BY Liz George | Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 4:00pm | COMMENTS (3)
A tempting menu, elegant setting and the chance to dress up and get together brought a group of baristas out to Highlawn Pavilion to check out the restaurant’s new jazz menu. The field trip was a hit.
Highlights of Highlawn’s jazz menu ($29 prix fixe, offered Wednesdays and Fridays) included a tasting of tuna and salmon tartare, Wagyu hanger steak in red wine sauce, a sauteed striped bass with shallot sauce (pictured) and an off-the-hook chocolate tasting. Continue Reading
BY Debbie Galant | Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 11:41am | COMMENTS (27)
My original job-hunting letter, framed and presented by my honey on our 25th wedding anniversary.
UPDATE: An extra prize!
Here’s my story: 1983. I had finished graduate school in North Carolina and was looking for jobs in New York, collecting names of everybody and anybody in the journalism business. Someone gave me the name of AP Radio’s correspondent in New York, Â who had worked at WCHL in Chapel Hill a few years before I got there. My very first Monday in New York I called him. Twice. When we met for lunch that Thursday, I asked if he knew anyone who used freelancers. He did. I started working for him, doing five-minute radio features for $25 a pop, and was charmed by the news poems he recited from memory in his radio studio. The rest, as they say, is history.
BY Debbie Galant | Monday, Feb 06, 2012 12:06pm | COMMENTS (12)
Should there be a statute of limitation on Christmas lights? A Walnut Street resident we know has been complaining on Facebook about his neighbor’s unending Christmas light display. “It’s utterly ridiculous. Christmas ended six weeks ago!” he fumes.
February 6 is apparently the magic date for Montclair Township, which was out with a cherry picker today taking lights off its “Holiday Tree” on Church Street. Have you taking yours down yet? Let us know when you think signs of Christmas should disappear. Take our poll after the jump. Continue Reading
BY Debbie Galant | Monday, Feb 06, 2012 8:52am | COMMENTS (3)
Photo by Geoff Gove.
UPDATE: It appears that Gov. Christie has pulled off a NJ rally for the Giants at their stadium after all/. It’s set to start at 3 p.m.
The Giants will be feted with a ticker tape parade in downtown Manhattan Tuesday morning. The parade will begin at Battery Place and Washington Street at 11 a.m. and continue northbound up the Canyon of Heroes to Worth Street. The parade will be followed by a ceremony at City Hall Plaza, where Mayor Bloomberg will present the Giants with keys to the city. More details here.
And will there be an event for the Jersey Giants fans at the stadium itself? Governor Christie, who got to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy last night, apparently is working on it. Continue Reading
BY Liz George | Sunday, Feb 05, 2012 10:44am | COMMENTS (18)
Giants fans are gearing up all over Baristaville for the big game (including my girl whose heart belongs to Manning).
If you’re out picking up some last minute game day goodies, The Little Daisy Bake Shop is offering bacon, cheddar, chive biscuits (perfect with chili) whoopie pies with red and blue fillings, cupcakes with frosting in team colors and these fan-tastic Giants sugar cookies. I’m running out to get avocados for tacos and nachos, but I’m tempted by my neighbor’s menu which includes lobster rolls — a tasty nod to the Patriots. Tell us what’s on your party menu and give us your game day predictions.
BY Martin Schwartz | Saturday, Feb 04, 2012 11:13am | COMMENTS (5)
The drop in real estate prices and dried up home equity financing has made both owners and buyers unsure where to spend their limited cash today on home renovations. People question what work they should undertake, both to improve their day to day living, and to make smart choices for re-sale and long term property valuation.
Should homeowners add a new addition to gain another bedroom and finish the basement for the kids, or redo their 1950′s kitchen and update all those funky baths?
In today more complex real estate climate, a new kitchen and redone baths are the smarter investment.
Before the market nose-dived in 2008, some new buyers actually looked for older homes with strong bones, but with kitchens and baths needing serious help. Buyers wanted to bring their own creative vision and comforts to all those newly purchased spaces. Money was cheap and easy and the gleam not yet off the rose from multiple ‘anyone can do it’ home renovation TV shows. For many newly motivated home buyers, construction was quick and always finished up in a viewing half-hour. And buyers then could afford the float of carrying two homes during major renovations, before making actual moves.
Conversely, if a seller wasn’t able renovate before going to market, their funky baths and missing new kitchen was not that much of a turn-off. Home buyers and brokers just factored it all in to the final selling price.
No longer. Continue Reading
BY Erica Dietsche | Saturday, Feb 04, 2012 6:53am | COMMENTS (0)
It’s the weekend of the Big Game, not the Big Deal, and the real estate market is responding accordingly. Just about 35 properties are open this Sunday. There are a few new listings that may inspire buyers to put down the wings and get off the couch.
9 Prescott Ave., Montclair
List Price: $569,000
Taxes: $15,796
Acreage: 0.17 Acres
5BR/3BA
A new listing, this 10-room 2,244-sq. ft. Colonial has old-fashioned charm and modern flair. The circa 1927 house has a new kitchen with a tin ceiling, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops; the main bathroom is also new. The insulation was recently updated as well. Period details include hardwood floors and leaded glass and moldings in the dining room.  Two sun rooms, cedar closets, a large master bedroom and private backyard are among the other house attributes. The finished, full basement has half a kitchen and a full bathroom. Lastly, there is a detached two car garage with loft storage. Open house 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Continue Reading
BY Christina Gillham | Friday, Feb 03, 2012 9:00am | COMMENTS (71)
We all have our pet peeves when it comes to driving–or rather, when it comes to other people’s driving. For me, it’s those drivers who park on the side of the road and exit their car by swinging their door wide open without bothering to see if there is any oncoming traffic. I have lived in four states, and driven in many more, and this seems to be a driving (or parking) trait that is unique to New Jerseyans. It drives me bonkers, and I have narrowly missed taking off a car door several times because of it.
Then there was the school bus that my husband and I saw speeding up the quiet, narrow street where my son’s preschool is located. We chased it in our Honda–our then-4-year-old strapped in the back seat–trying to get a name, a license plate, anything. But because we stuck to the speed limit–and the school bus didn’t–we never caught up.
BY Georgette Gillmore | Thursday, Feb 02, 2012 3:30pm | COMMENTS (3)
This has been a strange winter. It’s been warm, practically snow-free and it’s going so fast. It’s already February! Usually winter makes me want to hibernate, but with temps this warm, I’m going out much more often. Here are some ways you can get out this weekend.
The world premiere of Reparation by Gino Dilorio at Luna Stage happens next weekend on February 9, but you can get a sneak peak of the play about an “investment banker who has made a career by playing the race card finding himself out of options and out of friends” tonight, February 2, at the West Orange Public Library. Tony nominated actor Frankie Faison will perform a scene from Reparation followed by a discussion, led by Luna’s artistic director Jane Mandel, with the playwright Gino Dilorio. It’s all part of WOPL’s Black History Month of sceduled events.
Scene from “Reparation” and Discussion
Thursday, February 2 at 7 pm
West Orange Public Library, 46 mount Pleasant Avenue, West Orange, NJ
Free. Advance registration is required. Sign up online or by calling 973.736.0198
