CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Iron Hill set to open in Chestnut Hill

PRETTY EXCITING YOU’RE OPENING UP HERE IN CHESTNUT HILL. Absolutely. Very excited about it. It’s really a great area, really excited to be opening soon. I HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS. ONE IS FOOD ALLERGIES BECAUSE I HAVE ONE. SO ON YOUR MENU WHAT KIND OF ACCOMMODATIONS DO YOU MAKE? Everything is pretty much from scratch so the chefs have the ability to do that. Our servers are well educated what ingredients are in the menu. Ask and we can make most accommodations. HOW ABOUT AVOIDING GLUTEN?  We have a gluten-free menu as well. BEAUTIFUL. ANOTHER THING I’M CURIOUS ABOUT IS YOU GOT A PRETTY CLASSY LOCATION. I’M HOPING THE PRICES AREN’T TOO CLASSY. The prices are the same at all our other 8 restaurants- mid-price. AND WHAT’S YOUR TARGETED OPENING DATE? We hope to be open the first week of January. LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO. A lot of work to do, miles to go before we sleep.

Mark Edelson, Iron Hill Brewery. Watch video interview here.

Adventist basketball player seeks gig in Israel

Kelvin Green hopes to play professional basketball in Israel, where the Jewish sabbath coincides with the sabbath he observes as a practicing Seventh-Day Adventist. Watch video interview taken outside House of Produce in Mount Airy, Philadelphia.

Take Flourtown Bakery QR code to Facebook page

Flourtown Bakery just started a Facebook page announcing its specialties like Flag Day cakes, Father’s day shirt cakes and strawberry shortcakes. On a sign at the checkout counter announcing the Facebook page is a QR code (a unique, small black and white checkered square) Customers  can scan  the pattern with their smartphones to jump  to and follow the Bakery on Facebook. Beth Alio, Flourtown Bakery, Montgomery County, PA. Watch video here.

What's Wrong with This Picture?

SIGNS BY TOMORROW, a national outfit, does it all. ...huge light box banners, custom braille signs, carved signs,trade show displays, channel letters and so on. Here is the proof of the nifty sign I ordered from Jim Pearce, owner of the Flourtown store. It's an 18 by 24 inch coroplast sign and it's costing me $53 (ouch) and I think they'll have it ready by tomorrow. Watch video interview here.

Statue of Liberty (Tax Services) dances ballet

Allison Allen knows how to make her own the dreary job luring in customers, costumed as the statue of Liberty outside the Liberty Tax Service on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough. She puts to use a decade of dance lessons, executing springy sneaker-propelled leaps and graceful turns for passersby. Liberty statute Jim Johnson was interviewed last year at this time. Watch video here.

Chestnut Hill Newsstand News- cigarettes and handouts out, treats for A grades?

New owner, Chestnut Hill resident Stewart Graham is introducing Brings healthy snacks and flowers to the top of hill newsstand. And cigarettes are out.  Jazz pianist Chris Marsceill daylights behind counter

Watch part one video here.

The Newsstand, at the top of the Chestnut Hill West rail line, is considering continuing the tradition started by Jay, a former SEPTA worker, of handing out treats to students who come by and show A grades on tests. But handouts are out.

Watch part two video here.

Jazz pianist Chris Marsceill daylights behind counter,

Signature collectors know little about their candidate

A young woman, wearing a large white button reading "Official Democratic  Petitioner" was one of three individuals collecting signatures just inside the Chestnut Hill Pathmark on a petition for Donna Gentile O'Donnell who is running in the Democratic primary for Philadelphia's 8th District City Council Seat. [Yours truly ran and lost as a Green in the general election for this post in the 2007 general election] The young woman solicited a signature from a shopper whom she had just misinformed that O'Donnell is running for Commissioner. Her two companions appeared equally unacquainted and uninformed about O'Donnell or her platform. Nor was there any campaign literature in sight.

Watch video here.

 

THIS IS FOR WHO?

{Signature Collector 1]Donna O’Donnell. Donna O’Donnell

AND WHAT IS SHE RUNNING FOR?

Eighth councilmanic district.

IT’S A PRETTY GOOD SPOT YOU GOT HERE RIGHT INSIDE THE STORE.

Well, we’re just trying to be creative, that’s all

AND WHAT’S HER POSITION ON THE ISSUES?

You have to speak to her about that. I won’t speak for her.

WELL WHY ARE YOU SUPPORTING HER?

I think she’s a good candidate.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN HER?

Let me finish my job.

[Signature Collector 2]…. She’s going to be one of the electors for City Commissioner….

CAN YOU TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT HER?

[Signature Collector Jay Scott] Well, from what I’ve been told by my office, she’s been a city official for about 20 years and she seems like a fair person. And we feel as though the Democratic Party couldn’t be represented any better.

IS SHE OUT HERE TODAY?

No we came up here on our own because we’re trying to solicit and we don’t know the area good but we figure because the supermarket is where people shop on Saturdays and department stores, we’d try to affiliate that with that information.

DOES SHE  PAY WELL FOR COLLECTING SIGNATURES?

I couldn’t go in for  answers because I’m not getting paid but so much but it’s OK.

Movie buffs snatch up favorites at TLA Video, set to close next week

  

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THE TLA CLOSES?

Kelly Carroll: "On demand."

WHAT DO WE LOVE ABOUT MOVIES?

Mark Keintz: “The thing I like about movies is it lets me be vicarious so I see things that I might want to do myself but really wouldn’t dare do. Like “Lawrence  of Arabia” - I like the landscape, I like the story, I like the times.”

Kelly Carroll of Mount Airy and Mark Keintz of Chestnut Hill visited the TLA Video store to get some bargains on videos the store is selling before it closes in a matter of days. Kelly expects to begin watching on-demand which her family already has at home. Watch video here.

Upholsterer makes house calls

Bruce Levin, whose grandfather’s company, “Perfect Rubber Seat Cushion,” began manufacturing cushions in Tacony in 1935, continues the family tradition with his retail shop in Chestnut Hill, “The Perfect Stitch,” and makes house calls to give estimates on re-upholstery jobs. Watch video here.

Kilian Hardware's Goudy holds court

Russell Goudy, after a little setback, nevertheless tends to customers and business seated by the lightbulb section near the store entrance while son Russ tends to the store's burgeoning Internet business. William A Kilian Hardware. Watch video interview here.