INTERIOR MOTIVES
DESIGNER
ABBY GRUMAN
COMMUNITY COOKS
TRUNK POP DINNERS
A MUSIC TEACHER REFLECTS CORDELIA BERGAMO
Tales of the Talented
BY ALYSON BARROW
Welcome to our July edition! As the summer season unfolds, filled with end-of-schoolyear celebrations, graduations, weddings and travel plans, we invite you to join us in recognizing the talents of—and stories behind—several remarkable residents. This month, we shine a spotlight on Brian Marcus, a distinguished photographer, and Cordelia Bergamo, a dedicated music teacher with more than five decades of service at the Tenafly Board of Education.
Additionally, we showcase the creativity of Abby Gruman, the visionary behind Abby Leigh Designs, a boutique residential design firm.
We hope you find inspiration and joy in this issue as you unwind and embrace the spirit of summer!
If you have any story ideas or suggestions for making Tenafly magazine even better, contact me at hello@tenaflymagazine.com.
Gina Palmieri Publisher
Tenafly MAGAZINE
Publisher Gina Palmieri
Local Editor
Jenna Demmer
Art Director
Sue Park
Writers
Erin Demmer
D. Flynn
Christiana Maimone
Julie Marallo
Elisabeth Sydor
Mark Zinna
Photographers
Alyson Barrow
Damian Castillo
WAINSCOT MEDIA
Chairman
Carroll V. Dowden
President and CEO
Mark Dowden
VP, Group Publisher, Regional
Thomas Flannery
VP, Content Strategy
Maria Regan
Creative Director
Kijoo Kim
Associate Editor
Sophia Carlisle
Advertising Services Director
Jacquelynn Fischer
Operations Director
Catherine Rosario
Production Designer
Chris Ferrante
Print Production Manager
Fern Meshulam
Advertising Production Associate
Griff Dowden
Tenafly magazine is published by Wainscot Media. Serving residents of Tenafly, the magazine is distributed monthly via U.S. mail. Articles and advertisements contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers. Copyright 2024 by Wainscot Media LLC. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent.
PHOTOGRAPH
2024 Summer Concert Series
Multiple Opportunities
Tenafly’s mayor highlights happenings in our local community.
BY MARK ZINNA
Congratulations and thank you to the Tenafly Volunteer Ambulance Corps for all the lifesaving work it does for the Tenafly community! This group of dedicated volunteers answers calls seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The ambulance corps held its annual award ceremony on June 23 and announced that in 2023, the volunteers answered 848 emergency calls. If you are interested in learning more
about the ambulance corps, please email contact@tenaflyambulance.com.
This year, at the Tenafly High School graduation, not only did everyone celebrate the success of another graduating class but the occasion marked the 100th-anniversary graduation ceremony for the high school. Congratulations to the students, parents, educators, coaches, administrators and support staff who work to create a fabulous school and educational environment.
As we continue to address rainstorm challenges, a recent change has been made to our garage ordinance to potentially provide relief for homeowners with below-grade garages. Basically, if you have a garage that is below street level and have experienced water damage in your garage from storm flooding, there is now an option available to change your driveway and garage configuration. Every homeowner’s situation is unique. To learn if this opportunity would apply to you, please call Borough Hall at 201-568-6100 for details.
Bring your lawn chair to Huyler Park and enjoy the Tenafly Summer Concert series running from July 9 through the end of August on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Concerts kick off at 7 p.m. In cases of inclement weather, concerts will be moved indoors to the Tenafly High School auditorium. Thank you to all the performers and sponsors who bring the concert series to life. A special thankyou to the volunteer concert committee and the dedicated team at the Department of Public Works for doing all the heavy lifting required to make the concerts a reality. For concert schedule details, please visit www.tenaflynj.org.
Enjoy your summer!
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Q & a
‘You Never Stop Learning’
After more than 50 years in Tenafly education, an elementary school music teacher reflects on her career and the lessons she’s learned.
BY ERIN DEMMER
WITH CORDELIA BERGAMO
Cordelia Bergamo accepted a teaching position in the Tenafly school district in January 1971. Tenafly enjoyed a pristine reputation and was seeking two new employees. Since then, Bergamo has positively impacted the Tenafly community with significant contributions which, she says, include plays at every grade level and even a 100 percent acceptance rate when recommending children to the Metropolitan Opera.
INTERVIEW
What are some cherished moments in your career?
I was a music consultant for Walt Disney’s “Little Einsteins.” A headhunter was going to different high schools and asking teachers, “Do any of your students come through high school knowing anything about classical music at all?” And my students do. They went to the high school in Tenafly and were told, “Well, there’s one teacher that definitely does teach it.” And Disney called my house. In addition, we did school plays at every grade level plus a winter concert and spring concert. Now, at the very end of my career, we are going to have another presentation on the stage by kindergarten and first graders for Flag Day.
I also became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers because of my lyrical talent; that’s another big accomplishment. So in that regard, it’s been a pretty fabulous career.
What is another proud accomplishment?
I have had very good success in recommending children to go over to the Metropolitan Opera or children’s chorus. Every single student I have ever sent there has been accepted into the children’s chorus—100 percent acceptance. So I’m really proud of that because I have the opportunity to push kids in a professional direction. Three years ago, I was also given the green light to establish a gifted, talented program for music.
How have you grown over your years of teaching in Tenafly?
I am extraordinarily grateful. I think the older you get and the more you look at the life you’ve lived, if you have worked hard and done your best, you see how beautifully it unfolds. You see wonderful things for yourself and for your family. When teaching, every day you do your very best for the children. And as for how I’ve grown as a person: You never stop learning. Never, never, never. I’m always listening to new music or reading something, so I’m not stopping with my learning at all.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Tenafly community?
The parents and children. Parents have been wildly supportive of the music program, and they are thrilled that I have a YouTube channel. I love that about Tenafly— the high expectations of the parents and the talent on the part of the children.
Demmer is a freelance writer living in Bergen County. She is also a clinical mental health counseling student who is passionate about helping others.
Erin
Cordelia Bergamo with a third-grade student she recently recommended to the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus. All students she has recommended to the chorus over the years have been accepted.
Grounded Among the Glitterati
Amid high-profile clients, photographer Brian Marcus specializes in events and down-to-earth family portraits.
The Fred Marcus Studio has a reputation for first-class photography, but the founder’s grandson wants Tenafly to know that his studio does much more more than celebrity and high-profile weddings and events.
“For over 85 years—which is not a bad thing—people stereotyped us as doing only high-end weddings,” says Brian Marcus. “[But] we do every event you can think of.”
The Marcus family tells the story of Fred’s escape from the Holocaust to Cuba, where he took photographs of
BY D. FLYNN
beachgoers for money. He eventually made his way to New York, snapping his way into a niche in wedding pictures.
The Fred Marcus Studio would go on to photograph Eddie Murphy, Mary Tyler Moore, LeBron James, assorted members of the Trump family and other notables.
The company is currently headquartered at Columbus Circle, but the river is no barrier. Tenafly residents may have seen Marcus in and out of Temple Sinai and Emmanuel or
even giving lessons to locals.
Marcus and his team still produce photography and videography for high-end weddings but they also perform small photo shoots, family portraits and mitzvahs of all kinds.
“The family portrait is the beginning of our relationship,” Marcus says, and that isn’t just a word. More than once, he’s photographed a mitzvah or other youth milestone for the children of couples who had their wedding portraits done by his father or grandfather.
Carrying on a Legacy
Marcus emphasizes that his company is a collective effort. “We have a team of six photographers who have been with me for over 15 years,” he says. “When I’m doing a wedding on Saturday night, our team is doing four to six other events.”
Their role is halfway to event planning. Many customers book them a year or even two years in advance. The process begins with an initial discussion of the client’s vision and priorities, and never really stops.
“We’re not the only good photographers in New York, but we work with our clients in a way that
makes sure the details are all understood before that big day comes,” Marcus says. He adds, “We used to do a thousand weddings a year in the ’70s and ’80s, and used to have 20 photographers working for us.”
Brian and Gabrielle Marcus moved to Tenafly from the city after the birth of their second child and have since grown netted roots. Their children, ages 7 and 10, attend Maugham Elementary School. Their son is in various sports leagues and their daughter is involved with dance.
Marcus works six or even seven days a week in the studio at Columbus Circle, and commuting time adds up. As with many local families, he chose Tenafly because it provides respite while remaining accessible to the city.
Key to his successful continuation of a creative family legacy, says Marcus, was separation—a whole continent’s worth, in fact.
Brian Marcus and his father, Andy Marcus, both spent their teen years learning the ropes of the family business. But while Andy stayed nearby, Brian went west to Hollywood, where he took jobs in film production as well as photography, working for independent clients and large production companies.
Events that Brian Marcus has photographed include (above and top left) the wedding of LeBron and Savannah James, and clients have included (top right) Cardi B and (opposite page, right middle) Ivanka Trump.
Fresh Approaches
Marcus helped produce commercials for companies like Range Rover and FedEx. The distance from his family’s work not only gave him space to develop his own style but also a type of education that had fallen away with the rise of digital cameras. Working with video, Marcus could not readily check his work in real time, which forced him to focus on technical skill.
The demands of photography also shift with geography. In New York, almost all major events that hire photographers take place indoors. In California, they’re overwhelmingly outdoors. “I was used to working in dark hotels,” Marcus says. “The Plaza and the Pierre, as beautiful as they are, are very dark environments. Outdoors, it’s just remarkable how different you see the world.”
Now the studio does outdoor work whenever possible when Bergen County’s decidedly non-Mediterranean weather permits. This helps Marcus create his signature look, which he compares to his father’s and grandfather’s as “a little less formal and traditional, a little timeless, as opposed to using strobe lights and flashes all the time.”
His solo years also gave him enough
grounding in film production to branch out. He’s building a team to make commercials for tristate businesses from car companies to plastic surgeons, which he considers underserved, especially on streaming services. “The [typical] scripting, the casting, the quality of the videos themselves are subpar in my opinion,” he says. His studio’s service debuted earlier this year.
Although Marcus has found his own voice, Fred’s legacy remains important to Brian, who produced a coffee table book about Holocaust survivors titled “Still Here,” conducting nearly 200 interviews and donating considerable proceeds to education.
In the present, Marcus focuses on interacting with his customers, finding ways to bring personality and life to the still image. Getting the best picture takes more than a good camera and lighting.
“If you have a child who’s extremely shy, there are certain ways to handle those children—and the opposite as well,” he says. “I’ll have a parent who says, ‘She never smiles,’ and a few minutes later, I take the best photograph of her life.”
Until her bat mitzvah or graduation. Or her wedding. You never know.
D. Flynn is a writer who lives in Bergen County.
INTERIOR Motives
Abby Gruman realized she had a passion for home design—and turned her interest into a full-time career.
BY CHRISTIANA MAIMONE
What makes a house feel truly like a home?
An interior designer can help you answer this question. Meet Abby Gruman, a Tenafly resident and residential interior designer serving the tristate area. Her journey into interior design is an impressive one. We chatted with her about how she made a big career switch and started her own successful business.
In her college years, Gruman was always drawn to architecture and learning about historical styles of design. She majored in education and history, becoming a teacher after graduation. When she bought and renovated an apartment in Manhattan, she fell in love with the process of designing rooms and discovered a new passion.
“During that time period, I said, ‘Wow, this is really what I want to do in my career,’” Gruman says. “I always was interested in interior design as a hobby but I never knew I could make it a career.”
Abby Gruman of Abby Leigh Designs often punctuates a contemporary, minimalist style with texture and pops of color.
A Step at a Time Gruman enrolled at the New York School of Interior Design and began her new professional path interning for design firms. She was a teacher by day and a design student at night. After working as an assistant upon completing her program, she decided it was time to start her own business.
“I had a great mentor,” she says. “I worked for another small business owner before I opened my own [studio]. She gave me the courage to say, ‘I could do this. I could do it on my own.’ So I started with making an Instagram account and a website. And then, slowly but surely, my business just started growing.”
Gruman opened her studio, Abby Leigh Designs, nearly a decade ago, shortly after her son was born.
The Instagram account and website helped build a solid base of clients. She now operates out of her home office with a hired associate and occasional interns.
She describes her style as contemporary and sophisticated while also being simple and minimalistic. “I like to use a lot of texture and pops of color,” she says.
When you book Abby Leigh Designs, Gruman will give you a variety of design schemes and floor plans for your space. She gives you several options to choose from that showcase what your room (or rooms) will look like according to her recommendations and expertise.
“I think my clients choose me based on my style,” she says. “And then I try to garner my style to what they want. If we’re doing a beach house, we’ll go more coastal. If it’s a New York City apartment, we might go a little bit more midcentury modern.”
Making Clients Happy
Many of Gruman’s clients are located in New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, the Hamptons and Westchester. She’s even traveled to clients as far as California and Puerto Rico.
A big part of her job is being able to work with different personalities and styles to make sure her clients are getting exactly what they want. Her latest big project is designing a large family summer home on Long Island.
The most gratifying part of her work is seeing how happy clients are with the finished product. “Knowing that my clients are happy is always my No. 1 priority,” she says. “That’s how you know the project was worth it. It’s very rewarding.”
Gruman has been happily able to use her design skills to serve her own community. This past winter, she designed the upstairs lounge at the Bergen County Pickleball Club,
the first pickleball club to ever open in Tenafly. “It was definitely really rewarding, giving back to my community,” she says. “And it’s a space where my kids go and play.”
Gruman moved in 2019 from Manhattan to Tenafly, where she lives with her husband and two children. “I think Tenafly is just such a great community, not only for my business but for my children,” she says. “We’ve made so many lifelong friends. I feel like it’s really special because it’s such a small community—everyone knows each other. Everyone is willing to help a friend.”
Looking to renovate your own space or need inspiration for your next move? To contact Gruman and view her impressive portfolio, visit www.abbyleighdesigns.com or find her on Instagram using @abbyleigh_designs.
Christiana Maimone is a freelance writer based in Bergen County.
From Crisis to Cuisine
Trunk Pop Dinners began as a way to feed neighbors during the pandemic and became a made-to-order business.
BY D. FLYNN
Marge Perry and her husband, David Bonom, are ready to dish.
These days, their company, Trunk Pop Dinners, prepares custom meals for a cohort of customers from working parents to empty nesters in Tenafly, Cresskill, Englewood and nearby areas.
The food is typically kid-friendly. Because it is made to order, Chef Bonom’s team can accommodate special diets. Trunk Pop typically goes over a month without repeating a single meal.
Both Bonom and Perry enjoy the creative freedom the operation allows. But the trip to where they are now has been a little unconventional. Just as the rest of the world was discovering work from home, the pair were packing away their video equipment and heading out into the fray.
On certain days during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marge Perry and her husband, David Bonom, made 200 meals for charity purposes alone.
In Action Mode
Perry and Bonom have both had long careers in cuisine. You may have spotted them in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens and Eating Well.
Perry has served as chef-instructor for the Institute of Culinary Education and as a health columnist for Allrecipes. But while most business relationships with the COVID-19 pandemic were pivot or perish, this Tenafly power couple turned crisis into creation.
Before the pandemic, Perry and Bonom’s main business involved video, photography and recipe development for a range of clients, such as cookware companies.
Perry caught the virus early on and watched her temperature head uphill. Coming down the other side, she realized that almost all of their customers suddenly had bigger problems than an inventive way to
serve wagyu beef.
Perry suggested that they spend the pandemic’s acute phase in action mode, making food for those sheltering in place. They would sell cooked dinners to paying customers and apply any funds that would ordinarily have gone to tips to cover meals to donate to those in need.
“We figured it would be temporary,” says Perry.
It was not.
Perry and Bonom partnered with Tenafly Cares and named their operation Trunk Pop Dinners after the sound of customers opening the passenger-free parts of their vehicles as they collected their orders.
“Everyone was sick of their own cooking at that point,” Perry says. “This was a way of getting cook-to-order meals. Also, people didn’t want to go to the grocery store.”
They opened a commercial kitchen in Cresskill in late 2022. Trunk Pop Dinners had been renting a kitchen, and both Bonom and Perry speak well of their landlords, but demand for Trunk Pop food bulged out of the kitchen.
“We just outgrew it,” both say at the same time.
During lockdown, Tenafly Cares would assign Trunk Pop one day a month on the charity organization’s rotating schedule. When their turn came around, Bonom and Perry would supply 200 dinners in a single day.
“We made it happen; that’s the best way I can say it,” Perry says of those frenetic times. “We also had our normal meals that we sold that day. It was a long, hot day when we did those meals.” Every once in a while, a volunteer might come in to help with packaging.
A Post-Pandemic Business
After the pandemic, people who had relied on Trunk Pop Dinners didn’t disappear into the newly reopened diners and cafes. “They became customers,” says Bonom.
“…Which we never expected,” finishes Perry.
Currently, their charitable efforts go through Table to Table, Food Brigade and similar groups. Trunk Pop provides 75 donation meals each week. The food goes to women’s shelters, homebound elderly, teenagers in need and other programs.
For the core business, both Perry and Bonom are involved with cooking meals. Bonom is lead chef while Perry handles the business end. Both of them plan the meals and menu. Each week, Perry mails out the list of planned meals and customers sign up for the days they want. Some choose only one or a few nights per week to supplement
other plans. Others eat Trunk Pop’s creations every night.
“We have relationships with a lot of our customers,” says Perry. “We’ve watched [their] kids get four years older.”
“All our part-time dishwashers and part-time prep people have been Tenafly high school and college students who stayed home,” says Bonom. Perry points out that their workers often share teachers with the couple’s own children.
The company also caters private events, which has led to at least one memorable day. “A local kid was getting bar mitzvahed,” Perry remembers from the early days of the pandemic. “He gave a big portion of the bar mitzvah money to our donation efforts. He came in and volunteered and helped pack up the meals.”
D. Flynn is a writer who lives in Bergen County.
Perry and Bonom named their business Trunk Pop Dinners for the sound made when people opened their cars for touchless collection of meals.
Where Bagels Are the Stars
For more than 30 years, people have lined up to relish the handiwork of Dino and Tina Cadenas at Celebrity Bagels.
BY ELISABETH SYDOR
Ever wonder how bagels are made?
At Celebrity Bagels, hand–rolled, oversize bagels take two days to come to absolute deliciousness after a complex process that involves placing the doughy shapes in a vat of boiling water, then baking them in the oven.
When they emerge, every bagel has a uniquely hard-edged crust—and just about every customer beams with a uniquely satisfied expression after biting into a chewy bit of heaven.
Dough and Dedication
Celebrity Bagels has been a haven for bagel lovers in Tenafly and beyond for more than three decades, and the line at the shop has been known to stretch out the door.
Also popular are flagels—flattened bagels—and bialys (with a dent rather than a hole, and not boiled). A full line of novelty cream cheeses, salads, smoked fish, and cold cuts may embellish the baked
goods. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich versions are also popular, sometimes with sausage and Taylor ham added.
The cozy, eat–in shop on Railroad Avenue also offers sandwiches, burgers and fries, grilled chicken, chicken nuggets and BLTs. Celebrity Bagels provides catering as well.
Longtime Tenafly residents Dino and Tina Cadenas opened Celebrity in 1991. Now in their 70s, they still awaken at 4 a.m. seven days a week to greet customers with the fragrant aroma of justbaked bagels and fresh-brewed coffee.
They open as early as 6 a.m. on weekdays and just a bit later on weekends, serving breakfast and lunch fare. Brother Steve, a fixture at the shop since the beginning, will soon be 76 but still opens up.
A Team Effort
Dino was in construction before starting the shop with a partner who eventually
moved on. “We knew nothing about making bagels at first,” Dino says. “Our success was due to knowledgeable staff who taught us what to do.”
The dough roller, Tony, learned his profession when he came to the United States from Thailand more than three decades ago. He and baker Frankie, who learned his trade after arriving here from El Salvador, have stayed with the business for 30-plus years.
So far, the Cadenas’ kids don’t have plans to join the business, but who knows? “People love our bagels,” Tina says. “I hope it can go on forever.”
And do celebrities ever drop by? They laugh: “Everyone is a celebrity at Celebrity Bagels.”
Elisabeth Sydor is a writer and editor who has made bagels at home. Her favorite is an “everything” with light butter.
OCTOBER 10, 2024
6-9 PM
Edgewood Country Club, River Vale, NJ
Brilliant Beach Reads BOOK NOOK
These novels are perfect for page turning in the summer sun and surf.
Do you feel like you’ve read everything already? Here are some quick beach-worthy reads for grownups that you might have missed.
CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN
By Sayaka Murata
Keiko, age 36, has been working part-time in a convenience store since she was 18. She’s perfectly happy: The corporate rules of Smile Mart are easy to follow and she enjoys her routine. However, mounting family and coworker pressure to start a career and find a husband forces her to make decisions that turn her safe world upside down.
THE ROSIE PROJECT
By Graeme Simsion
Don Tillman is a professor of genetics who likes everything done in the most efficient way possible. For example, his Standardized Meal System assigns each day of the week a meal that never changes. He plans to apply such efficiency to his search for a wife. He believes that bartender Rosie, who does not play by the rules, is not wife material, but
BY JULIE MARALLO
as he helps her find her biological father, he develops feelings for her he can’t understand.
LESS: A NOVEL
By Andrew Sean Greer
Arthur Less has devised a great plan to avoid attending his younger ex-boyfriend’s wedding: He’ll travel the world accepting invitations to literary events that he previously would have avoided. As his 50th birthday approaches and he bumbles through a series of hilarious mishaps abroad, Arthur reflects upon the years he spent as the younger boyfriend, and wonders about the true meaning of love.
HOW TO END A LOVE STORY
By Yulin Kuang
Helen Zhang is a successful author and screenwriter who poured herself into her work after the tragic death of her sister in a car accident that involved classmate Grant Shepard. Forced to work with Grant—now a screenwriter, too—on a show 13 years later, Helen wants to continue resenting him but soon develops feelings that are more powerful.
WRITERS & LOVERS
By Lily King
Once a child golf prodigy, 31-year-old Casey now waits tables in Harvard Square. It’s the summer of 1997 and Casey is struggling with her mother’s death, her inability to make rent payments and her writer’s block, which is crushing her dream of penning the next great American novel. Then she meets two men— Oscar, an older single father of two, and Silas, young and mercurial—who capture her heart and change her life.
BONJOUR TRISTESSE
By Françoise Sagan
At 17, Cécile is looking forward to summer on the French Riviera with her father and his trendy girlfriend, Elsa. There are no rules in his house, and Cécile is free to see her older boyfriend as she pleases. But when her father starts to fall for Anne, a traditional woman who wants to act like a mother to Cécile, the girl devises a plan to bring her father and Elsa back together—with unintended consequences.
Julie Marallo is the director of the Tenafly Public Library.
Refreshment Awaits
With schools out and summer heat building, photographer Damian Castillo captured cool waters beckoning at the Tenakill Swim Club—a momentarily placid scene as some of the lifeguards head off for a welldeserved break.
Whatever you’re facing, it’s easier to shoulder when your burden is shared. So, when you need care, know that there’s a place where care rises to another level. Where medicine can only be described as leading-edge. And where great hearts and minds come together to create hope, ease fear and give you the support you need mind, body and spirit. The name? Holy Name. Where providing great medicine isn’t a goal. It’s a religion.
