ChitChat: John Bolaris Retires, DelFrisco’s Grille, Creed 2,

This weather mind blowing, I can’t believe 2 snow storms hit while Philadelphia Flower Show is happening. The Flower Show is a go in the snow. I’ve gone 3 times already. There’s a lot to see Full disclosure they are a client, and one I love so so so much, it’s a dream come true.

Yesterday I put up the local weather channel predictions for the snowfall. As a huge fan of John Bolaris‘ I noticed he predicted 2 inches of slushy snow for the City. I was kinda shocked, but if it comes true I’d like to see him back on TV.   It was wait and see…as of now, 11:30am he is winning. There’s nothing on the streets in Philly, but I do hear the snow is about to bomb out.

John explained that it was a lot to do both Real Estate and Weather, and has decided to retire from the weather business. But don’t fret, we will all see him much more has he has inked a deal to star in a Real Estate competition reality show which will be seen on Bravo, and be set in Philadelphia. No one deserves it more than John, he’s successfully transitioned into another career after a successful career as a meteorologist. Can’t wait to see it.

Actor Michael B Jordan was in town last week to prep for the upcoming filming of “Creed II” , in between meetings he worked out at the Sixers Training Facility in Camden, NJ. Creed II is looking for extras, “CREED II”, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures release, will be directed by Steven Caple Jr. (“The Land”) and stars Sylvester Stallone (Rocky),
Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Tessa Thompson (Bianca) and Florian Munteanu.
Shooting will begin April 2, 2018 through the end of May 2018 in the
Philadelphia area. They are looking for SAG- AFTRA and NON-UNION men and women, age
18-70, all ethnicity. For more details, or to apply to be an extra, go to: www.castinghl.com
Casting Directors Diane Heery and Jason Loftus are available for on
camera interviews.

Thanks for this tip

Uh oh, it’s like I sent out a challenge to people. You should see the comments.

DelFrisco’s Grille put up their “sign” on the windows on exactly where they’re going to go in the new Cambria hotel. The hotel opens in March, with a party in April on their rooftop overlooking Center City.

Speaking of new – Congrats to Fran Hogan and Jimmy Contreras on their new home in Cherry Hill.
OK follow me on Twitter and Instagram today for SNOW PHOTOS, and if you have a chance head on over to the Flower Show. The crowds will be light, and they’ll be plenty of room to see the action.

Cheers for Chop 2018 is another stunning success

Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow

Cheers for Chop 2018 had another successful party raising funds for hundreds the Division of Orthopedics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).  The fun and philanthropic young influencers enjoyed a fabulous evening of music, cocktails, and dancing befitted was nothing short of an unforgettable night for an inspiring cause!

Co-Chairs: Valerie and Geoff Gross, and Katy Friedland , Jason Friedland, with Meisha Johnson, CBSPhilly

Over 600 people attended Saturday night, raising over $600,000

Over the past four years, Cheers for CHOP has raised more than $3 million to benefit CHOP programs such as Pulmonary Medicine and Child Life.

Jennifer Sherlock and Meisha Johnson
As usual the silent auction was extensive offering experiences, restaurant gift cars, trips and health trips

DJ Xtina

Hero Nurses: Gina Bobb, Michele McCormick and Renee Bergandino

Meisha Johnson MC’d the event

They got the crowd grooving

Keeping the dance floor packed.

Thanks to all who came out and made this another stunning success, especially:

Let Them Eat Cake A Sweet Competition

The 15th annual Let Them Eat Cake event took place Sunday at the Loews Hotel. 35 of the area’s best pastry chefs competed for the best decorated and most tasty cake. This year, Variety, the Children’s Charity fundraiser’s theme is In the Jungle, so let’s not monkey around and see what they created.

The judges for Let Them Eat cake arrive at the Loews Hotel about 2 hours before the doors open for the guests.

Variety Executive Board – Tangi James-Boone, Maribeth Roman Schmidt, President Of The Board Of Directors at Variety – The Children’s Charity and Jerry Bollenbach, Variety, the Children’s Charity

Amanda Kaewvichien, Executive Pastry Chef at Bank and Bourbon Bourbon.
The fourth annual Bourbon Bash is coming Tuesday, April 17th … get your tickets today!

Chef Amanda creates the most delicious dessert bar for you to enjoy after you dine on the delicious dinner bits from Chef Thomas Harkins

Van Cleve models modeled fashionable wedding gowns and evening wear
Cake was served as slices or in containers like these

Salon Thalia

Best Design winner Masterchef Pastry Shop

Best Themed Unique Cakes

Since 1935, Variety – the Children’s Charity of the Delaware Valley has fulfilled its mission to enrich the lives of children and young adults with intellectual disabilities through social, educational, and vocational programs that nurture independence and self-confidence, and prepare them for life.

If I were the judge I would have picked this for most creative, I love it

Sheila Hess – A huge THANK YOU @VarietyPhila for recognizing me w/2018 #VarietyTheChildrensCharity #AmbassadorAward #kidswithdisabilities during #LetsEatCake on my bday.What a night! So special @JeffGuaracino presenting award, @jimdonovancbs3 hosting as Harry Giordano, Marketing director of Variety looks on.

Student Winners: Gabriella Messina and Frankie Sangiuliano of The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College

Audience Choice Diane Michelle, Diane Michelle Cakes

Emily Maynard, Wedding Sales Consultant at Bredenbeck’s and Irvin Boyd with Diana Anello, Head Sugar Artist/ Lead Cake Decorator at Bredenbeck’s winning for Best of Show and Best Tasting cake.

#PCCBuzz Cescaphe Heads to Broad St, Eagles & Tasty Talk

Good Monday morning, it’s time for the #PCCBuzz lots happened this weekend and congrats are in order for a few of our Philadelphia Eagles players, but first we know what’s going in on the corner of Broad & Locust Streets at CAMBRiA hotel & suites Philadelphia ( 219 S. Broad St.)

Joining DelFrisco’s Grille  as part of the new Cambria hotel on Broad Street, will be another fabulous Cescaphe event space. No name has been picked out yet for the new space which takes over where the eateries Perch Pub and Varelli’s were located, but I’m sure it will be another fabulous name like other Cescaphe’s other spaces Tendenza, Vie, The Water Works and Cescaphe Event Space.  Philly Mag has a great article on founder Joe Volpe 

The flagship Cambria Hotel will open at Broad and Locust in late March and will feature Attico, the largest roof-top restaurant/bar on the Avenue of the Arts.

The 15-story, 223-room boutique hotel was developed by Pearl Properties and designed by DAS Architects, the City’s foremost hospitality architect. The ground floor of the hotel will be home to a new Del Frisco’s Grille, set to open in October 2018. Look for the new Cescaphe event space to also open in the Fall.

Congrats to Rodney McLeod and Erica Lee on their engagement. He popped the question on 5th Avenue in in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC Friday evening. According to Yahoo news: The Philadelphia Eagles safety Rodney McLeod — who just won his first Super Bowl Championship earlier this month — asked his longtime girlfriend, Erika Lee, to be his wife. Now, they’re both sporting important rings. Head on over to Yahoo for lots of great details on the engagement. Earlier this month, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz proposed to his girlfriend Maddie.
Jason Kelce had a busy weekend, Saturday he stopped by the Reading Terminal’s 135th Anniversary party and even brought The Eagles Super Bowl Belt. Sunday he headed to 5th Annual Mummers Mardi Gras Parade Sunday in Manayunk. Check out Philly.com for the full story.
On Wednesday I’m speaking at Tasty Talk at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants YangMing. It’s only 20 for lunch and $5 of that goes to the Cancer Support Community of Greater Philadelphia. Buy your tickets online or at the door. I’ll be chatting about how I started PhillyChitChat and the importance of supporting charities.

Plus I’ll be chatting about my years of being a paparazzi in NYC. I have lots of stories of those fun times.

Old City Fire Statement From THE LITTLE LION & CITY OF PHILA About Demolition

Good afternoon,

We are very saddened by the news this week about the four alarm fire at the buildings near 3rd and Chestnut Street in Old City District. We represent both Old City District and the large restaurant on that corner, The Little Lion.

Below please find an official statement about the fire and the restaurant from the owners of The Little Lion.

OLD CITY FIRE STATEMENT FROM THE LITTLE LION

“As you may know, The Little Lion was affected by the four alarm fire in Old City in the neighboring buildings to us on the Chestnut Street side of our restaurant. Our hearts go out to the numerous neighbors, tenants and visitors that were displaced, as well as to the owners of the pets that lost their lives in the fire.

While the fire itself was in the neighboring buildings, The Little Lion is greatly affected as we share a common wall and various elements of the building with the buildings that contained the fire.

As of this week, The Little Lion will be temporarily closed for an estimate of at least two months. We have not been formally allowed inside the restaurant to access the damage, begin drying out and making repairs. The last information we have is that the buildings near us are also still in a collapse zone.

We had hoped to have more information by the end of the week, but as of now we don’t have more information to offer and we hope to gain access next week. What we do know is that there is significant water damage to at least one if not both of the kitchens, the mezzanine and the basement level. We sustained major water damage to the back half and lower levels of the building – but the final look at damage will happen in the coming days. City and fire officials are focused on the safety and stability of the neighboring properties at the moment, and during that period we are waiting patiently.  Again, we do not have more information and hope to have more updates to share next week.

While we are temporarily closed, we want to take good care of our amazing Little Lion family and staff. We have over 80 employees and we are seeking temporary placements for them at fellow restaurants, bars and other businesses. We have had a number of generous offers and other restaurant leaders are stepping up to help – and we are working day and night to work with them to help our team.

We are thankful to everyone involved in the fire from the fire department, the American Red Cross, city officials, Red Paws and all other agencies involved.

This is definitely not the last roar for The Little Lion – we will be back and be better than ever. We will simply be hibernating for a period of time while we access and make repairs and fix our historic space. We poured our heart and soul into bringing new life to this corner of 3rd and Chestnut – and we have been honored to host thousands each week for dinner, drinks, brunch, anniversary parties, receptions, weddings. We have been so fortunate to share so many memories with our patrons and guests – and we look forward to hosting those occasions in the near future. We aim to try to open in time for Mother’s Day and late spring wedding season, but once we are inside we can give a better sense of timing.

Please stay tuned as we will host a Old City Fire Relief Benefit for The Little Lion employees while they are out of work – we will announce details on Monday. We will also support Red Paws during that event as this fire affected so many companion animals, a cause important to our owners’ and team members’ hearts.

For anyone with temporary positions or wants to help offer our team jobs, please contact me direct at chris@thelittlelionphilly.com or 267-971-9341.

Thank you for all the well wishes, calls and emails. We will start posting updates on social media next week to keep you in the loop – and we will post our fundraiser information at that time. Thank you in advance for your help.

Best,

Chris Younge and Jason Dills,

Owners, The Little Lion

Shakira O’Neil and Preference Butler
Glamsino Royale: Diamonds Are Forever. In grand 007 fashion, Action Wellness and Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia invited guests to “dust off your best jewels and ready your card-playing skills.”

Donald Carter was there still wearing his Mardis Gras beads from earlier in the week
Stella Doro, Tess Tickle and Maddy Milan dress in their winter shimmery best
Kevin Burns, Executive director at Action Wellness, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people living with chronic illness in the Philadelphia area and Carol Watson, General Manager at Hotel Palomar Philadelphia

Joanie Sweeney, West Laurel Hill Cemetery Chip Alfred, Philadelphia FIGHT and Deborah Cassidy, West Laurel Hill Cemetery

There was a contest for best dressed
Megan Fife
Nelly Arnold and Chris Bryan

Michael Toklish Best Bond

Tess Tickle, Messapotamia and Maddy Milan

David Alexander Jenkins
Phillip and Rose Pacey
Linda Phillips
DJ Sharyn Stone

Guests changed their winnings into raffle tickets

Thanks for the donations

Act II Playhouse
AIDS Fund GayBINGO
Bella Turka
Cut Hair Salon
Electric Factory
ESM Productions
Iron Hill Brewery
Kiehl’s
Manatawny Still Works
One Liberty Observation Deck
Painting with a Twist
Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
Rescue Spa Philadelphia
Stateside Urbancraft Vodka
The Pleasure Chest
The Sporting Club at the Bellevue
The Toasted Walnut
The Wilma Theater
Urban Axes
Yards Brewing Company

Raffle items were restaurant gift cards, experiences and spirits

But the big winner was raising funds for Action Wellness. Congrats to another successful year of fun and fundraising!!
Thanks to Andre Flewellen for shooting this event!!

For additional photos of Glamsino’s guests head on over to Philly Style Magazine

Save A Life Gala 2018 Honoring Eddie Tully – 3/9/18

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that’s smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide.

The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
honors an individual making a difference and saving lives in the community at its annual
Save a Life Gala. This year, AFSP names Eddie Tully as its Lifesaver of the Year, a
humanitarian award created in memory of Anthony Siciliano. Siciliano was a young man
who championed the underdog and helped others find their way in the darkness.
Tully, a native of South Philadelphia, lost his brother Chris to suicide in 2015. Since then,
he has supported anti-bullying programs in Philadelphia and most recently launched a
suicide prevention social media campaign designed to educate people on ASFP’s
programs.
Past Life Saver of the Year Award recipients include Philadelphia Paparazzo HughE Dillon
and national suicide prevention advocate Kevin Hines.

Purchase tickets online at www.afsp.org/phillygala