Parks Pop-up Debuts This Weekend at Fairmount Horticulture Center

Starting Friday, January 22nd at 4:00pm, Parks Pop-Up will debut a new indoor dining experience at the Fairmount Horticulture Center Arboretum at 100 N. Horticultural Drive. The 30,000 square foot unique indoor space will provide ample opportunity for social distancing. Patrons will be able to enjoy fresh food, beers on tap, wine and hot beverages inside a lush greenhouse environment with comfortable chairs, and clean restrooms.

The Parks Pop-up offers families a unique destination in the colder weather where they can get out of the house and partake in safe and socially distanced activities. A portion of all Parks Pop-Up sales will benefit Philadelphia parks.

Reservations are strongly encouraged, with each table currently being limited to 4 people in compliance with local safety mandates. Additional seating is at a first to come – first to serve basis. The pop-up will also have outdoor seating weather permitting.

Masks must be worn at all times except when seated at a table. Contact information will be taken from all guests, to assure contact tracing can occur if it becomes necessary.

Season hours for the Parks pop-up at the Fairmount Horticulture Center Arboretum will be Wednesday to Friday, from 4:00pm to 10:00pm, and Saturday and Sunday from Noon to 10:00pm. Please note that hours and days of operation may change due to weather and special events. Please visit @parksontap on Instagram and Facebook for regular updates.

For more information about Parks Pop-Up, visit /www.parksontap.com/parks-popup.

Yesterday was Media Day at the long anticipated Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia.

Live! Casino Philadelphia, the $600 million project, provided an exclusive media sneak preview of Philadelphia’s premier gaming and entertainment destination will open Tuesday January 19, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. with a series of reservation-only preview days for Live! Rewards Club members. Following the preview days and pending approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Live! Casino Philadelphia will open to the general public on Thursday Feb. 11 at 8:00 p.m.

I’m feeling those chandeliers. Nice touch.

Signs, signs everywhere there’s signs, and I like it. I hate when I have to ask somewhere where something is. These escalators go to the 2nd floor event space where there is a six-room Event Center featuring 15,000-square-feet of customizable meeting space to accommodate groups of 12 to 1,000 guests. It will be ready by the time the casino opens in February. I hope to shoot a lot of events there in the future.

State-of-the-art, industry-leading FanDuel® Sportsbook with lots of TV’s to watch your favorite games.

The hotel lobby of the luxury, 12-story, 208-room Live! Hotel. To the right is the entrance to the Prime Rib restaurant. You can also enter it through the casino floor. First let’s go upstairs.

Where you will pass this incredible art work, in fact Live!! has filled their casino with beautiful works of art, most inspired by Philadelphia. This piece is made of a tiny square boxes, each with inspirational sayings like 2020, Positive Energy Always Causes Elevation, Your Fear is Full of Shit, Dead Fish Go With The Flow, Be, Family Over Everything, Nothing to Prove, Everything to Improve; it’s just spectacular and my favorite No One Can Handle A Leo. Then the middle of the art work features photos of Philly buildings, which help to make up the photo of City Hall. Pretty incredible. My tour people didn’t know who the artist was, but I will find out the artist for us.

Dining and entertainment at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia

• Sports & Social Philly – The venue will feature a FanDuel Sportsbook and Lounge retail location and state-of-the-art AV system, including a giant 52-foot LED display and 24 televisions for ultimate sports viewing. An American Grill menu with game day favorites, including a short rib cheese steak, local beers, and specialty cocktails.
• Luk Fu – Authentic flavors of Southeast Asia, a private dining room and private Karaoke rooms. (photos above)
• 10^th Street Market – A food hall inspired by the great food markets in Philadelphia where guests will be able to enjoy a wide variety of food, as well as a bar open 24/7.
• Lorenzo and Sons Pizza – A South Philadelphia staple since 1970 and one of the 101 best pizzas in America as rated by The Daily Meal.
• Sang Kee Noodle Bar & Kitchen – A traditional noodle bar featuring classic noodles and dim sum selections.
• Termini Brothers Bakery– A South Philadelphia bakery serving cannolis, cookies and more for nearly a century.
• Two new venues from Emmy award-winning Chef and TV personality Guy Fieri (The Mayor of Flavortown!!) – Guy’s Burger Join and Guy Fieri’s Taco Joint.

The Prime Rib – The top Zagat-rated steakhouse previously located in Center City Philadelphia for more than 20 years now has a new home complete with a piano to entertain as you dine.

I made a trip to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge again. The word has gotten out, it was fairly crowded on 1/2/21, but manageable. I really like this spot as you can do the 8 mile wildlife loop, as well as head back to the parking lot of walk the many trails. Remember to pay the $4 daily fee in the honor box. This is a great family fun, friends or even a great date. It takes about 2 hr to how many hours you want to do the loop.

OK let’s see what happened in Philly while I was away for the past week. Last month Rob Wasserman announced the opening of “The Lodge” at Rouge! An inspired ski lounge outside the tony Rittenhouse Square Rouge restaurant is all the rage. I have been there myself so I can attest to it’s posh, fun, atmosphere as well as it’s decadent hot chocolate.

Speaking of Alex Holley (looking hot in her club attire), she and her co-anchor Thomas Drayton debut their new show “The Feed at Night” on Fox29 last night at 11:30PM. It’s a news/pop culture show featuring what’s happening on Social Media. Kinda like following their social media streams, but now you can see it on the big screen and explained. I definitely saw a few things I didn’t see while scrolling SM this past week. They also have a virtual audience. I see you Grandpop Holley and Ray Smeriglio. BTW yesterday on Good Day the co-anchors presented their 2021 resolution board. Thomas Drayton wants to expand his real estate company, what he sells real estate? Not only that but the Drayton Young Group is the number one seller in Moorestown. Congrats!! Karen Hepp is pursuing her real estate license. Maybe it’ll be Drayton, Young Hepp by the end of the year.

Alex (r) is just going to be her peppy fun self, although she’s going to work out more and eat healthy. I hear her friend NBC10’s Miguel Martinez-Valle (l) is starting Whole 30. My sister did that, I recommend you give Miguel a lot of space the first two weeks, processed food and caffeine withdrawals can make a fella a bit grumpy.

The two photos above were ones I took over the past year, and my editor at Philly Metro used in her column yesterday
Editorial: Face the facts, masks save lives

Finally Thanks So Much for this awesome Christmas Card. It’s true I couldn’t locate Mike’s present for a week cause it got lost in my squalor. I know what your saying, didn’t you de-clutter last spring. It’s true I did, but now I’m doing it again. Like my diet, and healthy life style, it’s a work in progress. Stay tuned for #newyearnewhugh

Thank you Front Line Workers, including health workers, restaurant workers, fast food cashiers, gas station attendants, so many minimum wage workers, SEPTA employees, people who work in my building, everyone who has to deal with the public, teachers, parents, those who have faith, hope, who believe in science, who believe in things that can’t see, who believe in kindness, those who spoke up, the brave people who marched, or grabbed a broom, worked a food line, who amplified, who supported businesses, restaurants in the blistering heat, to the frigid cold, thanks to my clients, to the PR folks who have hired me this year to shoot their events, to the media who have run the photos I’ve pitched to them, to the Gov’t for unemployment, for the Gov’t who made difficult decision, to so many of you, thank you.

As dismal as 2020 has been, growth has occurred, eyes and ears have been opened and a brighter future is on the horizon, I just know it.

In conclusion, I want to thank you, to my readers, for your support. Who write me to thank me for shining a light on Philly, you kept me going even when I couldn’t see the light and suffered countless battles with depression, loneliness and isolation; as so many of us have experienced these past few months . Thank you for your prayers when I came down with Covid19 so early in the year; I was scared and your kind words gave me hope. I am so blessed to have survived. I am so saddened by those who didn’t make it, especially more than a half dozen people I knew. Thanks so much to my husband Mike of nearly 27 years. He is a rock. We’ve spent more time together in the last year than the 26 years which had gone before. He constantly teaches me patience and unconditional love. That’s not easy with moody me. Happy New Year, I have hope.

Happy New Year, actually I’ve been saying “Happy Better New Year!!” It’s hard to believe this year has gone by so fast, yet so slow, painful, sad, with so much loss. I lost a dear friend this week to Covid19 – Abana Jacobs, who worked at Subaru in the environmental department. Each day she promoted recycling, and reuse; she was so enthusiastic while doing so. I’ll miss her so as so many people will as well in our area. The Cherry Blossom event in Fairmount Park will be dedicated to her this spring I’ve been told. I wasn’t able to visit my family for the holidays so Mike and I headed to Atlantic City for rest, relaxation and re setting at Ocean Casino Resort ie the former Revel (I’ll write more of that trip tomorrow). Before we checked in we headed to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for a little bird watching, especially the elusive Snowy Owl. I often go there for bird and wildlife watching all year round. I was just there 12/10 looking for the snowy owl.

I had been tracking the Snowy Owl for about 3 years now. A rare sight around here as the Snowy is a native of the Arctic, Canada and upper North America. About 3 years ago a few have been sighted in our area. Most of the time they were sighted on the beach in New Jersey between Sandy Hook and Brigantine, and most of the time you really have no idea exactly where to look as those seeing them keep it a secret as to not draw attention to many gawkers (I have been fortunate to have other birders give me locations, but I didn’t want to trek out on the beach in 30f weather, lol). But last year, and earlier this year there had been sightings at Edwin B. Forsythe in Galloway Twp. (Which is about 40 minutes from Phila, and has a car touring loop. You don ‘t even have to get out of the car to see the wildlife. Most of these shots I took with just the window down)
I knew I had a better chance of finding him there as I knew the grounds better there since taking up bird watching, wildlife photography about 4 years ago, getting more serious about it in the passed two years.

I did have grand plans to arrive early, Mike even got up at 530am in anticipation. But I was still doing research about which birds had been sighted where in South Jersey, so as to create our itinerary. Someone had seen the Snowy Owl at the preserve, and as luck would have it even arriving 5 hrs later, I was able to see the jolly fellow. And look at the smile on his face, he was happy to see us.