Baristanet | Coffee With

Coffee With Amanda Freitag, Formerly of Cedar Grove – Chef, Chopped Judge, Competitor

BY Lisa Romeo | Thursday, May 09, 2013 10:00am | COMMENTS (0)

Chopped: After Hours is a brand new web series from the Food Network, which features the judges from the popular Chopped competition show cooking with the same basket ingredients that competing chefs they just judged had to work with. Armed with the same pantry and the same 20 or 30 minutes on the clock, the judges get to demonstrate their skill and creativity in a more “informal, anything goes, after-hours showcase”.

Now in its second week, the web series will feature judges such as Alex Guarnaschelli, Chris Santos, Aaron Sanchez, Marc Murphy, Maneet Chauhan, host Ted Allen — and Amanda Freitag, who grew up in Cedar Grove, and will be making her debut in the episodes available online during the weeks of June 13 and 18. Chopped:After Hours will also include a behind-the-scenes look at the judges interacting in the kitchen and show a more playful side of the often tough critics. Ten different webisodes will be released through December, after each televised on-air Chopped show.

Freitag, a mainstay Chopped judge, has competed herself on Iron Chef and more recently on Chopped: All Stars, is known for her exacting standards and a stare that has silenced many a competing chef.

Baristanet caught up with chef Freitag the other day. Continue Reading

Coffee With…Michael and Wendy Stahl of Best Friend Photography

BY Georgette Gilmore | Wednesday, May 08, 2013 5:00pm | COMMENTS (6)

Originally from Long Island, Michael Stahl took a job in Fairfield, NJ 30 years ago, which made him, and his wife Wendy, decide to look for a home in NJ. One May weekend, they drove down Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair and when they passed Edgemont Park, they knew Montclair was the town for them. They’ve been in town ever since, raising two children who attended the public schools.

Photography was Michael’s hobby so he built a darkroom in his house. While developing a photo he took of his dog, he thought he was on to something— photographing people’s pets. Best Friend Photography was born, originally focusing on our “best friends,” but quickly morphing into provided families with gorgeous memories for the past 11 years. First in their home studio on Valley, then to Church Street, Best Friend Photography is excited to open its new studio on Midland Avenue.

Coffee With Christina Baker Kline, on Fast Track with Orphan Train Novel

BY Lisa Romeo | Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 9:55am | COMMENTS (1)

Montclair novelist Christina Baker Kline’s tenth book and fifth novel, Orphan Train (Harper Collins), was released on Tuesday and shot to number 13 on Amazon’s Women’s Friendship/Fiction list. The book went into a second printing on publication day and has been getting nothing but positive, effusive buzz around the book world. Plus, it’s Target’s national Book-of-the-Month Club pick for April, and sold 1700 copies there its first day.

Kline will be talking about her book and presenting a slide show about how the came to be tonight at Watchung Booksellers from 7:00 to 8:00.

The novel spotlights a slice of American history few people know much about — trains that carried abandoned children from the East Coast to foster and adoptive families in the Midwest in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with mixed outcomes. Kline crafts a fictionalized meeting between an elderly woman who rode one of those trains and a modern day teenager, with the story of the trains and orphan experience unfolding as an unlikely friendship develops.

Orphan Train received a four-star review in a recent issue of People magazine, and Publisher’s Weekly said, “Kline’s absorbing new novel is a heartfelt page turner about two women finding a sense of home. Kline lets us live the characters’ experiences vividly through their skin.” Continue Reading

“Unforgettable,” A Tribute To Nat King Cole By Montclair’s Adam Wade

BY Dana Hawkins-Simons | Tuesday, Mar 05, 2013 8:31am | COMMENTS (0)

Nat King Cole and Adam Wade of Montclair have a lot in common. They share the same birthday, and were both famous in the 1960’s for their gorgeous crooning. Wade’s rich, resonant voice has even been described as a sounding like a cross between Cole’s and vocal master Johnny Mathis’. “King” was the first African-American to host a television variety show, and Wade was the first black entertainer to host a television game show (where he met his wife, the talented singer, actress and writer Jeree Wade.)

Get your tickets now to see Wade pay tribute to his idol in “Nat King Cole Remembered” at Trumpets Jazz Club & Restaurant in Montclair, on Saturday, March 16^th –the day before Wade’s 78th birthday. The local legend will perform the jazz standards “Too Young,” “Smile,” “Route 66,” “Mona Lisa,” and more at the revue, in collaboration with Songbirds Unlimited Productions.

After recording several “Top Ten” hits in the 60’s, Wade went on to have a prolific career on television, in movies and on stage. We’re hoping he’ll reprise a song he treated us to last December in this Baristanet profile.

Trumpets Jazz Club & Restaurant

6 Depot Square, Montclair

2 sets: 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.

$20 ticket, $12 minimum

Coffee With…Theater Actress Donna English Of Montclair

BY Dana Hawkins-Simons | Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 7:00pm | COMMENTS (0)

Donna English, an accomplished theater actress who lives in Montclair with her husband and fifth grade daughter, is currently starring in the fast-paced farce “Lend Me a Tenor” at the Paper Mill Playhouse. She took a break between shows to talk with us about her successful career in regional and stock theater, on national tours, both on and off Broadway—and her love of the Montclair vibe.

“I saw ‘A Chorus Line’ on Broadway at age 14 and thought: ‘That’s what I want to do,’” says English. “I loved the sounds, smells–everything about the theater.” A few years later, the Oklahoma City girl earned an acting degree from Northwestern University, then moved to New York City at age 22 to fulfill her dreams. Continue Reading

Jersey and Jughandles: Imperfect Together?

BY Lisa Romeo | Thursday, Feb 07, 2013 11:13am | COMMENTS (0)

We may not be able to pump our own gas in New Jersey, but at least we have own unique driving claim to fame — jughandles, right? Not so fast. A few days ago the NJ Senate Transportation Committee passed proposed doing away with the right-hand-loop-to-left-hand-turns. The bill has moved to the Senate floor, and according to NJ.com, it would “prohibit the planning, designing or construction of any additional jughandles on the public roads or highways in the state.”

Perhaps no one has better expressed frustration with the “Jersey left” than Montclair songwriter Jason Didner, who first penned the hilarious send-up tune, “You Can’t Get There From Here in Jersey,” for NPR’s Car Talk program in 2001, and has seen his witty ditty get renewed attention this week. Both the New York Times and Philadelphia’s ABC-TV have referenced it while covering the pending jughandle legislation.

Who can blame them, with lyrics like this:

Two miles east just to go west puts me to the test.
I got a case of jughandle turnaround overload.
Hey there buddy you can kiss my Easy Pass.

This past Monday morning, Didner heard a news story about the jughandle legislation and thought about reaching out to the media about his decade old song. But before he had the chance, a New York Times reporter tracked him down at his job as an IT manager for a Mountainside construction company. He almost deleted the voicemail because “at first I thought the Times was trying to get me to subscribe!” Continue Reading

Coffee With…Suzanne O’Conner, Owner of The Art Garage

BY Georgette Gilmore | Wednesday, Feb 06, 2013 4:30pm | COMMENTS (1)

If you live in this area, you most likely know Suzanne O’Conner. The artist, mother, and business owner has lived in Glen Ridge for 14 years and was a BoE member for eight. She also owns The Art Garage, a great art studio on Glenridge Avenue in Montclair, that has become so much more than art classes. I recently sat down with Suzanne to talk art, music and food.

Baristanet: When did you open StudioKids?
Suzanne: I opened StudioKids Art in 2005 and ran it from my garage for the first few years. It started very slowly and small, I set up the garage for my own art studio and gradually found myself giving private lessons. I also started a drawing group for adults on Thursday nights called the New Jersey Drawing Society. It was so cool to have an art studio in my back yard! But once I became a legitimate business I had to move to a commercial space. I and my neighbors don’t think you can run a business like this out of your home.

From Montclair to Melt Shop Fame: Spencer Rubin Lands on Forbes Radar

BY Lisa Romeo | Thursday, Jan 17, 2013 3:02pm | COMMENTS (2)

What says a childhood winter day more than a grilled cheese sandwich? For Spencer Rubin, who grew up in Montclair, it was one of his favorite memories of lunches his mother prepared for him. Even when he began working in the restaurant industry, Rubin still thought about those sandwiches.

The Melt Shop was born. With a menu of special artisan grilled cheese sandwiches, the Manhattan eatery, now in two midtown locations, has garnered praise and awards from the industry, foodies and the press. Both seem to love not only the luscious and unusual sandwiches on the menu but that they are all priced under $10.

Baristanet caught up this morning with Rubin, a 2004 graduate of Montclair High School, who was recently named to the Forbes list of 30 Under 30 Food and Wine folks to watch.

Q – Congratulation! Did you know you’d be on the Forbes list?

A – I knew I was nominated, but didn’t expect to get it, so I’m really happy! It was a thrill and a great surprise.

Q – Did you always know you’d work in the restaurant business?

A – When I was at Cornell University’s hotel school, I made up my own restaurant development major, combining food and restaurant courses with real estate classes. I thought I’d work in fine dining – but then I took a restaurant development course and got interested in premium fast casual restaurants with high quality food. It felt like that might be prefect thing for me. I do love fine dining for the food, but the experience itself doesn’t suit me. I’m a casual guy.

Q – Did you work at any restaurants here in Montclair?

A – Yes, at Raymond’s, which has been my favorite restaurant since I was 8 or 9 years old, and still is. In fact, he (Ray Badach) has played an important role in my career; he’s been a great role model and mentor to me. When I was in high school, I took advantage of an internship program option in the last semester of senior year. I did that at Raymond’s, so I was in his kitchen for the four months, cooking and learning. Continue Reading

The Best Things In Life Really Are Free

BY Dana Hawkins-Simons | Tuesday, Jan 08, 2013 6:25pm | COMMENTS (8)

Gardening makes Pat Kenschaft happy.

“I decided when I was 14 years old that I wanted to make myself happy, and along with that make as many other people happy as I could,” says Renaissance woman, Pat Kenschaft, of Montclair. “You can’t do one without the other.”

That’s the philosophy of the self-described activist, gardener, environmentalist, author and retired mathematics professor. “I’m 72, but my husband calls me an over-aged 3 year old who’s always asking ‘Why?’” she laughs.

Kenschaft’s latest exploration has been the relationship between money and happiness. “It’s really important to think about what makes you happy. It boils down to this: Spend money only when it makes you, or someone you care about, happy.”

Here’s how to live a satisfying life, according to Kenschaft: Continue Reading

Coffee With…The Stock Pot Lady: Happy 95th Birthday!

BY Dana Hawkins-Simons | Friday, Dec 21, 2012 6:49pm | COMMENTS (9)

Bess Kelly, also known as “The Stock Pot Lady,”
turned 95 on Wednesday.

If this lovely face looks familiar, you’ve probably visited the Stock Pot on Church St. in Montclair. Bess Kelly has worked there as a hostess and cashier, six days a week, for the past 30 years. Born on December 19th, 1917, she turned 95 on Wednesday, and celebrated her birthday at work with her son, Robert Kelly, who co-owns the popular lunch spot.

Happy Birthday! How was it?
I got lots of presents from my customers. There were so many plants and flowers in here that it looked like a funeral parlor! They also brought me Chantilly powder and candy. My daughter, who lives in Virginia, sent me a dozen roses, and my son gave me a necklace. Continue Reading