"My daughter told me I shouldn't be a food judge, because I like everything," new Montgomery County Commissioner Leslie Richards laughed, while taking a break between courses at Foodapalooza Friday night. This is the fourth year that First Friday Main Line has organized the February food tasting event, held at Haverford Estates. This year, guests had the chance to try dishes from about 15 local businesses including A La Maison, Firinji, Mediterranean Grill, MilkBoy Coffee, and an Ardmore newcomer, Tired Hands Brewery. Richards, along with Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov, Radnor …
When you look closely at the paintings displayed at Case Gallery in Ardmore, you can see the intricate work that creates the textures, colors shapes and images. Many of the paintings, done in watercolors, acrylics and tempuras, are abstract works. Some are rendered with intricate brushwork. Others are painted with unexpected and fascintating tools like bubble wrap and leaves. All are unique and works of heart, from the heart and imagination of artists who study at Melmark in Berwyn. "The Melmark Traveling Art Show" highlights adult artists with autism spectrum disorders and Down Syndrome who…
Holiday lights add something to the joyousness of the days before and after Christmas. They express a greeting of warmth in a time when cold air is the order of the day. We are taking the opportunity during this holiday of lights to show you some of the homes in our Patch that are lighted up particularly well. Whether simple or sublime, all express the spirit of the season. This gallery includes only homes in Wynnewood, on one night. Click here for the Merion gallery, and click here for the Ardmore gallery.
Holiday lights add something to the joyousness of the days before and after Christmas. They express a greeting of warmth in a time when cold air is the order of the day. We are taking the opportunity during this holiday of lights to show you some of the homes in our Patch that are lighted up particularly well. Whether simple or sublime, all express the spirit of the season. This gallery includes only homes in Merion. We'll cover Wynnewood on Monday; click here for the Ardmore gallery.
Holiday lights add something to the joyousness of the days before and after Christmas. They express a greeting of warmth in a time when cold air is the order of the day. We are taking the opportunity during this holiday of lights to show you some of the homes in our Patch that are lighted up particularly well. Whether simple or sublime, all express the spirit of the season. This gallery includes only homes in Ardmore. We'll cover Merion and Wynnewood too, in the coming days.
Some 50 vendors, including charities and service organizations, enjoyed good crowds Sunday and Monday at the Main Line Reform Temple Holiday Bazaar, staged by the volunteers of the synagogue's Sisterhood organization. Debbie Schwartz, co-organizer, said it was a return for the holiday shopping bazaar after an absence of a few years. "We wanted to do it because it's just a good community builder within the temple and outside in the general, surrounding communities," she said. "We also wanted to show this year that there are lots of different ways that you can give gifts. Besides purchasing a …
It was a chilly Friday evening in Ardmore, but full of holiday cheer during First Friday Main Line. Santa arrived in Ardmore to dozens of adoring fans and lit the tree in Schauffele Plaza, then stuck around to meet and greet with some excited youngsters. Jazz musician Dr. Rich played holiday tunes outside Firinji, musicians performed at Calliope Music, a hip hop dance group performed at Case Gallery, and more. Check out some snapshots from this month's First Friday festivities, above.
After a freak October snowstorm, and even before it, it's been a gorgeous fall so far. Rarely has the name of this column lived so much up its name. These snaps were taken here and there while we've been out and about over the past few weeks covering stories in Merion, Wynnewood and Ardmore. Recognize your street, or your friend's house? And by the way, if you know the happy couple from the Merion Tribute House, please send them a hearty congratulations (along with a link here, of course) from Patch.
As promised, it was a night of food, fun and fashion at the Third Annual Taste of Ardmore event, held at Ardmore Toyota. The annual fundraiser for Ardmore Initiative featured food from area restaurants like A La Maison, Kotatsu and Firinji, and local celebrities modeled Ardmore boutique fashions on the runway. Ardmore Initiative Executive Director Christine Vilardo said the event brought in about $20,000 last year, and was hoping to bring in the same this year. "I feel good," Vilardo said. "People came, they ate, they enjoyed themselves, they had great food and saw great fashion. We're happy…
First Friday Main Line's November event went indoors Friday night, but there were plenty of shoppers and browsers out and about on Lancaster Avenue as an autumn chill filled the air. Various shops and restaurants featured works on display for an Emerging Artists Show. But inside the Case Gallery, one of the prettiest, nicest dogs you ever did meet held court with his master, author Larry Levin, who wrote an eponymous book about the "puppy brought back from the brink of death" by the staff of the Ardmore Animal Hospital. Levin was on hand to sign copies of the book, which benefitted FFML. …
Rare October snow mixed with rain, sleet and hail all afternoon in Ardmore, Merion, Wynnewood and the Haverford section of Lower Merion Township, creating increasingly dangerous driving (and even walking) conditions. As a result, Lower Merion Township released the following alert around 6:30 p.m. Saturday: "Due to the increase in the severity of the current weather event, including a significant accumulation of snow and high winds, and the cancellation of many community events, the Lower Merion Police Department requests that motorists avoid driving Saturday evening, October 29th. Roads will…
Friday night it was the 5th annual "Howl-O-Ween Dress Up your Dog" contest at First Friday Main Line in Ardmore. There was also some pretty perfect weather, several musical acts, and some sort of important baseball game.
Borders Books & Music in Wynnewood has been closed for a couple weeks now, but it was only Wednesday morning before it felt truly gone. Currently the space is occupied by a temporary Halloween store. More on that later today.
Tucked away on the northern side of Montgomery Avenue in Merion Station, General Wayne Park sits in the middle of a quiet bedroom community like a large commons, with a wooded trail to the side of sprawling fields, a pleasant playground, a basketball court and tennis courts. Beautiful stone and slate work makes up what is now the restrooms, along with the several wide stairwells that lead onto the fields and down into the trail, which runs through an Audobon Society bird sanctuary.
Merion Botanical Park, adjacent to the Merion Post office and train station, is a 13.5-acre segue. Created in 1944, just along the railroad tracks, it is a perfect garden space between city and suburbs, just off City Avenue, with a variety of trees and shrubbery, a good solid creek, jogging and walking paths, shade and abundant sunshine. The photos in this gallery show the park at about 7 p.m. on a recent August evening.
The Anderson Avenue underpass in Ardmore, which has been closed for much of the summer, is open again, with its new lighting in place.
The Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood was the scene of some top notch basketball on Tuesday afternoon during the 30th annual JCC Maccabi Games, which opened Sunday in the region. The Charlotte, N.C. team played good basketball. The Philadelphia team played extraordinary basketball. From the opening jump off to the final buzzer the outcome never looked in doubt. The first half ended with Philadelphia ahead 27-12. That 25point gap would not be substantially closed in the second half, as Charlotte only managed to close it to a 20-point difference. Philadelphia won 55-35. Our gallery offers a look at …
Seventy-six degrees, low humidity, and a slight breeze made Friday night perfect for Ardmore's First Friday Main Line event. During this vacation season, crowds were smaller that those seen in the spring and fall, but the folks who turned out were having a good time. There was art to look at, photo exhibits at various retailers (“Magic on the Main Line” was the photographic theme of the evening), and music to listen to at several spots along the Lancaster Avenue business district. Restaurants and bars were doing decent business, too, even as the dog days settle in. The next First Friday Main…
July was one of the hottest and most miserable on record, and August was ushered Monday in with thunderstorms and heavy rains. A trip through Ardmore to Merion demonstrated the many moods of Mother Nature from the mixture of clouds and the steely gray of skies about to cut loose with wind, rain, thunder and lightening—to the wonderful post-storm skies tinged with blue and tangerine as the sun set towards dusk. But these thunderstorms did a fair amount of damage in some spots of Lower Merion Township, evidenced in Merion on Orchard Way. A giant tulip poplar—easily a century old—came down with…
The Merion Cricket Club is one of those hiding-in-plain-sight Main Line institutions that most people have heard of but many have never visited. Situated along Montgomery Avenue in Haverford, you've likely driven past it thousands of times. A couple of weeks ago, Patch was invited to the club, where we covered a weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Ardmore. Founded in 1865, "cricket, the game of English gentlemen, was the cause and the origin of the Club," according to its website. "Lawn tennis gradually supplanted cricket as the Club's chief activity." The original club was established near …
