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Philly Restaurant and Bar BLUME Blooms at VIP Preview Party
Photos, story by Sharon Kozden Growing restaurant mogul Teddy Sourias and Craft Concepts Group unveiled Blume, their latest restaurant and bar concept during a VIP preview bash on a warm April evening. Located in Rittenhouse on the former site of Cinder, Copper & Lace, Blume drew crowds eager to pose before its window’s larger-than-life, Peter Max-like colorful butterfly decal. Inside, a ceiling covered in plants and bearing the establishment’s name twice as nice and in lights hovers over a relaxing banquette seating area. Between décor design elements (don’t miss the wall of realistic roses!), that are both whimsical and sophisticated, Blume is Philly’s summertime hot spot to be, sipping cocktails,…
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Mayor’s Masked Ball at Philadelphia’s Convention Center Raises Over $760,000 for UNCF
Philadelphia’s Convention Center boasts escalators of amusement park-ride proportions. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Galas and balls may not be everyone’s (as the Brits say) cuppa char. I, however, would be hard pressed to decline an invite to either. That said, and while the prospect of a evening at home in my comfies, chowing Chinese takeaway and watching a flick in the cuddly company of my fur babies is a thoroughly enticing one, an occasional night on the town offers a desirable change of pace. I relish an opportunity to bust out the glam finery of cocktail dresses and gowns, wield a…
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Fulfill Your Flying Squirrel Fantasies with iFLY Indoor Skydiving
Story by Cassie Hepler, video by Suburban Men Who hasn’t had a dream of flying? If you haven’t, that’s weird and a bummer. Ever since I was like 5 years old, I would have a consistent dream of being chased through the jungle by a lion, falling off a cliff and stopping short of the bug-like smush on the ground for a good chunk of my youth. As an adult, it morphed into flying yogi cross-legged style through the air always to an old farmhouse. Where this farmhouse exists I have yet to learn however looking forward to finding it someday! Alas, I digress. But the need to fly through…
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Watch Out for Altitude Sickness in Sparkling South Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Story, photos/video by Cassie Hepler As a travel writer, there is a rock and a hard place between pleasing tourism boards and yet still remaining transparent and honest to your readers. I’ve never been one to sugar coat anything so I figured why start now? With a journalism background, it is in my blood to report the truth and also to use my experiences to help others. So here we go on an adventure that does indeed have a happy ending… Because I never drove through Nevada (without a U-Haul trailer attached), I thought it would be fun to go on a road trip through Vegas from Phoenix (not during…
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Hopping into Spring with Fishtown Hops at Sugarhouse Casino in Philadelphia, PA
Story, photos by David Krakow It is of course a paragon of journalistic integrity that one should not write a subjective story infected by mood. If I had just finished a knock down, drag ’em out with my wife or boss, I probably wouldn’t turn around five minutes later and pen a piece on mindfulness. It was with this potential conflict in mind that I gritted my teeth while staring at an uninspiring plate of nachos during a recent Saturday night visit to the new Fishtown Hops. The conflict? On this particular afternoon, most of the many television sets above the bar and seating areas were showing a playoff game…
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WXPN’s Xponential Music Festival is Summer Staple in Camden, New Jersey
Story, photos by David Krakow Ah festivals. The all-you-can-eat buffets of concert going. Although I’m of an age where folks went to concerts mostly and festivals hardly at all, they do hold a special place. I was living in San Francisco at the beginning of the 1990s and was able to jump on the Lollapalooza bandwagon with such folks as guiding spirits Jane’s Addiction, Alice In Chains and some new Seattle quintet called Pearl Jam. Later that decade I moved to New Orleans and took in two Jazzfests. By that time they were already as much pop and rock fests as jazz fests but any musical fest in New Orleans…
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Hitting Up Virginia Beach, VA Early in the Season Makes Bonding with Locals a Breeze
Story by David Krakow My wife Jamie and I were in Virginia Beach, VA the first weekend in March. Late morning our first full day, it was time to take a walk on the beach. Did I mention it was early March? Jamie’s Fitbit was ready to sue us as our walk lasted only one block. In fairness, the visuals were perfectly engaging including rough ocean, generic beach sculptures and pretty condominiums. It was just short – and cold. We have a friend who owns a time share in the Oceannaire Resort Hotel and week nine of the year happens to be their week. They could not go, so early…
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Views and Chews for Days with Hilton San Francisco Union Square in California
Story, photos by Cassie Hepler Driving into San Francisco, California during a picture perfect summer day was breathtaking. And a little confusing when I reached a toll for the Golden Gate Bridge ($4) and never carry any cash on me. Part of the allure of California and the West is the no toll roads unlike the opposite every two mile tolls it seems on the East Coast. And of course they don’t take credit cards so the lady waved me by and told me to expect something in the mail and to fight it… welcome to San Fran! (Update: It’s all done electronically now and the toll without FasTrak is…
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Catch a Buzz at PA’s Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences Boozy Botanicals Art Deco-Era Event
Whatever lies behind Door 19 must be more mysterious than anything in the proverbial door numbers one, two or three. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden “Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.” — John Dewey I suspected that I was in for a wild night at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University‘s Door 19 event, cleverly named Boozy Botanicals. My vivid imagination envisioned scenes straight out of Little Shop of Horrors, all man-eating plants and specialty cocktails infused with the likes of stinging nettles or mugwort, ferns and fronds serving as swizzle sticks. Maybe my previous assignment at the Academy (Xtreme Bugs, featuring…
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Experience Best of Times, Wurst of Times at Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant in Phoenixville, PA
Foodies will pretty much follow anything that leads to food. Story, photos by Sharon Kozden Achtung! Attention, that is and full disclosure: I’m apparently intolerant of craft brews, which I discovered at the wurst of times, namely Oktoberfest. This would ordinarily be of no concern; however and just prior to learning of my sensitivity to these more potent beers, I accepted an assignment at Phoenixville, PA‘s Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant. Did I mention the event was a celebration of Oktoberfest (clearly not a big month for beer consumption)? To compound the irony, I reside in Phoenixville, where such boozy establishments saturate the Borough. Since I’d never encountered an issue…
