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ISSUE

55

MLMAINLINEINFORMED. SOPHISTICATED. RELEVANT.

MAKING SUSTAINABLE STYLISH Utilitarian Becomes Sleeker and Smarter

And THE RESTAURANT WHERE DINNER IS A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET

ACKNOWLEDGING THE 9-FOOT-TALL GORILLA IN THE ROOM

THE DESIGN ISSUE

CONCEIVED IN VENICE, CRAFTED IN CHESTER

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C H A D D S F O R D K I N G O F P R U S S I A M O N T G O M E R Y V I L L E

ETHANALLEN.COM ©2015 ETHAN ALLEN GLOBAL, INC.

THE NEXT CLASSICS

O U R P R O F E S S I O N A L D E S I G N S E R V I C E I S

COMPLIMENTARYY O U R F R I E N D S ’ C O M M E N T S W I L L B E , T O O

E V E R Y S O F A F R O M A M E R I C A ’ S C L A S S I C D E S I G N B R A N D I S T A I L O R E D B Y H A N D I N O U R N O R T H A M E R I C A N W O R K S H O P S . M A K E O N E Y O U R O W N W I T H T H E H E L P O F O N E O F O U R D E S I G N E R S .

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4 blackdogmedialtd.com

MA

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EAD

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Publisher Jim Bauer

Editor-in-Chief Scott Edwards

Design Cantor Design

Contributing Writers Kyle Bagenstose, Kristin Baver Susan Forker, Courtney Greisman Mike Madaio, Laurie Palau

Todd Soura, Yelena Strokin

Contributing Photographers Josh DeHonney, Susan Forker Matthew J. Rhein, Yelena Strokin

Bookkeeping Jana Dickstein

Director of Events Kate Frey & Special Projects

Director of Sales & Marketing Mike Boucher

Bucks Sales Director Ann Ferro Murray

Advertising Sales 610-417-9261 M7 Media Group

Ann Ferro, Bonny Kalman

Founder Andrew Cantor

BUCKS LIFE Magazine (ISSN 2154-4123) Vol. 7, No. 2, Issue 38. BUCKS LIFE Magazine is published bimonthly by Black Dog Media, Ltd., P.O. Box 682, New Hope, PA 18938; www.buckslifemag.com. ©2015 by Black Dog Media, Ltd. All rights reserved.

MAINLINE Magazine (ISSN 2154-4093) Vol. 10, No. 1, Issue 55. MAINLINE Magazine is published bimonthly by Black Dog Media, Ltd., P.O. Box 682, New Hope, PA 18938; www.mainlinemag.com. ©2015 by Black Dog Media, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nothing herein may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, photographs, etc. if they are to be returned. Black Dog Media, Ltd. assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. All letters will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and are subject to Black Dog Media’s right to edit and comment editorially. All manuscripts, photos or material of any kind may be edited at the discretion of the editors. To be properly credited, all submissions must be accurately marked with the name, address and phone number of the contributor.

Postage paid at the New Hope, PA, Post Office.

POSTMASTER, send address changes to: Black Dog Media, Ltd. P.O. Box 682 New Hope, PA 18938 Subscription rate: $25 for 12 issues.

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Enjoy all of the beautiful sights of Cape May without the hectic summer crowds!Hop on a bicycle from our Congress Hall Bike Shop and enjoy a picnic lunch at our

Beach Plum Farm, the beach, one of Cape May’s favorite destinations, the Lighthouse! Enjoy a take-away lunch from Tommy’s Folly, bicycle rental for 2, and 2 tickets for a

Lighthouse Tour. Promo code SPGBACK.

Spring Back to Cape May

CONGRESS HALL | THE VIRGINIA & COTTAGES | BEACH SHACK | THE STAR | SANDPIPER BEACH CLUB

CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY | RESERVATIONS (855) 290-8467 | CAPERESORTS.COM

SPRING BREAK, EASTER & FAMILY ACTIVITIES AT CONGRESS HALLApril 2 - 11

Pirates, Princesses & Pals Luncheon | Paint and Create | Kids Can Cook, Too!Mad Hatter’s Tea Party | Congress Hall Scavenger Hunt | Congress Hall’s Candyland

Easter Egg Hunt & Activities | Easter Brunch | Faily Lawn Games | Train Rides

BEACH PLUM FARM SPRING FESTIVALApril 18, 25 & May 2

Delicious Food & Drink | Lamb Roast | Beer from Cape May Brewery | Mason Jar Sweet TeaScavenger Hunts | Family Hayrides | S’mores Roasting | Flower Pot Painting & Planting

“Farm to Kids” hands-on lessons

JIMMY’S SMOKIN’ PIG ROAST AT THE RUSTY NAILMondays from 4pm all summer long - starting May 25

Masthead.BLML.FebMar15.02.indd 5 4/9/15 4:26 PM

6 blackdogmedialtd.com

Perfectly Suited for SpringIts easy nature makes brunch the ideal vehicle for luring friends out of a winter-long hibernation

Who’s Your Mama? With her endless riffs on a Latin American staple, Kendall Bajek has Doylestown eating out of her hands

8 Publisher’s Letter10 Editor’s Letter

LIFE.

12 All Roads Lead to Doylestown He’s hardly an idol, but Justin Guarini’s quietly

matured into a leading man, onstage and off-

14 Organized Home Storage solutions for the most clutter-prone

parts of the home that could double as décor

16 Fitness Five practices that have seen our resident

trainer through an increasingly crowded life

18 Scavenging A salvaged barn carves out some breathing

room and stokes an artisan’s nostalgia

20 Trending The latest addition to the string garden boom

by Greenology is almost literally a slice of life

AT LARGE.

THE DESIGN ISSUE 2015

22 The Original Queen Bee Before there was Bey, there was Björk. A MoMA exhibit traces two decades under her influenc

26 Treasure Hunt After we pick through yard sales and flea markets in search of heirlooms, this is the next stop. It’s where fortunes are made and lost

38 A Clash of Natures Behind an oh-so delicate glass collection is a practiced, steady hand that refuses to yield

42 CEO In Hopewell, NJ, an accomplished industrial designer returns to his roots—by chance

EATS.

52 Best-Kept Secret What’s for dinner is a closely guarded secret at Marigold Kitchen, and for good reason

58 The Last Word If seeing a nine-foot gorilla up close is striking,

brace yourself for an even closer look

32

50

46Your Lifestyle Update is Now AvailableGetting greener is looking a whole lot more attractive thanks to a perceptive Philly designer

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COVERS BUCKS LIFE: Photography courtesy of Shift_Design. See “Your Lifestyle Update is Now Available,” page 32. MAINLINE: Photography courtesy of Vetro Vero. See “A Clash of Natures,” page 38.

E XC L U S I V E P R O M OT I O N SS A L E S

M I N I - M A K E O V E R SH A I R S T Y L I N G

M U S I CY U M M Y T R E AT S

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2015.33.Buckslife_GNO.indd 1 3/17/15 9:46 AMTableOfContents.BLML.AprMay15.08.indd 6 4/10/15 11:20 AM

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E XC L U S I V E P R O M OT I O N SS A L E S

M I N I - M A K E O V E R SH A I R S T Y L I N G

M U S I CY U M M Y T R E AT S

GET READY FOR A NIGHT FULL OF SHOPPING, FRIENDS & FUN!

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2015 4:00 – 9:00 PM

R A I N D AT E : F R I D AY, M AY 1 5

P A L M E R S Q U A R E 9 T H A N N U A L

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2015.33.Buckslife_GNO.indd 1 3/17/15 9:46 AMTableOfContents.BLML.AprMay15.08.indd 7 4/10/15 11:21 AM

8 blackdogmedialtd.com

PUB

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ER’S

LET

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The other night, I watched a sushi chef, with all the skill of a neuro-surgeon, carve up fugu, a fish that could easily kill if every last sliver of poison isn’t extracted. It’s a delicacy in Japan. Impressed as I was with his precision, all I could think was: Who first thought to eat around the poison? And, why? If I think something’s even going to cause me mild heartburn, I’m not touching it.

The world as we know it was shaped by such bold acts. Though, I like to imagine that if anyone was ever able to go through and analyze every case, the motivation behind them would break down evenly between need and want, or courage and utter stupidity.

That same cocktail is fueling what feels like another renaissance at this very moment. There is, of course, the frightening pace at which technology is advancing. I say “frightening” because, at this rate, we’re bound to become part-computer before the end of our lifetimes. I’m so hopelessly dependent on my phone, I worry that I already am. But I’m referring more to the grassroots-level ingenuity that’s subtly shifting our lives every day.

Sean Mannix, the subject of this issue’s CEO profile (See “A Long Road Home,” page 42), spent much of his life in and around Hopewell, New Jersey, and all of it involved, in some way, however personal, in art and design. Yet he was completely unaware of a nearby poultry farm that was turned into an artists’ collective. That is, until he discovered it on his first day of searching for a property to settle his family and his industrial design studio.

He bought the farm, of course, and wasted no time upgrading the studios, as though he was already behind schedule. But that wasn’t enough. What its resident artists lacked, what kept him in the dark all those years, was a community. People needed to know about this place, and the farm needed to become their nucleus. So Mannix tracked down neighboring artists and founded a studio tour. Glossing over all of his legwork, just like that, the parts became a whole, and a rural swath of the suburbs became a hotbed for creativity.

Enjoy,Jim BauerPublisher

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STONEY CREEK FARM:The main home offers 4bedrooms, dining and living room, eat-in kitchen andpartially finished basement. The home features beautifulfloors and details of old world quality.The large barnstructure contains a studio apartment. Adjacent to thisstudio is a very spacious one bedroom apartment andbelow this apartment is a pool house with bath andkitchen. Also a separate guest house and in-groundpool. $875,000ContactArt Mazzei or Paul DiCicco for information

THEBENNETTBARN:RenownedArchitectWardBennett converted the barn back in the 1960's. Thiscould be arguably one of the most unique homes in theUpper Bucks area.The grounds are lushly planted withBamboo and various rare specimen trees and shrubs.A detached garage,a Casita and a naturalized in-groundpool. $745,000

POND MEADOW FARM : Set in the heart ofdesirable Tinicum Township, this stucco over stonefarmhouse sits well off the road and enjoys a 19 plusacre homestead. The home is a delight for those whowant a primitive home that has maintained the originalflooring, fireplace,millwork and details of long ago; yet,has incorporated modern amenities of the 21stCentury.There is a very special guest house that offersa full bath, bedroom, kitchenette, fireplace and radiantheated floors. $899,000

UNIONHOUSE : Located among private residencesand Bed & Breakfasts, is Union House.This stately 3-storyhome has been carefully renovated into 3 spaciousand modern apartments.All apartments are rented andindividual utilities have been separated out. The exteriorof the building was freshly painted in late 2014 and allaspects of the structure have been maintained over theyears. An easy stroll to downtown New Hoperiverfront. $695,000

SPRING VALLEY FARM: This 2012 DesignerHouse is a remarkable example of creative andaesthetically pleasing transformation from a 19thCentury farmhouse to a homewith a beautiful fusion ofmodern amenities and period detail. Four Bedrooms,4.5 Baths, pool setting, 11+ acres and Barn. $1,849,000

THE LODGE AT COOKS CREEK : This veryspecial Lodge style home evokes the spirit of theSouthwest in Upper Bucks. A private road leads to thehome with spectacular views. Multiple bedrooms, 2story stone fireplace, pristine wood floors and rustictimbers add to the ambiance. Pool, patio Cooks Creekand carriage style garage. It has it all. Close to SauconValley Country Club or 90 minutes to Manhattan.

$1,395,000

WILDCAT FARM:A spectacular stone, stucco andlog home sited on 16 acres in the rolling Tinicumcountryside. The genesis of the home is the original logportion with wide chinking. This section of the homehas become a large family room that exudes charm andhistory. As the centuries passed, the more affluentadditions were added.Wildcat Farm offers a periodperfect barn, in-ground pool and cook house.

$1,175,000

AddisonWolfeReal Estate

A BOUTIQUE REAL ESTATE FIRMWITH GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

For property information contact Art Mazzei directly at (610) 428-4885550 Union Square, New Hope, PA • (215) 862-5500 • www.AddisonWolfe.com

DEVON HOUSE: Set on 2 plus acres, is a primeexample of a Bucks County farmhouse. It has asprawling floorplan with concentrated detailthroughout: dentil moldings,wide baseboards, delicatespindles and wide plank flooring. The kitchen offersgranite counters, Subzero,Wolf and Asko appliances.There are a total of 5 bedrooms, 2 of which, havefireplaces. The finished basement has a bar forentertaining and a brick fireplace. There is also an in-ground pool with waterfall. $1,295,000

TURTLE ROCK: Set on 5.4 acres in the pastoralcommunity of Tinicum Township, "Turtle Rock"commands views of theTinicumCreek as well as one ofthe remaining covered bridges in the county. Theexquisite workmanship is evident throughout.A newaddition was added to the original that houses a state ofthe art kitchen with radiant heat floors, family room,central foyer, powder room and master suite.

$1,100,000ContactArt Mazzei or Paul DiCicco for information

PublishersLetter.BLML.AprMay15.05.indd 8 4/14/15 9:14 AM

STONEY CREEK FARM:The main home offers 4bedrooms, dining and living room, eat-in kitchen andpartially finished basement. The home features beautifulfloors and details of old world quality.The large barnstructure contains a studio apartment. Adjacent to thisstudio is a very spacious one bedroom apartment andbelow this apartment is a pool house with bath andkitchen. Also a separate guest house and in-groundpool. $875,000ContactArt Mazzei or Paul DiCicco for information

THEBENNETTBARN:RenownedArchitectWardBennett converted the barn back in the 1960's. Thiscould be arguably one of the most unique homes in theUpper Bucks area.The grounds are lushly planted withBamboo and various rare specimen trees and shrubs.A detached garage,a Casita and a naturalized in-groundpool. $745,000

POND MEADOW FARM : Set in the heart ofdesirable Tinicum Township, this stucco over stonefarmhouse sits well off the road and enjoys a 19 plusacre homestead. The home is a delight for those whowant a primitive home that has maintained the originalflooring, fireplace,millwork and details of long ago; yet,has incorporated modern amenities of the 21stCentury.There is a very special guest house that offersa full bath, bedroom, kitchenette, fireplace and radiantheated floors. $899,000

UNIONHOUSE : Located among private residencesand Bed & Breakfasts, is Union House.This stately 3-storyhome has been carefully renovated into 3 spaciousand modern apartments.All apartments are rented andindividual utilities have been separated out. The exteriorof the building was freshly painted in late 2014 and allaspects of the structure have been maintained over theyears. An easy stroll to downtown New Hoperiverfront. $695,000

SPRING VALLEY FARM: This 2012 DesignerHouse is a remarkable example of creative andaesthetically pleasing transformation from a 19thCentury farmhouse to a homewith a beautiful fusion ofmodern amenities and period detail. Four Bedrooms,4.5 Baths, pool setting, 11+ acres and Barn. $1,849,000

THE LODGE AT COOKS CREEK : This veryspecial Lodge style home evokes the spirit of theSouthwest in Upper Bucks. A private road leads to thehome with spectacular views. Multiple bedrooms, 2story stone fireplace, pristine wood floors and rustictimbers add to the ambiance. Pool, patio Cooks Creekand carriage style garage. It has it all. Close to SauconValley Country Club or 90 minutes to Manhattan.

$1,395,000

WILDCAT FARM:A spectacular stone, stucco andlog home sited on 16 acres in the rolling Tinicumcountryside. The genesis of the home is the original logportion with wide chinking. This section of the homehas become a large family room that exudes charm andhistory. As the centuries passed, the more affluentadditions were added.Wildcat Farm offers a periodperfect barn, in-ground pool and cook house.

$1,175,000

AddisonWolfeReal Estate

A BOUTIQUE REAL ESTATE FIRMWITH GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

For property information contact Art Mazzei directly at (610) 428-4885550 Union Square, New Hope, PA • (215) 862-5500 • www.AddisonWolfe.com

DEVON HOUSE: Set on 2 plus acres, is a primeexample of a Bucks County farmhouse. It has asprawling floorplan with concentrated detailthroughout: dentil moldings,wide baseboards, delicatespindles and wide plank flooring. The kitchen offersgranite counters, Subzero,Wolf and Asko appliances.There are a total of 5 bedrooms, 2 of which, havefireplaces. The finished basement has a bar forentertaining and a brick fireplace. There is also an in-ground pool with waterfall. $1,295,000

TURTLE ROCK: Set on 5.4 acres in the pastoralcommunity of Tinicum Township, "Turtle Rock"commands views of theTinicumCreek as well as one ofthe remaining covered bridges in the county. Theexquisite workmanship is evident throughout.A newaddition was added to the original that houses a state ofthe art kitchen with radiant heat floors, family room,central foyer, powder room and master suite.

$1,100,000ContactArt Mazzei or Paul DiCicco for information

PublishersLetter.BLML.AprMay15.05.indd 9 4/9/15 5:06 PM

10 blackdogmedialtd.com

EDIT

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You don’t need to sit through prime time on HGTV to know that the savvi-est designs today are repurposed. From uncovering and reimagining long lost loose ends at flea markets to blowing through walls and resurrecting ranches and split-levels whose prime was spent in the muddy puddle that was the sev-enties, we’ve reached a place where, finally, brand-new is the less attractive option. Yeah, it’s trendy, but it’s also sustainable, which gives it the backbone to withstand our fleeting, ADHD tastes.

Maybe the most attractive aspect of this budding mindset is the total lack of uniformity. Every vision of the future that appears in the movies is sterile and the same. A few years ago, it was so widespread, it felt predetermined. But a renewed belief in character is subtly shifting our course toward a more nuanced destination that’s not as easily envisioned because the people building it are coming from nontraditional walks.

Back in February, I spent an afternoon in the studio at Shift_Design, which sits in the basement of a retrofitted mansion a couple blocks from Rittenhouse Square. (See “Your Lifestyle Update is Now Available,” page 32.) Just a few years ago, Mario Gentile, Shift’s founder and CEO, was working at a prestigious architecture fi m, where he should have been on the very cutting-edge of building design. But he wasn’t.

“One of the things that I didn’t like about high-end architecture was that there was no thought about sustainability at all,” he says. “You would think that these clients would have the means to do whatever they want. But it was not about that. It was surprisingly not about that.”

It proved to be an ominous sign. The economy bottomed out, the high-end market fell away and Gentile lost his job. When he started Shift, it was out of necessity—with a five-week-old at home, he needed to work—but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be smart and methodical about it. He looked around Philly, where he lived, and saw a city that was struggling to keep up. It didn’t need new, sleek skyscrapers. It needed thoughtful solutions to update—and not in a patchwork way—the exist-ing buildings: green roofs, rainwater tanks and gardens. He was going to pull these peripheral concepts into the mainstream, a row home at a time. Today, Shift’s one of the main creative minds behind Shake Shack’s nationwide expansion. It doesn’t get any more mainstream than that.

Along a different part of the spectrum entirely are the weekly walk-in appraisals at Rago Arts & Auction Center in Lambertville, NJ. (See “Treasure Hunt,” page 26.) On a frozen Monday, more than a hundred people, twentysomethings to seventysomethings, waited patiently to have their heirlooms and flea-market finds authenticated. Naturally, ev-eryone wanted to know what their stuff was worth. But, of those holding something truly valuable, few seemed interested in selling. Learning the context was enough.

Before TV made it cool, only the eccentrics and the experts were dig-ging through basements and attics, yard sales and flea markets. Only they could appreciate the worth. The rest of us were OK with blindly shedding the discarded and the forgotten. We know better now. Evolu-tion isn’t a straightforward progression. In both cases, we’re doubling back and learning to live with what we’ve got.

All my best,Scott EdwardsEditor-in-Chief

It’s What We Do in the Summer!

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EditorsLetter.BLML.AprMay15.05.indd 10 4/9/15 4:58 PM

It’s What We Do in the Summer!

Quality Outdoor Furniture

Exact fabrics, �nishes and styles may not be available in all locations.

Paramus, NJ846 N. Route 17 • 201-445-9070

Shrewsbury, NJ795 Broad St. • 732-578-9460

Wayne, NJ1308 Route 23 • 973-256-8585

Lawrenceville, NJ2990 Brunswick Ave. • 609-530-1666

Custom orders areour specialty.

Custom orders areour specialty.

CelebrateSummer!

Visit one of our 4 fully-stocked showrooms today!

Now is the best time to visit Ski Barn for comfortable, quality outdoor furniture. Our expert sta� will custom order it, promptly deliver it, and set it up, so all that’s left for you to do is relax and enjoy summer.

10% OFF All CustomOrders*

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EditorsLetter.BLML.AprMay15.05.indd 11 4/9/15 4:58 PM

12 blackdogmedialtd.com

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INSIDE: 14 > Organized Home 16 > Fitness 18 > Scavenging 20 > Trending

All Roads Lead Back to DoylestownThat first season of “American Idol” hit like ecstacy at a sorority party. In a night, we were hopelessly hooked. Kelly and Justin lifted us out of our mundane lives, and we latched on to their fantasy as though we had stakes in it.

But intense experiences are, by definition, short-lived. If you can pick Kelly Clarkson out of a lineup now, put the Internet down for a while. The last 13 years have been good, though, to Justin Guarini, who’s maintained a lower profile. They’ve chiseled down those Blow Pop cheek-bones, along with that untameable mess of hair. The ever-present ear-to-ear smile that made him look star-struck then is more of a quietly confident grin now at 36

His career’s matured just as well. Guarini’s been a regular on Broadway for years. He’s fresh off a revival of Paint Your Wagon. Last year, he was the lead in Wicked. Before that, he performed in Romeo and Juliet (alongside Orlan-do Bloom) and American Idiot. You probably spotted him without realizing it in the newest Dr. Pepper commercials. He plays an ‘80’s-style rocker called Lil’ Sweet and looks nothing like himself. He’s also miniature.

And still Guarini calls Doylestown home. He grew up there. And now he and his wife, Reina, are raising their three kids there. Somehow. His schedule’s relentless, and she’s trying to write two novels in between feedings and diaper changes. —COURTNEY GREISMAN

Doylestown seems like an odd fit for your lives nowReina: This is where we first met as teenagers, so there wasn’t much debate. It definitely made no sense for us to do it since most of Justin’s work is in LA or NYC, but it was important for us to be close to our families and give our kids the same if not better of an experience grow-ing up in a tight-knit community. We live in an amazing neighborhood in the borough and everyone has become this beautiful extended family.Justin: I still hang out with the guys I went to school with. I see my Lenape football coach every week at Bagel Bar-rel. The people in my community really know me because they knew me when I was a huge chorus dork wearing mock turtlenecks.

Not that you have the time for it, but where do you head on date night?Justin: MOM’s for a fun, relaxing time, Honey for some-thing fresh and funky and Domani Star for easy and deli-cious. And we’re at Ooka more times than we’re willing to talk about publicly.Reina: And then we’ll stop over at my old work, Siren Re-cords. That’s a perfect night for me.

CO

URT

ESY

JU

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NI

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Spring Lake’s Premier Oceanfront Hotel & Restaurant

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LIFE

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AN

IZED

HO

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Stylish Storage

Laurie Palau is the owner of the New Hope-based simply B organized (simplyborganized.com), a home and life organization service.

My vision of utopia: Architectural Digest just finished shooting my home. The family re-enters the kitchen cautiously, quietly. Too quietly. I’m suspicious. But then my husband says, “I’ve taken for granted just how beautiful our home is. We need to do a better job of keeping it like this.” The girls nod as though they were struck, simultaneously, by the same revelation. And we all live happily ever after.

The reality: I get home from work and walk into the middle of a “Silicon Valley”-esque incubator. Phones are charging on the kitchen counter. A laptop’s propped open on the table, jackets strewn across the backs of the chairs surrounding it. My husband’s playing Xbox in the living room. And one of my daughters is scrolling on an iPad as a pile of Us Weekly and in Touch issues teeters on the end table next to her.

I’ll never contain the tide. I can only hope to stem it. A crucial part of that, I’ve learned, is storage. Whether it’s ever used by other members of your household or not, having the space to stash all the loose ends that litter our lives will buy you years of sanity.

Most already know this. But storage gets a bum rap anyway. When we think storage, sterile and bulky are the descriptors within easiest reach. As much as we may strive for order, no one wants to live in a life-size Lego-land. You don’t see many massive plastic containers in magazine spreads.

But decorative-minded collections are finally beginning to breakthrough. Which means that you can have your organization and stylize it, too. Here are a few of my favorites for the most commonly cluttered spaces.

POPPIN CABLE BOX$30 | poppin.comAs prolific as the term “wi eless” is these days, we’re drowning in a tangle of cords. With this model of simple beauty, which discreetly houses a four-socket surge protector, all of that goes away as fast as you can plug in.

CRATE&BARREL YELLOW WIRE BIN$17 | crateandbarrel.comWorks just as well in a coat closet as a hat-and-glove bin and in the pantry, as a catchall for bags of chips and boxes of energy bars. The minimalist design means you won’t have to go digging or dumping it out in search of something that, without fail, will be at the bottom.

THE LAND OF NOD BON VOYAGE SUITCASE SET$20 | landofnod.comCorral all the things little kids leave in their wake but freak out over when they go missing. The set comes in a range of trendy hues and patterns, so it’ll look right in boys’ and girls’ rooms. Or yours.

I’ve always believed that organization was a form of expression. Now it truly is. By Laurie Palau

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Target new goalsI like to do it every three months, but even once a year has a positive effect. Be creative. But, more importantly, be realistic. Run a 5K before you register for a half-marathon. Races are good options because you’re locked into them, but they’re hardly the only ones. Aim to improve your mile time or the weight you can bench press. If losing weight is your goal, fo-cus on your hip or waist measurements, which will give you a more accurate read on your progress than your weight.

Change paceThe less of an opportunity you give your body to adapt, the more substantial your gains will be. If you can comfortably bang out a fivemile tempo run, where you average 65 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, try high-intensity intervals, which are designed to push you over 90 percent for very brief stretches. If you have access to a track, warm up then sprint 100 meters. Walk back to where you started and do it again. Aim for 10 sprints. Or, find a hill and run to the top at full-speed. Jog back down and do it again. Repeat five to 10 times, depending on the distance.

Every four to six weeks, change the pace of your weight training, too. Lift less weight and do more repetitions or lift more weight and do less reps. If your workouts are comprised of isolation exercises with long stretches of rest in between sets (60 seconds or more), replace them with combination moves and no rest.

Change the kind of exercise, tooThere’s too much at our disposal to do the same things day in and day out. Plus, as profi-cient as you may be at cycling, it’s at the det-riment of your upper body. Versatility bodes better for your health and fitness. Instead of riding for an hour, swing a 40-pound kettlebell as many times as you can in 20 minutes. Swap out a day of weights for a yoga class.

Eat consciouslyI marvel at my wife. She can eat three M&M’s, fold up the bag and stuff it back in the drawer. If I have one, I’m going to devour the entire bag, so I avoid them altogether. Regardless of which of us you fall behind, learn to be aware of everything you eat. When you take a mo-ment to think about it, you’ll start to detect whether you’re hungry or just bored. From there, you can seek out foods that nourish you and fill you up, rather than reaching for the shiniest wrapper whenever you’re distracted.

Stare yourself downIf you find yourself routinely over-booking and, as a result, skimping on your workouts and eating poorly, something needs to change. You are not at the mercy of your iCal. There’s always a half-hour available for a quick work-out, even if it means getting up earlier. And there are always healthier things to eat, even if it means packing a chopped salad for your son’s lacrosse game. Or sticking to the veggie end of the buffet at a networking affair.

5 Habits of a Time-Crunched Personal Trainer

I started following a workout regimen back in high school. I may not have had the sharpest sense of direction then, but I had plenty of time and energy to figu e it out as I went. Twenty-five years later, neither is on my side. I’m a husband, a father of three and a business owner. If my resolve weakens, there are plenty of other priorities that’ll rush in to consume my attention. But a few time-tested practices prevent that from happening.

Todd Soura is the owner of the Doylestown-based Action Personal Training (actionpersonaltraining.com).

Motivation can wane even in the most die-hard among us. But some mild tweaking can refresh your focus and put you on personal-best pace. By Todd Soura

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Nooks & Crannies

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents (joeyfivecents.com), a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessorie

(BACKGROUND) THE LADDERS

ARE PART OF THE BARN’S

ORIGINAL, PRESERVED FRAME.

MOST OF THE WINDOWS

ARE NEW, BUT THIS ONE IS

RECLAIMED. IN THE AFTERNOON

LIGHT, IT FILTERS THE MOST

BEAUTIFUL SHADOWS.

THE INTERIOR WALLS ARE

MADE FROM RANDOM-WIDTH

BOARDS PAINTED IVORY TO

HELP LIGHTEN THE SPACE AND

HIGHLIGHT THE RECLAIMED

TIMBER FRAME. THE VINTAGE

TRAIN SIGN WAS BOUGHT AT

A LOCAL ANTIQUES DEALER.

THE NOTCHED ROMAN

NUMERALS WERE USED

TO IDENTIFY AND MATCH

THE BEAMS DURING THE

BARN’S CONSTRUCTION.

THE CEILING WAS PIECED

TOGETHER WITH SALVAGED

WOOD FROM ANOTHER OLD

BARN. WE TOOK ADVANTAGE OF

ITS HEIGHT AND THE BEAMS TO

HANG SOME UNUSUAL LAMPS.

The shortcomings of our small galley kitchen forced us to face a reality, several years ago, that we were trying to ignore: Our 1850’s farmhouse just wasn’t big enough. We set our sights on a whole-house remodel. Plans were drawn up, but a host of complications surfaced, namely the integra-tion of the many rooflines from various additions over the decades, and the renovation became too expensive to do.

Before we moved to Pennsylvania, we were completely enamored with the idea of having, even living in, a renovated barn, but we were never able to find the right one. After the farmhouse-remodel fell through, it oc-curred to us to raise our own barn to add some breathing room.

An exhaustive search led us to a local “barnsmith,” who, conveniently, had just acquired an aged barn timber frame from a neighboring town that was a perfect fit for what we had in mind. The barn’s nestled today near our 100-plus-year-old apple tree as though they were together from the start.

In the five years since its construction, the barn’s become a beloved ex-tension of our home—part studio and part entertaining space, as well as a repository of our eclectic collections that would never have fit in the house

The running joke around here is “who needs a bigger kitchen when you can have a barn?” That’ll come someday. For the time being, I’m still getting to know my barn. The history and integrity of its beams are a constant source of intrigue and inspiration. Here are a few of my favorite nooks and crannies.

Five years after it was raised, a reclaimed barn remains full

of intrigue and inspiration. By Susan Forker

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What Comes NaturallyWe’ll call it the Fairy Gardening Craze because it sounds cuter than Sci-Fi Vegetation Madness, even though a cluster of these string gardens resembles a scale model of a set from the next Star Wars, particularly these latest iterations crafted by Fritzie Ege and Ken Hay, owners of Greenology Organic Living (greenologyorganics.com). There’s a rawness to them—big hunks of earth, exposed roots—like they were dug up and hanged as is somehow. When Ege and Hay opened the first of their two shops in Chestnut Hill a year ago—the other’s in Lahaska, and a third’s on the way in Avalon, NJ—their eco-conscious inventory was remarkable not for its marketing savvy but for the sincerity of their com-mitment. They met in a coffee shop five years ago and bonded almost immediately over it. Greenology’s stocked with a smartly edited collection of rustic-looking home goods and chemical-free household products. But Ege and Hay, as you may already be able to tell, have a very different perspective on what it means to live responsibly. And much like their string gardens, they get that it’s not one-size-fits-all. —COURTNEY GREISMAN

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INSIDE: SPECIAL DESIGN COVERAGE 26 > The Art of the Deal 32 > Exterior Design 38 > Craftsman 42 > CEO

Before there was Bey, there was Björk. Not as main-stream, but just as influential, even still

Consider the montage and the sounds that flashed across your mind at the mere sight of her name. Elfin, Icelandic woman skipping through some lush, emerald forest, walking the red carpet in a literal swan dress, piercing your soul with that ethereal voice (even though you can’t make out the lyrics). Now consider how many other musicians you know so much about without ever really following. And that Björk comes from a place we know next to nothing about—remove her from the equation and it is actually nothing. And that she pulled all that off largely without the luxury of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Love her or hate her—really, how can you hate anyone who’s about the size of a French bulldog and possesses the uninhibited imagination of a three-year-old—there’s no denying that Björk is an original, which is a species that’s strangely becoming rarer the more the conventional modes are dismantled and we find our own ways

That’s how she lands her own retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, in New York.

The exhibit begins with Björk’s first true solo album, Debut, released in 1993, and proceeds through her schizophrenic career up to her latest project, “Black Lake,” a video and music installation commissioned by the museum. (It also appears on her new album, Vulnicura.) In between runs a chronological stream of sounds, videos, images, instruments, objects and costumes (includ-ing that swan dress) that describes a fearless artist who’s constantly reinventing herself, yet somehow never falls out of favor. —SCOTT EDWARDS Björk, through June 7, The Museum of Modern Art; moma.org. ››Make a weekend of it. For where to stay, turn to page 24.

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THE ORIGINAL QUEEN BEEA MoMA retrospective exposes the many faces of Björk, each more probing than the one before it.

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Presenting Sponsor: Created by Philadelphia’s science, cultural and educational institutions and organized by The Franklin Institute.

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What's in a Garden? Sunday, April 26 | 2:00–5:00 pm Grumblethorpe Historic House & Garden5267 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

Explore the historic 2-acre garden and see what you can dig up! Search for common and not-so-common animals and plants, and keep your eyes peeled as there may be some things that don’t belong. You’re sure to get a little dirty, so dress for mess!

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BIOLOGYCHEMISTRY

FOOD & DRINKFOOD & DRINK

TECH

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YOUR

ONE NANOMETEREVERY SECOND.

FINGERNAILS GROW

Learn more at www.PhilaScienceFestival.org #GetNerdyPHL

Presenting Sponsor: Created by Philadelphia’s science, cultural and educational institutions and organized by The Franklin Institute.

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April 24–May 2

What's in a Garden? Sunday, April 26 | 2:00–5:00 pm Grumblethorpe Historic House & Garden5267 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

Explore the historic 2-acre garden and see what you can dig up! Search for common and not-so-common animals and plants, and keep your eyes peeled as there may be some things that don’t belong. You’re sure to get a little dirty, so dress for mess!

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Five blocks from Central Park South and around the corner from MoMA, The London NYC is perfectly situated for your overnight cultural immersion. Even if it wasn’t, you’d want to seek it out.

The suites start at 500 square feet (and, for the ballers, run as large as 2,500 in the penthouse), which is a country unto itself in Midtown. Our north-facing room gifted us a serene view of the skyline bordering the west side of the park washed in gold at sunrise. And, 31 floors up, barely a honk or a siren broke our meditation.

But The London’s true beauty lies in its convenience. Just off the lobby sits The London Bar, which drew a mature, fashionable crowd for classic cocktails and champagne, and the adjacent MAZE, a casual restau-rant with a Mediterranean-influenced menu created by Gordon Ramsay. It was hard to maintain our very conscious attempt to look like we belonged as we devoured an impossibly tender octopus salad, a New York strip steak as thick as my fist and a perfectly pan-roasted, pistachio-encrusted branzino. (We, at least, passed on the Beef Wellington for two, the standing weekend special, knowing we’d be court-ing the eyes of every other diner in the room and that we had no hope of a dignified esponse.)

The next morning, after admiring the sunrise, we hit the health club, 27 floors down. Your standard af-terthought of a hotel gym, it is not. Plenty roomy and tricked out with every piece of equipment you could ever want, all of it the latest model, it’s like an adult playground, with less laughter and more grunting. Working off dinner and priming ourselves for some more overindulging came easier than usual.

Every time we visit New York, no matter the occasion or the planning done beforehand, we’re paralyzed by the possibilities. This time, we took a decidedly differ-ent course and stayed in one spot. Really, we never left the hotel. We talked about walking through the park, window-shopping along 5th Avenue, even seeing a show. With it all within easy reach, we’d regret it if we didn’t. Turns out, though, we didn’t. —SCOTT EDWARDS

Where to StayA

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It’s moving day at Rago Arts & Auction Center in Lambertville, New Jersey. But, then, most days are moving day in one way or another here. Rago sold $30 million in property last year. On this particular

Monday morning in late February, large guys are shuttling larger pieces of furniture from the Early 20th Design Auction, held two weeks earlier, out the front door. They move with surprising pace and finesse

Along the shoulder of the route that they trace again and again sits a worn-but-still decadent Paul Evans sideboard and three plastic banquet tables loaded with porcelain tchotchkes that arrived overnight from the Caribbean. All of it sits behind a tall curtain wall that outlines a large block at the front of the warehouse-like space. Closest to the entrance, two banks of long tables face each other. Behind them, 120 empty chairs are arranged in six neat rows. In a couple of hours, almost every one of them will be filled

From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. most Mondays, Rago hosts free, walk-in apprais-als. The first was held back in 2002, and it was fairly casual compared to today’s setup. Three Rago specialists stood behind the lunchroom coun-ter immediately off the entrance and fielded all comers on a first come, first served basis—along with the occasional sandwich order, jokes Sarah Churgin, the director of Rago’s jewelry department and one of those original specialists.

The sessions seemed to grow in direct proportion to the booming popu-larity of the PBS series, “Antiques Roadshow,” which regularly features Rago’s husband-and-wife owners David Rago and Suzanne Perrault. Soon, everyone—even you, admit it—was digging through their attics, their basements, their neighbors’ yard sales and sprawling flea markets. It was, and very much continues to be, a modern-day treasure hunt, and Rago’s

weekly appraisals became the outlet for much of it. For those who had no idea what they were looking for (the great majority) and even those who did, it’s where fortunes were made. Or, at least, authenticated. Though, way, way more often, those hopes were dashed.

Most recently, a lock of George Washington’s hair turned up, as did Marilyn Monroe’s scarf (confi med) and compact (unconfi med). This af-ternoon, paintings (prints, more accurately) and porcelain (figurines and large plates) will be in the greatest quantity, but the wide (and weird) as-sortment of other stuff makes any neat classification impossible. (More on that in a moment.) It’ll come stuffed in boxes and large bags and wrapped in plastic, sheets, towels, garbage bags, bubble wrap and Mexican blan-kets. Protected, in other words, in the hope that it’s worth preserving.

11:15 a.m. The first people register. Jeanne Haeckel, a kind, inquisitive woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, checks them in. She asks what they brought because the stuff needs to be divided into three categories: art, jewelry and miscellaneous. But she does it in such a personable way that it feels like her own curiosity is compelling her.

The limit’s six items per person, and most bring at least that much. Once Haeckel takes stock, she hands over a ticket for each applicable category that reserves a place in line. (It’s still first come, first served, but it’s policed now.) She then asks if they’re new to the event. For those who say they are, she explains how it’ll go down.

11:30 a.m. Jerry* looks to be in his seventies. He wears a light gray fedora with a wide black band and an easy smile that flashes his immaculate teeth (or dentures). Both arms fully loaded, he approaches Haeckel with a woman who looks to be about his age. When Haeckel asks what they

TREASURE HUNTThanks to TV, we’ve all been led to believe—or, more accurately, we all really want to believe—that there are jewels among our junk and our neighbors’ junk. As the

hunt escalates, the weekly free appraisals at a Lambertville, NJ, auction house have become a sort of ground zero, a scene where fortunes can be made.

Though, far more often, it’s where hopes are diminished. By Scott Edwards

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april 24th, 25th 26th&

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brought, he replies, “It’s old, like me.”Later, she hands over their tickets and

asks if they’ll be waiting here until the start. (Once they’re registered, they’re not obligated to. But almost everyone does.) “Yeah,” Jerry says. “We’re together 40 years. How boring can it be?”

12:50 p.m. A line forms in front of Haeckel out of nowhere. Over the next 15 minutes, the crowd in the waiting area doubles, then triples and keeps growing. Just that fast, there are about 50 people registered and at least 20 more in line. Haeckel’s telling them that the wait’s go-ing to be about 45 minutes.

1:15 p.m. Specialist Chris Wise calls Jer-ry’s number. Wise is the director of Ra-go’s silver department, but for the sake of the walk-in appraisals, he’s a “generalist,” which means he’s tending to the miscel-laneous category.

The salt-and-pepper hair and tweed jacket aside, Wise is the antithesis of how I imagined an auction house spe-cialist before today. He’s a laidback, self-deprecating jokester. And a late bloomer. He’s only been doing this for the last 10 years or so. Prior to that, Wise worked primarily as a timber framer for an employer so concerned with authen-ticity that he encouraged his crew to use 19th century tools. Once you begin accumulating such pieces, you’ll inevi-tably look to sell some of them, Wise says. So, it wasn’t too long ago that Wise waited his turn on the other side of the table, hoping to consign some of his tools and, later on, other things.

Jerry presents him with a large blue and yellow decorative plate. “This wants to be 18th century,” Wise tells him. “Looks right here. Looks right here,” he says, turning it slowly and close to his face.

“Whatta you think it’s worth?” Jerry asks. This question will be asked all afternoon long. I sat in on over a dozen evaluations—technically, these aren’t appraisals, which are a much more elaborate, formal pro-cess—and it came up in every single one. Some may pretend like it’s inconsequential, but they still want to know.

“$350 to $400,” Wise says. It’s higher than I expected, but it’s lower, apparently, than what Jerry wants to hear. “I took a shot,” he says, and drifts away.

“That’s a hard thing to do 420 times a day, to disappoint somebody every time you open your mouth,” Wise told me before the start of the session.

1:30 p.m. From the front of the room, Sebastian Clarke—tall, lean, Eng-lish and, accordingly, impeccably dressed—booms a pair of ticket num-bers. Clarke is the director of Rago’s estate services. He emerged from behind the curtain wall precisely at 1 p.m. and took up residence behind the lunchroom counter, coming out from behind it only to call a new pair of numbers. When the corresponding ticket holders come forward, he sends one to the side of the counter and the other to the front of it. He works quickly and efficiently, and with a bit of swagger. Kind of like a TV surgeon.

A woman in her sixties pulls out what looks like an over-the-top hood ornament from a midcentury luxury sedan, which turns out to be a small sculpture by Harriet Frishmuth, who Clarke would later describe as “one of the most important American sculptors.” It drew the attention of every specialist who saw it, as well as Haeckel, from the moment the woman registered. She says she found it in her grandparents’ highboy. Years later, she saw a larger version of the same sculpture on “Antiques Roadshow.” The impetus will be the same for many. Most of the rest will have conducted their own “research” and developed their own ideas of what their stuff’s worth.

“The publicity’s great,” Wise says of the show. “And the fact that more people become aware that they have valuable material is helpful. How-ever, contrast that with the fact that they feel that everything is valuable. And there’s a lot of sentimental baggage assigned to every piece that comes in.” Which always increases the intrinsic value in the holder’s eyes, but never in the specialist’s.

Identifying the sculpture is not the issue for Clarke. Finding a com-parable piece to formulate a value is. Every specialist is armed with a tablet or a laptop. Some rely more heavily on them than others. They use them to refer to three sites (along with tried-and-true Google): LiveAuc-tioneers.com, Bidsquare.com and Invaluable.com, which is subscription-based and ultimately what provides Clarke with what he needs. Similar size sculptures by Frishmuth have gone for $4,000 to $8,000 at recent auctions. He offers to include it Rago’s early 20th century fine art auction in March, but the woman says she plans to hold on to it for now.

2:20 p.m. Up until about a month ago, Tom Martin ran this show. But *The noted names have been changed.

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he’s “downsizing” now, he says. Martin’s been in-volved in auctions for more than three decades in various capacities, and he describes himself, accordingly, as the “prototypical generalist,” which he defines as knowing a little bit about ev-erything. He proves as much over a five-minut span when he’s consulted by five different spe-cialists, including Wise, who’s stationed next to him. When the Internet fails, Martin, apparently, is depended upon not to. He never hesitates to con-jure up a bit of context or even a value. It comes so easily, it looks like he’s making it up. But the people who would know seem satisfied

2:30 p.m. The crowd’s barely been dented. That’s first thing I notice. The second is that not one of those 50 or so is on a phone, which would indicate a high average age. The majority is white-haired—it’s a Monday afternoon, after all—but there’s also at least a dozen people in their forties and fifties, along with several twenty-somethings. And counting. Many of the latecom-ers are relatively young.

Hunched over or sitting next to their large, bun-dled objects, the waiting area’s come to resemble an airport terminal.

2:50 p.m. George* unpacks his 57-year-old bottle of Glenlivet scotch from its red velvet-lined box and hands it over to Wise, who responds with a requisite comment about needing to sample it to properly evalu-ate it. George has a big, round belly and the look of an eccentric artist, but something about him makes me want to reassure him that Wise is only kidding. His father gave him the scotch, he says.

Wise finds a comparable bottle that went for $1,100. The problem with spirits, though, is that they generally don’t age well. And George’s bottle is showing a significant amount of evaporation. Wise quotes him $700 to $800, but says he’ll probably have a hard time finding a place to sell it. George seems to have little intention of parting with it anyway.

When all else fails, old age should count for something, right? Not quite. Age only really comes into play when everything else is right. If it was mundane to begin with, it’s still going to be mundane 50 years later.

3 p.m. Mick Byers has been meandering through the waiting area scru-tinizing paintings for two hours straight without ever sitting—as much as I’ve seen, at least. He exudes a bonfi e-warmth and bottomless patience. Where every specialist aims, foremost, to provide a context for the ob-ject under inspection, Byers does one better and imparts his tricks of the trade. In one case, he pulls out a magnifying glass to spot the pixels and dispel a watercolor. Then he makes sure everyone gets a turn to see what he’s seen, including me.

Over a 10-minute stretch, Byers studies a dozen paintings—prints, it turns out—and debunks them all. His analysis, though, is so thoughtful, his demeanor so sincere that all three owners leave grateful.

The good news,” he says to one, “is this is Salvador Dali.”“We know it’s not original,” the woman interrupts.“It’s worth $10 to $20,” Byers says. “But I would rather you not sell it.”

3:25 p.m. Around 2 p.m., a middle-age guy walked in holding an old concert poster for The Clash signed by all four members of the band. I tracked him so that I could eavesdrop on his evaluation when the time came. Final-ly, he’s up. Wise notices me hurry to his side.

“You’re, what, 36? You a fan?” he asks. Off, but just. I’m 38. My jaw slacks, and before I can say anything, Wise flashes a half-smirk and says, “C’mon, man. It’s what I do.”

The magic numbers that have punctuated every evaluation throughout the afternoon, for better and for worse, are not the objects’ worth. They’re conservative prices the special-ists expect those pieces to sell for if they were to come to auction that day, which usually run lower than the ones their owners have in mind. And that’s because the specialists are setting amounts they believe will attract the most attention, which is critical, because while there’s now a glut of sellers, the buyers have been in steady decline for years. In fact, it’s maybe the most pressing issue facing auction

houses today.“A lot of the buy-

ers are aging,” Wise says. “And they’ve been collecting for 20, 25 years, so they’re only after the cream of the crop.”

Wise figu es the con-cert poster could go for $2,200, maybe even more, in front of a “captive audience.” To start the bidding there, however, would promptly eliminate everyone but a se-lect few from contention. But at, say, $700, there’s very likely to be a furious flurry of bids, and that momentum could send it spi-raling toward unprecedented heights. All the conditions need to be right, though.

3:45 p.m. The waiting-area crowd, for the firsttime all afternoon, is no-ticeably thinner. About 20 people remain free to fathom the possibility of be-coming very rich very quickly.

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It feels counterintuitive to descend to a basement—albeit, one in a retrofitted mansion a couple blocks from Rittenhouse Square—to reach the hive of one of the most innovative and, increasingly, in-

demand sustainable design fi ms in the country. Shift_Design started back in 2009 with a smarter, sleeker update to the

rain barrel, which, at the time, was a modest achievement, considering how much room for improvement there was. After some brand-honing under the socially responsible incubator, GoodCompany Ventures, Shift rolled out an impressive product line of about a dozen pieces, formal-ly introducing its modern aesthetic and admirable (read: desperately needed) environmental-consciousness and hinting at its versatility—ar-chitecture and landscape design are part of its arsenal, too—which led to some rather prominent clients, like Shake Shack.

Today, the Shift collection ranges from birdfeeders and planters to living walls and rainwater tanks, most of it metal, formed from a single four-foot by eight-foot sheet of steel, and all of it defined by clean lines. The minimalist style makes it appealing to the young and the fashion-able. But that simplicity also helps keep labor costs low, enables a more efficient kind of shipping and makes assembly, if there even is any, ridiculously easy.

The design studio is about what you’d expect given the physical con-strictions: low ceiling, a few small, rectangular windows. One wall’s painted in chalkboard-black, another in Kermit the Frog-green. The en-tire room is about 16 feet by 16 feet, and it’s a bit of a mess. Some scale models sit stacked against the far wall, notes are scribbled on the chalk-board wall, a small communal desk is scattered with a couple desktops and loose papers. In stark contrast, the entire wall immediately to the right of the door is pinned with neat rows of letter-size pages, most of which look like renderings. There are tens of them.

Mario Gentile is Shift_Design’s founder and CEO. Maybe it’s because an episode of “Parks and Rec” was fresh in my head, but from our introduction, I couldn’t shake the impression that he reminded me of

Your Lifestyle Update is Now AvailableThis eco movement has always felt a little heavy on the green and guilt and light on the convenience and comfort. But a perceptive Philly design outfit is reworking that algorithm and making the great outdoors more user-friendly. By Scott Edwards

THE FOUNDER OF SHIFT_DESIGN, MARIO GENTILE.

AND A SAMPLE OF ITS MINIMALISTIC, CRAVE-

INDUCING HOME GARDENING LINE.

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Adam Scott’s character, Ben Wyatt—the innocent, earnest enthusiasm for his noble work. Tim Barnes is his design director. He joined Gentile a year in. Describing a creative collaboration is always a risk because it’s loaded with nuance. But, generally speaking, Gentile tends to supply the big ideas and Barnes tends to dissect them and immerse himself in their details.

“You have those eureka-in-the-shower moments way more often than I do,” Barnes says to Gentile.

Both worked as architects prior to this. They didn’t get into sustain-able design because they saw a market on the cusp of exploding. They saw a void. Lots of them, actually. Much of what was out there six years ago—rain barrels, living walls, green roofs—was stuck on the periphery, in part because we, as a whole, weren’t as conscious of our wicked ways as we are now. But a lot of it was also ugly and barely useful. Gentile and Barnes knew that if they could design more efficient and better-looking alternatives, the mainstream would swarm them. Even now, as much as Shift_Design’s grown—product sales last year doubled from 2013—Gentile remains committed to his founding belief that making lots of small inroads is more of a catalyst for a paradigm shift than trying to engineer one sprawling highway.

Borne from need, not wantTwo days before Christmas, 2008, a five-week-old son at home, Gentile

was laid-off by his prestigious New York City-based architecture fi m. The bottom was dropping out of the economy, and the market for new luxury residential buildings and glossy skyscrapers was falling away with it. Gentile had long been conflicted by the work. Not to say that he wasn’t shocked to lose his job.

“One of the things that I didn’t like about high-end architecture was that there was no thought about sustainability at all,” he says. “You would think that these clients would have the means to do whatever they want. But it was not about that. It was surprisingly not about that.”

He knew better than to look for a way back in, so he started working out where the recession’s fallout would land us and where his place in that new world would be. Living in Philly at the time (he recently moved to Wallingford), Gentile saw a city that was seriously lagging. And that’s when it occurred to him to focus on the existing fabric, not

a new frontier. Shift_Design was founded to develop the elements that would transform these 19th and 20th century buildings into 21st century models of efficiency

Gentile and Barnes learn as they go because so much of the ground that they cover is uncharted. One of their marketing mantras is “Custom is the new standard.” It lends a certain sophistication to their work, but the reality is that they have little choice but to design that way.

One of their first products, the Fairmount Living Tile, a shallow alumi-num planter that’s intended to be pieced together with other tiles to cre-ate a green roof, required at least 20 prototypes before it finally came to fruition three years later. Every piece—the rubber feet, the connectors, the filter fabric, the tiles themselves—were meticulously scrutinized for weight and durability, among other factors, a process complicated by the obvious, but inflexible, truth that the roofs the tiles were being designed to fit—fla and pitched 19th-century kinds—were never supposed to ac-commodate them.

Even if you don’t own the Living Tile, or the Funston Fire Pit and Ice Chest or even the Wylie Hose Reel, you’ve likely come across Shift’s in-novations. The Philadelphia Water Department hired them a few years back to create downspout planters (like a rainwater tank, but with soil) all over the city. At 30th Street Station, they constructed a modular wall that’s concealing a massive, long-term renovation. Shake Shack tapped them to create a fence in the same mold while its Rittenhouse Square location was built. And then they designed its green roof and living wall. They’re in the midst, now, of crafting planters and unique installations for Shake Shack’s rapid nationwide expansion (and inevitable world domination). They’re also developing a public pavilion for New York’s Union Square with Interbrand and GrowNYC, the organization that runs the largest urban farmers market network in the country.

“They came to us because of how we’re operating on different scales,” Gentile says of GrowNYC. “We can do something that’s out there, some-thing that’s functionally well-made, nicely designed, can go away, can be reused.”

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BLANK BOX IS SHIFT_DESIGN’S NEXT BIG IDEA. IT’S

MEANT TO REVITALIZE THE VACANT LOTS THAT LITTER

THE CITY WITH MINIMAL COST AND BUREAUCRACY.

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What’s the future of urban design? Maybe just that: versatility, mobil-ity. Where previous generations—all of them—defined their legacies through permanence, this one, or at least, a segment of it, is angling to leave little to no evidence of its existence.

Your planter’s texting you

All the biggest ideas re-quire a revelation. Shift’s are no different. The show-er’s good for inspiring a chalét-like birdhouse, but a more fundamental up-grade means picking up on and then staring down any number of reoccurring issues.

“That’s something that also pushes the studio,” Barnes says, “to have fear-less dreams.”

Thus, Shift’s biggest idea yet, something Gentile calls “tech overlay,” is years in the making. They began realizing a need to capture data on how their designs function, which would make them more user-friendly and shape future iterations. Not to mention its power as a selling tool.

“We’ve created very dumb sustainable products, very analog, dumb products,” Gentile says. Appreciating that is one thing, the easier thing. Resolving it—“How can we apply a layer of technology to make these smarter, smart in many different ways?”—the far more daunting task.

What Gentile’s envisioning is a rainwater tank that not only monitors itself but reads weather conditions, processes all of it and then texts its owner something like, “Hey. Empty me. It’s about to storm.” Or even, “Hey. The pump switched off when the power went out.” Along the way, it’s also reporting back on exactly how much water (and money) it’s saving.

That kind of tech’s just out of reach for them, but only barely. They’ve begun testing more basic forms of it. They installed sensors in the green roof they planted at Urban Outfitters’ headquarters in The Navy Yard that’s allowing them to track the saturation level, among other qualities.

Call it the unspoken inconvenience of going green: being able to keep it green.

Shift’s other impending breakthrough is, by contrast, decidedly and consciously analog. Gentile and Barnes hatched the concept for Blank

Box about a year-and-a-half ago, again by taking stock of their environment.

“There’s a ton of vacant land [in the city], and the only solutions out there to fix it are to have someone buy it or there are these really expensive landscap-ing programs,” Barnes says. “We were thinking about how we want to activate these spaces. We want to make them safer places, and in order to do that, we arrived at the need to have an actual structure there.”

Cities across the world have begun using shipping containers, either designed variations of them or ac-tual shipping containers, as temporary structures. Blank Box riffs on that. They copied the dimen-sions, because a shipping

container can be moved around the city on a flatbed truck, but then went a step beyond and segmented it, so that it can be used in three different sizes and a handful of different shapes. They’re solar-powered, but there’s no plumbing. “We’re touching the ground, but we’re not dig-ging into the ground,” Gentile says. Overnight, literally, a pop-up gallery could spring up in Old City, a farmers market in Northern Liberties, a health clinic in North Philly.

Blank Box attracted the interest of FastFWD, an offshoot of GoodCom-pany Ventures, the incubator that helped brand Shift_Design. With its guidance, Gentile found a couple potential clients who want to erect the first models in Philly. When that day arrives, Gentile and Barnes will have come full circle, from architects to product designers to architects again, but this time on their terms. Not that he’s out to diminish the moment, but Gentile may install one in his backyard first. He’s still trying to figu e out what to do with his new backyard. Ironic, he knows.

A CUSTOM-DESIGNED (BUT REUSABLE) WALL IS HIDING CONSTRUCTION AT 30TH STREET

STATION. ACROSS THE CITY, SHIFT’S CONVERTING BLOCKS OF PARKING SPACES INTO “PARKLETS”

(TOP LEFT), OR SMALL, OUTDOOR LOUNGES. AND, THE FUNSTON FIRE PIT AND ICE CHEST.

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Duportail Design Project Incorporating the BEST in Home Design to renovate the Duportail Bridal Room and Bath while respecting and highlighting the historical nature of the home!

MAINLINE Magazine and M7 Media Group are proud to support the Duportail House board in its mission to preserve the historic treasure.

We’d like to take the opportunity here to recognize some of the busi-nesses that have so graciously donated their time, labor and resources to the cause.

Our principal sponsors

Nolan PaintingNolan Painting has been a leader in their industry since 1979. When we needed a partner to help restore and paint this historic house, Nolan Painting was our firstcall and they have been great every step along the way. Even more important than the high quality and professional work they do they have been a great partner and always willing any time we needed assistance.

Go to www.nolanpainting.com to learn more about this great company and see the work they do. Also come out and meet some of the Nolan team at the reveal event in June!

W.A.StaplesWA Staples has provided project management for this project and much more. For more than 40 years, W.A. Staples Design And Construction has had a hand in thousands of retail, restaurant, office, and commercial installations in the Greater Philadelphia Region. Many of the top retailers and property management compa-nies in the area rely on WA. Staples Design and Construction not only for quality

craftsmanship, but because Bill Staples has a keen understanding of architectural, art and design history. Visit them at www.wastaples.com to learn more.

Revealing RedesignErin Cochran and the team at Revealing Redesign has been more than an willing and hardworking design partner. She has been someone we could lean on for advice, ideas and creative concepts to help guide this project along the way.

No matter what the project needed Erin was there to help and provide critical assistance and leadership on design related challenges

We could not have asked for a better design partner than Erin Cochran. Please visit her at www.revealingredesign.com to learn more about how you can work with Revealing Redesign.

Other design project sponsors Knots and Weaves Decorative Rugs, HOME-ology, Groves Supply, Inc., Community Floors, Burnside Plumbing, Drapery Design, KT & Company, Tim McKeon, Electrician, Sherman Williams Paint, Embassy Suites Hotel Valley Forge, Danny Salik - Keller Williams Realty.

Join Us for Mainline Magazine’s

Duportail Design Project “REVEAL” CelebrationThursday, June 11, 2015

6-9 PM • 5-6 VIP Reception

Come witness the final“REVEAL” of ML’s Duportail Design Project! Partake in a tour of the renovated bridal suite, meet the sponsors and mingle while enjoying cocktails, live music, fabulous food & des-serts! Peruse silent auction items situated throughout the 1740 country home where General Louis Lebègue Duportail, recruited by Ben

Franklin, quartered with the Havard family during the Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge in 1777-78.

Our Event Sponsors!!Cricket Catering, Crystal Rose Catering, John Serock Catering, Herb Scott Catering, Perfect Setting Catering

Wild Blue Catering, Gala Cloths, Chantilly Floral, Fox & Finch Vintage Rentals, EventQuip, Philadelphia Distilling, Round Guys Brewery Adello Winery, Shaw Strings, Pictures By Todd, Something Blu Weddings & Events, Chariot Valet

Sugartown Communications, and Barry Stevens as Ben Franklin

General Admission Tickets: $55 | VIP Reception: $65Limited Tickets are Available!

Purchase them here: http://duportailrevealevent.eventbrite.com

All proceeds go to Duportail House to maintain their mission of providing ongoing preservation of this beautiful historic property, while allowing for community outreach programs of education, enrichment and recreational activities to flourish

Interested in becoming involved, call Kate at 215.620.8207 or info@duportailhouse.com

Learn more about the sponsors, the “Reveal” event and follow the project’s progress by visiting

https://www.facebook.com/MLMagsDuportailProject and https://www.facebook.com/MainlineMagazine

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“Michael’s pretty intense,” says Josie Gluck. She’s referring to Michael Schunke, the other half of Vetro Vero. Together, they make glass vessels—the literal translation of Vetro Vero from Italian is “true glass”—whose simplicity and uniformity seemingly belie their rare craftsmanship.

When he’s working?“Oh, no. He’s always intense.”For the last 25 years, that unrelenting focus has been

aimed at Venetian-style goblets like the ones seen here. It’s the first thing that Schunke made on his own. He had no idea how difficult it’d be. Once he knew, he was hooked.

“Most people fail initially,” he says. “I mean, if you’re not failing, then you’re kind of doing something wrong. And they kind of give up on it. I think that sort of inspired me to keep going. I can simply outwork the rest of you. That still kind of resonates with me a little bit. When all else fails, if you just keep going, you just keep moving, you’ll get somewhere.”

That’s not to imply that that somewhere is where he wants to be.

How long were you at it before you created one you were fully satisfied with

“Still doing it.”Then, basically satisfied with“Probably about 20 years.” Pause. “Yeah.“Achieving precision within the goblets is—you know,

first and foremost, it’s something that you have to want,” Schunke says, “and not be content with, ‘Oh, well, the glass just did this, so I’m going with it.’ You know, that’s bullshit.”

Schunke and Gluck work in a renovated outbuilding on a former dairy farm in West Grove, Chester County. It’s the first real collaboration for both. Deferring is not something that Schunke makes a practice of, obviously, but he does it with Gluck. She’s rather intense herself, he says, but she also calms him. And as deft as he is with shaping the glass, Gluck possesses a keener feel for color, as much a signa-ture feature of the line as the seductive contours.

“Sometimes I might fight, but the fight won’t last long,” Schunke says.

“He’s colorblind,” Gluck interjects.“It’s only really reds and greens, specifically. But I think

Josie’s convinced now that it’s bled over into the blues. But that is her trump card whenever we get into an argu-ment about color—two words: ‘You’re colorblind.’ ”

Schunke and Gluck will be exhibiting next at the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show (smithsoniancraftshow.org), April 23-26, in Washington, DC.

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BLUE GOBLETS, ALL BY VETRO VERO.

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A Long Road HomeA turn led Sean Mannix back to the life it seems he was always intended to lead. By Kyle Bagenstose

Sean Mannix distinguished himself from the start.“I was a bit of a black sheep in school in that from a very young age I

could always draw better than everyone else,” Mannix says.Mining that talent, he was accepted to the University of the Arts, where

exposure to a previously unknown world steered Mannix away from the fine arts and into industrial design. “It struck me as something a lot more fun,” he says. “It combined drawing, model-making and problem-solv-ing, and it wasn’t just creating a single piece; it was making something that would appear all around the world.”

Mannix graduated in 1985, and within a few years, he was working as an independent designer for the likes of HEAD and prince, the tennis equipment manufacturers, the New Jersey Lottery and the United States government—doing what, exactly, he’s still not totally free to discuss.

By 1999, Mannix opened his own shop, Design Farms, in Newtown, out of which he became a much sought-after metalworker, contracting with architects to construct multi-million dollar homes in the old-money corridors of New England.

His career and his adult life maintained a gradual upward trajectory with no hint of interruption. But, then, there rarely is. His father died in 2006, which left Mannix’s mother on her own at his childhood home in Hopewell, New Jersey. Compounding his stress, property taxes went

up that year. Mannix, who lived nearby, felt the new weight immedi-ately and began looking to consolidate. On his first day out, he toured Highland Farm, a nine-acre former poultry farm along Van Dyke Road in Hopewell. Its owner had converted three large chicken coups into 15 art studios.

“Growing up, I didn’t even know this was here. Once we saw it, we knew we had to buy it.”

Mannix updated and enlarged the studios. Today, they house sever-al artists and artisans working in a range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and jewelry. He bases his own operation there, too, now known as Highland Design Farm. In tending to the collective, Mannix is experiencing a part of the life he could have had had he not veered away from it in college.

To prevent the property from fading back into obscurity, he organized an annual, self-guided tour of his and neighboring studios called the Hopewell Tour des Arts, held over the first weekend of October. Unex-pectedly, it’s become a sort of portal to the farm’s recent past.

“People will visit and say that they grew up here, and took art classes here as a kid. It means something to them.” Mannix says. “But it’s been sort of under the radar, and we’re trying to build it up into something a little more special now.”

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A Lookaway Golf Club Membership is a LifestyleThe ultimate refuge from the concerns of the world that has existed and prospered in the United States for more than a century is the game of golf and the private golf clubs where the game is played. A private club is an important part of the American golf experience and continues to provide the appeal of a socially intimate experience.

Today private golf clubs in the U.S. number 4,415 and are supported by an es-timated 2.1 million golfing members. For a membership search, it is a matter of finding the Club with the right fit for the lifestyle of the individual, spouse and fam-ily. That is where differentiation comes in….all private clubs are not created equal.

In the mid 1990’s, a group of avid golfers who had belonged to various golf clubs discussed what they thought would be the perfect golf club for them and other golfers with a love of the game. They made their wish list….and then found a stunning piece of property to build that course. This group of 25 moved forward with their idea, bought the property and hired Rees Jones, a renowned golf architect to create a design that fit the landscape.

Lookaway Golf Club in Buckingham, Bucks County became a reality and opened for play in 1999, acquiring its name and logo from the original owners and dairy farm on land that had been deeded by William Penn. The Lookaway founders were careful to preserve the heritage and ambience of the property and centuries’ old building architecture with their restoration and additions for the use of the club’s pro shop, men’s and women’s spacious locker rooms and the Clubhouse, an 18th Century Manor House which is considered the oldest building in the country used as a clubhouse.

As an equity club, the 229 members of Lookaway enjoy the experience of pure golf on an exceptional course, the only Bucks County course to be listed on the top 25 in Pennsylvania by Golf Digest. Although carts are available, walking is encouraged by means of a strong caddie program. With tee times not required, the caddie master can put together a game for members when requested.

The 18th hole can be seen from the clubhouse and dining terrace and produces a wow of a finish for both the players and the clubhouse audience. Many of the other holes are designed to feel like private rooms and according to architect Rees

Jones, “it is quite an achievement to feel that every time you’re on a hole, you’re not interacting with people playing other holes.”

Attention to the needs of its members is the club’s number one priority. From the club management and staff, to the food and beverage, to the caddie pro-gram, the impeccable service that is delivered is an added value to membership. The past year has attracted new young executives with the introduction of the Pathway to Partnership membership program, an attractive, innovative offering to be included in an atmosphere of camaraderie, connection, and relationships. The character of that experience is what distinguishes an outstanding golf club from the commonplace.

In a recent review of Lookaway Golf Club by Sports Network, Director of Opera-tions Phil Sokol interviewed and quoted Rees Jones on the design of the Look-away golf course, “The satisfaction really comes from both restoring or redesign-ing or building new ones when it’s really well accepted by the membership, as it has been by the membership of Lookaway. There are two different ways to look at it, the U.S. Opens and the PGAs, they want their championship courses to be a great test for the best in the game; and my other clients, where I build new cours-es, they want the course to be enjoyable and a great test for the everyday player.”

“I believe we accomplished that at Lookaway.”

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The Tax Man Cometh

Irvin W. Rosenzweig, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, CRPS®, AEP®President

Rosenzweig & Associates Wealth Management Group, LLCWayne, PA 19087

610-627-5921866-231-3583 (Toll Free)irosenzweig@4wfg.com

www.rzwealth.com

Barron’s Top 1000 Financial Advisors as listed in the February 18th, 2013 edition; “Securities offered through WFG Investments, Inc. member FINRA & SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Rosenzweig & Associates and WFG Advisors, LP. Rosenzweig & Associates is not affiliated with WFG or any of its subsidiaries.

CEOFINANCE

The first article in this series reminded us of the high burden of taxes that are determined in a variety of ways. Our focus this year is on manag-ing taxes, including the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT). NIIT began in 2013 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is an extra 3.8% tax on the lesser of net investment income or the amount by which taxpayers’ modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds the applicable threshold.

For our clients, by defining and managing risk we seek some predict-ability wherever possible in the allocation of assets since market risk and volatility are beyond our control. By considering both fee and tax-ef-ficient investment management we try to add additional value beyond asset allocation. Income taxes and the (NIIT) are areas where strategic planning, customization, tax-efficiency, management and awareness will dramatically add value and seek to offset this burden.

Previously we suggested, for self-employed or business owners, that through retirement plan contributions tax reduction could still be achieved for 2014. Moving forward we will suggest strategies, plans and investment choices to consider for current and future year tax considerations. No-tably, pre-tax contributions to a retirement plan offered by an employer, such as a 401(k), whether the plan offers a match or not, is a great way for an individual to decrease income taxes while saving for retirement. In addition to saving for retirement, many consider saving for children’s col-lege education to be a priority.

Recently, in a highly unpopular move the administration’s budget propos-al sought to take away the tax-free feature of 529 plan withdrawals used to pay for a college education or related expenses. As proposed, the earnings that 529 plan accounts accumulated would be subject to ORDINARY in-come tax when they were withdrawn, in a manner similar to how traditional IRAs for retirement get taxed, I emphasize ordinary income taxes vs. capital gains taxes which is how traditional, non-qualified investment accounts are taxed relative to capital appreciation. After-tax money used to contribute to the 529 plan would not be taxed again but taxes would incur on any rise in the account’s value. Therefore, the sole tax benefit would be through the deferral of taxes on earnings until funds are removed for college expenses. The changes would only have applied to new plans, but in response to loud criticism from the public, the administration withdrew its proposal.

For background, IRC 529 was added to the Internal Revenue Code by sec-tion 1806 of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996. A 529 Plan may be set up for anyone, there are no income restrictions and no limit to the number of plans you set up. In order to avoid the impact of gift taxes, cur-rently, up to $14,000 per individual ($28,000 for married couples) for each beneficiary per year may be invested into a 529 Plan. (There is a provision that allows for accelerated gifting which can provide a way to reduce the size of a taxable estate (assuming the donor survives five years), through

contributing up to five years’ worth of gifts in a single year. Unlike tradition-al gifting strategies, the account owner retains control of the assets allowing them flexibility such as changing the beneficiary.) If the account is open and funded by someone other than a parent, then assets are not included in determining “initial qualifications” for federal financial aid. Assets within 529 plans are protected from creditors in bankruptcy. As mentioned, these plans grow free of federal and state income taxes.

When used for qualified expenses, you pay no income tax on the growth. Aside from four-year schools, there is a long list of two-year colleges, trade schools, graduate schools and even some international institutions that meet the definition. Qualified expenses may even extend to room and board, required books, supplies, equipment, mandatory fees and special needs services. If the named beneficiary does not require the assets, you can change the beneficiary to another eligible family member. There are generally no time or age limits on use or distribution of plan assets, so assets can remain in the account and grow in perpetuity. Worst case, the plan assets can be returned to the owner as a non-qualified withdrawal resulting in taxation on the earnings as well as a 10% federal penalty.

You can use 529 plan assets at any eligible school in any state, regardless of whether that state is the one sponsoring your plan. Each state has its own contribution limits for their estimate of a beneficiary’s qualified edu-cation expenses, currently PA’s plan maximum is the highest in the nation with the ability to contribute until balances for the same beneficiary reach $452,210. Although you may invest in any state’s 529 plan some plans offer in-state tax breaks and other benefits. Pennsylvania currently offers state tax deductibility up to gift tax limits, as above, assuming each spouse has at least $14,000 of taxable income.

Obviously this plan presents very meaningful benefits. The ability to fund for college for a designated beneficiary, the benefit of tax deferred growth, the potential for tax free distributions and also removal of these assets and their subsequent growth from one’s estate which may assist in the area of estate planning. This plan has, for now, narrowly escaped the target for the government’s quest for new taxes, my advice, jump on it! We look forward to our subsequent articles that will continue to focus on tax-advantaged investing.

***We are not in the business of giving tax advice. The information set forth herein was obtained from sources which we believe re-liable but we do not guarantee its accuracy. Please check with your tax advisor regarding your particular situation***

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Who’s Your Mama?

Whatever the image is that forms when you read the words “Empanada Mama,” Kendall Bajek, the Empanada Mama herself, is nothing near it. She’s 25 and model-beautiful, with eyes that look like a Disney charac-ter’s—even when they’re weighed down by a heavy fatigue.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Bajek. Last March, she started baking empa-nadas for family and friends around Doylestown, where she lives. Within two weeks, she was sharing the oven at Andre’s Wine & Cheese, a café in town, to keep pace with the demand. Two months after that, Empanada Mama, was an official pop-up. And in November, Bajek opened a perma-nent restaurant a couple blocks away.

She’s working seven days a week, close to 15 hours a day most days, some of which start as early as 3 a.m. The restaurant—Bajek calls it a shop, which may be more appropriate. Aside from a few stools and a skinny counter in the corner, there isn’t any seating—is open every day but Sunday, but she

comes in then, too, to make the dough for the week. (Which is why, come Saturday, she usually sells out before the end of the day. She may begin importing her dough from Argentina, though, to keep up.) On a slow day, she’ll sell around 1,500 empanadas. On a Friday or Saturday, 3,200. On a bitter-cold Wednesday morning in February, as we sat and talked just off to the side, the lunch rush began streaming in at 11.

Just before Bajek opened the shop, she scrapped the existing floor plan and doubled the size of the kitchen, which bolstered it to a still-modest six feet by seven feet. It bought her some time, but she’s already outgrown it. There’s no room for a stove, only an oven, so everything, aside from the pulled pork and bacon, which are smoked elsewhere, is baked. (The sautéing is done in a roasting pan in the oven.) That seems to be the only constraint on what Bajek will stuff into an empanada.

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Kendall Bajek, that’s who. Her “gringo” empanadas are all the rage in Doylestown. She’s not a formally schooled chef, or even really a chef at all. She merely makes what she likes. Clearly, her instincts are dead on. By Scott Edwards

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More MOO to LoveLove MOO’s burgers, but hate the drive? Life’s about to get a whole lot more convenient. Owner/chef Evan Asoudegan is planning to open a second res-taurant, this one in New Hope, in April. He took over the South Main Street building that formerly housed Rita’s Water Ice and spent the winter renovat-ing it. The look, he says, is going to be more “refined” than the original MOO in Ottsville and designed for a quicker turnaround. “This is going to be the true MOO. I’m doing it up the way I always envisioned MOO to be,” says Asoudegan, who lives across the river in Lambertville, NJ. Don’t let all this talk of change undo you. The menu, in all its simple beauty—pared-down burg-ers, hand-cut fries, thick shakes—he promises, will remain untouched. —SE

She’s partial to the B.A. Beef, even though it’s not traditional. (Too many customers were suspicious of the hard-boiled egg’s presence.) Still, a bite of it never fails to drop her in the middle of Buenos Aires, the origin of this story. After college, she spent a couple years travelling and lived in Buenos Aires for several of those months. There, she tu-tored airline pilots in English, usually in their homes, and usually while their wives made dinner, which, usually, was empanadas. Bajek, a fan of dough in all forms, would offer to discount her rate in exchange for a cooking lesson.

As prolific as empanadas are in that part of the world, there’s not much variation. Bajek, in contrast, experiments liberally and describes hers, ac-cordingly, as “slightly gringo.”

“I’m not by any means a chef,” she says. “I just know how to cook a couple things that I like to eat.”

Bajek approaches food—eating it and making it—with a wide-eyed wonder. When a dish impresses her at dinner, she’s been known to riff on it the next day in her own kitchen. Bajek’s first encounter with the Truffle & Smoke Potato Chips at Honey (house-made chips seasoned with hickory-smoked sea salt, white truffle oil and chives and served with a parmesan fondue) inspired the truffle aioli and Spanish-style mashed potatoes-and-bacon empanada pairing on her own menu.

Unscripted as all this has been—Bajek has yet to write a formal busi-ness plan—she’s not blindly chasing the momentum. Bajek spent more than five years working at Jules Thin Crust, in a mostly administrative ca-pacity, over two separate stints, the most recent of which concluded just before she began making empanadas last year. A practice gleaned from owner John Ordway has grounded her amid the feeding frenzy: Don’t lose your focus, no matter how strong the temptation. And the tempta-tion has been strong because, naturally, if you can make empanadas this good, people are going to start clamoring for your tacos and burritos too.

Bajek’s considering adding rice and beans and soups. And she wants to grow her salad selection because they’re what she eats most of when she’s not in the shop. “My favorite thing in the world is to go to Whole Foods and go to the salad bar and just kind of pick a bunch of different, little, interesting salads,” she says. But there won’t be any tacos or burri-tos. With 35 kinds of empanadas on the menu (and counting), including five dessert versions—any takers on the berries in a ricotta-mascarpone cream?—it’s not as though Bajek’s in jeopardy of running stale.

For the cynical, a segment that always includes me, who worry, none-theless, that great things never last, and that Empanada Mama will grow too big too fast, consider this: Bajek began making empanadas a year ago because she wanted into the kitchen, not out of it.

Empanada Mama, 21 Donaldson Street, Doylestown; yoemama.com; on Instagram at empanadamama.

THE BLACK BEAN AND SWEET CORN SLAW. LEFT: THE B.A. BEEF,

AS CLOSE AS IT GETS TO TRADITIONAL ON MAMA’S MENU.

OPENING PAGE: KENDALL BAJEK, THE EMPANADA MAMA.

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I know Nolan.They made me fall in love with my house again.

Protecting Surfaces and Relationships Since 1979

NolanPainting.com | 610.449.8106Interiors | Exteriors | Color Consultations | Carpentry

PA Home Improvement Contractor #020814

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A country store with holiday meals for the family and gifts for your foodie friends.

On the square in Carversville, Pennsylvania(215) 297-5353.MaxsCarversvilleGrocery.com

Carversville is easy to fi nd.(It’s somewhere betweenNew Hope and the North Pole. You can’t miss it.)

Pick up something for breakfast,

lunch or dinner.

7:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday through Friday.

8:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

New Hope and the North New Hope and the North New Hope and the North Pole. You can’t miss it.)New Hope and the North Pole. You can’t miss it.)New Hope and the North Pole. You can’t miss it.)

8:00 am to 5:00 pm 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

8:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

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Brunch is Tailor-made for SpringThe last few winters have been so brutal that it’s hard to avoid the sensation that I’m emerging

from hibernation come the first string of pleasant days. And when that time finally hits, brunch feellike the best vehicle for a reunion. It’s served square in the middle of the day, for one, which takes full advantage of the sun’s newfound swagger. Even if we look all the pastier for it. There’s also an inherent easiness to brunch that breakfast and lunch, in their hurry, and dinner, in its formality lack. With the right mix around the table, it’ll stretch out across the afternoon with no ambition of becoming anything more than the right place at the right time. Another reason to love brunch: The menu’s completely open to

the cook’s interpretation. Read: There are no rules. Here, a few of our favorite recipes, inspired, simply, by the return to normalcy. Recreate or play around with them as you please. —SCOTT EDWARDS

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Recipes and photography by Yelena Strokin

Strawberry Scones with Blood Orange IcingMakes 12, serves six. (Because one is never enough.)

FOR THE SCONES:2½ cups all-purpose flour2 tbsps. vanilla sugar1 tbsp. baking powder¼ tsp. salt½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped2 eggs, lightly beaten½ cup half and half or buttermilkCream or milkSugar

FOR THE ICING:½ cup powdered sugar1 tbsp. blood orange juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Lightly grease a large baking sheet.In a large bowl, combine the flou , baking powder,

vanilla sugar and salt. With a pastry blender (or two knives), incorporate the butter until the mixture as-sumes the consistency of coarse crumbs. Then, care-fully fold in the strawberries.

Add the half and half (or buttermilk) to the eggs, beat them some more, then add them to the bowl. Using a fork, mix everything together until a ball of soft dough forms. At that point, place the dough onto a flou ed surface and knead it gently four to

five times. Then, pat or lightly roll it into a three-quarter-inch circle. Cut the circle into 12 wedges and place them on the baking sheet.

Brush the top of the wedges with cream (or milk) and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the scones for 12 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden brown.

To make the icing, mix the powdered sugar with the orange juice until it achieves a smooth consis-tency. Drizzle it over the scones while they’re warm.

Eggs en Cocotte with Mushrooms and PeasServes four.

4 free-range eggs2 tbsps. butter4 tbsps. heavy cream1/3 cup fresh peas1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced and sautéedSalt and freshly ground pepper to tastePinch of paprika (optional)Fresh herbs for garnish

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.Butter the inside of four cocotte cups, and divide the

mushrooms, then the peas, evenly among them. Crack one egg into each cup, then add a tablespoon of heavy cream, and season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Place the cups in a shallow pan filled with hot wa-ter and cook them over the burners for two to three minutes. If the water begins to boil before then, lower the heat.

Cover the cups with foil or a baking sheet and

finish cooking them in the oven for another three to four minutes. The whites should be firm and the yolks, soft.

Garnish with the herbs and serve hot.

Arctic Char with Tomatoes and AsparagusServes four.

1½ lbs. Arctic char, skin intact2 small tomatoes, sliced1 tbsp. lemon juice1 bunch asparagus, trimmed1 tbsp. olive oil¼ cup waterSalt and freshly ground pepper to tasteFresh herbs for garnish

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees.Place the Arctic char on a baking sheet, skin-side

down, and cover it with the tomato slices. Then, sprinkle it with the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the char’s flesh tu ns opaque.

Let it sit for five minutes before serving. Garnish with the herbs.

For the asparagus, warm the olive oil in a skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the asparagus and cook for two to three minutes, turning them occasionally.

Next, add the water and continue cooking (and turning occasionally) until the water evaporates, about two to three minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then move the asparagus immediately to a platter and serve with the char.

Yelena Strokin is a Newtown-based food stylist and photographer and the founder of the blog melangery.com.

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My interview with Marigold Kitchen chef-owners Andrew Kochan and Tim Lanza begins like any other. I probe their background a bit and then their concept for the University City restaurant. Standard questions met by typical responses.

When I move on to another seemingly innocuous question about that night’s dinner menu, the exchange comes to an abrupt halt. Kochan and Lanza trade surreptitious glances, which are fol-lowed by a long, uncomfortable pause.

“Uh, are you staying for dinner?” Kochan finally asks“We like to keep it a surprise,” Lanza fills in. “But since we’re transitioning to the spring menu

soon, I suppose we can tell you a little.”They did eventually relent. The recent attention, I guess, does warrant some circumspection. The

new year wasn’t even underway and 2015 could already be described as a breakthrough for Lanza and Kochan, a Penn Valley native and a Haverford School graduate. In late December, Philadel-phia Magazine ranked Marigold Kitchen 10th on its latest annual list of the 50 best restaurants in the city. (It was ranked second in the 2013 edition behind then-chef Robert Halpern. Kochan worked as his sous chef before partnering with Lanza and buying the restaurant.)

As it turned out, they weren’t guarding the menu because I’m a journalist. It’s just what they do. “It’s meant to be a show,” Kochan says. “We bring out each course, describe it and answer any

questions. The menu doesn’t appear until the end, presented with a treat to take with you. It’s a reminder that runs you through what you had and is meant to spark conversation.”

Turning yourself over to the chef (chefs, in this case), blindly and unconditionally, is fast becom-ing the way of avant-garde restaurants across the country. The more interest we’ve come to show in our food, the more wildly talented chefs like Kochan and Lanza feel comfortable with showing you what they’re really capable of.

For the sheer volume alone—14 courses—Marigold’s late-winter menu was impressive. It was a meticulously choreographed progression: warm pumpkin soup that smelled of cumin, veal sweetbreads in red-eye gravy, a single bite of a blood orange Creamsicle. You’re not so much uncomfortably full by the end as tired.

The Mystique is Justifie

What’s for dinner is a closely guarded secret at University City’s Marigold Kitchen. Which would be an absolute turn-off if every course wasn’t worth a grand reveal. It is. So consider us happy to play along. By Mike Madaio

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“We’re very careful about planning the order, the portion sizes,” Lanza says. “We sit down in the restaurant, without our chef coats, and eat through the menu to make sure it works.”

Another reason for not offering a menu (or a choice) at the start of the dinner is because nothing’s quite as it seems. Those smoky veal sweet-breads were one of my highlights, in part because it was an unfamiliar take on them. “They’re almost always served fried, so we stewed them in red-eye gravy and birch beer,” Kochan says. “It’s one of the things we love to do; take things you might be familiar with and do them a totally different way.”

The butternut squash nigri, which looked like sushi, but tasted like squash and green tomato, was one of the dinner’s low notes, but it still left me in-trigued by their inventiveness.

At a restaurant of Marigold’s caliber, the food is expected to be re-velatory. The trick is presenting it as such without coming across as pretentious. In hindsight, guarding the menu is one of the humbler approaches. It disarms preconceptions and forces you to consider the meal as a whole.

What I thought was the end of my dinner was not. One more plate emerges from the kitchen. Apparently, I’ve earned Kochan and Lanza’s trust (or, rather, they’ve come to realize when this article will be pub-lished) because it’s a preview of their spring menu.* It doesn’t disap-point. But they’ve made their point, so I’ll leave it at that.

Marigold Kitchen, 501 South 45th Street, University City; marigoldkitchenbyob.com.

MARIGOLD CHEF-OWNERS TIM LANZA,

LEFT, AND ANDREW KOCHAN. OPENING

PAGE: THE PREPARATION IS METICULOUS,

THE RESULTS, UNEXPECTED.

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*SPRING IS SERVEDJust before this issue went to print, Marigold Kitchen threw out a three-course teaser for its spring menu—which it’ll be serving by the time you read this. None-theless, here’s a taste of what’s to come—er, has come. —SE

*Barquillo (above) Marigold’s version isn’t the crunchy rolled cracker you may know. Theirs is achiote-spiced carrots, chipotle-pickled daikon, bibb lettuce, ci-lantro and mixed peppers all rolled in rice paper and served with an avocado-lime gel and micro-cilantro.*Edamame Hummus (top right) Made from fresh soybeans and lemongrass and topped with toasted black sesame seeds, chili oil and a puffed rice cracker.*Camembert (right) A puddle of the creamy cheese served with rhubarb, macer-ated strawberries, walnut brittle and a lavender minute-sponge cake.

What I’m drinking right now

Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Co. Rhetoric Bourbon ($85, 750ml)The hits are rich and spicy, but they roll in on soft waves that’ll warm the cockles in the still-cool weeks ahead. Barrel-aged for 20 long years, Rhetoric also possesses a deeper-penetrating heartiness that stokes a vision of the cracked and faded leather sofa in my dad’s woodshop, which makes me feel all manly inside.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Adolf & Heinrich Fuchs Grüner Veltliner ($11) is one of my favorite spring-drinking wines. Dry and crisp, the flavor s a cross between citrus and apple, so it pairs especially well with charred asparagus and fiddlehead fe ns, along with just about every other spring veg.

ADAM JUNKINSPartner/SommelierSovana Bistro (Kennett Square)

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3)

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THE GROG

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If you are looking for your favorite Irish Pub on the Main Line your search is over.

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This Main Line institution has been family owned and operated for the last 15 years by Gus and Ari Raptis, and prides itself on being an elite level gastropub that focuses on a family atmosphere and fun.

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The Grog863 W Lancaster AveBryn Mawr Pa 19010610-527-5870

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THE

LAST

WO

RD

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Daunting by Design

Her penchant for crafting massive (like, way larger than life-size) sculptures of gorillas, elephants and bears aside, Laurence Vallières is a pragmatic artist. I mean, she does make them out of old cardboard. The idea—to use card-board, not to make the sculptures; she was already doing that, though not nearly as huge—came from a friend as Vallières, a formally-schooled cerami-cist, struggled to fill a vast showroom. Today, she struggles to find spaces that can contain them.

That’s not an issue with her latest gentle giant because he’ll be residing out-side. The Montreal-based artist just finished erecting a nine-foot-tall gorilla at the Philadelphia Zoo as part of a conservation-minded exhibit called Second Na-ture—Junk Rethunk that opens this month. A dozen artists from around the world were charged with creating monumental animal-inspired installations from recycled, reused and repurposed everyday materials. The results: a fivefoot-long gator molded out of gum, a 175-pound rhino made of serving plates, a pair of 250-pound plastic pink rabbits. Vallières’ gorilla isn’t even the largest in the menagerie. That one’s 13 feet tall and built out of old car parts.

The magnitude is meant to impress upon us just how much junk we produce—and lose track of. Our consumption’s beginning to exact an almost-irreversible toll on habitats everywhere. There’s barely room enough anymore for man and beast, let alone man, beast and man’s mounting waste. For her part, Vallières shed the human nature of her other creatures for a more realistic homage to one of the zoo’s own western lowland gorillas, Louis, who at a respectable five-footeight and 450 pounds, is more likely to be intimidated than honored.

She built her beast on-site, just outside the gorillas’ enclosure, but it was pure necessity, not performance art. “It’s just a nightmare to ship,” she says. The gorilla’s deceptively light—the cardboard’s attached to a wooden frame, the whole thing weighing about as much as a sofa—but delicate. And, any-way, it’s not as though there’s a shortage of cardboard here, or, really, any-where. Which, of course, is the point.

Second Nature—Junk Rethunk, through October 31, the Philadelphia Zoo; philadelphiazoo.org.

This gorilla’s nine feet tall. But that’s not what makes him so staggering to behold. That would be what he’s made out of:

our garbage. By Kristin Baver

CO

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LA

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NC

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