was that day-to-day interaction with customers that would give Peco’s an edge over the big-box competition looming on the horizon, Mulvihill says.

“As a local business owner, you get instant feedback,” he explains.

Stocking over 1500 different beers • Singles, packs & cases Special Events and Tastings Visit us on the web for details

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Offering the areas largest variety of seasonal beers.

GROWLER BAR 35 TAPS! 1610 ELKTON RD, Route 279 . ELKTON, MD OUTSIDE MD. (800) 446-WINE, IN MARYLAND (410) 398-3838

Open 7 days a week

The Next Generation In 1993, a cancerous tumor was discovered in Frank Gazzillo’s sinus cavity.

Frank and Rita’s daughter, Francine, took what was supposed to be a six-month leave of absence to run the store.

But just as it did with her father, Francine Mulvihill’s temporary stay soon turned into something more.

“I could be with my kids,” she says, including Ed Mulvihill, then a year old. “I liked my flexibility.”

Gazzillo, his trademark confidence buoying him, made a full recovery, Ed Mulvihill says. Ever since, lymphoma and leukemia societies are frequent beneficiaries of Peco’s charity events.

Since the passing of Frank and Rita last fall, new family members have joined the company. David Gazzillo, Eric Gazzillo, and Kristen Gazzillo are shareholders and help out when they can. ►

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JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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New Owners, New Niches

80 YEARS OF PECO'S continued from previous page

‘80s Era Video Games Classic Pinball • Skeeball 21 Beers on Tap • Area Craft Brews

WE LIVE MUSIC!

Ed Mulvihill had been around the store his whole life, though he wasn’t allowed inside as a child. His grade-school memories consist of wheedling soda and bags of chips from Pop-Pop and building forts from the store’s empty boxes.

Unlike with his mother and grandfather, working at Peco’s was not a happy accident for Ed Mulvihill.

“This was the one thing I could see myself doing long-term,” he says. By 2007, he was working part-time, designing the website and helping out in other ways.

The ascendance of craft beers is by now an old story, but Mulvihill came of age just in time to ride the small-brew wave. He joined the store full-time in 2011, and decided to make Peco’s synonymous with craft beer.

“The thing that was going to make us stand out at that time was craft beer,” he says.

Today they have 500 varieties, enough to fill 10 coolers. Craft accounts for 75 percent of the store’s beer sales.

Milford-based Mispillion River Brewing has even brewed a bourbon-barrel aged stout— Peco's Anniversary Stout—just for the store.

Intense Competition

Big-box competition has been the biggest modern disruption to family-owned retailers, and liquor is no exception. When Total Wine & More opened its flagship location 10 minutes away, sales at Peco’s fell, Mulvihill acknowledges.

That’s not to say he’s complaining.

Competition “forces you to be the best you can be,” he says.

For some products, Mulvihill pays suppliers more than what Total Wine charges customers. In other words, he can’t always win on price.

The challenge is Economics 101: If customers see your product as a commodity — as essentially no different from a competitor’s — they are likely to make purchasing choices on price alone. Few businesses relish price wars, and that’s especially true for small retailers.

From this vantage point, Mulvihill’s job is to convince his customers that the beer and spirits he sells are worth more, so to speak, than the alcohol sold by his competitors. It’s a tough task but not an impossible one. Consider the success of coffee shops.

Do customers really choose a $3.45 large (ahem, “trenta”) Starbucks coffee over a $1.79 large from McDonald’s because they think the coffee is twice as good?

In this analogy, Peco’s is like Starbucks. It has to sell service, and an experience. The service element has been a Peco’s hallmark for decades.

Customer Karyn Sundleaf says the staff are always happy to answer her wine questions.

It’s not like that everywhere, she says. “At some places you feel like you’re in the way.”

Food Truck Friday on Steroids

TAP TAKEOVER / KARAOKE SPECTACULAR! Thurs, June 2 at 8 PM 2511 W. 4th Street, Wilmington 302-384-6479 • 1984wilmington.com

One way to stand out from the crowd is to cultivate a distinctive image with customers.

Holding events has proven to be Mulvihill’s most effective marketing tactic.

Chief among them is The Great Pumpkin Debate, a pumpkin beer tasting event held each September that regularly attracts hundreds of visitors. Started in 2011 amid a proliferation of pumpkin beer, the event is also a chance to give back, including to the Delaware Humane Association.

And the last Friday of every month is Food Truck Friday, when free samples, live music, and, yes, food trucks roll in. The 80th anniversary event, to be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

June 25, will be something of a Food Truck Friday on steroids, Mulvihill says.

It will also be an opportunity to announce the creation of the Frank and Rita Gazzillo Foundation, which will fund scholarships and community development programs.

State’s First Growler Bar In 2011, Mulvihill called state regulators to ask whether he could sell beer in growlers— refillable brown jugs—in his store. Though there was no law forbidding it, he was told state law would have to be amended to specifically allow growlers.

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Celebrate…

Photo Javy Diaz

… at tonic Bar and Grille

Ed and Francine behind the state's first growler bar.

Fortunately, his state representative, Debra J. Heffernan, was also a customer. “She ran with it,” he says. The law passed in 2013, and Peco’s soon became the first retailer in the state to fill growlers.

As of mid-May, Peco’s growler bar offered 12 craft beers on tap.

We will take care of you and your guests’ every need in our: Bar & Lounge Dining Room Private Event Space Our event spaces are flexible, we can serve and accommodate: Small Groups Up To 60 Seated 100+ For Cocktail Parties

More Expansion It was about this time that Peco’s embarked on its most recent expansion. Mulvihill ran the idea by Frank and Rita Gazzillo, who were by this time in their 80s and spending less time at the store. They basically said that if he thought it was the right thing to do, they did too.

That sort of flexibility allows the business to change quickly.

Mike Neef, who works with the distributor Breakthru Beverage, says that makes it easier for a new flavor to catch on.

Chain stores typically require that pitches for new products go to upper management, he says.

“Here, they say ‘yes’ and it’s in the store the next day,” he says.

“They can take a chance on a new flavor here.”

The next big thing, Mulvihill says, is craft spirits. This sector, already expanding quickly, is positioned where craft beer was around 1990, he says.

It’s potentially lucrative; wine and spirits make up about 60 percent of Peco’s sales.

Another new product is tagging along: artisan mixers. A customer looking for a distinctive gin might also be interested in a unique tonic.

The store also recently added a product Mulvihill noticed on an episode of ABC’s reality-TV show Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to investors: $10 cozies that fit around any liquor or beer bottle. They’re made by Freaker USA, a company whose off-beat brand shares a challenge with stores like Peco’s: finding a niche in a crowded market.

Start PlanninG Your PartY now!

Bridal & Baby Showers Weddings Bar & Bat Mitzvahs Birthdays Anniversaries Milestone Celebrations Graduations Memorials Corporate Meetings Charity Events Guest Bartending Events Employee Appreciation

Call Our Hospitality Team

Today: 302.510.8070!

Inter-Generational Pride When Mulvihill looks back on the years Rita and Frank ran the store, he thinks about how proud they were to be a part of the community.

Though he doesn’t say it, Mulvihill is clearly proud, too.

“We have been consistently blessed with employees who feel like friends and customers who feel like family,” he says.

Corny as it may sound, it comes off as genuine.

302.777.2040 | TonicBarGrille.com 111 West 11th Street | Downtown Wilmington

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Beer Grainiac

Craft beer reviews from Grain’s Jim O’Donoghue

THIS MONTH:

Flying Dog Bloodline Blood Orange Ale M - S A 11 - 8

•

T

his Blood Orange Ale is brewed with blood orange peel, blood orange juice, and features citrus forward hops Galaxy and Citra. Flying Dog did an excellent job managing the balance between the citrus sweetness and bitterness. As the grapefruit is a great aroma to start, you will hardly notice the 7 percent ABV. A great beer for the summer!

If you like Otter Creek Fresh Slice, you should definitely give the Blood Orange Ale a try.

– Jim O’Donoghue

S U 12 - 6.

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SIPS

REBEL SEED CIDERY CONCERT SERIES

Here's what's pouring NEW DELAWARE BREWERY

B

ellefonte Brewing Company, the latest endeavor to bring new craft brews to the state, held its grand opening last month. Located at 3605 Old Capitol Trail in Wilmington, the brewery plans to focus on two things: first, a nano brewery and taproom with eight regular production beers and two taps dedicated to rotational beers; second, the brewery will offer homebrew supplies, brew education and brew on premise.

CEO and owner Craig Wensell is an avid homebrewer, a current member of First State Brewers and Delaware Hause Brauers, and is currently running a brewing supply business. His brewing awards include an AHA-sanctioned silver medal for Flyin' Jalapeno Saison, and First Place in the Peco's Great Pumpkin Debate.

For more, visit bellefontebrewingco.com.

A J’s

BIKE, HIKE—AND BREWS!—AT HAGLEY

B

T

aste of the Rebellion Summer Concert Series, hosted by Rebel Seed Cider, begins this month at Harvest Ridge Winery & Rebel Seed Cidery in Marydel.

Set for the second Saturday of the month through August, the series includes local artists Lovebettie on June 11, Barrelhouse Blues on July 9, and Higher Education on Aug. 13. Times are typically 7-11 p.m.

Rebel Seed Cidery is Delaware's first cidery. It opened last year, and uses local apples. Two varieties of cider can be tasted at the Harvest Ridge Winery Tasting room at 447 Westville Rd., Marydel.

ike and Hike runs 5-8 p.m. every Wednesday, June 1 to Aug. 31, weather permitting. Stroll, jog, or cycle a three-mile loop from Hagley’s Visitor Center to Eleutherian Mills and back. Participants can explore parts of the picturesque, 235-acre property not usually open to visitors.

All Bike and Hikes are weather-permitting, with updates posted on hagley.org.

Bike, Hike and Brews adds to the fun on June 22, July 13, Aug. 3, and Aug. 24.

On those dates, Dogfish Head beers and a special menu from Chef Roy at the Belin House Organic Café will be available for purchase. The star of the special menu will be chicken or pork sliders. The opening Bike, Hike and Brews on June 22 features music from WSTW. Brews nights are sponsored by Dogfish Head’s Beer & Benevolence Program.

DELAWARE BEER, WINE & SPIRITS TRAIL CHANGES

T

he craft beverage industry is booming in Delaware, and the Delaware Tourism Office highlighted that growth late last month by announcing a major expansion of its Beer, Wine and Spirits Trail. The Trail provides an interactive way for people to explore craft beverage makers across the state.

New businesses are joining the Trail, including cideries, meaderies and Painted Stave Distilling in Smyrna. There are now more than 20 sites.

The trail started in 2010 under the name Delaware Wine & Ale Trail with the goal of increasing tourism. At the time it included 12 locations, all of them wineries and breweries. The increase in sites since then tracks with nationwide trends.

In addition to its new sites, the Trail is getting a digital facelift designed to make navigating it easier than ever. Visit visitdelaware.com/bwst for more.

Visit Delaware is also set to launch a new smartphone application this summer.

It will use geo-locating and check-in technology that will allow people to track their progress. The free app will be available through the App Store and Google Play.

Trail adventurers will also be able to keep a record of their progress through an updated passport available at the website.

Once a person has been to all 10 locations, Visit Delaware will send them a free prize —a glass beer stein bearing the Beer, Wine and Spirits Trail logo.

JOIN US FOR LIVE MUSIC, STEAMED CRABS, & AWARD-WINNING WINGS!

R E STA U RANT & TA V ERN : JUNE BA ND CALENDAR

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Join Us This Month Years!

As We Celebrate

80

80th Anniversary Party Saturday, June 25th, 4-7pm

GS! N I T S A T E E FR !

GIVEAWAYS

Plus!

Enjoy these daily specials

ALL MONTH LONG!

Mondays: 15% OFF Craft Beer 6-Packs Tuesdays: 15% OFF Whiskeys over $50

FOOD TRUCK CUISINE!

Wednesdays: 15% OFF 750mls of Wine Thursdays: $2 OFF Growler Fills

522 Philadelphia pike - wilmington - 302.764.0377 - pecosliquors.com

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LISTEN

THE SEAFARING RADIO HOST Don Berry and Betsy Voss just completed their most recent sailing venture. They’ll head out again when the frosts hit later this year. Photo courtesy of Don Berry

Newark resident and 91.3 WVUD’s Don Berry explores warmer climes during winter and spring on his sailboat with partner Betsy Voss and ship cat Toby

S

By Krista Connor

cheduling conflicts were bound to arise while planning a telephone interview with Don Berry. And those conflicts weren’t from lack of interest; Berry just happened to be on a sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean with limited Wi-Fi for the duration of the winter and spring.

Wanderlust-inducing emails between February and May included these, in chronological order: “There is a small chance we may be sailing to Cuba”; “Heading to the Bahamas”; “We are in Fernandina, Fla., and will leave tomorrow for South Carolina.”

Which is where Berry took a break from his seafaring lifestyle to chat while his Mason 44 sailboat, the Nomad, bobbed peacefully in Winyah Bay.

He’s currently mulling over various plans.

“We’re probably going to head to Charleston, or sit here for a few days, or jump out in the ocean,” he says.

His wayfaring life—punctuated by the weekly streaming of his University of Delaware 91.3 WVUD jazz program, Avenue C—may seem like most people’s fantasies. And so it may be, but it’s also hard work, and it took almost two decades to become a reality.

It started with a road trip. Fifteen years ago Newark residents Berry, now 61, and his long-term partner, Betsy Voss, 60, both worked for the state government and Berry did his radio show, which he’s buoyed since he was a UD student in 1978. (He is the first in his family to graduate from high school.) ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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LISTEN THE SEAFARING RADIO HOST continued from previous page

Suffering from a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder, though, Berry would yearn for warmer weather during the East Coast winter months. So he and Voss began driving an old station wagon to Florida for their four weeks of vacation.

“One day, while we were there, a sailboat comes into the harbor, drops anchor, and we look at each other. It planted the seed,” says Berry. “Sailing is the perfect way to very inexpensively spend the winter someplace warm. And you can essentially live anywhere you want for free.”

The idea took root and the couple soon began saving for a boat, a feat that took three years (“There’s a stereotype that sailing isn’t a poor person’s hobby. There’s truth to that,” says Berry.) Finally, they were able to purchase the 44-foot Nomad.

They spent the next three years getting the 25-year-old boat sea-worthy.

Berry says the first thing he did, with WVUD Chief Engineer Dave Mackenzie’s help, was design a sound system.

“I digitized my entire music collection so that I didn’t have to leave my music behind. I have close to 100,000 songs on my computer from almost every genre,” he says.

Next came sailing lessons. And improvisation.

“We took a couple classes, and then jumped in. There’s really only one way to learn, and that’s actually doing it,” Berry says.

The landlubbers embarked on their first voyage last fall, when they and their cat, Toby, headed out of Rock Hall, Md., down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, Va. From there, the intrepid trio journeyed to Florida and the Bahamas. Their Cuba trip didn’t pan out due to a failed motor. But with a special license in hand that’s required to enter, they plan to make the island nation first on their list of stops for this winter.

While Berry and Voss hop from one tropical paradise to the next, a favorite hobby is seeking out new musical styles. In the Bahamas, they discovered Junkanoo, which is a street parade with music, dance and costumes that takes place in many towns. The couple also spends time in small towns and villages forging friendships.

“You get a real sense of long-term community,” Berry says. “It’s a very different world you see when you go to a local community and hang out, and not a major cruise ship port.”

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Photo courtesy of Don Berry

Berry’s 44-foot sailboat, the Nomad.

But the winter-spring adventure hasn’t been all frolicking on sun-drenched beaches.

“The first week out, we lost the engine on the boat,” Berry says. “So we had to be towed and had to put in a new motor. And that was a very expensive repair. Now, we’re having trouble with that new motor.”

Then there were the unexpected 20-foot seas a few months ago.

The Nomad was heading from North Carolina to Florida when a storm hit. If you’re stuck out in the ocean, Berry explains, the worst thing a sailor can do is head toward shore. The boat becomes hard to control and it can be dashed on the rocks.

Thankfully, they were able to wait out the crashing seas without harm.

And not least of all, there was the coincidental run-in with Homeland Security. Turns out that a notorious drug-running boat off the coast of Florida also bears the name Nomad.

“They were certain they had their boat,” Berry says.

At least four levels of law enforcement—10 heavily-armed members of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the local sheriff, and detection dogs—tore the boat apart before realizing they had the wrong people.

“It was an experience,” Berry chuckles.

Calamities and governmental intrusions aside, life at sea is made up of simple routine. Mostly, a lot of planning and labor: setting courses, maintaining the ship, weather observation, system monitoring. But when Berry and Voss find a beautiful place to anchor, with no time frame or agenda, it’s bliss, he says.

“You can say, ‘I’m going to stay here for a week,’ and stay. The boat has a refrigerator and freezer, so if you’ve got a lot of food on board, a decent spot, and are enjoying your surroundings, you stay.”

Meanwhile, remotely, Berry records and uploads his radio show to WVUD once a week, which airs on Fridays at 9 p.m. Once he records it, upload takes about an hour to send across the sea and air waves to Delaware.

The radio station is fully supportive of Berry. Last year, he approached Station Manager Chuck Tarver to resign (“It’s been a great run, 38 years, but I’m gonna give up my show and go cruising,” he told Tarver). When Mackenzie heard the news, he had a better idea. He suggested that Berry continue his show while sailing by recording and uploading to the station. Berry agreed, got Tarver’s approval, and Mackenzie and Berry figured out logistics.

Currently, the nomadic seafaring lifestyle is only a seasonal activity for Berry and Voss due to responsibilities and family back home. Berry’s plan is to stick around Newark for the summer months and take off on the Nomad when the frosts hit later this year.

By the time this magazine is on the streets, the duo will have sailed up the coast to Norfolk, through the Chesapeake Bay, and docked at the marina in Rock Hall, Md. Then it’s back to Newark, where Berry has lived since the ‘70s, and he’ll be riding his bike to the radio station as always.

But one day, he says, he wants to make the boat his long-term home and set sail indefinitely, watching the sun go down over some far-off sea to the sound of Mile Davis’ “Kind of Blue.”

Want to follow along on Berry and Voss’ adventures? Visit sailnomad.us.

JUSTIN WALLACE MUSICIAN & THRIFTER

WHAT’S #INTUNE THIS MONTH

DE Chamber Music Festival Clifford Brown Jazz Festival Fri, June 10 - Sun, June 19 Tues, June 21 - Sat, June 25

Boysie Lowry Jazz Residency

Sunday, June 26

Delta Rae Wednesday, June 29

Full details for these events, plus hundreds more at: inWilmingtonDE.com

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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LISTEN

TUNED IN Not-to-be-missed music news

Wilmington resident Terretta Howard wows audiences with powerhouse vocals.

STORM IS COMING

Wilmington resident Terretta Howard shares soulful sounds and new recordings Terretta Howard mixes rock, pop, funk and gospel influences, but she is all soul.

Originally from Chester, Pa., Wilmington resident Howard (stage name: Terretta Storm) says she has always been interested in music. As a girl, she’d participate in church choir, praise teams and high school ensembles, and she learned how to play instruments like the flute and drums.

“My life was surrounded by music,” Howard says.

Last year, she began performing using her current stage name, which a former producer came up with, thinking it was indicative of her powerful sound. She’s played at World Cafe Live at The Queen and other local venues. For her recordings, she utilizes studio musicians while she focuses on singing.

A new acoustic video for Howard’s song “Storm is Coming” is up on her Facebook page, and this August she is releasing an album, Terretta Storm, with Elkton, Md., Sound Asylum studio. The album features songs based on Howard’s life experiences, such as love, scorned love, and overcoming obstacles.

“It’s about coming into my own,” Howard says. “I think it’s an empowering CD. I want it to move and touch people. I want people to be able to relate.”

For updates and more information, visit facebook.com/ terrettasstorm.

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DELAWARE MUSIC LIVE

Local music calendar launches this month This month, Out & About Magazine, in partnership with Pabst Blue Ribbon, will be launching Delaware Music Live, an easy-to-use online calendar for local music. Working with area bands and performers, site developers hope this site will become a one-stopshopping option for music fans who are looking for “which bands are playing where” on any given night. The service is free to both music fans and performers.

Bands wishing to participate in Delaware Music Live should contact Jim Miller at Out & About Magazine at jmiller@tsnpub.com.

COMING SOON TO

UPSTAIRS LIVE ALL SHOWS AT 8PM UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED GABLE MUSIC VENTURES PRESENTS FREE!

RICHARD RAW WEEK

JUNE 1, 8, 22, 29 - 7PM

Seven days of shows start June 4 Local hip-hop artist Richard Raw is celebrating music with Richard Raw Week from June 4-11. He is also releasing an album, Word Warrior, at the end of the week.

The week shapes up like this: June 4, Richard Raw’s Park Jam at Rodney Square at 1 p.m.; June 5, Entrepreneur Mix at Artist Avenue at 2 p.m.; June 6, Music Game Night at Bobbi Rhians at 7 p.m.; June 7, Levitea Live at Levitea at 8 p.m.; June 8, Curators of Hip-Hop Documentary viewing at Chris White Gallery at 6:30 p.m.; June 9, Word Warrior Album Listening Party at Christina Cultural Arts Center at 6:30 p.m.; June 10, Black Arts Movement— Art, Social Activism and Revolution to Affect Social Change, at Delaware Art Museum at 6 p.m.

Closing out the week on Saturday, June 11, is Family Fun Day at Herman Holloway Park at 11 a.m. and Raw’s album release show at The Queen at 7 p.m. The downstairs show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $20. The event also features Thomas Lamont, Randy Waters, Paul Purnell and more.

For more information, visit richardraw.com.

DANNY WHITECOTTON EP Local artist is releasing new EP and playing album-release show this month Local singer-songwriter Danny Whitecotton will release a new EP on Friday, June 3, followed by an album release show at World Cafe Live at The Queen on Saturday, June 11, where he will open for the Dupont Brothers. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Whitecotton is a singer-songwriter based in Wilmington. Performing mostly solo acoustic shows and occasionally with a band, he delivers heartfelt songs about life, love and wandering with a trademark laidback, folky, bluesy, country vibe.

Born and raised in Texas, Whitecotton left a job in the corporate world to pursue music.

Touring took him across the United States from Maine to Texas and back again, finally landing him in upstate New York, where he stayed for several years before moving to Delaware. His first full-length album, Go On and Rain, was released in 2012. His sophomore release, Love, War and Other Mistakes, was released in 2013. Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams and Wilco are some of his influences.

For more information, visit dannywhitecotton.com.

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JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF SOMETHING?

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LISTEN

◄(From left) Joe Hobson, Catharine Maloney, Albert Birney and Nick Krill.

Photo courtesy of Teen Men

Delaware’s Teen Men to Perform at Firefly Indie-pop band incorporates interactive videos

By Krista Connor

G

uitarist and vocalist Nick Krill—of the local-turnedinternationally-famous Spinto Band—has been playing live shows for a long time, but never has he interacted in synchronized dance with his own shadow on a video projection on stage.

Never, that is, until three years ago, when he formed indie synth pop quartet Teen Men with longtime friend, guitarist and Spinto member Joe Hobson and keyboardists Albert Birney and Catharine Maloney.

Now the quirky band is part of the lineup for the fifth Firefly Music Festival in the Woodlands of Dover International Speedway from June 16-19. Mumford & Sons, Kings of Leon, Florence & the Machine and Deadmau5 headline the festival, which will also include more than 100 additional acts.

Krill is no stranger to the stage at Firefly. Spinto Band performed there three years ago, but this time he says it’ll be an entirely different type of experience.

“This style feels different to me,” he says. “It’s more interactive than the previous bands I’ve played in, with an interplay of way more visuals.”

The live-concert visuals are in part thanks to Maloney and Birney, who helped create homemade, interactive videos synchronized to the music.

“It’s interplay between the performers and audience and that visual screen,” says Krill. “We try to set it up so it’s not psychedelic or ambient, but really synchronized to the songs. The whole screen is an active part of the show. It’s not a passive thing, it’s designed to be a big part.”

Teen Men formed in 2013, during the time Spinto Band was finishing their latest album, Cool Cocoon. With some leftover studio time, Krill emailed friends to see if anyone “wanted to come and make some noise and mess with tunes,” he recalls.

Hobbs and Birney showed up, and Maloney wasn’t far behind.

Over the next two or three weeks the friends continued playing and

Krill says that before they knew it, they had a handful of songs and a new project. Their combined sound blended melodic-psychedelic guitars, keyboards, samples and electronic/ambient tones.

During studio sessions, they flipped through some magazines lying around the studio, and a men’s pants advertisement in a 1960s Playboy caught their attention. “Great for men, boys and teen men,” the ad read, which resonated with the band.

“That this whole ridiculous subset could exist with great implications if you’re not a kid anymore but you’re not a grownup,” says Krill. “Irrational, confident, fearless…it ended up describing feelings we had while making songs in slapdash sessions, with a sort of teen man sense.”

The band released a self-titled album with Bar/None label last June, then toured the U.S. and Canada alongside Clap Your Hands Say Yeah last summer.

Aside from preparing for the Firefly performance, Teen Men is working on new recordings, and by the end of the summer there will be several new songs and videos, Krill says. Meanwhile, he says that The Spinto Band, while not working on any new material at the moment, will reissue some of their early recordings later this year, which marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. release of Nice and Nicely Done.

In addition to the massive musical lineup at Firefly, the audience can expect the return of favorite attractions such as the Dogfish Head Brewery, The Beercade, The Coffee House, The Market, The Thicket and Hammock Hangout.

Firefly is partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for the fifth year through the Music Gives to St. Jude Kids program.

Festival attendees can support the lifesaving work of St. Jude on-site and leading up to the event through a variety of donation outlets.

Find the LP Teen Men on iTunes and more information at teenmenmusic.com.

For Firefly news, visit fireflyfestival.com.

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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WATCH

Money Monster

3

STARS µµµµµ George Clooney plays flamboyant TV financial analyst Lee Gates in TriStar Pictures’ Money Monster. Photo courtesy of ©2016 CTMG, Inc./Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.

MONEY MONSTER IS WORTHY INVESTMENT OF TIME Taut thriller deftly plays on economic anxieties

By Mark Fields

W

e live in economically perilous times, an uneasy reality that is splashed across headlines and blared from TV screens daily. Last fall’s The Big Short tapped into this national disquietude with a cerebral, offbeat explanation of how the current mess got started.

This spring, director Jodie Foster mines the same territory for more entertaining purposes with a glossy thriller called Money Monster. Furiously paced and tensely topical, the movie centers on a flamboyant, self-important TV financial “analyst,” Lee Gates (George Clooney), loosely modeled after CNBC’s Jim Cramer. Gates

and his broadcast team, led by his director, Patti Fenn (Julia Roberts), blithely view the daily machinations of the financial world as just another form of facile entertainment for the couch-potato masses.

Gates dispenses his careless recommendations and advice with an eye on the ratings and with little thought to the potential consequences. Affluent himself because of his celebrity, Gates is unaware, or perhaps unconcerned, that his cozy association with the moneyed class he covers makes him complicit in their misdeeds. However, there are people on the receiving end of his tossed-off advice. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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Enter Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), an aspiring but illMONEY MONSTER WORTHY informed blue-collar worker who INVESTMENT OF TIME continued from previoius page gambled on one of Gates’ “sure thing” tips and lost everything he had. Budwell decides that Gates and his crew are due for a reckoning for his personal financial setback and takes the TV personality hostage while live on air, demanding explanations and redress.

The rest of Money Monster plays out as Gates and Fenn quickly grow consciences (and heretofore unseen investigative skills) to get to the bottom of the corporate fraud that led to Budwell’s fiscal and personal meltdown.

Director Foster plays out this caffeinated premise with a sure hand, launching the viewer through the story with confident editing and high polish. If the movie wasn’t so effectively entertaining, one might accuse Foster of being manipulative, because Money Monster hits all the marks for brainy thrillers: a backstage glimpse into the endlessly fascinating world of TV production; appealing stars playing characters who morph from slick to sensitive; a timely exploitation of the national obsession with money and its mysterious methods of investment; and just for good measure, the mind-focusing impact of guns and violence to amp the tension up a bit.

And indeed, we are in for an exciting roller-coaster of emotions here. However, after the ride concludes and with a few moments of further thought, the screenplay’s inconsistent details—which we missed as we sailed by—begin to emerge. And we realize that we, like Gates’ bedazzled viewers, have been had. The film wants us to think that it is a searing indictment of the financial system’s disregard for the little guy when it, too, is mostly a loud, albeit well-done, bit of show biz trickery, a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Mind you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with cinematic roller-coasters. And Money Monster is an especially fun one.

Just don’t mistake it for anything more substantial than an amusement park ride.

2

A BIGGER SPLASH

STARS µµµµµ

What a fascinating mess of a movie! A Bigger Splash, the first high-profile film of Italian director Luca Guadagnino, is set on the tiny resort island of Pantelleria, where an unlikely rock star (Tilda Swinton) and her photographer boyfriend (Mattias Schoenaerts) are vacationing while she recovers from throat surgery. Their respite is disturbed—violently, in more ways than one—when her former producer and paramour (Ralph Fiennes) invades the island with his 20-something daughter (Dakota Johnson) in tow.

What follows is a curious mishmash of styles and moods as these theatrical characters careen around one another in a grabbag of questionable motivations and shifting alliances.

Fiennes is revelatory in his beyond-exuberant performance as the bon vivant Harry, and Swinton is her expected inscrutable self as singer Marianne. But the film itself is neither especially coherent nor profound. It has the same sick appeal as a car accident or a fire, an event that you can’t look away from, even while you feel slightly guilty about it.

74 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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SIX-PACK CINEMA

WATCH

IF I COULD TALK TO LIKE THE ANIMALS Six films with conversational critters

By Mark Fields This spring’s release of Disney’s The Jungle Book, a substantial hit at the box office, puts words in the mouths of extremely realistic CGI beasts, an effect that works surprisingly well. Here are a half-dozen movies that also feature a menagerie of talkative creatures, in order of adorability.

Babe

(1995)

Perhaps the most offbeat and charming of these features, this irrepressible film focuses on a plucky little porker who aspires to be a champion sheepherder. James Cromwell is wonderfully taciturn (and yet unexpectedly sentimental) as Farmer Hoggett. Not only does the pig talk, but so do a family of border collies, a trio of narrating mice, and an especially anxious duck. Does Babe achieve his dream? What do you think? That’ll do, Pig, that’ll do.

Homeward Bound

(1993)

The unlikely trio of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche voice the two dogs and a cat that star in this Disney family adventure. Shadow, Sassy, and Chance are pets left behind when their humans go on vacation. The three set out across America in search of their “lost” owners, experiencing hardships and growing friendship along the way. The plot steps are predictably Disney, but the animals’ exploits are thrilling, especially for the target demographic of children.

Doctor Dolittle

(1967)

Rex Harrison plays Hugh Lofting’s titular veterinarian with an expected blend of English propriety and loopy appeal in this prototypical British musical comedy. I have a guilty pleasure soft spot for these twee relics from my childhood (Oliver!, Scrooge, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). They’re not especially good with their sentimental scores (usually, as here, by Leslie Bricusse) and embarrassed performances by esteemed actors, but they still manage to pack in a few songs and a fair dose of whimsy.

Doctor Doolittle

(1998)

Eddie Murphy mostly plays straight man to a bunch of especially verbal varmints, many voiced by comics: Norm McDonald, Albert Brooks, Chris Rock, John Leguizamo, Julie Kavner and Gary Shandling. The story is workmanlike, as is the direction by Betty Thomas. But both the star and the director understand their audience and fill the movie with adolescent humor and endearing animals. Most memorable is Brooks’ ailing and anxious tiger.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe

(2005)

Liam Neeson’s stately lion-savior Aslan is not the only talking creature in this opulent epic based on the fantasy stories of C.S. Lewis. There are speaking beavers, a fox, a wolf and a horse, but also mythical animals such as gryphons and centaurs. Four human siblings find themselves accidentally in the world of Narnia, which is riven by conflict between the forces of good and the power-hungry machinations of the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). Kids will love the escapades; adults may or may not, depending on their ability to ignore the rather ham-handed allegory.

Dawn of the Planet of The Apes

(2014)

In all our other features, it’s a delightful surprise that animals talk; in this film, it’s deeply ominous. A superior sequel to the 2011 franchise reboot, Dawn imagines a world where apes have begun to organize and dominate the few humans left after the spread of a deadly virus. The apes have every reason to fear, even hate, humans, and yet genetically-modified alpha ape Caesar attempts to bridge the species divide. A thrilling adventure and thoughtful meditation in one, anchored by Andy Serkis’ motion-capture performance. This gifted and ubiquitous actor is overdue for some love from Oscar.

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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PLAY

SNAP SHOTS

2.

1.

4.

3.

6.

5.

1. Wilmington Grand Prix Women’s Pro champion Samantha Schneider (center, Wisconsin) is flanked on the podium by runnerup Jessica Elgin (left, Illinois) and Marie-Soleil Blais (Canada). The Grand Prix, the 7th stop on the National Pro Racing Tour, celebrated its 10th anniversary this May. Photo Frank Tirrell 2. Senator Chris Coons enjoying the races with his wife, Annie (center), and a friend at the 38th annual Point-to-Point at Winterthur on May 8. Photo Donnell Hill

4. From left, Donny Jennings, Andrew Trout (winner of two Firefly tickets), Eric Mann, and Arthur Trout at O&A Live. for Photo Javy Diaz 5. Delaware Park’s “Gears” portion of the May 14 Beers & Gears.

Photo Anthony Santoro

6. From left, Christina James, Amy Whittington and Tim Hughes, all from Wilmington, enjoying some brews at Beers and Gears. Photo Anthony Santoro

3. At the inaugural O&A Live sponsored by PBR, the band Robert—Kyle Stawicki, Brian Bruce, and Benny Kowal—perform at Oddity Bar. Photo by Javy Diaz

JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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80 JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM

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