Local News
Agreement brings two new eateries to Hill
 After failed deal, a twist of fate for restaurateur
Mohsen "Maurice" Lavasani and his wife Mahtab enter the home of their new restaurant in the Top of the Hill Plaza. Shundeez Persian is set to open on Sept. 15. (Photo by Scott Alloway)
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
If good things come to those who wait, Mohsen “Maurice” Lavasani should have the next Striped Bass on his hands.
After nearly a year and a half of failed lease negotiations with Bowman Properties, the longtime Chestnut Hill merchant is set to open Shundeez Persian restaurant this month in the former home of Roller’s restaurant at the Top of the Hill.
Owner Paul Roller closed the eatery that has borne his name for more than two decades this week, opting to reopen his Flying Fish seafood restaurant full-time. Located at 8142 Germantown Ave., the space had been reserved for private parties and catering.
Tribute to a local icon
To his family, friends and the legions of local kids he coached, Tony Maletta was a true mentor who led by example.
 Tony Maletta, right, among his first and second loves, family and sports: at a stadium with his wife Linda, son-in-law Brian Sannicandro and grandchildren Anthony and Angelina.
by TOM AMODIE
On July 18, the Chestnut Hill community — and especially the Water Tower Recreation Center — lost a true icon and friend when Tony Maletta, Water Tower staffer and youth sports coach for over 30 years, died.
Anthony Joseph Maletta was the son of first-generation immigrants, Ivo and Amelia Maletta, who brought their family to the United States in 1950. Born in Italy, Tony’s first local address was on Mechanic Street in Germantown. Tony and his brothers worked for the landscaping business that their father started. In 1957, the Maletta family moved to Sprague Street in Germantown and opened up a luncheonette, where his sister and mother worked. Finally in 1958, Tony’s parents sold the luncheonette and moved to Ardleigh Street in Chestnut Hill and Tony lived the rest of his life less than a block away from the Water Tower.
For Water Tower, a long overdue repair
New roof part of city-funded project
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
While two different segments of the Chestnut Hill community sparred recently over the fate of the Water Tower Recreation Center, all concerned agreed on one thing: the need for a new roof.
Last week, the city gave the go-ahead for that and more.
With the help of City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, the aging facility at Ardleigh Street and Hartwell Lane found its way onto a list of three city recreation centers scheduled to undergo major renovations this fall. |
Local Life
Children’s protests save life of Death Row inmate
Mt. Airy prison poet
by AMY BRISSON
PART ONE OF TWO
When poet Reginald Sinclair Lewis was moved to a death watch cell to await his execution in July of 1997, he almost gave up.
“It’s cold and lonely being on the death watch, and every day that passed got darker, and I was getting depressed,” Lewis told a Local reporter on August 4. “I thought I was gone. They asked me where I wanted my body to be shipped and what size suit I wanted to be buried in. That really shook me.”
Lewis, a one-time resident of Mt. Airy, does not seem like the kind of person you expect to meet through a sheet of bullet-proof glass in a super-maximum security prison (Graterford). Lewis is on death row for the murder of a Philadelphia pimp in 1982, although he claims that he was in San Diego, California, at the time.
Back to the old grind for a Mount Airy coffee shop
by PAMELA ROGOW
When Meg Hagele opened the High Point Café on Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy a month ago, she thought of the place as a coffee bar. Her plan was to build on her success in Seattle, where she co-owned a popular coffee bar with a top pastry chef.
Indeed, Meg is a coffeemeister. As technical as a scientist and as dedicated as a den mother, she selects her beans, trains her roasters, designs her formulas, stipulates her steam — and cultivates her customers — like the barista she trained to be a decade ago.
How to get customers to shop at lower end of Hill
by PAT STOKES
Well, it’s August, and it’s hot as blazes as I write this, and that’s not the greatest combination for big things happening on the Hill, in terms of shop activity, that is. Nevertheless, a mini-survey I did a few weeks ago — covering five new-ish shops that sell clothes, decor and related things — yielded glowing reports from the shop owners who were obviously contented, and happy that they had chosen Chestnut Hill for their retail venture.
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