Out & About Magazine -- Feb 2011

VOL. 23 NO. 12

FEBRUARY 2011

OutAndAboutNow.Com

COMPLIMENTARY

Far East

FLAVOR Inside

Valentine's Day: A Chef Tells All pg 23

Pan-Seare Pan-Se Pa are re red ed Ging Ging nger ng err Sallmo mon on fro om Pots o ttic ickers ke ker er s

PLUS: >>> A sake for all occasions >>> Thoughts on the Oscars, Grammys, and Chinese take-out >>> The band with a name you won't forget

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Co SH nt OR e De s t T S T ta ils D e OR on a d Y pg l i n 9 e

>>> What we can learn from Chinese New Year

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DELAWARE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES Division of Public Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program

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2 . Inside

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February  | O&A

1/20/2011 5:58:42 PM

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All tickets subject to Box Office service charges.

Artists, dates, times and programs are subject to change.

THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE, IN PART, BY GRANTS FROM THE DELAWARE DIVISION OF THE ARTS, A STATE AGENCY DEDICATED TO NURTURING AND SUPPORTING THE ARTS IN DELAWARE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.

February  | O&A

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INSIDE

Published each month by TSN Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Mailing & business address: 307 A Street, Wilmington, DE 19801

O&ACONTENTS February 2011 | Vol. 23, No. 12 | www.outandaboutnow.com

FEATURES Publisher Gerald DuPhily Editor-in-Chief Michael Pollock

14 UP CLOSE: FAR EAST FLAVOR Our celebration of Asian cuisine includes a look at the area’s growing Pan-Asian obsession, the meaning behind the Chinese New Year, a Sake sampler, and picks for take-out.

13 THE QUEEN THEATRE: CLUES FROM THE PAST Director of Publications Jim Hunter Miller

Reviewing the Queen’s history as a hotel, a vaudeville theater, a movie theater, and a boxing gym.

23 FOOD & DRINK: TABLE FOR TWO Director of Sales Marie Graham Creative/Production Manager Matthew Loeb

In the hospitality industry, Valentine’s Day is both a gift and a curse. One chef tells all. By Robert Lhulier

30 LESSONS IN LOVE What’s the secret to a lasting relationship? Four couples share their stories.

41 MUSIC: BIRDS OF A FEATHER Art Director Joy Smoker Senior Graphic Designer Shawna Sneath Contributing Editor Bob Yearick

For the 40-somethings who play in the bravely named Cocks, success takes on a whole new meaning. By Michael Pollock

DEPARTMENTS 7

Out Front

23 Food & Drink Contributing Writers Mark Fields, Richard L. Gaw, Pam George Carol Kipp, Robert Lhulier J. Burke Morrison, Larry Nagengast Contributing Photographers Joe del Tufo, Dennis Dischler Tim Hawk, Les Kipp, Matt Urban

33 Movies 49 Nightlife 59 Flip Page

ON THE COVER Our thanks to Potstickers Asian Grill & Sushi Bar for whipping up their ginger salmon dish for this month’s cover.

That’s gluten-free, pan-seared, gingermarinated salmon with ginger soy sauce and mixed vegetables, photographed by Dennis Dischler. For more on the area’s Asian-fusion offerings, see pg. 14.

For editorial and advertising information: (302) 655-6483 • Fax (302) 654-0569 Website: www.outandaboutnow.com Email: contact@tsnpub.com

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1/21/2011 1:11:04 PM

DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES

The Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles is now issuing more secure, federally compliant driver licenses and identification cards.

In order to obtain your new driver license or ID card, you will need to collect and bring a few important source documents to provide proof of: s Identity (Name and Date of Birth) s U.S. citizenship/Legal presence s Social Security Number s 2 proofs of Delaware residency s Name change documents (if applicable) You can find everything you need to know at

SecureID.dmv.de.gov or call toll free

877-477-7117

Editor’s Note

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start this month’s note with an admission, and an acknowledgement. Last month, I wrote about the “more unique” finds that make up the ‘Worth Trying’ section we often run in the magazine. As was later pointed out by reader Jane Buck (and then by our word nerd, Bob Yearick), there are no degrees of unique; it means one of a kind. I sit corrected.

I bring this up because Out & About prides itself on incorporating the community that supports it. Readers like Jane inspire us to make a better magazine every month, but they’re also evidence that what we write (and sometimes miswrite) gets noticed. In turn, we like to notice you.

Speaking of notice, you may be aware that the Chinese New Year begins this month (Feb. 3; it’s the Year of the Rabbit).

We decided to celebrate with a look at the area’s Pan-Asian cuisine (pg. 14), a closer examination of sake (pg. 16), and our own picks for Chinese take-out (pg. 21). We know—you have your picks, too. And we hope you’ll keep letting us know.

Enjoy. And thanks for reading.

Michael Pollock Editor-in-Chief 6 . Out Front

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February  | O&A

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OUTFRONT

The War

ON WORDS

By Bob Yearick

A monthly column in which we attempt, however futilely, to correct some of the most common mistakes Americans make in both the written and spoken word.

The very best—or not Let’s examine three words that are often mistakenly used to mean “the best,” or “excellent”: penultimate, erstwhile, and hoi polloi.

We’ve discussed penultimate before, but it bears repeating because people continue to use it to mean ultimate or, even, greater than ultimate.

In fact, it means next to last.

Similarly, erstwhile does not mean excellent or outstanding, as some people think. It simply means “former,” as in “Larry Bowa, erstwhile Phillies manager.”

Hoi polloi, on the other hand, describes an entire group—i.e., the common people, the masses. Greek in origin, it’s an old-fashioned term that’s not used much today, but many folks who do mistakenly think it describes the upper class, or the elite. It’s usually preceded by the.

Beckoned, we respond Joy Smoker, O&A art director and queen of zumba at the Brandywine YMCA, says she has seen “beck and call” and “beckon call” used interchangeably, and wants to know if this is correct. Answer: no.

“Beck and call” is a phrase describing a state of servitude or at the ready, as in, “The National Guard is at the governor’s beck and call.”

“Beckon” is a verb meaning to summon, as in, “He beckoned to the crowd to follow him.”

Bottom line: never use the phrase “beckon call.”

Those contrary contractions Our candidate for the most misused contraction is it’s, which is short for “it is” but is often used instead of the possessive, its. Conversely, we regularly see their—the possessive—used where what is needed is the

www.out-and-about.com

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WORD OF THE MONTH

mufti

Pronounced muhf-tee, it’s a noun meaning civilian clothes, in contrast to military or other uniforms, or as worn by a person who usually wears a uniform.

contraction they’re (they are). We also frequently discover that your—the possessive—is used in place of the contraction you’re (you are).

Media Watch Dr. Jane Buck, retired professor of psychology at Delaware State University and immediate past president of the American Association of University Professors, says O&A committed one of her pet peeves by using the phrase “more unique” in a column. As she points out, unique means “one of a kind.” There are no degrees of uniqueness, so no person or thing is more or less unique than another. (Note: It was our trusty editor. See opposite page.)

As part of a program sponsored by Mighty Writers, a South Philly nonprofit, The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published letters from students defending Eagles quarterback and erstwhile dog killer Michael Vick. A Wilmington student wrote that fans had changed “360 degrees” in their opinions of Vick, turning from hatred to love. Apparently these letters weren’t edited. A 360-degree change is no change at all: it’s a full circle. What was meant was 180 degrees.

“I graciously accept this award,” said K. C. Keeler, UD football coach, on being named Championship Division national coach of the year. He may indeed have accepted it graciously, but it really is for others to decide if he reacted “warmly, courteously.” In fact, saying you are accepting something graciously is in itself somewhat ungracious. We suspect he meant to say “gratefully.”

Tom Jackson, ESPN pro football analyst, recently talked about a coach who used several “explicatives.” Close, Tom, but what you meant was expletives.

BONUS

WORD OF THE MONTH aesthete or esthete Pronounced es-theet, it’s a noun meaning someone who has or exhibits high sensitivity to beauty, especially in art.

Heard or seen a good

(bad) one lately?

Drop us a line at allwriter@ comcast.net.

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OUTFRONT so here it is: Left lanes are for passing.

Slower traffic stays right. In other words, if you aren’t passing someone, you should be in the right lane. This rule exists to keep traffic from backing up, and I swear if we all followed it, there would be fewer traffic jams. Shawna Sneath, our senior graphic designer, would like to make an addendum to this rule: If you happen to catch yourself left-lane coasting and notice someone passing you on the right, do not speed up! It’s not a race. Let them pass you, then move into the right lane when it’s clear.

That Is Not OK!

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here are fewer things we must deal with so frequently that bother us as much as traffic. For work, we leave extra early to avoid it; en route to vacation, we leave in the middle of the night. It’s impossible to avoid it entirely, but it wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t so many obnoxious drivers on the road. Here are this month’s picks for worst driving behaviors.

Behavior #1: Failure to use a turn signal. I simply don’t understand why signaling isn’t just second nature for everyone.

The function was invented to make driving safer by giving us the ability to communicate with others on the road. It requires practically no work on the part of the operator. You don’t even have to remove your hand from the steering wheel. Simply extend your left pinky and either move the conveniently located lever up for a right turn or down for a left turn. Use your turn signal when you plan on changing lanes and turning. It’s that simple. Failure to do so says, “I’m lazy and I don’t care if I’m confusing others around me.” This is how accidents happen.

On the other hand, as reader Theresa Bobko points out, failing to turn your turn signal off once you have changed lanes can also cause confusion. She writes, “It’s frustrating when you’re stuck in limbo between slowing down to give them space, because you think they’re trying to get over and you’re being courteous, or speeding up and passing them because they’re not paying attention.”

Behavior #2: Left-lane coasting. This is one of the most aggravating driving behaviors, in my opinion. I see it so often that I wonder if many people just don’t know about this rule, 8 . Out Front

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Behavior #3: Merging incompetency. It’s not OK to stop at the end of a ramp when getting onto a highway. You must keep moving! That sign at the end of the ramp tells you to yield, not stop. Once you stop, it’s much harder to accelerate to a speed where it’s comfortable to move with traffic.

Plus, you’ve now created a line of people behind you who are consequently in the same predicament. Likewise, when already on the highway, pay attention to on-ramps ahead. Reader Sarah Green wants to know, “Why is it so hard for people to realize that the nice (and safe!) thing to do is change lanes to allow someone to merge from an on-ramp onto I-95? It’s not that hard to get over so someone else can get on the road.”

Behavior #4: Line butting. I addressed this last month regarding shopping lines, and the same goes for traffic. Line butting is never OK. No one likes to wait in lines. We’re all in the car because we have somewhere to be, and if wherever you need to be is really that much more important, you should be in an ambulance.

I see people doing this frequently on I-95 North while getting on to Route 202, and of course on I-95 South while waiting to get on Route 1. These offenders prey on those who try to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of them. And don’t even get me started on drivers who use the shoulder as a line-butting runway!

The bottom line is that driving is a privilege and requires social responsibility.

Be aware of how your actions affect those around you, and heck, when someone is conscientious enough to let you into his or her lane when traffic is jammed, do one better: smile and wave.

Marie Graham is the sales director at Out & About.

An otherwise happy-go-lucky new mom, she uses this space to vent her frustrations with the world around her. If you’ve got an etiquette violation she should know about, email mgraham@tsnpub.com.

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Staff FORTUNES

Attention, Writers!

A recent Chinese take-out lunch at the office produced the following wisdom for O&A staff.

riters, warm up your pens, notepads, computers, whatever.

The Out & About short-story contest is back. The competition is cosponsored by the Delaware Literary Connection, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging and supporting Delaware writers.

Contest entries must be no more than 1,500 words, may be fiction or nonfiction, and must address the theme of turning points.

Previously published pieces are not eligible. Entry deadline is Feb. 15. First-, second-, and third-place winners will be announced in the April issue of Out & About and will be published in subsequent issues.

All entries must be typewritten (12-point type, preferably Times New Roman) and must be available in electronic form. Entries will be judged by the DLC board of directors, who are not eligible to enter, and should be sent to: Delaware Literary Connection, 237 Cayman Ct., Wilmington, DE 19808.

The grand-prize winner will receive an “Escape to the Brandywine Valley” package, courtesy of Hilton Christiana/Wilmington, which includes room accommodations, tickets to a Brandywine Valley attraction, and a buffet breakfast, all for the winner and a guest. In addition, the winner will receive a $50 cash award, the runner-up will receive $30, and third place will receive $20, courtesy of the DLC.

Michael Pollock, editor-in-chief

Shawna Sneath, senior graphic designer

W

Jerry DuPhily, publisher

Good Times for a Good Cause AIDS Delaware makes fundraising, well, fun

Matt Loeb, creative/production director

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Jim Miller, director of publications

Marie Graham, director of sales

Joy Smoker, art director

he fight against HIV/ AIDS—offering hope on the treatment side while finding innovative ways to drive the prevention message home—is always an uphill battle. Delaware, for its part, has consistently ranked in the top 10 states for infection. But AIDS Delaware, now n in its 27th year, has found creative c ways to raise awareness and much-needed funds.

On Saturday, Feb. 26, the organization will hosts its second annual fashioninfluenced fundraiser, Red Ribbon Runway, held from 7 to 10 p.m. at Barclays Bank on the Wilmington Riverfront (125 S. West St.). The event doubles as a runway show featuring items and contributions from Morgan’s of Delaware Avenue, Mystique Fashions Boutique, NV

Boutique, White House/Black Market, Currie Hair Skin Nails, Emminence Front Day Spa, Michael Christopher, Sherif Zaki Salon, and the Oasis Spa. UD’s fashion and apparel program will also offer pieces. DJ Zip provides the soundtrack for guests to enjoy food and cocktails courtesy of Chelsea Tavern and Veritas Wine & Spirits. Tickets range from $45 to $100.

Also this month is the 10th annual Do the Right Thing 4Life Banquet, which honors the local barbershops and salons that work to educate the African-American community about HIV/AIDS. The event is held Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Waterfall Banquet & Conference Center (3416 Philadelphia Pike in Claymont).

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1/20/2011 1:15:49 PM

DELAWARE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

CONTINUING EDUCATION Enhance your artistic abilities and advance your career at DCAD. Courses in Computer Graphics, Fine Arts, Interior Design, Jewelry Design and Photography.

Register at dcadevents.com or call 302.622.8867 x110.

Spring Semester begins February 14.

FEBRUARY 12, 2011 – MAY 1, 2011 For more than 50 years, Wilmington photographer and Pulitzer finalist Fred Comegys has captured international celebrities and local kids for the pages of The News Journal.

Experience Comegys’ distinctive vision and diverse subjects in this retrospective exhibition.

Fred Comegys Photographs is sponsored by Signature Brandywine magazine. This exhibition is made possible, in part, by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. | Image: “Hairy Ride,” John Kmetz, Newark Resident, Enjoys the James E. Strates Show, Prices Corner, 1987. Fred Comegys (born 1941). Digital print on paper. On loan from the artist, © Fred Comegys.

2301 Kentmere Pkwy Wilmington, DE 19806 302.571.9590 www.delart.org

12 . Out Front

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February  | O&A

1/20/2011 6:25:41 PM

QUEEN THEATRE

The Queen Theatre: Clues from the past

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ast month, we kicked off our four-part series celebrating the restoration of the Queen Theatre, Market Street’s latest performing-arts venue. Old photos of the Queen reveal her glory days as a hotel—first as the successful Indian Queen, beginning in 1789, then as the upgraded Clayton House, built for $200,000 in 1871. Many years later, the Queen was a vaudeville theater—home to performances by the Immediato brothers, who later formed Three Little Bakers—then a Warner Bros. movie theater. When the Queen underwent the transformation from vaudeville to film, Light Up the Queen Foundation executive director Bill Taylor says, soundproofing panels went up on

the walls, covering three 10’ x 18’ recently discovered murals, which will be on display when the Queen re-opens in April. As for the movie-theater days, Taylor says his parents saw, fittingly, The African Queen there; documents show the last film to play at the theater before its closing in April 1959 was, even more appropriately, House on Haunted Hill. Around that time, the Olympia Boxing Gym was doing active business upstairs. The room, which is on the top floor of the Queen, offers a stunning view of the city. In its honor, World Café Live is renaming it the Olympia Room, and will host dining and special catering there.

photo by Sarah Davenport for Phengo

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UPCLOSE

Flavor

from the Far East The Asian-fusion trend takes off, and shows no signs of slowing

By Pam George n the early 1990s, Darius Mansoory decided to take a date to a sushi bar, which was then a novel experience.

Sushi was so new, in fact, that only about three Wilmington restaurants offered it. Mansoory’s experience was unsatisfying. “There was a language barrier,” he recalls.

“No one explained the sushi to us, and we didn’t know what to do with the wasabi or soy sauce.”

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Thai-style Triple Delight from Potstickers

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he décor, meanwhile, was a combination of Asian kitsch and calendars provided by foodservice companies. He was discouraged until he moved to Atlanta, where hipsters sipped saki in time to the Beastie Boys and attractive college-age servers waited tables. He found similar establishments during his travels.

Mansoory was hooked. So much so, in fact, that in 2000, he opened Mikimotos Asian Grill & Sushi Bar in Wilmington.

Here, servers give a sushi 101 lesson in five minutes or less, and the round sushi bar takes center stage. But cuttingeedge cocktails and a Pacific Rim menu are also on tap. “I was surprised at how successful it was from the beginning,” Mansoory says.

Delawareans, evidently, were ready for Asian fusion, a trend that shows no sign of stopping. Consider that Jasmine and Le Shio—both in Brandywine Hundred—and Masamoto Asian Grill & Sushi Bar in Glen Mills also fuse cuisine in a contemporary atmosphere. Potstickers Asian Grill & Sushi Bar in Christiana focuses on EuroAsian cuisine. And one of the latest entries to the marketplace, Padi in Hockessin, combines sushi, Thai cuisine, and Japanese yakatori, a type of barbecue already wellknown in urban hubs.

What’s fueling the fusion? “More exciting culinary offerings appeal to a broader consumer base,” says Johnny Cai, who owns Masamoto. “Asian fusion is a culinary art form unto itself. The more diverse and creatively talented the chef, the more innovative and exciting the fusion of flavors.”

Elizabeth Shih has witnessed the culinary transformation firsthand. Shih in the 1970s owned a Chinese restaurant on Market Street in downtown Wilmington that primarily offered familiar items. She later owned quick-casual restaurants in Exton Square Mall and Concord Mall.

Meanwhile, her husband, Li, noted the sushi phenomenon that was creeping into the suburbs. He went to sushi school and then the Culinary Arts Institute. Hungering for a full-service restaurant outside the mall environs, the couple in 2006 opened Potstickers, the now ubiquitous American term for Asian dumplings.

Potstickers showcases the welltraveled Li’s love of different cuisines.

The menu offers the familiar Kung Pao chicken as well as clay-pot chicken with Shaoxing wine. Diners will find Thaistyle triple delight—beef, shrimp, and

scallops—and spicy Korean beef. “Spice opens the palate,” Elizabeth Shih says.

Potstickers also exposes Americans to Chinese fare made with quality ingredients. The restaurant uses day-boat scallops and certified Angus beef. Since Chinese food has gotten a bad rap for its salt and MSG, Potstickers emphasizes its healthy aspects. There are vegan offerings, and the restaurant recently began highlighting gluten-free selections, such as jalapeno chicken and ginger salmon.

Serving authentic Chinese fare is the goal at Takumi in Independence Mall.

Located in space formerly occupied by Utage, one of the first Japanese restaurants in Delaware, Takumi is owned by Hideyuki and Jessie Okubo. He is from Japan; she is from China. When the couple took over the location in 2008, they decided to add a few Chinese dishes.

“We had a lot of friends and customers who work at AstraZeneca, and they complained that there were no authentic Chinese restaurants,” Jessie Okubo says. “They had to go to New York or Philadelphia.” The response has been so enthusiastic that about half the menu now features Chinese selections, including boiled sliced beef with hot sauce and sliced, quick-fried pork kidney.

While Takumi offers Korean beef in a bento box, the bulk of the menu is Chinese or Japanese. From its start in 2003, however, Jasmine built its menu on Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food. Offering multiple cuisines gives customers a choice, says owner Tammy Wang. The concept also flirts with an Asian-bistro theme that gives chefs some creative license.

Indeed, most modern Asian restaurants play with American favorites.

Take Mikimotos’ strip steak with an Asian demi-glace or Padi’s “Thai” rosemary lamb chop. Padi also has a raw bar with

oysters and king crab legs. Jasmine’s sister restaurant, Saketumi in Rehoboth Beach, has a menu that’s similar to Jasmine’s, only it beefs up the Asian-tweaked American items to appeal to tourists’ tastes.

Padi, which opened around Labor Day, shares the same owner as Rasa Sayang, a Malaysian restaurant in Independence Mall. Rasa Sayang, however, has no plans to incorporate fusion, says Aaron Kwan, who’s worked at both places. “Malaysian food is already a mixture of Japanese, Thai, and Indian food together,” he says.

Except for a few dishes, such as the Indian-spiced chicken at Potstickers, most Asian fusion places lack Indian cuisine. “It’s heavier,” Wang explains. The closest Jasmine comes are Thai curries.

There are still many restaurants that remain dedicated to one cuisine. Think Saigon, the Vietnamese restaurant in Newark, and Wakita of Japan in Glen Mills, owned by Hiroyuki Maruyama, who once owned Yama, a sushi pioneer in Brandywine Hundred. Jeewong, in the Riverfront Market, focuses on Thai cuisine. And then there’s the veritable Bangkok House in Little Italy.

But fusion is becoming far more common. Even the Korean Barbecue in Newark has a sushi bar. Conversely, Kooma—a Japanese-influenced restaurant with locations on the Wilmington Riverfront and in West Chester—offers the Korean bibimbab, which means “mixed meal.” The kitchen combines such items as scrambled egg and beef on a bed of rice and vegetables served with hot sauce.

A devout Buddhist, Li Shih every day lights incense to “open the eyes” of his remarkable Buddha collection at Postickers. When it comes to relishing multiple cuisines at once, diners have clearly opened their eyes—and their appetites—to Asian fusion.

“Asian fusion is a culinary art form unto itself.

The more diverse and creatively talented the chef, the more innovative and exciting the fusion of flavors.

”

www.out-and-about.com

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UPCLOSE

Ancient Secrets,

Explained Sake and beer bring a Japanese custom to American palates

By Chip Owens

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hese days, Japanese and American cultures seem more similar than they are different. There’s a shared love of goofy television, like Iron Chef, Wipeout, and I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Americans and our Pacific Rim allies also share a common interest in social drinking, particularly in the evening. Drinking parties, for instance, are a common Japanese activity. Similar to a happy hour, these events are typically held at restaurants and are used to strengthen both social and business ties.

On a more serious note, the Japanese produce and consume a large variety of alcoholic beverages, many of which could be found in any bar in America, with one possible exception: sake. To most Americans, who prefer to drink their mealtime booze cold or at least “cellar temperature,” sake is an anomaly—a seemingly bland but potent alcoholic drink that’s served warm in small ceramic cups, like tea. But sake is anything but abnormal; in fact, it’s a diverse group of flavorful wines with deep cultural roots that dates from the third century.

In its basic form, sake, called nihonshu in Japan, is a naturally fermented alcoholic beverage, brewed using three simple ingredients: rice, water, and koji, a fungi enzyme that works with yeast to convert glucose into alcohol. As a result, the type of sake created is dependent on the kind of rice used, the quality of the water, and several other factors.

Sake takes about a month to brew and can be aged for another six months or more. Like Chardonnay, it should be refrigerated and consumed shortly after opening, but unopened it can last up to a year.

Sake typically has an alcohol content around 15 to 20 percent—the word sake is a Japanese term for alcohol— and is an almost transparent light amber or gold color. (A sake that appears yellowed is old.)

Sake offers a range of flavors, both delicate and powerful. Most sakes have a floral or fruity taste and can be earthy, very sweet, or dry.

Sake can be served warm or cold, whether chilled or over ice. It should never be served piping hot, because the heat destroys the flavor. Chilled sake assumes a fresh, fruity character and as such is most often served during warm weather. Some sakes are brewed specifically to be served chilled, which preserves the subtle, delicate flavor that warming can destroy. Other sakes are brewed to be more versatile and tend to have a slightly heartier flavor that is enjoyable both chilled and warmed.

There are literally hundreds of sake styles and brands available, and no introduction of this kind could be comprehensive enough. A good starting point is The Sake Handbook (Tuttle Publishing, 2002), which provides an overview of the many styles and flavors of sake, along with a tasting guide and notes to figure out which type is best suited to your palate. In the meantime, here are several sakes that I’ve tasted recently and could serve as an introduction. Î

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Gekkeikan, considered the American standard for sake, comes in several varieties. Gekkeikan Sake ($8.99), with its clear color and a light, rice taste, is ideal with a sushi dinner. It’s served warm at most Japanese restaurants, but be careful—if it’s too hot to touch, it’s hot enough to have ruined the flavor.

Gekkeikan Haiku Sake ($12.99) is considered a premium sake and, as such, is intended to be served only chilled. I like it on the rocks, which enhances its subtle green-apple flavor. It’s great paired with any fish or chicken dish.

Brewed according to the process originated in Japan in 1637, Gekkeikan Black & Gold Sake ($16.99) is versatile and can be served warm or cold, or in a creative sake-based cocktail, such as a Cherry Blossom, which includes a splash of grenadine and a lime wedge. Clean and crisp, with a floral nose, Black & Gold is a full-bodied and rich sake with a smooth and mellow flavor.

With its milky-white color and complex aromas (cashews, honey, and citrus), Yaegaki Sake ($14.49) is unique.

It offers a smooth, graceful, mediumbodied refreshment with a fruity-pepper finish. It’s also sweeter than expected, which makes it ideal to sip with dessert.

As with sake, rice forms the main ingredient in the production of beer in Japan. Essentially a Munich lager, the prevailing style of beer is pale yellow in color, with a moderate hop nose and bitterness, a rounded malty character, and a dry finish. Sapporo Beer ($7.49, 6pk) is one of the most popular brands and is a close relative of American macro-brews, such as Budweiser and Coors. Sapporo pours a clear, light straw color with a white fluff y head that leaves a spattering of lace in the glass. Rice and grains dominate the aromas and flavors, and contribute to its sweetness, overall.

Equally popular but somewhat different is Kirin Ichiban Beer ($6.99, 6pk), which offers a more noticeable wheat aroma with only a touch of rice flavor and slightly more bitterness. There’s also a larger, sweeter malt flavor, similar to a Sam Adams Boston Lager, that’s refreshing and easy to drink. Both beers are available in a light version as well.

Chip Owens is the general manager of Premier Wine & Spirits and has more than 30 years of retail experience.

www.out-and-about.com

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An Extraordinary Dining Experience

Make reservations now for special occasions Reservations Suggested | 1247 Churchmans Rd, Newark

visit our website – join our mailing list – potstickersasiangrill.com Live Well – Eat Healthy | Our food is made with the finest, freshest ingredients purchased locally whenever possible

ASK ABOUT OUR TAMAMI ROOM FOR YOUR PARTY OR SPECIAL EVENT! SUSHI PARTY TRAYS AVAI BLE!

JAPANESE CUISINE Eat In & Take Out

Featuring: Sushi – Sashimi Teriyaki – Tempura Special Rolls Bento Boxes – And Much More!

Bringing you the flavors, colors ors and allmarks of ambiance that are the hallmarks ng. enjoyable Japanese dining.

302.366.1188

2653 Kirkwood Highway, Newark DE

SushiSumoDelaware.com

17

1/20/2011 1:33:26 PM

Peace and Prosperity to All What we can learn from the Chinese New Year

By Stan Yau

O

LET US CATER TO YOU. From dinner parties to office get-togethers to weddings, let Janssen’s make your event special. We offer full-service catering, event planning, party rentals, floral arrangements, and more.

Contact our catering director today at (302) 654-9941 x3.

WWW.JANSSENSMARKET.COM 3801 KENNETT PIKE, GREENVILLE, DE 302.654.9941

18 . UpClose

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f the Chinese holidays, Chinese New Year is the most important. It’s considered a way to reconcile, to forget all grudges, and to wish peace and happiness to all. Integral parts of the celebration are the visiting of the dancing dragon to one’s place of business (to bring another year of success), red lanterns (which represent the Chinese color of prosperity), and loud firecrackers (to ward off negative spirits).

Chinese New Year lasts 15 days, and on “New Year’s Eve” (the first day of the month in which New Year’s occurs), families traditionally gather for a reunion dinner, usually at the home of elders, with a wide variety of culinary delicacies.

This meal includes one of my all-time favorite foods: “jioazi,” or traditional Chinese dumplings (better known as potstickers). These were thought to have luck packaged inside. In fact, when we were young, we would randomly put a coin in one of the dumplings we were making. Whoever got the dumpling with the coin inside was destined to have a very prosperous year (unless the unfortunate winner chipped a tooth during the discovery of it). Gong Xi Fa Cai are the words of congratulation, translated to mean “good fortune and prosperity.”

Other integral parts of the New Year feast at our house would include chicken, fish (or raw fish salad), “Buddha’s Delight” (a vegetarian dish signifying prosperity and made with a traditional Chinese favorite ingredient: tofu or soy-bean curd), pig, duck, and nian gao (New Year’s cake or pudding). Mandarin oranges (luck or fortune) are the most popular fruit during the Chinese New Year, as well as any other time when a gesture of wishing good future is appropriate. I also remember that peanuts were always on the table. In the old days, they were considered rare, and were only consumed by the wealthiest. (Try eating them with chopsticks when you’re hungry.)

On the 15th day of the New Year (Lantern Day), rice dumplings are the traditional meal, and candles may be lit outside homes to guide wayward spirits back.

Xin nian kuai le: A happy and tranquil New Year to all.

Stan Yau has lived in Delaware all his life. Currently an IT manager for SBR and a bartender at BBC Tavern & Grill, Yau has spent many years working in the hospitality industry.

February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:13:38 PM

EW !

R N MENT E D UN NAGE MA

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www.out-and-about.com

2_UpClose.indd 7

Malaysian Cuisine

Tuesday: Half price noodle dishes Thursday: Half price bottles of wine

Now accepting reservations for Valentine’s Day Independence Mall | Wilmington

rasasayangusa.com

19

1/20/2011 6:05:16 PM

How to Make Jiaozi Dumpling-wrapper ingredients

(you can also buy this prepackaged): 1 c dumpling flour from your local Chinese-food shop (or plain flour) ¼ c water Pinch of salt Filling ingredients:

450g minced pork 3 spring onions finely chopped 1 clove garlic, finely chopped A handful of finely chopped Chinese chives (or normal chives) I tbsp rice wine vinegar ½ tsp sesame oil Salt & white pepper to taste To serve: black vinegar and chili oil Instructions:

8BTIJOHUPO 4USFFU "MF )PVTF r .JLJNPUPT r 1SFTUP r 4UJOHSBZ

CherryTreeGroup.com 20 . UpClose

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1. For the filling, mix the ingredients and leave covered in the fridge while you make the dumpling wrappers. This allows the flavors to integrate.

2. To make the wrappers, combine the flour, salt, and water, and mix.

Knead until shiny and elastic for 10 minutes. You may want to add more water or flour; you want a mixture that is firm without being too wet.

3. Cover in cling film or put in a plastic bag for 30 minutes in the fridge. Roll your jiaozi wrappers by pulling off little balls (smaller than a dime) and rolling until thin (about as thin as pasta) and about 3 inches in diameter.

4. Brush the edges of the wrappers lightly with water (not too much, as they’ll get soggy). Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre and fold in a half-moon shape.

Press closed to ensure they’re sealed.

5. Add to boiling water for a few minutes. When they rise to the top, they’re cooked in theory, but do check by cutting into one, as you don’t want to eat raw pork. Also be careful to not boil for too long, as the wrapper may burst if it’s quite thin.

6. Serve with a dipping sauce of Chinese black vinegar with some chili oil.

1/20/2011 2:09:20 PM

“The chicken wings from Evergreen [3608 Miller Rd., Wilm.] can’t possibly be good for you, but they really hit the spot. The sweet-and-sour chicken from Happy Fortune [1808 Marsh Rd., Wilm.] is also one of those guilty pleasures.” — Michael Pollock, editor-in-chief “It’s not the healthy choice, but I like the General Tso’s chicken from my delivery spot, King Garden [214 W. Market St., Newport]. I like to load it up with hot mustard and a side of dumplings. I used to get steamed mixed veggies with white rice and spicy garlic sauce when I lived in Brooklyn, but I can’t seem to find a place with the perfect garlic sauce around these parts. Can anybody steer me in the right direction?”

— Matthew Loeb, creative/production manager (mloeb@catalystvisuals.com) “I go with the tofu, Szechuan-style, at Hong Kong in Trolley Square. Since they’re open late, it’s perfect for deadline nights when I’m here at the office and don’t have time to spend in the kitchen. Also, it’s delicious.

Sweet, spicy, and, from my experience, very consistent.”

— Shawna Sneath, senior graphic designer “When my husband and I were Newark dwellers, our goto spot was Golden Palace [1450 Kirkwood Hwy.]. Hong Kong [28A Trolley Sq.] is our favorite spot now that we live in Wilmington. I really like is the Singapore Mei Fun, a spicy, thin-noodle dish with lots of veggies, chicken, and shrimp.” — Marie Graham, sales director

Your Picks (courtesy of our Facebook fans) Ken Grant: “Sesame Chicken at Great Wall in Pike Creek.”

Eric Anderson: “The homemade egg rolls from Jeen Wong Thai Cuisine at the Riverfront Market are the best in the state, hands down.”

HIS

Brittany Wilson: “My favorite is a classic: chicken, broccoli, and white rice. Favorite place: Great Wall :).”

HER

S

Jonathan Perry: “Ginger Chicken at China Royale in Wilmington [off Marsh Road].”

Elizabeth Cox: “Chicken in black-bean sauce or chicken with cashews from Szechuan Restaurant [off Kirkwood Highway].”

“B

*

est

r Date Place Eve

... ” * - L.D. Ablo

Kathy Saxton: “Sesame-chicken combo from the Crownery Restaurant [Lantana Square].”

Dane R. Ciarlo: “Mongolian beef and Singapore rice noodles from P.F. Chang’s.”

Gaby O’Brien: “Vegetable fried rice from the Crownery in Lantana Square.”

Donna Dowell: “Shrimp in chili sauce from China Royale and hot-and-sour soup from Hong Kong in Trolley Square.”

2_UpClose.indd 9

21

1/21/2011 1:14:37 PM

Asian Fusion Jasmine 3618 Concord Pike, Wilm.

479-5618 Kooma 151 W. Gay St., West Chester 400 Justison St., Wilm. gokoomarestaurant.com Korean Barbecue 3 Liberty Plaza, Newark 455-9100 Le Shio 2303A Concord Pike, Wilm.

888-0145; leshio.com Masamoto 1810 Wilmington Pike, Glen Mills (610) 358-5538 masamotosushi.com Mikimotos 1212 Washington St., Wilm.

656-8638; mikimotos.com Padi 700 Lantana Dr., Hockessin 239-1800; padirestaurant.com

Stingray 59 Lake Ave., Rehoboth Beach (302) 227-6476 stingrayrestaurant.com Sushi Sumo 2651 Kirkwood Hwy., Newark 366-1188 Takumi 1601 Concord Pike, Wilm.

658-8887; besttakumi.com

Indian Palace of Asia 3421 Kirkwood Hwy., Wilm.

994-9200; palace-of-asia.com

Thai Bangkok House 104 N. Union St., Wilm.

654-8555 Jeenwong 3 S. Orange St. 655-5140; jeenwongs.com

Vietnamese Saigon 207 Newark Shopping Ctr. 737-1590; thesaigonrestaurant.com

Malaysian Rasa Sayang 1601 Concord Pike, Wilm.

543-5286; rasasayangusa.com

Japanese Wakita of Japan 1102 Baltimore Pike, Glen Mills (610) 558-4043; wakitaofjapan.com

Potstickers 1247 Churchmans Rd., Newark 731-0188; potstickersasiangrill.com

22 . Food & Drink

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February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:16:22 PM

FOOD&DRINK

>>>TASTE

Table for Two For restaurants, Valentine’s Day is both a gift and a curse.

One chef tells all.

By Robert Lhulier Robert Lhulier is the executive chef at the University & Whist Club and author of the blog forkncork.blogspot.com.

www.out-and-about.com

2_FoodDrink.indd 1

I

f New Year’s Eve is the night for people who never go out to make up for a lousy year, Valentine’s Day is the night for them to get their groove on and a surf-n-turf dinner at the same time.

As a chef, I’m always charged with creating a themed menu for Valentine’s Day that often includes hokey-named dishes, red foods, or dishes recommended for “two.” I can safely say I’ve utilized every ingredient known to man that is perceived to be an aphrodisiac. It’s excessive, for sure, but it works. Menu buzzwords go something like this: lobster, oysters, truffles, foie gras, caviar, Champagne, oysters, chocolate, oysters, avocado, and oysters. Not necessarily in that order.

What is it about over-the-top menus that are supposed to inspire amorous feelings and feisty appetites? And do people actually “get any” on Valentine’s Day? I’m guessing that after a rich menu like that, certainly not without any pharmacological help.

You tend to become desensitized by holidays when you’re in the business.

As with New Year’s, there tends to be a lot of hype and high expectations.

Add in the Valentine’s couple who was already on the brink of a major argument but decided to go out for dinner anyway, and it’s a recipe for either a perfect storm or some hilarious people-watching (depending on how masochistic your personality).

Granted, working in an open kitchen, for example, as I did at Deep Blue, allows one to be in on some of the mayhem. I

once watched a woman throw her entire entrée at her man and retreat to the restroom. The remarkably calm dining companion sat back (toweled off ) and waited. Twenty minutes later, the woman returned from the restroom, ordered another entrée and left with the man.

Talk about “eats, shoots and leaves” (!).

Restaurants work hard setting the right mood to get your reservation but then pack the dining room to the hilt to turn it three times. It’s the hardest money you’ll ever earn in the restaurant business on Valentine’s Day. And, you may or may not see those customers again in the next 364 days. I always cringed when the calls came in, “Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?” And, after a thorough menu dissection, they all want to book at 7 p.m. and ask for a “quiet corner out of the way.” Sure. It’s called the restroom.

I’ve become a bit impish the last few years on Feb. 14, hanging out in the dining room and waiting for some dude to flub his marriage proposal or get dissed. I check out the mysterious Valentine’s “three-top” to see what that’s all about. I look for mismatched couples and try to spot the blind dates. And I love the “happily married couple” who sit quietly and stare about the dining room with nothing to talk about. It’s all great theatre.

But for those who do have an agenda and just seem to be looking for time to kill before, er, um, a trip to the pharmacy, my recommendation for dinner? Take-out, baby.

23

1/21/2011 1:17:06 PM

FOOD&DRINK

CHOCOLATE-CELLO

LIQUEUR Courtesy of John Cherney, Foodie and principal at Wealth Transfer Alliance

M

ake this recipe when you want to have a lot of liqueur on hand—it yields enough to fill three and a half 750-ml bottles (easily found online or at a neighborhood liquor store). Share the love and give a bottle or two the next time you’re in need of a host(ess) gift. You’ll be the belle (or beau) of the ball.

Combine: 750 ml grain alcohol 5 ¼ c Parmalat 2% fat-free milk 3 ½ c (1 lb., 11 ½ ozs.) sugar 1 bottle (18.5 oz) Hershey’s Lite chocolate syrup

TIP: You can make many different kinds of cocktails and martinis with this cello. Here are a few suggestions: >Try making a chocolate espresso martini: 1 1/2 parts choc-cello, 1 part vanilla vodka and 2 parts espresso. >If you like Nutella (hazelnut and chocolate spread), try a liquid version: 1 1/2 parts choc-cello, 1 1/2 parts Frangelico, and a splash of milk. Serve on ice.

Mix together to dissolve the sugar.

If you want the mixture slightly thicker, add ½ tsp. xanthan gum (thickener powder) Bottle and store in the freezer.

Ready to serve anytime—after dinner or on top of ice cream & fresh berries.

2_FoodDrink.indd 2

1/20/2011 1:17:34 PM

getting

CRAFTY { Select beer

{

events you don’t want to miss BBC Tavern & Grill bbctavernandgrill.com Feb. 16: Memorial fundraiser for Barbara Conway, with bartending tips and proceeds benefiting the Wellness Community of Delaware. 6-9pm.

Dogfish Head dogfish.com Feb. 6: Brewer’s Brunch. Choose from small plates or large plates and a selection of cocktails. 9-11am.

Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day beer dinner. In partnership with Henlopen City Oyster House. Reservations suggested.

Iron Hill ironhillbrewery.com Feb. 2: Wilmington Mug Club Appreciation Night. Guest brewer: Casey Hughes of Flying Fish. 6-8pm.

Feb. 16: Wilmington Mug Club Appreciation Night. Beer-and-cheese pairings.

Feb. 17: Single-malt scotch tasting at Newark location. 7-9pm. Reservations required.

March 2: Wilmington Mug Club Appreciation Night. Irish beers. 6-8pm.

State Line Liquors Family owned (3 generations) & operated for over 37 years! www.statelineliquors.com

Stocking nearly 2,000 different beers • Singles, packs & cases Special Events and Tastings Visit our website or

for details

Gourmet Food & Cheeses Sign up for our Discount Club Card details online: statelineliquors.com

Over 75 Single Malt Scotches

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Gift Baskets Available

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2_FoodDrink.indd 3

1/20/2011 6:29:14 PM

É"Ažne nĂ“Ă? -Â?úúA Â?ÂŁ n˜AĂ´AĂ?nĂŠ 40 2¨eAĂś ¯¯Ù¯ß É9¨Ă?ne nĂ“Ă? -Â?úúAĂŠ /nAenĂ?ĂŒĂ“ άÂ?[n "nĂ´Ă“ ¨ÌĂ?ÂŁA˜

" $ #

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Valentine’s Dinner You don’t need to go out to get a homemade meal! Try our famous, made from scratch Valentine’s Dinner

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For the main course, choose from these two entrees: Petite Filet Mignon with a spicy honey mustard glaze, caramelized onions and fresh mushrooms.

6cbY`Ygg W\]W_Yb VfYUgh ghi YX k]h\ cif ZUacig WfUV ]adYf]U` UbX hcddYX k]h\ cif AUfm`UbX WfUV gUiWY"

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Please order ahead. Available for pick-up 2/12–2/14 www.Bache is.com | www.ChocolateWaterfall.com | 302.994.4467 | 4723 Kirkwood Hwy. Midway Plaza 26 . Food & Drink

2_FoodDrink.indd 4

1/21/2011 1:18:41 PM

SMALL

BITES Landmark restaurant in Little Italy re-opens For more than a year, Little Italy was without one of its most popular eateries. In the fall of 2009, Pastabilities owner Luigi Vitrone fell into a coma and nearly died. He spent 2010 recovering. Now back on his feet again, he kicked off the new year by marking a milestone—the re-opening of his restaurant. Stop in at 415 N. Lincoln St. and wish him well.

Guest chef comes to the Green Room Many would say that the dining at the Green Room at Hotel du Pont is already superb. But this month, there’s more.

From Feb. 3-5, certified worldwide Master Chef Wolfgang Vomend will be serving up unique dishes in the Green Room. Master Chef Vomend is one of only 72 master chefs in the United States, and the only native German. He has served as executive chef at Safir Hotels in Egypt, has won two gold and two silver medals in the Worldwide Olympic Culinary Competition, and has been knighted by the Chaine des Rotisseurs.

He currently serves as executive chef at the AAA Four Diamond Bavarian Inn & Lodge in Sheperdstown, WV. During his visit to the Hotel du Pont, he will offer a three-course prix fixe tasting menu on Thursday and Friday (Feb. 3 and 4) for $40. On Saturday, Feb. 5, he will create a three-course $50 Epicurean tasting menu.

For more info or to make a reservation information, visit hoteldupont.com/dining or call 594-3154.

FireStone helps Absolut launch new vodka Absolut Vodka will unveil its newest flavorful creation with a launch party held at FireStone on the Wilmington Riverfront on Tuesday, Feb. 8 from 8 to 10 p.m. Absolut Wild Tea combines black tea and elderflower for a strong but sweet cocktail. Complimentary samples will be on hand and Point-to-Point tailgate spots will be raffled off. For more on the event, see pg. 29.

www.out-and-about.com

2_FoodDrink.indd 5

Wine & Chocolate Month Bring your sweetheart and celebrate with special wine and chocolate pairings at each winery!

Coming in March: Barrels on the Brandywine 4 weekends, 7 wineries, Barrels of Fun! bvwinetrail.com

610-444-3842 27

1/20/2011 1:27:21 PM

FOOD&DRINK

5 Questions with Frank Pagliaro Owner, Frank’s Union Wine Mart

I

n 1986, Earl Pagliaro purchased the old bowling alley at 1206 N. Union St. in Wilmington and invited his son, Frank, to run the liquor business located there, called Gallucio’s Liquors. He invited his son, Frank, to run the business.

Although the job interrupted his studies at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Frank Pagliaro was game. After all, his friends joked, he’d already earned an honorary diploma in the moderate consumption of alcohol with an emphasis on beer funnels. The detour put Pagliaro on a career path that’s remained steady.

In 1993, he and wife Nina took over the business and rechristened it Frank’s Union Wine Mart. And, oh, the changes he’s seen.

28 . Food & Drink

2_FoodDrink.indd 6

What was your most popular varietal 25 years ago?

Nineteen eighty-six was right about the start of the white zinfandel craze, which was popularized by Sutter Home.

I personally never cared for the crap, as you’ll read on my window: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink White Zinfandel.”

What’s been the most unappreciated varietal over the years?

Without a doubt, Riesling. And it still is today. The legacy of German Riesling in the American market faces what I call the “Blue Nun problem.” In the 1970s and ’80s, German wine became almost synonymous with a certain breed of inferior, ubiquitous, regional wines.

Typically not even made from Riesling, they were usually from Müller-Thurgau [a white grape], grown on flat sites on the wrong side of the river—if they even came from Germany at all. Just this past year, we’ve quadrupled our German Riesling section with a total of 56 selections, all from the stellar 2009 vintage.

Can you really smell chocolate and strawberries in a glass of wine?

Absolutely. And sometimes less desirable scents as well, like barnyard, petrol, and rotten egg.

Do you swish and spit? Or do you swallow?

At trade tastings and with reps at the shop, I always spit. Hey, what can I say? I’m working. But when tasting with customers at the shop, I always join them and swallow. After work and on the weekends, I’m a swallower.

What’s going to be the next big thing in wine trends?

In-home wine tastings are the next big thing, which has been happening for the last 18 months or so. We’ve had an influx of requests for wine-tasting presentations at milestone birthday parties, bridal showers, dinner parties, and cocktail parties. My staff loves it, too. They get to schmooze with customers, present cool selections, and talk wine all night.

February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:19:00 PM

an EXOTIC blend of BLACK TEA & ELDERFLOWER

Join us at

THE ABSOLUT WILD TEA LAUNCH PARTY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 8–10pm AT FIRESTONE’S POINT TO POINT TAILGATE RAFFLE COMPLIMENTARY WILD TEA SAMPLES* LIVE MUSIC BY RICHIE O *one per guest

2_FoodDrink.indd 7

1/21/2011 1:20:42 PM

COUPLES

Lessons in Love Four couples share their stories on a life full of love Brad & Danny Smith

What’s your secret? “Laughter. Every day, we make each

Place of residence: Newark How they met: “We met through a mutual friend several years before we started dating, but it wasn’t until 2007 that we finally got together,” Danny says. “We were legally married in September 2010 at a small courthouse ceremony in D.C. A few days later, we had a more formal ceremony led by one of our best friends, and a reception at the Baby Grand in Wilmington. We recently moved into our own home with our cat, Memphis.”

other smile and laugh. Life is too short not to enjoy the time we have. Fortunately, both sets of our parents have been strong examples of loving and successful partnerships.”

How do you keep things interesting? “Every couple of months we try to take a day or two off together. Sometimes what’s most special about those days is just being able to sleep in and spend the day at home. We also share a love for photography and travel, and try to take a few short trips throughout the year. It’s nice to get away from everyday life.”

Maryann & Bill Loeb Place of residence: Newark What’s your secret? “We’ve always felt that we needed to respect each other’s ideas and capabilities, even when they didn’t necessarily fit the preconceived notions we may have had in the beginning of our relationship.”

How do you keep things interesting? “We make it a point to participate in life, not just coast. We keep an open mind to new ideas, music, art, and other activities. Most importantly, family and friends keep us forever young.”

2_Couples.indd 2

1/21/2011 1:21:31 PM

Onie Rollins & Frank “Clete” Graham Place of residence: North Wilmington How they met: “We’re both passionate about the sport of rowing, which is what brought us together at a regatta in Philadelphia in 1995,” Onie says. “Clete was the regatta director, and I had questions about entries I was submitting for Wilmington Rowing Center. We hit it off over the phone, met at the regatta, and had our first date a few weeks later. Not wanting to rush things, we finally were married in 2008—after a 13-year engagement!”

What’s your secret? “We give each other time to pursue individual interests and our separate rowing commitments, but keep sacred the time set aside for date night each week.”

How do you keep things interesting?

“We love to travel, whether it’s frequent trips to D.C. and Cape May for long weekends or Europe for longer vacations. It’s a great way to share new experiences.”

Richard James & Kirsten Olson Place of residence: Bellefonte How they met: “Kirsten and I met while we were both doing resident volunteer work at the Meeting Ground homeless shelter in Cecil County, Maryland. Kirsten had just graduated from college and I had recently completed a stint at Washington D.C.’s Community for Creative Non-Violence, another homelessness and housing-advocacy service organization. We lived and worked at the shelter for about another two years after getting married, and then moved to Newark after Kirsten got a job with Head Start in Cecil County. After we both ended up getting jobs in Wilmington, we moved to Trolley Square, then bought a house in 40 Acres. Our daughter Lucy was born in 1999.”

What’s your secret? “We love each other, we have a wonderful kid, a home, and many pets. We enjoy each other’s company and respect each other. We share a lot of the same interests and we do a good job of sharing household responsibilities and other obligations, so they don’t get in the way of doing fun stuff. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

How do you keep things interesting? “We like to travel, take day trips and go to museums, galleries, and events. We like to visit new restaurants and spend time with interesting people.”

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MOVIES

1

STAR

The Hornet and the Hookup Unconventional casting troubles two recent releases

By Mark Fields

I

t’s difficult to say which bit of unconventional casting strains credibility more: intense, earnest Natalie Portman as a commitment-phobe doctor seeking no-strings sex, or stoner-slacker dude Seth Rogen as a crime-fighting vigilante.

But two mid-winter movies, No Strings Attached and The Green Hornet, both suffer from the attempts to force popular performers into characters ill-suited for their talents. Though, in neither case is that the only problem with the films.

Natalie Portman has a deserved reputation as one of Hollywood’s most engaging and thoughtful young talents. The dedicated but unstable dancer Nina in her most recent film, Black Swan, a feverish psycho-thriller, joins a list of provocative roles in films such as V for Vendetta, Closer, Garden State, and The Other Boleyn Girl.

www.out-and-about.com

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So it’s more than a little unsettling to see her prancing around in her bra and panties with Ashton Kutcher in No Strings Attached, playing a young medical resident determined to go through life (or at least the twenty-something years) without romantic ties. It’s like catching your little sister making out behind the bleachers: It’s just not something you’re comfortable seeing.

Surprisingly, Kutcher, as Portman’s cooperative “sex friend,” fares far better in the film. Kutcher has always been hampered as a movie performer by his perpetually goofy face (and his fratboy offscreen antics). Here he manages to evoke a winsome sense of vulnerability from his role.

The lurching, stale script of the movie doesn’t help either actor’s cause. Like most contemporary paint-by-numbers romantic comedies, No Strings Attached is unimaginative and unconvincing. We want to see the two appealing leads end up together; it’s an expected conceit of the romantic comedy genre. But to be truly satisfying, there has to be a plausible path (and some formidable obstacles) to their eventual pairing.

Screenwriter Elizabeth Meriwether, in her debut script, demonstrates that she can create some clever turns of phrase and witty dialogue, but she still has a lot to learn about inventive yet plausible plot structure. continued on page 35

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The Hornet and the Hookup continued from page 33

No Strings Attached, like its lead performers, has its charms. There is some minor amusement in the gender role reversal: The female character is the one seeking guilt-free sex and the male is the one who wants a loving relationship.

And many of the supporting characters (especially Mindy Kaling as a fellow doctor and friend of Portman’s, and Lake Bell as an incredibly neurotic co-worker of Kutcher’s) are refreshingly off-beat and frequently funny.

But in the end, No Strings Attached has little new to offer the viewer other than an awkward glimpse of Natalie Portman that seems beneath her, and us.

The Green Hornet, at press time already on its way to being the latest smash superhero movie, has to be one of the oddest entries in that crowded genre.

Odd, yes; and stupid, and noisy, and ultimately aggravating.

Rogen not only stars as the wastrel rich boy-turned-masked vigilante, he also co-wrote the script. The film plays as if one of Rogen’s signature stoner characters decided, mid-buzz, it would be really cool to make a movie and to fill it up with all the things that he and his half-baked friends would like: clever hero weapons and cars, slo-mo fistfights, and lots and lots and lots of stuff blowing up.

Unfortunately, just like all goofball ideas hatched while one is high, this one doesn’t make so much sense, or seem nearly so cool, when everybody’s sober.

It’s as incoherent and unjustifiably selfsatisfied as its lead character, and a colossal waste of time for the audience.

The one bright spot: It didn’t give me the munchies.

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MOVIES

If We Gave the Oscars…

By Mark Fields

T

he National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences gives out its annual movie awards on Feb. 25. Between now and then, many gallons of ink and pixels of digital copy will be devoted to trying to predict who will take home the coveted Oscars for 2010. But we have taken a contrary path, honoring films and performances that would receive the awards if we gave them out. Sorry, no Governor’s Ball to follow.

Actors win Oscars for performances that have any of the following characteristics: portraying an actual person, evoking a character with a physical or mental affliction, or playing a part that requires some kind of physical transformation. As for me, I tend to favor performances that are humane and nuanced, especially when the actor or actress involved shows us something we haven’t seen before. www.out-and-about.com

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Best Supporting Actor Geoffrey Rush Christian Bale is impressive if a little showy as Dicky Ecklund in The Fighter, and Matt Damon does a quirky turn in True Grit, but Geoffrey Rush is subdued yet assured as speech therapist to the King, Lionel Logue, in The King’s Speech.

Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo With an over-the-top performance that still works, Leo is a bottle-blonde revelation as Alice, the pile-driving mother in The Fighter. I also liked Amy Adams (also in The Fighter), Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right, and Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit (in reality, a leading performance), but this year, it’s Leo by decision.

Best Actor Mark Wahlberg All the buzz is about Colin Firth as the stuttering monarch in The King’s Speech. Firth is terrific as always, and playing an afflicted real person, he has two of the three Oscar-winning traits.

But Wahlberg’s solid performance as Mickey Ward holds the entire film together and continues to resonate long after the movie ends.

Best Actress Natalie Portman Nicole Kidman was too calculating in Rabbit Hole. Annette Bening wears the role of Nic in The Kids Are All Right like a pair of comfy slippers. But Natalie Portman as the aspiring ballerina Nina embodies the creative, deranged heart of the ballet psycho-thriller Black Swan.

Best Director Christopher Nolan Best Picture Inception I’ve never understood how these awards could not be paired; it’s hard to imagine a great movie without the direction of it being great as well. In this case, it’s a no-brainer, or rather a brainteaser. This complicated, confident film meets the test of any winner in my book. Did I want to see it again?

An emphatic yes…as soon as it ended the first time. Visually stunning (with effects that support the story, not stand in for it) and dense in narrative, Nolan’s Inception demonstrates the power and the pleasure of the film medium in the hands of a master.

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We miss you, Roxie! (Aug. 2005 — Dec. 2008)

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ooooo…I thought we would start this back off with some call outs and a few jabs at some of our team names. As you can see we here in DSL take things pretty seriously. With names like Inflatable Companions and Mr. Ball Jangles it is obvious that this is serious competition out here. I do want to give a shout out to my boy Spencer Graves and my girl Nancy Johnson from “The Wakeup Crew on WSTW”…at least Nancy actually got out there and played…I’m sure when Spence’s tummy feels better he will get out there.

Finally everyone I cannot put into words what it was like at this year’s ROXIE Awards. The emotion in that room and the fun that we had was something that I know I will never forget and will spend a lifetime trying to top. Thanks for a great night everyone! We will get the pictures up in next month’s issue.

Have a Great February!

Monthly Highlights...

WILMINGTON DODGEBALL: In Week 1 Stacy Newman was a one girl show in the final game. She used her ball handling experience in the final game to take out Angela Maida and Megan Mooney with laser like throws that hit them in the legs. Way to go, STSI!

BEACH DODGEBALL: As we head into the playoffs for this “Fall” Season that weather has brought right into the dead of winter. Dodge These, lead by Joanna Kolar, are our Regular Season Champions! As everyone makes the playoffs in DSL we will see what happens in the playoffs!

Upcoming Events & Outings: HAPPENING IN FEBRUARY: •Spring Registrations Begin!

•DSL/Bud Light Phillies Trip Happy Hours Begin!

DSL MONDAY BOWLING: Bowling has just started for the winter at AMF Price Lanes…we think we have a great name in “No F in Strikes” lead by Allison Ash. There is this one that has Mance in it too…but you’ll have to go to the website to see that one DSL CO-ED FLAG FOOTBALL: Going along with the name theme we have Fallopian Swim Team that is pretty darn funny, you can thank Pete Capriotti for that one. We have some new teams in the league for the Winter so we want to welcome Clay Monsters, Silverside Heights, and Sacks & Racks…subtle Glanzel…subtle…

XX . MUSIC

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ROXIE IMAGES UP ON-LINE: DelawareSportsLeague.com

It is the policy of Delaware Sports League that all members and/or those participating in Delaware Sports League games, events and/or outings must be 21 years of age or older. Neither athletic ability nor the consumption of alcohol is a requirement to participate in Delaware Sports League games, events, or outings. This is about the people, not the party. The only MAY 2008 | O&A XX requirement is that you are open to all people, treat them well, be safe with yourself and others, and have fun!

1/20/2011 6:37:57 PM

(L-R) Pete Romano, Mark Stallard, and Phil Young

Birds of a Feather For the 40-somethings who play in the bravely named Cocks, success takes on a whole new meaning

By Michael Pollock

T

here are several reasons why you may not be familiar with the Cocks. One is that, after being together for seven years and occasionally playing live, the Wilmington/New Castle-based power-poppy bar-rock band is just now releasing its first album (Tuesday Morning Hangover, which saw a CDrelease party at Mojo Main in December). Another reason is that the band—guitarist/vocalist Phil Young, 42; bassist/vocalist Mark Stallard, 44; and drummer Pete Romano, 39—comes from the scattered ashes of several other local bands through the decades, including the Rubber Uglies (Young and Stallard), Suckee (Young and Stallard), Pigeonhole (Young and Stallard), the Knobs (Young), and Gangster Pump (Romano), and tracing its origins requires something of a family tree. (Complicating the branches is Young’s involvement as drummer in Bos Taurus.)

A third reason is that the band is named, um, the Cocks.

And if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, you’re in on the joke. It made for an awkward online experience when this writer decided to “like” the Cocks on Facebook: “Michael likes The Cocks.” www.out-and-about.com

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MUSIC

“You can’t have a conversation about the band without the double entendres flowing,” Romano says over a Yuengling at Kelly’s Logan House, where the band will be performing next month. True to spirit, Cocks stickers and T-shirts feature a drawing of a rooster, as if to ask, ‘Who’s the pervert here?’

“It’s a bird—a cock is a bird,” Stallard says of the imagery. “You could say it has to do with being from Delaware,” Romano adds, tongue also in cheek. (The state bird is the Blue Hen chicken, famous for its ability to scrap.)

But to call yourselves the Cocks invites more than double entendres. It means being OK with having your book judged by its cover. “The name is sometimes too much for people to deal with,” Romano admits. (Bands like F—ked Up and Pissed Jeans can relate.) “Some of the press kits we’re sending out to get reviews and shows—they don’t know how to take it.”

“It’s almost like a car wreck,” Stallard says. “You can’t help look or be intrigued.” And while the name has its disadvantages— Stallard feels it implies a kind of “nasty heavy metal” in the vein of Motorhead—at least it helps the band stand out. “If there’s any type of buzz,” Romano says, “the name will probably be an advantage.”

AT THE RISK OF OFFENDING His Majesty Lemmy Kilmister, the Cocks don’t sound like Motorhead. But they do borrow an awful good lot from Cracker, Spoon, Wilco—“I put A.M. on whenever we record,” says Young, who has a studio in his New Castle home, “to listen to drum sounds and calibrate my ears”— continued on next page

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Birds of a Feather continued from previous page

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and Sparklehorse, whose leader, the late Mark Linkous, Young calls “one of the greatest singer/songwriters nobody ever heard about.” Young is genuinely upset that the world won’t hear another new Sparklehorse album.

Mark Linkous committed suicide last year in Knoxville. He was a tortured soul who took his time between records, in part because he was a mostly one-man band attempting to combine samples and electronic sounds with more traditional arrangements, producing ragged textures but unifying moods.

That approach is not lost on the guys who made Tuesday Morning Hangover, the title of which is a nod to the many Monday nights it took to make the album.

Opener “Turns Around the Corner” has been floating around in various states since 2004. Three-part closer “The Profiteers” is Stallard’s concept piece about a soldier in war, with an opening stitched out of radio frequencies. “One Day” draws from Young’s recent divorce.

They’re songs, upbeat in tempo and with jangle-pop hooks, framed by history and tragedy. Young and Stallard have been playing together in bands for more than 20 years, dating back to their run with the Rubber Uglies, which, in its prime, took the second stage at Lollapalooza in 1992. They started writing songs together as the Cocks in 2005. Before that, Young spent time in the Knobs, fronted by songwriter/guitarist Phil Healy. “I was Phil No. 2,” Young says.

In July 2004, Healy, driving drunk on Delaware Rt. 1 near the beaches, crashed into a state trooper. They both died. A year before Healy’s death, the Knobs had finished their next album, the ironically titled The Knobs Breakup and Die. (Knob bassist Kevin Cheeseman, another close friend of Young’s, died in 1999.)

For a while, Young couldn’t bring himself to do anything with the Knobs album. “I knew there had to be at least a couple of years of cool-down with those songs, because of the circumstances of Phil’s death,” Young says. Breakup and Die eventually came out, in 2009. The release of Tuesday Morning Hangover—so soon after the Knobs got their closure—is another milestone, and a relief.

January  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:29:43 PM

“To finish something that you started years ago,” Young says, “to me, it’s about getting it done and being happy with it.”

BACK WHEN Young and Stallard were in the Rubber Uglies, the idea of getting signed and breaking out of Delaware may have been a goal. But there are no illusions of fame and fortune with the Cocks.

“I can’t stop playing,” Stallard says. “It’s almost something you have to do. I’d go crazy if I didn’t do it. But I don’t want to go back to that time when it was all about business. Back then, we were young, we were good, and we had nothing to lose. But I had a business mindset toward the Uglies, and I think it took a lot of the fun out of it.

It probably hurt us in a lot of ways.”

“They all just love music,” says Ryan Cormier, who’s written about the Cocks and the Knobs for The News Journal and delawareonline.com. “I think it’s really cathartic for them, Phil especially.”

Cormier has been hearing the 12 songs on Hangover “on and off for years now— at live shows, impromptu jams, or on demo discs Phil would leave under my windshield wiper. It’s really great to finally hear them fully treated and fleshed out, whether it’s the banjo on ‘Too Long’ or the nighttime atmospherics of ‘Apartment Life.’ It all works. Some of those songs are so catchy, I’d wake up with them in my head after hearing them the night before.

With all the work that’s gone into the album, I just hope it gets heard.”

New fans won’t be so familiar with the Cocks’ messy history. But they won’t have to be. It’s somewhere in the mix, the right notes from half a dozen other bands making a bunch of forty-somethings feel 20 again.

“Our past, it doesn’t haunt us, but I like to keep it close,” Young says. “We’ve been in some really good bands. I don’t want to shelve any of them. We couldn’t be here without that.”

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1/21/2011 1:33:23 PM

MUSIC

Grammy Slam Predicting the unpredictable

By Michael Pollock

B

ack in 2009, I wrote a short piece in this magazine detailing that year’s Grammy Awards, focusing on my favorite category, Album of the Year. The nominees were remarkably different from the usual fare: Radiohead, Lil Wayne, Coldplay, and Ne-Yo had produced the finest work of their careers. The inclusion of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand felt obligatory and non-threatening, like letting grandpa handle the Wii. After years of nominating, and rewarding, records by artists whose best days were clearly behind them, it seemed the Grammys had finally come to their senses.

Alas, Plant & Krauss took top honors, joining Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles (posthumously), U2, Norah Jones, and Steely Dan on the shockingly safe list of Album of the Year winners from the decade. (OK, Outkast, too.)

So my track record for predicting awards—or anything, for that matter—is nothing to speak of. But I’m tweaking my picks this year to reflect the way Grammy thinks. Here, then, I present my predictions for the 53rd Grammy Awards in the four major categories, as well as what I feel are the rightful nominees. Tune in to CBS on Sunday, Feb. 13 to see if I’m right (or why I’m wrong).

by Eminem; “Nothin’ on You” by B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars; “California Girls” by Katy Perry; “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys; and “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum.

Who will win: Of the three nominated songs I know, I hate two of them. I don’t hate “Need You Now.” It’s country that doesn’t sound like country, and Grammy eats that up.

Record of the Year The nominees: “Nothin’ on You” by B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars; “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna; “F*** You”

by Cee Lo Green; “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys; “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum What the nominees should look like: I’ve actually heard all these songs, so if nothing else, they probably were the biggest records of the year.

Who will win: Jay-Z has a strong chance with “Empire,” as does Eminem, but “F*** You,” one of the most annoying songs ever written, is a shoo-in. I ignore this song every chance I get. (Unless my daughter is in the car. It’s catchy on the radio.)

Album of the Year Best New Artist The nominees: Justin Bieber; Drake; Florence & the Machine; Esperanza Spalding; Mumford & Sons What the nominees should look like: I’m still not sure if Justin Bieber actually released any music last year, but that’s a solid list; very diverse. The ubiquitous Bruno Mars, who wrote more hit songs in 2010 than some people write in a lifetime, is the only name I’d swap in.

Who will win: Esperanza Spalding is wildly promising, but her haircut does not define a generation. Justin, it’s yours.

Song of the Year* The nominees: “Beg, Steal or Borrow” by Ray LaMontagne; F*** You” by Cee Lo Green; “The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert; “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna; “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum What the nominees should look like: *Keep in mind, this award goes to the songwriters (not listed above), not the artist (that’s Record of the Year, below). Let’s change it up with “Not Afraid”

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The nominees: The Suburbs by the Arcade Fire; Recovery by Eminem; Need You Now by Lady Antebellum; The Fame Monster

by Lady Gaga; Teenage Dream by Katy Perry What the nominees should look like*: Keep Eminem and the Arcade Fire and add I Learned the Hard Way by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, How I Got Over by the Roots, and The Guitar Song

by Jamey Johnson. Now that’s a category. (*The eligibility period for nominees was Sept. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010. So if you’re wondering why Kanye got overlooked, he didn’t. Yet.) Who will win: This is really anyone’s night. Antebellum was a hit at last year’s show, Perry is a great pop star, Gaga’s songs still have steam, and it’s hard finding anyone who’ll say something bad about Arcade Fire. I have a feeling Eminem goes home happy. Recovery enjoyed warm reviews and was the year’s biggest-selling release, and Em is up for nine other Grammys, including Song and Record of the Year. (He’s also been nominated for Album of the Year twice before.) Plus, it’s a comeback story—odd as it sounds, Eminem is a safe bet. Still, it’s heavy, lyrically explicit stuff. Can the Grammys bring themselves to give him their biggest honor?

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Beach House Feb. 24: The Trocadero Coming off its best year ever, the Baltimore dream-pop duo swings by Philly.

The Bullbuckers (ska/funk) Feb. 19: Home Grown Café myspace.com/bullbuckers The Bullets (rockabilly) Thursdays @ Blue Parrot myspace.com/ theoriginalbullets The Cocks (bar rock) Feb. 4: Fresh Thymes Café on the Art Loop (Phil Young solo performance) March 4: Kelly’s Logan House (opening for Ike) thecocksonline.com Steve Earle Feb. 27: Johnny Brenda’s The prolific storyteller (and godfather of the alt.country movement) performs a solo acoustic show in benefit of Witness to Innocence.

The Hold-Up (roots rock) Tuesdays @ Blue Parrot myspace.com/thebigholdup Kennett Flash (select shows) Feb. 6, 13, 20, 27: Open-mic nights w/Butch Zito Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28: Blue Monday blues jam Feb. 11: Sonya Kitchell (singer/songwriter) Feb. 12: Mason Porter (folk/rock) Feb. 18: Medea (folk/rock) Feb. 26: The Black Ties (rock) kennettflash.org

Mojo 13 (select events) Feb. 19: Tric Town (indiemusic showcase) Tuesdays @ 9pm: Karaoke Champs Hosted by Gentle Jones & featuring a trophy prize (also hosted at Mojo Main in Newark on Thursdays starting at 9pm) myspace.com/mojothirteen New Sweden (roots rock) Feb. 12: Mojo Main Look for a new video, and album, from the 2010 Musikarmageddon winners in the coming months. newswedenmusic.com Spokey Speaky (reggae rock) Thursdays @ D&H Jamaican Cuisine spokeyspeaky.com Stallions (rock) Feb. 12: Mojo Main myspace.com/thisisstallions Villains Like You (blues/garage rock) Feb. 4: The Wedge, Landenberg villainslikeyou.com War (funk/jam) Feb. 11: Grand Opera House The melting-pot band’s memorable hits from the 1970s continue to find audiences decades later via samples, covers, and their use in movies and TV shows.

1/20/2011 2:24:28 PM

STAFF PICKS Ghostface Killah Apollo Kids Wire Red Barked Tree Saigon “The Color Purple” DJ Quik “Change Da Game” —Michael Pollock, O&A editor-in-chief

Something For Everyone.

Baths Cerulean Little Dragon Machine Dreams — Joy Smoker, O&A art director

Yim Yames Tribute To Explosions in the Sky “Memorial” The Album Leaf “Summer Fog” — Matthew Loeb, O&A creative/ production manager

WVUD.ORG 47

2_Music.indd 7

1/20/2011 2:25:52 PM

GA L L E RY

1901

Artist Thomas Del Porte invites you to visit his gallery, an artistic destination in Trolley Square.

DanaMusic.com > Dana Sound Research Inc. > Historic restoration on all fretted instruments

Master Luthier Dana Sutcliffe VA L E N T I N E ’ S S PE C I A L S

Fri Feb 11 – Mon Feb 14 SPIN THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE and get up to 50% off on original artwork

r e a V nda a L Monday

Kids eight-and-under eat free from children’s menu.

(One with purchase of each entree)

4"5 '&# -JWF NVTJD CZ #POOJF "EFMF BOE QPFUSZ SFBEJOHT 5)634 '&# "O &WFOJOH XJUI "NZ #FUUT 1TZDIJD .FEJVN GSPN QN

Tuesday

Half-price wine by the bottle.

Wednesday

Buy one entree, get second half-price (Seafood not included)

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Half-price appetizers. (From 4pm–7pm)

302 743 5577 Shows will change every two weeks. call for schedule of events and appearances 1901 Delaware Avenue Trolley Square, Wilmington

ur Make yo

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48 . Nightlife

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HAPPY HOUR in DINING ROOM Monday-Thursday, 5-7pm -BOUBOB 4RVBSF )PDLFTTJO t February ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™„ | O&A

1/21/2011 1:45:34 PM

NIGHTLIFE

Spinning More Tales Yarn return to Delaware to honor a country legend

H

ot off last year’s CityLife Block Party Series in downtown Wilmington, Brooklyn country rockers Yarn return to Delaware this month to pay tribute to one of the songwriters who paved their way: Johnny Cash.

Yarn will play Deer Park on Saturday, Feb. 26—what would’ve been Cash’s 79th birthday—with a mix of their originals (pulled in part, no doubt, from their latest, the warmly received Come on In) and a selection of Cash covers that range from hits (“Cocaine Blues”) to obscure favorites. Cash’s American album series with Rick Rubin throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, which included his take on songs by Soundgarden, Depeche Mode, U2, and Nine Inch Nails, established a whole new generation of country-rock fans.

www.out-and-about.com

2_NightLife.indd 3

But this isn’t piggybacking on a legend’s birthday. Yarn’s buzz is already at a career high, boosted by a current East Coast-and-beyond tour that has been winning positive press, as well as a recent signing to Murphy to Manteo Management, which handled Hootie & the Blowfish in the ’90s. A new album is also in the works: Vocalist and guitarist Blake Christiana has been writing material with John Oates (yes, that John Oates) in Nashville. “We’ll see if anything good comes from it,” Christiana says. For more Yarn, go to yarnmusic.net.

— Michael Pollock

49

1/21/2011 1:36:15 PM

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February  | O&A

1/20/2011 7:04:28 PM

NIGHTLIFE

Back in the Loop Rest up this month, but prepare for a busy March and April

A

fter a couple of months off, the City Loop Series returns to finish off the season. The Loops return next month with the always-popular Shamrock Shuttle on Saturday, March 12. Catch the parade that wraps around St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Wilmington. Join in the wearing o’ the green, but take note: If you’re planning to hit one of the city’s Irish-themed bars (Catherine Rooney’s, Kelly’s Logan House, 317, Shenanigans, and Timothy’s), you’ll want to get there early, as they fill up quickly.

Ending this year’s Loop season is the first-ever Bunny Hop, a.k.a. “A Loop for Party Animals.” The Saturday, April 23 Loop benefits animal shelters in New Castle County.

www.out-and-about.com

2_NightLife.indd 5

There are 21 Wilmington bars and restaurants currently on the Loop, the most in recent history. They are: 317, Bar Code, Blue Parrot, Catherine Rooney’s, Chelsea, Club 3 (formerly Funkey Monkey), C.R. Hooligan’s, Dead Presidents, Del Rose Café, Dude’s, FireStone, Gallucio’s, Grotto, Kelly’s Logan House, Kid Shelleen’s, Kooma, Lima, Public House, Shenanigans, and Timothy’s Riverfront.

For more details and F.A.Q.s, go to outandaboutnow.com/loops.

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1/21/2011 1:35:05 PM

B

LACKSTONES

Traditional British Cuisine in a Cozy Tavern Environment

OVER 14 CRAFT BEERS FROM ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

And a very healthy Scotch menu as well!

Join us for St. Valentine’s Day! MON, FEB 14TH

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 WEAR THE RIGHT COLOR TO FIND YOUR PERFECT MATCH!

Special Three-Course Prix Fixe Menu Make Your Reservations Today!

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LIVE ENTERTAINMENT & MORE! PARTY STARTS AT 9PM

TWO LOCATIONS!

1616 Delaware Ave | Trolley Square | 302-654-9700 102 East Main St | Newark | 302-369-7330

Acoustic Karaoke Thursdays Join Kaitlyn Sweeney (of Speaker City) & Marty Mitchell every Thursday night at Rooney’s Wilmington

52 . Nightlife

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February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:34:07 PM

SUPERBOWL SU ''JSF4UPOF JT ZPVS 4VQFS#PXM )FBERVBSUFST .JMMFS -JUF "MVNJOVNT 1SJDFE #VSHFST "MM :PV $BO &BU 8JOHT GPS %+ BOE 1SJ[FT (JWFBXBZT

WHERE TO WATCH THE BIG GAME Chelsea Tavern 821 N. Market St., Wilmington Number of TVs: 2 (47� and 55�)

Beers on tap: 22 craft brews, plus daily cask-conditioned beer NFL specials: Half-price wings and $2 PBR Drafts chelseatavern.com Cromwell’s Tavern 3858 Kennett Pike, Greenville Number of TVs: 2, plus 1 large 92-inch projection screen Beer on tap: 7; bottled beers: 17 NFL specials: Daily specials cromwellstavern.com Deer Park Tavern 108 W. Main St., Newark; 369-9414 Number of TVs: 24 w/NFL package Beers on tap: 12; bottled beers: 39 NFL specials: Half-price wings deerparktavern.com FireStone 110 S. West St., Wilm. Riverfront 658-6626 Number of TVs: 24; w/NFL package Beers on tap: 8; bottled beers: 22 NFL specials: $3 Miller Lite Aluminums; half-price burgers; allyou-can-eat-wings for $10 ďŹ restoneriverfront.com James Street Tavern 2 W. Market St., Newport Beers on tap: 7; bottled beers: 40+ NFL specials: Beer & wings $5; beer & burger $6; beer & cheesesteak $6 jstavern.com Kelly’s Logan House 1701 Delaware Ave., Trolley Square; 65-LOGAN Number of TVs: 8 plus one 10-foot big screen; NFL package Beers on tap: 10; bottled beers: 33 NFL specials: $2 Miller Lite and Coors Light bottles; $5 Absolut Bloody Marys; $5 Wings loganhouse.com

www.out-and-about.com

2_NightLife.indd 7

Kid Shelleen’s 14th & Scott sts., Wilmington; 658-4600 Number of TVs: 6 w/NFL package Beers on tap: 10; bottled beers: 33 NFL specials: Special Touchdown Menu at bar (all items $6 or less); beer & Bloody Mary specials kidshelleens.com Mexican Post 3100 Naamans Rd. Wilmington; 478-3939 Number of TVs: 5 Beers on tap: 5; bottled beers: 21 NFL specials: $3 Corona, $3 Blue Moon drafts, half-price Nachos Grande, half-price wings mexicanpost.com McGlynns Pub Polly Drummond, Peoples Plaza Number of TVs: 17 w/NFL package Beers on tap: 12-15; bottled beers: 45-50 NFL specials: Half-price pitchers of Miller Lite and Coors Light; half-price wings; half-price nachos mcglynnspub.com Stanley’s Tavern 2038 Foulk Rd., Wilmington 475-1887 Number of TVs: 30 w/NFL package Beers on tap: 18; bottled beers: 58 NFL Specials: Half-price wings, $2.50 Miller Lite pints stanleys-tavern.com Washington Street Ale House 1206 Washington St., Wilmington 658-2537 Number of TVs: 8, plus 10-inch HD big screen upstairs for private parties; NFL package Beers on tap: 24; bottled beers: 8 NFL specials: $2 Amstel Light and Yuengling drafts; $2 chili cheese dogs; $3 pretzels sticks; $5 pulledpork nachos on Sat and Sun during games at the bar; 50¢ Wings wsalehouse.com

VA VALENTINE’S WEEKEND Fri, Feb 11–Sun Feb 14 5ISFF DPVSTF EJOOFS t QFS DPVQMF QFS DPVQMF JODMVEFT CPUUMF PG DIBNQBHOF IBNQBHOF Regular Menu Available

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THE BIG GAME SUPERBOWL SPECIALS

BEER & BURGER $6!

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Half-Dozen Wings plus a 12oz. Draft 12 drafts and 4

sauces to choose from!!

2 West Market Street (Corner of Market & James Streets) | Newport, DE 302.998.6903 | jstavern.com 53

1/21/2011 1:31:23 PM

The Deer Park Tavern

All kissing couples get a free mug

SATURDAYS

FEB 17

Feb 3: Element K Feb 10: Lifespeed Feb 17: Drop Dead Sexy Feb 24: Spokey Speaky

ll

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ew etheart Ba

THURSDAYS

NO COVER!

featuring Drop Dead Sexy

Feb 5: Fat Daddy Has Been Feb 12: Mad Sweet Pangs Feb 19: Cougar Crossing Feb 26: YARN (Johnny Cash Birthday Celebration!)

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EVERY TUESDAY Jefe, NO COVER

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EVERY FRIDAY %+ %BODF 1BSUZ t /0 $07&3 $1.50 Coors Light Drafts

CHORDUROY

302.369.9414 | 108 West Main Street, Newark www.deerparktavern.com

Made exclusively for Deer Park and McGlynns Pub. Wednesdays only $2.50.

Brewed by Twin Lakes Brewery

Y A D S ’ E N I T N VALE per couple

- t *" $ & 1 4 & 4 3 6 0 $

ert etizer, entrĂŠe, & dess app Your choice of soup, ailable February11-14 Av

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'FBUVSJOH UZQFT PG UFRVJMB t "8"3% 8*//*/( ."3("3*5"4 302.478.3939 | 3100 Naaman’s Road | Wilmington, DE | MexicanPost.com | facebook.com/Mex.Post 54 . Nightlife

2_NightLife.indd 8

February ď™…ď™ƒď™„ď™„ | O&A

1/21/2011 1:19:34 PM

Personal Training Sports Performance Nutrition

(302) 762-9170 .JMMFS 3PBE t 8JMNJOHUPO %FMBXBSF

www.CoreFitnessStudio.com NOW SEEKING PERFORMANCE SPECIALISTS

The Art Beats as One Contemporary music meets contemporary art this month

Free wine tasting

G

every Saturday 1-5pm

Retail Wine Shopping at its Best!

Upcoming Wine Classes Feb 3 Pairing Wine and Food

$20 per person

Feb 7 Port - A luxury

* unless otherwise noted

Mar 3 The Wines of the Central Coast Mar 8 Introduction to Wine Mar 15 American Meritage vs Bordeaux Mar 24 Reds of Australia/Whites of New Zealand Apr 7 The Classic Grapes of Oregon and Washington Apr 12 Piedmont and Tuscany *All classes are $20 and run from 6:30 - 8:30.

Credit card required to confirm a reservation.

24 hours notice needed for cancellation.

Monday-Saturday 10-9pm; Closed on Sunday 5810 Kennett Pike (next to Buckley’s) Centreville, DE 19807 www.collierswine.com www.colliers-concierge.com

www.out-and-about.com

2_NightLife.indd 9

(302) 656.3542 (302) 367-5390

et familiar with the local arts scene on Friday, Feb. 4 as the Shipley Artist Lofts (701 N. Shipley St.) host a CDrelease party for albums by classical quintet Melomanie (Florescence) and composer Mark Hagerty (Soliloquy). The party takes place during this month’s Art on the Town Loop and also features artist Kevin Bielecki, who will present a mixed-media and woodsculpture exhibit on site.

Consider both CDs Baroque for the modern age. Melomanie takes five original pieces and presents them using period instruments; Hagerty does the same on four suites, utilizing help from Melomanie members Tracy Richardson (harpsichord) and Douglas McNames (cello).

The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. Onstreet and garage parking on Shipley Street is available.

55

1/21/2011 1:16:29 PM

de.quitnet.com • Quitline(1.866.409.1858)

56 . Nightlife

2_NightLife.indd 10

February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:48:40 PM

AVAILABLE IN DRAFT, BOTTLE & CANS THROUGHOUT DELAWARE.

BARBARA H. CONWAY MEMORIAL BASH! Wed, Feb 16, 6–9pm Guest bartenders, silent auction, raffle wine basket and assorted free giveaways. Barbie Cosmos $5. All tips to bartenders and all contributions and proceeds donated the The Wellness Commnity.

www.out-and-about.com

2_NightLife.indd 11

57

1/21/2011 1:33:05 PM

Delaware Today and Delaware Bride magazines’

21 ST ANNUAL UPSTATE

Plan your dream wedding: L I V E FA S H I O N S H O W MEET WEDDING PROFESSIONALS E N J OY FA B U L O U S H O R S D ’ O E U V R E S E N T E R T O W I N G R E AT G I F T S NEW THIS YEAR

… SPECIAL STUDIO ONE ELEVEN FOR THE GUYS WITH ATTRACTIONS THEY’LL APPRECIATE!

“GROOM ROOM”

Sunday, February 20, 2011 Noon - 3:30 p.m. | Executive Hall | Newark

TICKETS & SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES! delawaretoday.com 302.656.1809 sales@delawaretoday.com PRESENTED BY

CURRENT SPONSORS

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58 . Nightlife

2_NightLife.indd 12

February  | O&A

1/21/2011 1:14:28 PM

Monday

2_FlipPageCalendar.indd 1

POLAR BEAR DAY

27

20

Presidents’ Day

28

21

14

13 VALENTINE’S DAY

7

Super Bowl! 6

February F

SUNDAY

ABSOLUT Wild Tea Launch Party at FireStone

Tuesday

22

15

8

1

2

23

Barbara H. Conway Memorial Birthday Bash Fundraiser at BBC 6-9pm

16

9

GROUNDHOG DAY

Wednesday

10

3

MAJEL BARRETT’S BIRTHDAY

24

‘DO A GROUCH A FAVOR’ DAY

17

PAGE POLLOCK TURNS 1!

Thursday CHINESE NEW YEAR Year of the Rabbit

Friday

25

18

11

4

5

26

19

1/20/2011 7:16:57 PM

AIDS DELAWARE Red Ribbon Runway

@ the DCH CH

Mixer er

Muttini ni

Delaware re Humane’s e’s 5th Annual ual

WIN WINTER GALA @ the Baycenter, Dewey Beach

12

WORLD NUTELLA DAY

Saturday

Our event picks of the month

magazine February 2011 | Vol. 2 | Issue 9

in

E THIS ISSU

2_Wilmington_Cover.indd 1

Creative classes for kids and adults Remembering the father of philanthropy Dining on the water with RiverFeast

1/20/2011 7:18:56 PM

g tin r a t ts S 600 n e R at $

ONLY A FEW UNITS AVAILABLE! APPLY TODAY ONLINE AT INGERMAN.COM

SHIPLEY LOFTS Affordable

Find our community on Facebook

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Community

302 654 9113 / www.ingerman.com

1/20/2011 3:41:00 PM

DELIVERING EXTREME PIZZA 7 DAYS A WEEK! (Open to Close)

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Offering Traditional Crust, Wheat Crust, and Gluten Free Four Sauces, Seven Cheeses and Dozens of Toppings Available!

EXTREME HAPPY HOUR (4–7pm daily) t Featuring Top-Shelf Spirits 2nd St

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t Premium Wines plus 10 Wines for $20 (featuring wines from Veritas Wine & Spirits)

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FREE PARKING NIGHTS & WEEKENDS 2nd & Market St Corner

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t The Best TVs in Town! t Delicious Oven-Fresh Gourmet Pizza!

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Place your Super Bowl order now!

2_Wilmington_Inside.indd 1

1/21/2011 1:01:18 PM

WilmGrandPrix.com

2011

March 28–April 2 for more information visit

cityrestaurantweek.com 2 . Inside magazine

2_Wilmington_Inside.indd 2

1/20/2011 4:45:40 PM

Produced by magazine

all rights reserved

TSN Publishing, Inc. President Gerald DuPhily

February 2011 volume 2, issue 9

6 Cover Story Artfully Done Celebrating the city’s artistic legacy—and the artists who keep it alive.

Editor-in-Chief

By Michael Pollock

Michael Pollock

Art Director Joy Smoker Production Manager Matt Loeb Senior Graphic Designer Shawna Sneath

11 City People The Father of Philanthropy Remembering William Poole Bancroft’s life of service.

By Josephine Eccel

12 Riverfront February on the Water

Advertising Sales Jim Hunter Miller Marie Graham Project Manager Christine Serio

Contributing Writers

The Delaware Family Expo, the Children’s Museum lecture series, family-friendly events at DEEC, and the inaugural RiverFeast.

4

“in” Calendar

18

City Notes

19

Wilmington Renaissance

Josephine Eccel, Carol Kipp Larry Nagengast, Bob Yearick

Contributing Photographers Joe del Tufo, Tim Hawk Les Kipp, Matt Urban

For editorial and advertising information: p (302) 655-6483 f (302) 654-0569

TSN Media, Inc. 307 A Street Wilmington, DE 19801

ON THE COVER: Fred Comegys photographed Mike Caffery and Jim Cyphers on the 18th floor of what is now the PNC Bank building in March 1986. For more on Comegys and other artists who’ve made an impact on the city, see pg. 6.

ABOUT THE “IN” CAMPAIGN Wilmington is truly in the middle of it all, and the “in” campaign is a celebration of the accomplishments we continue to achieve as a community to make our city stronger and more attractive. From neighborhood and business development to our arts and cultural scene, the people of Wilmington are working together to support our city’s ongoing growth and prosperity.

ABOUT WILMINGTON MAGAZINE The mission of Wilmington Magazine is to capture, through stories and images, the ongoing energy present in the city. We aim to inform readers, both inside and outside Wilmington, of the city’s residential, financial, and cultural progress while remaining entertaining and vibrant.

JANUARY 2011 | 3

2_Wilmington_Inside.indd 3

1/21/2011 12:59:26 PM

Peking Acrobats at the Grand

In Calendar

Sunday, Feb. 27

DON’T MISS 2/4

2/20

2/27

@ Various downtown venues

@ Delaware Children’s Theatre

@ Grand Opera House

wilmingtonde.gov/artloop

dechildrenstheatre.org

thegrandwilmington.org

Tuesday, February 1

Wednesday, February 2

• ‘On Assignment: American Illustration 1850-1950’ Thru February 20 Delaware Art Museum 571-9590; delart.org • ‘Brain Fruit II: An Excited State’ Thru April 17 Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts • ‘The Book: A Contemporary View’ Thru April 17 Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts 656-6466; thedcca.org

• ‘Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom’ Lecture series at the Delaware Children’s Museum, featuring Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop 654-2340; delawarechildrensmuseum.org

1500 N. Walnut Street duponteec.org

Art Loop & re:Fresh After Party

‘Tom Sawyer’

Thursday, February 3 • ‘Throwing on the Wheel’ Potter classes at Urban Environmental Education Center • Open studio at Urban Environmental Education Center

Peking Acrobats

Friday, February 4 • Kathleen Madigan Grand Opera House thegrandwilmington.org • Art Loop & re:Fresh After Party The city’s monthly art loop, held at various downtown locations and featuring a DJ wilmingtonde.gov/artloop

4 . In Calendar magazine

2_Wilmington_InCalendar.indd 2

1/20/2011 7:20:59 PM

Saturday, February 5 • ‘A Musical Storybook’ The Music School of Delaware 762-1132; musicschoolofdelaware.org

Tuesday, February 8 • ‘Grease’ Thru February 13 DuPont Theatre 656-4401; duponttheatre.com

Friday, February 11 • Oscar-nominated animated short films Theatre N Screenings of the nominated films. Playing the weekends of Feb. 11-13 and Feb. 18-20.

576-2135; theatren.org

Saturday, February 12 • ‘Fred Comegys Photographs’ Thru May 1 Delaware Art Museum • Chinese New Year: Lantern Festival Delaware Art Museum 571-9590; delart.org

Wednesday, February 16 • Music Masters: A Tribute to the Piano The Music School of Delaware 762-1132; musicschoolofdelaware.org

Saturday, February 19 • Gallery chat with Fred Comegys Delaware Art Museum 571-9590; delart.org

Sunday, February 20 • ‘Tom Sawyer’ Thru March 13 Delaware Children's Theatre 655-1014; dechildrenstheatre.org

Fred Comegys Photographs

Thursday, February 24 • Delaware Art Museum Book Club Thru April 28 Delaware Art Museum 571-9590; delart.org

Clown Reading the News Journal, at Delaware Art Museum, Feb. 12–May 1

Saturday, February 26 • Red Ribbon Runway Barclays Bank, 125 S. West Street 652-6776; aidsdelaware.org • Delaware Family Expo • Health & Wellness Expo Two expos for the price of one Chase Center on the Riverfront

Sunday, February 27 • Sunday Studio Series Thru April 24 Delaware Art Museum • Peking Acrobats Grand Opera House 652-5577; thegrandwilmington.org

Kathleen Madigan at the Grand Friday, Feb. 4

FEBRUARY 2011 | 5 magazine

2_Wilmington_InCalendar.indd 3

1/20/2011 7:21:32 PM

City Art

Celebrating the city’s artistic legacy—and the artists who keep it alive

By Michael Pollock

I

t’s kind of hokey when you see the words staring back at you, but art is all around us in the city. Still, how true that statement is. From the public art—murals, sculptures, statues—that brighten our buildings and outdoor spaces to the works of wonder awaiting rediscovery in our

museums, we don’t have to look far to find creative contributions.

We’ve decided this month to honor four artists—Fred Comegys, Edward Loper Jr., Charles Parks, and Rick Rothrock—who’ve helped shape Wilmington’s artistic landscape.

There are others who shouldn’t be

overlooked, and many more who will one day make their mark. We hope this story is the beginning of a larger conversation about art in the city. Share your thoughts with us by emailing me: mpollock@tsnpub.com.

BACK IN TIME An undated photograph, titled simply Tattooed Man, is just one of the many striking images Fred Comegys has taken.

2_Wilmington_CoverPackage.indd 2

1/20/2011 7:22:30 PM

FRED COMEGYS A couple of nights a week, you can find Fred Comegys hanging out at his family’s low-key Third & Union Street pub (named, of course, Comegys). It’s an appropriate home-away-from-home for a photojournalist who’s spent more than 50 years behind a camera. More than that, he’s spent 50 years at the same newspaper. Comegys graduated from Conrad High School in 1959 and quickly found work at The News Journal, albeit not as a photographer. As he told Out & About in 2009, he made $35 a week picking up lunch and making coffee for the newsroom. Soon, though, he was helping out in the photo department, and he found he liked it. “I’m not good at anything else,” he told O&A with his trademark humility. Maybe not, but Comegys is Delaware’s best-known photographer, and not just because he’s

been doing it the longest. Clearly, his time behind the camera has helped his reputation, taking Comegys from the Wilmington riots to Live Aid (the first one), from Joe Biden to Muhammad Ali. These and other striking images have been collected into a show at the Delaware Art Museum, which runs Feb. 12 to May 1.

EDWARD LOPER JR. Like Fred Comegys and his camera, Ed Loper is a self-taught artist who became a master. Comegys and Loper also share “the eye”—the ability to frame something in their minds and recreate it. Loper’s painting technique has been called “a way to see,” and it’s perhaps the simplest way to describe a collection that is also incredibly vivid and bursting with color. Born on the East Side in 1916, Loper lived in the

city until the late 1980s, when he moved to North Wilmington. But he continued to teach students at his West Side Studio, which he closed in 2009. For someone who learned to paint scenes of the Riverfront and Wawaset Park by studying, on his own, the works of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, and Jackson Pollock, Loper won a following as an eye-opening teacher, instructing his students how to look at everyday objects with a fresh perspective. One of them, Thomas Del Porte, is now opening his own gallery at 1901 Delaware Ave. Loper hopes to join him and paint while looking out the window. But he turns 95 in April, and getting around isn’t as easy as it used to be. “It’s a mess getting old. It doesn’t take long to get there, either,” he jokes of his age. “I like the snow; I like painting it. But I like it more when the sun is out.” continued on next page

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Ed Loper’s painting technique elicits colors that might otherwise be overlooked. After a Shower, from 1937, is his take on what the Wilmington streets outside his studio look like following a rainstorm.

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City Art Artfully Done

LARGER THAN LIFE Memorial sculptures by Charles Parks (Vietnam, this page) and Rick Rothrock (Clifford Brown, opposite page) blend art with history.

continued from previous page

CHARLES PARKS You step outside for a walk, some fresh air, or to eat lunch. Before you know it, you’ve seen one, two, or possibly more creations courtesy of Charles Parks, one of the city’s best-loved artists. Parks’ often larger-thanlife sculptures can be found at many resting areas, so if you’ve ever stopped to enjoy the scenery, you’ve probably caught yourself in the presence of one of his works. But there’s more to Parks’ sculptures than their size (indeed, one of Parks’ more famous pieces is Our Lady of Peace, in Santa Clara, Calif., which stands 32 feet). It’s the sense of comfort and respect that comes with being so close to them. Parks has earned a reputation for historical sculpture: In Brandywine Park,

he created the Vietnam Memorial (dedicated to Delawareans who served in the war) and the nearby African American Medal of Honor Recipients (honoring “supreme acts of heroism” during conflict). And Father and Son sits in Spencer Plaza, named for the former slave who founded the first black Christian church there. Parks applies a similarly delicate touch when constructing pieces of children and religious figures, which can be found in and out of the city, as well as in other parts of the country.

RICK ROTHROCK Clifford Brown was one of the greatest musicians to ever come out of Wilmington.

The jazz trumpeter was only 25 when he

in

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died in 1956 but his promise still inspires today: We honor his legacy every June with the DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Rodney Square.

But Rick Rothrock, an Arden resident and renowned sculptor, has taken the jazz icon’s star to new heights, literally and figuratively. Rothrock created, beginning in 2008, a tribute to Clifford Brown that includes his Twin Obelisks for Brownie, a 14-foot-tall granite structure at Clifford Brown Garden, located at 16th Street and Clifford Brown Walk.

(The first two phases are finished. Phase III will include a sound installation, done with UD professor Ashley John Pigford, that will play music as visitors cross thresholds. Rothrock hopes to have the installation complete in time for this year’s jazz fest.) Rothrock was also commissioned to create Rendezvous in Freedom Plaza and Reflection at the Can-Do Playground. Each of these pieces, Rothrock says, has a different but important purpose. “Rendezvous… encourages the public to interact with the sculpture,” he writes in his artist statement. “One can sit either in or out of the flow of foot traffic and at the same time view what is occurring on the other side. The geometry of the stone and the solar orientation creates a changing play of light throughout the day. Reflection at Can-Do Park is playful, while Twin Obelisks for Brownie is educational.” in

GET CREATIVE!

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nspired by the artists we’ve profiled here, or maybe wanting to try a new New Year’s resolution? Check out the following city schools and programs, where you can learn an instrument, take a dance class, paint a portrait, and more.

Christina Cultural Arts Center CCAC has been an arts-education anchor in downtown Wilmington for decades. The center offers classes for both children and adults, including dance (Zumba, hip-hop, ballet, jazz, modern, African modern, tap, and acrobatics), music (DJing, private or group instrument lessons), visual arts, theater, and other workshops. ccacde.org Delaware Art Museum Not only home to some of the country’s most amazing works of art, the Art Museum has a new Sunday Studio Series for children ages 3 to 12 that includes printmaking, photographic transfers, Create-a-Kite, and Easter- tile painting. There’s also a Spring Break art camp for children ages 6 to 10 and professional-development opportunities for teachers. delart.org Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts The DCCA has classes for children as young as 4. Mediums explored range from graffiti and comics to prints and the new-art movement. Workshops are offered throughout the year and four-week summercamp sessions are available. thedcca.org Delaware Children’s Theatre The Children’s Theatre not only provides some young actors with their fist play experiences, but summer workshops are also offered. The workshop introduces children to basic theatre techniques for acting, auditioning, and even staging a play with lighting, props, set design, and more. dechildrenstheatre.org

Delaware College of Art and Design In addition to being a premiere two-year college for students pursuing a career in art, DCAD offers continuing-education classes for those looking to explore an art form or enhance their skills. The school has degree programs in animation, graphic design, fine arts, illustration, interior design, and photography. Continuing-ed classes focus on computer graphics, fine arts, interior design, jewelry design, and photography. dcad.edu Delaware Theatre Company DTC brings acting to the stage but also makes it available to the community with its theater classes. Children can start with games that help them get the feel for acting and move into Scene Study. Adults can start with Beginning Acting I. delawaretheatre.org Grand Opera House The venue offers music instruction with professional musicians in various genres. The We Kids Rock! program is a 10-week session that introduces music to children ages birth to 5. thegrandwilmington.org The Music School of Delaware Adults and children can learn music on all levels. The school offers individual and group instrument lessons, music theory, music history, music therapy, ensemble training, and early-childhood music lessons. musicschoolofdelaware.org Urban Environmental Center The Environmental Center not only focuses on ways to go green, it also offers creative opportunities. In addition to landuse planning, sustainability, and gardening workshops, the center hosts pottery classes for adults. Students are also able to use studio time to work on their art. 658-9832 — Christine Serio

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.com

Does your web site look like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys?

bringing life into focus.

DISC p hH o t oLg E r aR phy Wilmington, DE | 302-420-8513 www.DischlerPhotography.com

Wedding-Portraits-Family

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The Father of Philanthropy Remembering William Poole Bancroft’s life of service

By Josephine Eccel

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hen William Poole Bancroft died in April 1928 at the age of 92, flags in all the city’s parks were lowered to half mast. On the afternoon of his funeral, tennis and baseball games stopped for an hour, and park workers laid down their tools.

Wilmington Friends School closed for the day, and machinery was turned off at noon at the Joseph Bancroft & Sons textile mill on the Brandywine River.

Over the years, this slender, bespectacled gentleman had donated more than 220 acres of open space to the city and organized the Board of Park Commissioners to oversee its administration, earning him the undisputed title of “father of the park system.” His gifts include Judy Johnson, Canby, Kosciuszko, Haynes, Stapler, and the crowning jewels: Brandywine and

Rockford parks. A plaque in Rockford Park is dedicated to him.

Nearby, across the river from the family’s abandoned mill, a historic marker notes the international acclaim once garnered by Bancroft fabrics, the business to which William devoted his life.

But there’s more to the man than is revealed in these public tributes.

Quiet in manner, simple in dress, and frugal to a fault, William Bancroft was honest and hard-working, rising from humble origins but never forgetting the plight of those who toiled.

He was responsible for the city’s free library, hospital, public high school, and its first planned housing developments, beginning with the construction of affordable accommodations for his factory workers. In fact, Bancroft could be considered Wilmington’s first real estate developer and urban planner.

In 1831, his father, Joseph Bancroft, an immigrant weaver from Manchester, England, had purchased a cotton mill on the Brandywine River. William began working odd jobs in the mill at the age of 7. When he was 14 and had finished formal schooling, he became a full-time laborer, putting in 70 hours a week. In summer, the work day started at 4:50 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m.

The Bancrofts were in debt until the end of the Civil War. For many years, William drew no salary. But as business improved, both he and Samuel, his brother and partner, became wealthy men.

William chose to put his fortune toward bettering the lives of others, especially his workers, who he felt were responsible for his success.

After arranging to retire the debt on the Wilmington Library, he persuaded the legislature and local government to provide support that would make its services free. He served on the boards of numerous civic, educational, and charitable institutions. He advocated for nonpartisan municipal elections

and was a member of two committees seeking to revise the city’s charter.

When the city lacked funds to complete the construction of Wilmington High School, he and another prominent citizen, Chief Justice Charles Lore, guaranteed the necessary loans. He helped to establish the Delaware Hospital and retired the debt on Wilmington Friends School.

In 1901, Bancroft founded the Woodlawn Co. to build and manage properties for the benefit of the city’s residents. More than 200 apartments were constructed on land he donated to the company between Union Street and Bancroft Parkway. Units were first rented to mill workers for $10 a month, a mere week’s salary.

Thinking far beyond his lifetime, Bancroft continued to buy land. Profits from sales and rentals were donated to local charities.

Through Woodlawn, he gave the city verdant, tree-lined Bancroft Parkway (named after his death) as well as elegant Red Oak Drive, whose palatial homes overlook Rockford Park.

Beginning in 1915, he hired a New York landscape architect to make recommendations and layouts for the preservation or development of Woodlawn’s outlying properties. This prepared the groundwork for the future suburban communities of Alapocas, Edenridge, Sharpley, and others.

Despite all the well-deserved praise for his public works, Bancroft would probably have most cherished this tribute from his mill employees to sum up his life: “For those who knew him personally, and for the many employees of our company…he held a warmth of interest and loving and generous regard…Always modest, kindly, simple, and unassuming, his conduct with his associates was an inspiration, and his happy and confident outlook upon life’s problems elevated them to new and greater assurance.” in FEBRUARY 2011 | 11

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Riverfront

O P X E Y L I M A F E D

From decorations to decisions, the Delaware Family Expo covers it all

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iscover resources and products that can both enlighten and entertain your children at the Delaware Family Expo, held Feb. 26 at the Chase Center. The expo, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features clothing and room décor as well as information about summer-camp and educational opportunities, healthcare, and family safety. (mountainexpos.com/family_expo.html.)

WORKING MOM WORKSHOP At the Children’s Museum, something for the parents

orking moms can relax—if just for a little while—as the Delaware Children’s Museum hosts “Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom,” a lecture presented by Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop on Feb. 2. On March 9, the series continues with “Playing for the Future: Preparing 21st Century Children for a Global World,” presented by UD School of Education chair Dr. Roberta Golinkoff. (delawarechildrensmuseum.org/ speaker-series.)

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ENVIRONMENTAL ED DEEC won’t let the cold keep nature at bay

ebruary isn’t ideal nature-watching weather, but that’s not putting the DuPont Environmental Education Center in hibernation. Throughout the month, DEEC offers programs that range from spring cleaning on a lean, green budget (Going Green on a Dime, Feb. 8) and parents’ nights (Children Only!, Feb. 11) to a stroll with a dose of history (RiverWalk & Wine, Feb. 27). (duponteec.org)

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RIVERFEAST Eat and repeat during RiverFeast

he Riverfront announces a new restaurant promotion this month: RiverFeast. Dine out at Big Fish Grill, FireStone, Iron Hill, Timothy’s, or Harry’s any Monday through Friday this month and you’ll get a $20 gift card to come back if you spend $50 or more. The $20 gift cards can only be redeemed at the restaurants from which they were received on Mondays through Thursdays until April 21. For more info, call the Riverfront Development Corp. at 425-4890.

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FEB 2, 16 M U G C L U B A P P R E C I AT I O N N I G H T @ IRON HILL Features guest brewer Casey Hughes of Flying Fish on the 2nd; beer-and-cheese pairing on the 16th 710 Justison St. 6 – 8 pm

FEB 2 DEL AWARE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM LECTURE SERIES Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop discusses tips for working moms 550 Justison St. 6 – 8 pm

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Amtrak Station Tubman-Garre Riverfront Park Residences at Christina Landing Harry’s Seafood Grill Riverfront Market Delaware Theatre Company FireStone (coming April) Justison Landing Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts Joe’s Crab Shack Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant Frawley Stadium & Delaware Sports Hall of Fame Chase Center on the Riverfront Dravo Plaza & Dock Shipyard Shops Timothy’s Restaurant Molly’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Wilmington Rowing Center Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge/DuPont Environmental Education Center Wilmington Youth Rowing Assoc.

Cosi @ the Barclays Crescent Building ThoroBreads at Christina Landing Opera Delaware Studios/City Theater Co. Hare Pavilion/Riverwalk Public Docks AAA Mid-Atlantic Kooma Big Fish Grill Delaware Children’s Museum

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Mornings with Dave and Jill 5am-10am Runway Sponsor

Bank of America Designer Sponsors

Presents:

Red Ribbon Runway one fierce fundraiser!

February 26, 2011 The fabulous silent auction and fashionthemed cocktail reception, complete with a red carpet, paparazzi, and “celebrity” sightings will benefit AIDS Delaware’s statewide programs. www.aidsdelaware.org -or- 302.652.6776 Barclays Bank 125 South West Street Wilmington, DE 19801

Barclays Bank The Sallie Mae Fund Wilmington Trust Company Media Sponsor

Out & About Vogue Sponsors

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware, First Bank of Delaware Miller & Shook Cos, Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A. Trendy Sponsors

Chelsea Tavern, DJ ZIP, Mood Designer Fabrics, Phengo Photography & Design, Veritas Wine & Spirits Fasion Sponsors

Currie Hair Skin Nails, Emminence Front Hair Salon & Day Spa, Michael Christopher, Morgan's of Delaware Avenue, Mystique Fashion Boutique, NV Boutique, Sherif Zaki Salon & The Oasis Spa, University of Delaware, White House / Black Market.

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Melomanie

City Notes

It’s official: Wilmington is a ‘Cool City’

Those who already live, work and experience Wilmington on a regular basis know how cool it can be, but now it’s official.

The Sierra Club of Delaware recognized the City of Wilmington as Delaware’s first Cool City and honored Mayor Baker for his efforts to aggressively adopt policies and programs that promote energy sustainability, environmental stewardship, and climate protection. The Sierra Club of Delaware’s Cool Cities Program is a statewide volunteer effort that encourages local governments to adopt policies and programs that protect the environment and its citizens.

At a ceremony held to present the honor, the Sierra Club cited Mayor Baker for the efforts he has spearheaded or supported. These include the Climate Sustainability Plan, established in 2008, that provides a framework for the city’s response to climate change; the Energy Leader’s Roundtable, which engages Wilmington’s business and development community to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions; the Wilmington Green City Environmental Stewardship SelfCertification, a workbook that provides households with resources to conduct a home self-assessment; and the Urban Forest Initiatives, efforts to improve the city’s urban-forest tree canopy.

For more information about the Sierra Club of Delaware’s Cool Cities program, visit http://coolcitiesde.us.

Pastabilities re-opens its doors

Little Italy is a bit brighter with the re-opening of one of its key restaurants, Pastabilities (415 N. Lincoln St.), and the ongoing recovery of one of its most active residents, owner Luigi Vitrone. A year and a half ago, Vitrone went

into a coma from a blocked artery and nearly died. He spent last year recuperating, and his restaurant remained closed.

Early last month, a grateful Vitrone turned the lights back on.

Pastabilities is now open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday.

Music and art make way at Shipley Lofts

Music is on the menu for Friday, Feb. 4 as Melomanie and Mark Hagerty host a CD-release party in the Chris White Gallery at the Shipley Lofts (701 N. Shipley St.) from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Florescence is Melomanie’s latest release, featuring their pairing of contemporary works and Baroque-period instruments. Hagerty will present his similarly themed album, Soliloquy. The evening will also include complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks and an exhibit by mixed-media artist and sculptor Kevin Bielicki.

In related news, Wilmington-based Serafin String Quartet recently began its second recording project, featuring works for strings by Philadelphia-based composer and Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner Jennifer Higdon. The recording will be released by Naxos, one of the music industry’s leading classical-music labels.

Ordinance now in effect to protect tree canopy

The City of Wilmington has adopted a new tree ordinance to protect and enhance Wilmington’s tree resources. The ordinance, developed by the Baker Administration and City Council members Paul F. Ignudo, Jr., Seventh District, and Charles Potter, Jr., First District, was formally adopted by

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Wilmington City Council last month and provides for the planning, policy, management, and enforcement needed for a healthy urban forest.

“Every tree in Wilmington—from our yard trees to our street trees to our forested parkland—provides vital benefits to our air, soil, and water,” Mayor Baker says.

“The new tree ordinance will help us to do a better job protecting and managing these trees, which collectively make up our urban forest.”

Under the new ordinance, the city’s public-works department is now the single point of contact for all tree-related issues (previously these issues were handled

by Public Works and the Parks and Recreation Dept.).

The new law also establishes a tree commission that will advise the city of tree issues.

Residents may contact the Public Works Call Center at 576-3878 or Mandy Tolino, Wilmington’s Urban Forest Administrator, at 576-2582 with tree-related questions or for tree-related assistance.

The complete text of the new tree ordinance is posted on the city’s web site at wilmingtonde.gov.

Green Room welcomes renowned chef

The Green Room at the Hotel du Pont gets a taste from one of the country’s most decorated chefs this month when Wolfgang Vomend pays a visit on Feb. 3-5.

Vomend is one of only 72 master chefs in the United States and currently serves as executive chef at AAA Four Diamond Bavarian Inn & Lodge in Sheperdstown, WV. During his visit to the Green Room, he will offer a three-course prix fixe tasting menu on Thursday and Friday (Feb. 3 and 4) for $40. On Saturday, Feb. 5, he will create a three-course $50 Epicurean tasting menu.

For more info or to make a reservation, go to hoteldupont.com/dining or call 594-3154.

Christmas trees still eligible for recycling

The holiday season is far behind us, but packing up from the celebration can take a while. If you’re still in need of disposing your Christmas tree, the city’s publicworks department is picking up trees and recycling them through the middle of this month. City residents can place their tree on the curb on their regular trashcollection day. Residents can also call the Public Works Call Center at 576-3878 to schedule a pick-up.

The recycled trees are ground into wood chips, which are then used by the city during the spring as cover for cit parks and other properties. in

downtownwilmington.com

Wilmington Renaissance Corporation

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WRC News

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his month, celebrate Valentine’s Day in downtown Wilmington!

Whether you’re a couple in love or a group of single friends looking to have a night out, downtown has it covered.

Dinner. Going out to eat is a staple of Valentine’s Day, and downtown doesn’t disappoint with its many cuisine, atmosphere, and price-range options. Check out Café Mezzanotte, Chelsea Tavern, Deep Blue, Domaine Hudson, the Green Room, Orillas, Public House, Mikimotos, Washington Street Ale House, or Vinoteca 902 if you’re looking to grab drinks or a whole meal. Many offer music later in the evening as well.

Jewelry. If you are looking for a special watch or piece of jewelry for your significant other, check out A.R. Morris or Gold Bug, both on Market Street. You can also hit Designs by Keiko or Nzinga’s Cultural Connection for unique gifts.

Chocolates. Sweeten things up with candy and special chocolates. Govato’s at the corner of Eighth and Market streets has lots of special ways to show you care in a tasty way.

Men’s clothing. If the gentleman in your life is in need of some new threads, check out Wright & Simon or Collars ’n’ Cuffs (both on Market). You can also stop by Sneaker Villa, Dimensions & Co. by Ace (new on the 200 block of Market), and Al’s Sporting Goods for some trendier, more casual styles.

Arts & culture. Some of the best cultural attractions in the region are right here in the city. Get tickets for a show at the DuPont Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, or the Grand Opera House; take a class together at Christina Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) or the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD); or catch an exhibit at Shipley Lofts, CCAC, DCAD, Delaware Art Museum, or Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts.

Of course, these things are fun every other day of the year, too.

For more on any of them, call 425-5500 or visit our website, downtownwilmington.com.

WRC’s Favorites

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very month we’ll feature a few of the staff ’s favorite things that are happening in the city. Our favorites for February include (in no particular order!):

• Dimensions & Co. by Ace, a clothing boutique, opened on the 200 block of Market Street this month.

• The Nomad now offers jazz Ninth and Orange streets.

• The Funkey Monkey has new owners, a new look, and a new name.

It's now Club 3, and opened on New Year’s Eve.

• The Shops at Second & LOMA are filling up with many great retail and business offerings.

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