December 4, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

Couldn’t ‘pull the trigger’ on Under the Blue Moon
After 10 years, diners are still making tracks to Trax
by LEN LEAR

Ten years ago, Steve Waxman, now 48, a lifelong Chestnut Hill area resident with 30 years experience in the food and wine industry, was poised to take over the reins at Under the Blue Moon, the legendary 21-year-old Hill restaurant, after its owners, Gene and Phyllis Gosfield, both in their 70s, decided to retire.

“I spent six months putting together a business plan and making all the other preparations to keep the restaurant alive,” said Waxman, who attended Springfield Township High School and lived in Mt. Airy until age 9 and after that in Wyndmoor. “We just couldn’t pull the trigger, though. I finally concluded that with the rent that was being asked and other expenses, we’d have to do $2 million a year in business to make any profit, and there was no way that could happen.” (Ed. Note: The Under the Blue Moon property, once the busiest restaurant in Chestnut Hill, has remained vacant for 10 years.)

Doggie Health Fair and a BarketPlace in Wyndmoor
by SALLY SILVERMAN

This is Carla, a Portuguese Podengo who is companion to Marilyn Bratis of Doylestown, who will checking everything out at the Doggie Health Fair this weekend in Wyndmoor.

Y2K9s BarketPlace and Doggie Health Fair is the place to shop for the pets on your holiday list, check off those “to-do’s” on you’re pet’s health care list, snap a photo and rub shoulders with other like-minded canine-crazy individuals. A favorite of the dog-loving public since it began in 2005, Y2K9s Dog Sports Club will hold its fourth annual BarketPlace and Doggie Health Fair on Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, at their Wyndmoor location. The event is sponsored in part by Ft. Washington Veterinary Hospital, and proceeds benefit Canine Epilepsy Research.

An entire warehouse will be packed with vendors selling canine-oriented goods including home-baked dog cookies, unusual gifts, sports and training supplies, handmade leashes and collars, pooch-themed fashions, jewelry, a Flea-less Market of gently used items and more. The Animal Studio will be snapping professional holiday pet portraits on Saturday from 10 to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 to 3 p.m.

Mom, daughter from Mt. Airy team up in ‘Clothes for Cause’
by CONSTANCE GARCIA-BARRIO

Ari Bogom-Shanon and her mother Dorel Shanon, of Mt. Airy, and their other family members believe strongly in civic activism and volunteering on behalf of worthwhile causes.

“I am of the opinion that every life belongs to the whole community,” George Bernard Shaw wrote many years ago, “and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.”

The Bogom-Shanon family of Mt. Airy couldn’t agree more. Dorel, 48, and her daughter Ari, 13, have teamed up to organize “Clothes for a Cause,” a bazaar of gently used clothes whose proceeds will benefit the Women’s Medical Fund.

Slated for this coming Sunday, Dec. 7, the fundraiser grew from the family’s passion for social justice. “Social action matters to us deeply,” said Dorel, a University of Pennsylvania alumna. Dorel works in organizational development with nonprofit groups.  “We’re lucky. We have food, a home. Many people don’t.”

“Clothes for a Cause” is Dorel’s and Ari’s second joint project. “I had my bat mitzvah in May,” said Ari, a student at Germantown Friends School. “For my synagogue, Mishkan Shalom, I had to do a tikkun olam project, or ‘Repair of the World’. I organized a team for ‘Yoga Unites for Living Beyond Breast Cancer.’ I raised over $3000 for LBBC with the help of my family and my friends.”

Stitching together a success at lower end of Hill
by PAULA M. RILEY

While most businesses on the Avenue (and almost everywhere else) are crying the blues because of the disastrous economy, Bruce Levin, owner of The Perfect Stitch, an upholstery store on the lower end of the Avenue at 8012 Germantown Ave., insists that “business is flourishing. It’s absolutely amazing!” (Photo by Paula Riley)

Bruce Levin, 60, owner of The Perfect Stitch, greets customers and passersby with a broad smile and an enthusiasm that is refreshing to see on the Avenue. A newcomer to Chestnut Hill, he opened his upholstery store earlier this year and has loved every minute on the Hill since then.

“I want to thank this neighborhood for being so good to me,” says Levin. “Since we opened, I have been swamped. I believe residents here are very loyal and committed to supporting local merchants.”

When Levin opened his retail store on the 8000 block of Germantown Avenue, he was warmly greeted by his neighboring merchants and proud to have established his business in ‘SoHa,’ where more than one naysayer told him there would be no traffic on the bottom of the hill. “They were so wrong,” he says, laughing.

Passersby are often drawn into the store by the pieces Levin displays on the sidewalk outside this store. “I was also told that I’d get no walk-ins.” This too, proved to be incorrect. Since he opened in July, Levin has already sold 10 pieces featured outside. Many cars stopped at the traffic light on Willow Grove Avenue seem to enjoy the view, and customers from the dry cleaners and Baker Street Bread often come in.

One of his earliest customers was Solaris Restaurant. The owners had an idea of what they wanted to do. Levin worked with them, reviewing many sample books and helping to guide them along the process. In just three weeks, Levin had reupholstered 140 chairs in the restaurant.