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Newark Life Summer 2020
Letter from the Editor:
Our writers and photographers were hard at work on the Spring issue of Newark Life when the coronavirus outbreak very suddenly changed our plans—and your plans, too. Needless to say, we’re delighted to be able to present you with what is now the summer issue of Newark Life, and we hope that you enjoy the stories— some of which were completed before the coronavirus outbreak in March, while others were inspired by the crisis.
We are delighted to shine a spotlight on “Home Grown Compassion,” a story about how Home Grown Cafe owner Sasha Aber and her staff repurposed the popular restaurant as a place of giving during the pandemic. A fundraising initiative was started that resulted in more than 2,000 meals being delivered to healthcare workers who were on the front lines of the crisis.
Another inspiring story in this issue features Nicole Gill, a Newark Charter School senior who lives life to the fullest despite having cystic fibrosis.
We talk to Jerome and Olivia Roehm about their experiences competing in the North American Wife Carrying Championship in 2019, an event that they won. We also feature a story about Two Stones Pub as owner Michael Stiglitz discusses the restaurant’s move to a new location on Christiana Road.
We also visit with Malin’s Deli, a family-run business that has been a mainstay in Newark for nearly 50 years.
The photo essay features pictures taken along the Whitely Farms Trail in the northern part of Newark.
We also have a story about the new look of downtown as the project to repave and improve Main Street is now just about complete. As a newly repaved Main Street opens, downtown businesses are eager to reap the rewards. The timing is perfect as Newark starts to rebound from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdown.
We’re glad to share this issue of Newark Life with you, and we wish you all good health and good cheer until we deliver the next issue of the magazine in the fall of 2020.
Sincerely, Randy Lieberman, Publisher
Steve Hoffman, Editor
Cover photo: Jim Coarse
Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley
Newark Charter School senior lives life to the fullest, despite cystic fibrosis
By Ken Mammarella Contributing writer
When Newark Charter High School senior Nicole Gill filled out her college application last fall, she included an essay about challenges she had experienced. She chose to write about the 24 hours after her brother Andre got the call that he was poised for a lung transplant to remedy his cystic fibrosis.
Photos courtesy of Leslie Gill. Newark Charter High School senior Nicole Gill finds time for the Imagination Players, a youth troupe that spreads cheer at the holidays and throughout the year.
Nicole Gill
Continued from Page 10
Not about her academics, including five advanced placement courses.
Not about her extracurriculars, which keep her at Newark Charter after classes almost every day.
Not about her singing and dancing, her church, her parents Julian and Leslie, her other brother Landon or the dogs, Nala, Daisy and Roo, who share the family’s Newark home.
Not about her cystic fibrosis, hospitalizations, missed school days and two-hour daily regimen to combat the condition.
Cystic fibrosis is something she has been living with her entire life. No excuses.
“I’m always busy. I keep going because it’s something I
Wed & Thurs | 2:00p-7:30p Fri, Sat & Sun | 11:00a-7:30p
Nicole and her brother Andre, who both have cystic fibrosis, were named Shining Stars at the 26th Wishes & Dreams Winter Ball, a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
CBS3 health reporter Stephanie Stahl hosted the Wishes & Dreams Winter Ball.
Nicole wears a History Day medal while posing in the back yard of her Newark home.
State Line Liquors
Nicole Gill
Continued from Page 13
not to get a transplant, after watching what my brother went through. It’s nothing I want to repeat.”
Andre, who’s 15, had the transplant in early 2019 and missed almost a half-year of school as he recuperated at home, the quarantine advised since his immune system was suppressed so he could accept the transplant. Plus, those with cystic fibrosis already should “minimize contact with germs, since the mucus clogs the airways and traps germs, like bacteria, leading to infections, inflammation, respiratory failure and other complications,” the foundation says. His lung function is now above 100 percent, but post-operative complications include the onset of diabetes.
“She shares my pain,” Andre said. “It’s really nice to bond with someone who is going through the same issues as you. It’s a very good outlet.”
Nicole’s cystic fibrosis was diagnosed when she was four months old and still only eight pounds. “It was a rough four months,” recalled her mother, Leslie. “I was in tears.
Something was really wrong.”
That’s not just a mother talking but also a nurse, who now works at Exceptional Care for Children in Newark. “Being a nurse has helped me understand what’s going on in their bodies and have them keep up with their treatment regimens,” she said. “Cystic fibrosis affects every part of the body, except the brain, but especially the lungs. It’s too easy to say ‘they’re fine’ and skip their exercises. But I knew it was important to have them as healthy as possible.”
Over her life, Nicole has been hospitalized dozens of
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Nicole and her brother Andre both have cystic fibrosis.
Nicole Gill
Continued from Page 14
times, even with all her breathing exercises and 30 pills a day. The most promising is Trikafta, approved last October as the first triple combination therapy for cystic fibrosis. “I haven’t been sick since,” said Nicole, who started it in November. “It’s amazing.”
Another medication called Creon helps her digest fat. Without it, that fat gives her stomachaches. She follows a recommend diet that’s high in calories and high in fat (her favorite food is mashed potatoes, and the dinner for her 18th birthday starred shepherd’s pie), yet cystic fibrosis has still stunted her growth. “Cystic fibrosis kids are a lot smaller,” she said. She’s 4-foot-9 and 100 pounds, too small for the Hyundai Elantra that’s her car, so she prefers her father’s Kia Optima.
Appreciation of the wonders of medicine is partly inspiring her career. She’s always loved math and science and plans to attend the University of Delaware, studying in the honors program and majoring in chemical engineering, eventually moving into “research on medicine for people like me.”
At Newark Charter, she has been involved in multiple activities for all four years. That includes competing in the Science Olympiad; participating in the Technology Student Association, for three years, she wrote and produced children’s stories, and this year she’s designing a board game; performing in the school musical, this year as dance captain; and dancing in the Patriots Dance Team, which performs at basketball games and pep rallies. As a sophomore, she attended the Governor’s School for Excellence, and this year she is member of the National Honor Society.
Outside school, she has been studying dance since she was 2, covering ballet, jazz, hiphop and lyrical, and she now takes classes twice a week at Encore Dance Academy on Kirkwood Highway. Last year, she stopped acting classes. She’s also a member of the Imagination Players, a youth troupe that she said spreads cheer mostly through singing at nursing homes, day cares and the like.
That said, there are very rare times when she cannot muster the energy, she said, noting that last year she missed a dance recital and the family’s annual trip to England to visit her father’s relatives.
Nicole and Andre were named Shining Stars at a February Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser. They “strive to live life to the fullest” and demonstrate “strength, spunk and appreciation for life as they battle cystic fibrosis on a daily basis.”
A new look downtown
As a newly repaved Main Street opens, downtown businesses
rewards downtown
are eager to reap the
NBy John Chambless Contributing Writer
ewark business owners are breathing a sigh of relief as traffic once again flows freely on Main Street and customers are venturing back to shop and dine.
Since May of 2019, construction crews have kept alternating lanes and sections of Main Street diverted to replace street and sidewalk asphalt and pavement, install drainage improvements, upgrade traffic signals, add curb extensions and create bump-out paved areas that will have benches to make Main Street more inviting to pedestrians. The whole corridor is now in compliance with current Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. Enhanced parking lot and driveway entrances have also been added along Main Street.
The reconstruction project has, of course, run hard into the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down businesses in an unprecedented way and has resulted in the closure of several. Restaurants and retail stores have been adapting to the pandemic restrictions as traffic gradually increases on Main Street.
The project wrapped up in mid-June, slightly earlier than its initial summer of 2020 estimate. That was in part because of the drop-off in traffic that allowed crews to work in a more targeted way. Residents and business owners are getting their first look at the way Main Street will look from now on.
For Newark City Manager Tom Coleman, the project is the fulfillment of a longtime goal.
“Main Street was last paved in the mid-2000s and it quickly began deteriorating due to the old, concrete roadway that was under the new asphalt,” Coleman said in a June interview. “By 2016, it was clear that a full reconstruction of the roadway was going to need to happen soon. Parallel to this, the Downtown Newark Partnership, together with the Planning and Development Department, Public Works, and City Manager’s office, began discussing ways to improve the pedestrian experience on Main Street.
“The DNP Design Committee prepared some initial sketch plans that showed ideas for curb extensions, now referred to as bump-outs, filled with features like benches, bike racks, trees, and additional landscaping. This design also provided additional protections for pedestrians using the major crosswalks on Main Street and called for the addition of a new crosswalk at the Haines Street intersection. Bike Newark found out about the plans and threw their support behind the project. Once we had a coalition of support, we took the idea to City Council as a Transportation Alternatives Project (TAP) that would have been a stand-alone project,
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Courtesy photo Newark City Manager Tom Coleman.
All photos by John Chambless unless otherwise noted
Above: Crosswalks have been upgraded as part of the project.
Left: New brick paving and bicycle racks make the streetscape more inviting.
Main Street
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separate from the road reconstruction that was already being discussed at DelDOT. Council approved the TAP application and from there it went to WILMAPCO and eventually on to DelDOT.
“In addition to repaving and our pedestrian improvements, DelDOT decided now was the time to remove the underlaying concrete layer that was the cause of the rapid failure of the roadway,” Coleman continued. “They also made improvements to the storm sewer system to help alleviate the dramatic flash flooding we have seen recently with high-intensity thunderstorms, especially near Haines Street. We have been working with DelDOT and their design firm, AECOM, on the project since 2017.”
The disruption of Main Street traffic was a clear challenge, and Coleman said, “The initial reaction from merchants was mixed. Most seemed to understand the need, but were upset about how long the project would take to complete. Many wanted the work to be done only over the summer, but DelDOT determined that would take six or seven years and dramatically increase the price of the project. Working at night so the lanes could
be reopened during the day also was not an option due to the need to remove the concrete under the asphalt and all the utility work that needed to be completed. ... In the end, A-Del Construction was selected, with a schedule that would have them finished up before the fall semester later this year. I don’t think everyone was happy with
A new bank was being constructed in the Newark Shopping Center as the paving project continued.
the final decision, but in the end, I think DelDOT was very responsive to the needs of the business community.”
The project was expected to cost $11.8 million, and Coleman said when everything is finished, it will come in at or below budget. “DelDOT’s original schedule estimated that the project would take approximately 610 days from start to finish,” he said. “As part of the cost-plus bidding program, A-Del’s submitted schedule was very aggressive and drove the schedule all the way down to 431 calendar days. A-Del has done a good job of finishing nearly right on schedule, despite several issues arising during construction that weren’t accounted for and would have extended the project if not for the opportunity to accelerate construction due to the pandemic.
“While the pandemic couldn’t have been anticipated back when the project started, it is great that the project is ending within days of when businesses are able to reopen,” Coleman said.
He remains confident that the changes on Main Street will be seen as positive.
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New crosswalks and signals are part of the renovation project.
Main Street
Continued from Page 21
“DelDOT included larger tree pits in several locations which will allow us to plant larger trees to more quickly restore the tree canopy that has been missing for years,” he said. “We will also have safer crosswalks, more bike racks, and benches for people to sit on and rest or eat food purchased from our many restaurants. DART, UniCity, and UD busses will now be able to drop riders off directly onto the ADA-compliant sidewalk or landing, as opposed to into the parking aisle. We will have designated handicap-accessible parking spaces with wheelchair-accessible curb ramps for each space.
“Also, the city took this opportunity to switch our parking metering system from single-space meters to multi-space meters. This change cleaned up the streetscape considerably and allows for pay-by-app functionality using your smartphone through the Passport Parking App. The extra crosswalk at Haines Street is going to be a great addition as well. This was a location where we frequently saw people running through traffic since the nearest crosswalk wasn’t very close.”
The new design will have some benefits as restaurants
reopen with reduced indoor seating capacity, Coleman said.
“We actually have one restaurant that is proposing to expand their outdoor seating into two of the new bump-outs through the Governor’s temporary program for restaurants, so they are serving a practical purpose as well,” he said.
In the Newark Shopping Center, which has had its own prolonged renovation project that began well before the Main Street repaving, the Churrascaria Saudades Brazilian Steakhouse shared the burden of having potential patrons deal with the traffic interruptions.
Owner Philip A. Piraino said, “The impact on our business was huge. No one likes to sit in traffic. The traffic impeded access to our restaurant, and our numbers, year over year, took a hit on account of the construction.”
Piraino feels that the changes to the streetscape may not all be beneficial, either. “The end results are not really impressive. At the beginning of Main Street, just prior to reaching the Newark Shopping Center, there are several locations where the curb juts out into the street for a bit and then returns to a more normal location,” he said. “There may be some rhyme or reason for this construction, but it reduces parking, impedes traffic flow to the
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Main Street
Continued from Page 22
turning lanes, and seems to be not very well thought out.”
While the restaurant makes changes in seating to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions, “We have heard from regular patrons that they are anxious to visit us again, as soon as construction is completed,” Piraino said.
Sasha Aber is the owner of Home Grown Café, which sits pretty much in the center of the project. She said business owners were kept informed of each step of the process, and while there have been complaints about the disruptions, she pointed out that before the project began, “the infrastructure under the paved road was failing every 10 feet, and something had to be done about it. I first heard about this project way before it started. At the time, an 18-month to two-year project seemed awful, and all businesses knew it would impact them.”
That being said, she added, “what was worse than the construction was the public’s perceived notion of how awful it would be. I think that the locals that stayed away because of what they feared actually opened up Main Street more, and freed up parking spaces. When
intersections were being worked on, the impact could be felt, and there were some merging issues from time to time, too.
“This wasn’t a walk in the park,” she said. “But Home Grown was lucky. Our front entrance wasn’t impacted, any water lines that were hit were fixed quickly, and we have a very loyal following. I know not everyone fared as well.”
With everything being completed by the end of June, “Main Street is going to be a smooth, beautiful road,” Aber said. “I wish utility lines had been buried, but there didn’t seem to be funds to do that. The absence of construction vehicles and crews will be welcome, and it will be like a fresh breath of air for Main Street businesses.
“We are all thrilled that this project will be coming to an end, and that it was able to finish at a faster pace than originally scheduled. I think we are all looking forward to looking out our front windows and seeing our town back. The timing is perfect for the limited deck seating that we will be allowed. We are in for a long road of recovery ahead, but at least it will be one that is – physically -- well paved.”
To contact correspondent John Chambless, email johnchambless@yahoo.com.
• Rooftop garden plaza with grilling area, fire pit, and expansive sundeck
• On-site restaurant
• Assigned garage parking
• Rooftop pool
• Assigned garage parking
• Indoor saltwater pool and fitness facility (fees apply)
• Expanded bay-front beach and recreation access
• Unparalleled ocean and bay views
Home Grown compassion
When faced with the restrictions that came with the pandemic, Home Grown Café Owner Sasha Aber and her staff repurposed the popular restaurant as a place of giving. Since then, their Adopt-a-Unit at ChristianaCare GoFundMe initiative has already served over 2,000 meals to local healthcare workers on the front lines of a crisis
All photos courtesy
The Home Grown Café kitchen in Newark has prepared more than 2,200 meals since the initiative began in late March.
A contribution of $50 will provide meals for about four healthcare workers.
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in the middle of March – when the entire world seemed to reach for the panic button and everything that was considered normal had suddenly and without warning vanished – Home Grown Café Owner Sasha Aber read an article that was sent to her from a friend on social media.
A restaurant in southern California, faced with the same dilemma that Aber and every other restaurant owner in America was now dealing with, had reached out to their customers and surrounding community for help. The result had not only given the restaurant purpose during a period of shut down, it had redefined it: Through private donations, the restaurant began to prepare and deliver meals to healthcare workers in the area.
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Home Grown Cafe’s Adopt-a-Unit@ChristianaCare GoFundMe initiative has, to date, raised nearly $25,000 from community donations, which has gone to provide meals for healthcare staff at ChristianaCare’s locations in Newark, Middletown and Wilmington.
Home Grown compassion
Continued from Page 27
The article lit a fuse in Aber that could only be described as the perfect melding of decency, integrity, engagement, resourcefulness and ingenuity. She began discussions with the restaurant’s General Manager Matt McConnell and its Executive Chef Andrew Thorne to begin a similar initiative for healthcare workers in Delaware. Our healthcare workers are using their skills and compassion and taking care of those who need it the most, she said. We can do the very same thing. We can help those who are helping us.
On March 30, Aber created Home Grown Cafe’s Adopta-Unit@Christiana Care GoFundMe page, and suddenly, the kitchen transformed from a space where take-out meals were now prepared to an all-hands-on-deck mission. Within hours, the word had gotten out that something extraordinary was happening at Home Grown Café; that this was an idea that appeals to so many who are not only
Continued on Page 30
A Continuum of Care. For the past three months, healthcare staff at all three ChristianaCare campuses have graciously accepted deliveries from the Home Grown Café.
Home Grown compassion
Continued from Page 28
confined to their homes but overwhelmed with a helplessness that they can not help those who are working on the front lines of a global health crisis.
Contributions came in, and a week later, Aber began delivering meals to healthcare workers at ChristianaCare locations in Middletown, Newark and Wilmington – reaching those who were working in the most critical situations. She arrived with trays of fresh food – entrees, sandwiches, salads and side dishes.
Meanwhile, the idea saw an immediate and staggering response. By May 7, the fund had raised $21,801 through contributions from 397 donors. On May 27, the number had climbed to $23,678, with donations from 425 community members.
“The Adopt-a-Unit fund has been a win-win-win in three different ways,” Aber said. “It has helped to keep my staff employed. It has given our customers and the community the chance to extend their compassion to the healthcare workers who risk their lives every day, and it gives our healthcare workers a healthy meal, along with a note sharing our encouragement and appreciation when we drop off the food that says that their meal has been made possible by
the community’s generosity or by a private donor.
“The liaisons at ChristianaCare have been instrumental in pairing Home Grown with units, too.”
The program’s matrix is simple: Once meal donations for a single unit are fulfilled – a $50 donation will provide about four meals – Aber makes a delivery to a unit of ChristianaCare that has been contacted in advance. To date, over 2,200 meals have been made and distributed to healthcare workers in 35 units and 54 shifts that range from ICU units to testing facilities – an effort that reaches between 20 to 160 employees per shift.
Among the many departments the Home Grown Café has delivered to in the ChristianaCare system include blood bank and pathology units; constables; critical care and medical units; security teams; testing facilities; occupational therapists; front desk staff, valet and patient escorts; respiratory therapy units; mobile COVID-19 testing laboratories; pharmacies; cardiac and cardiology units; infection prevention centers; COVID lab processing units; employee health services teams; labor and delivery; housekeeping staff and the morgue.
Now in its third month, the Adopt-A-Unit @ ChristianaCare
GoFundMe program has continued to expand through community engagement, Aber said.
“Soon after our deliveries began, I began to hear from friends and family of frontline staff, and customers who recommended other units we could distribute to,” she said. “The project has really taken on a life of its own. The people who have reached out have joined our GoFundMe campaign as members, and that allows them to be able to link to the page, and share it with friends and family.”
During Home Grown Café’s first delivery, Aber’s eyes began to well up with tears, and every so often when she drops off lunch or dinner -- when the magnitude of the pandemic becomes too overwhelming to comprehend – her emotions take over when she thinks about those who will soon take a break from their 12-hour shift to enjoy a welldeserved few moments of peace.
“The program has made everything a lot more real to me,” she said. “I have a relative who passed away from coronavirus. I have another relative whose life has been compromised as a result of the pandemic, and I have friends who been through it. Being at hospitals during the week has given me an entirely different view of what’s really happening.
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Home Grown compassion
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“I plan to do this as long as possible, to continue to drive it and see what I can do with it,” Aber said of the delivery program. “We’re continuing to think outside the box in ways to continue to expand this, because the problem isn’t going away anytime soon.”
One evening in May, Aber drove to ChristianaCare’s Newark campus. The reception areas at this time of day are very quiet, save for doctors making rounds and nurses checking in on their patients. While waiting for a hospital staffer to greet her, she heard something magical permeate the usual stillness. It was the sound of clapping and cheering.
There in front of her were 40 healthcare workers who had made two separate lines in the lobby. As she got closer to the entrance, there between the lines, a patient in a wheelchair was being led out of the hospital.
The healthcare workers were there to say “GoodBye.” The patient had conquered coronavirus, and was now going home.
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
Make your contribution to your local healthcare workers
To make your donation to the Home Grown Café’s Adopt-a-Unit @ Christiana Care GoFundMe initiative, visit www.homegrowncafe.com or call (302) 266-6993. For additional information or to sponsor a whole unit, contact Sasha Aber at sasha@homegrowncafe.com.
Two Stones moves uptown
The food’s still chef-driven, with fewer beers (and that’s a good thing)
By Ken Mammarella Contributing writer
After nine years in a humble strip shopping center on Newark’s eastern edge, Two Stones Pub has moved three miles, to Christiana Road, just off Interstate 95, close enough for regulars and now boosted by clientele from two adjacent hotels.
The building is larger, with everything new. But don’t worry about your old favorites: char-grilled burgers (the restaurant’s most popular dish) and a curated selection of craft beers are still there.
“Everyone’s happy, We’re very busy, with a steady flow of traffic,” owner Michael Stiglitz said in an interview in February, a month after the new location opened. Then the coronavirus hit, and Gov. John Carney in mid-March ordered restaurants and many other businesses to close.
In a follow-up call in June, Stiglitz was as upbeat about the future as he was at the opening. “The restaurant industry is so resilient, and its people are as resilient,” he said, noting he has 230 people in all his businesses who depend on him. “We will do whatever we have to do to get back on top.”
During the state of emergency, he chose not to offer takeout and delivery, and he also decided to skip the first phase of reopening on June 1, since it limited capacity to 30 percent.
He used the shutdown to develop a reopening plan, and deepclean and update other Two Stones Pubs. The Newark location got work on its patio, but inside is pristine. “Every time I walk in, I’m hit by that that smell of new paint, carpeting and the FRP walls,” he said. “It’s unnerving, like suspended animation.”
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Burgers are the most popular item on the Two Stones menu.
Mike Stiglitz, left, and business partner Ben Muse are among the brains behind Two Stones Pub.
Two Stones Pub’s Newark location has moved to a new building on Christiana Road.
Two Stones
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More of almost everything
The old site in Chesmar Plaza was “a neighborhood hideaway with just a few windows and mostly high-tops,” he said. The Christiana Road location, in contrast, is filled with windows. The W shape of the bar allows for more natural conversations. Higher ceilings mean TV sets are less overbearing. A 30-seat back room has been upgraded to a 42-seat side room, with lots of glass. A patio seats about 40. Of course, all those attributes await the end of the state of emergency to allow their full use.
The new building is 3,500 square feet, with 5,000 square feet for the restaurant (up from 3,500 in Chesmar) and the remaining space for corporate offices and storage.
A Thursday theme is Flights & Bites, represented here by the Tour of Aston flight of beers from 2SP Brewing, Two Stones’ sister company, and the Crabby Pretzel Pile (salt and vinegar soft pretzel bites, apple and onion butter, crab Swiss fondue, pickled pepper relish).
There are two important reductions in the expansion.
The number of taps is down from 24 to 20. “More taps doesn’t mean better beer,” Stiglitz explained, noting lesspopular brands might grow stale with low turnover. The 20
taps still give enough room to showcase 10 varieties from the 2SP Brewing Co., which he also owns, and other 10 craft brews.
The top beer at all six pubs (Hockessin, Middletown, Newark and North Wilmington, plus Kennett Square and Jennersville in Pennsylvania) is 2SP’s Up & Out Hazy IPA, which Ben Muse, Two Stones’ operating partner and craft beer coordinator, described as “low bitterness, very juicy, very fruit-forward yet still balanced.” He looks forward to the return of 2SP’s Voluptuous Fuzz, a hit at last summer’s debut. It’s brewed with peach and apricot puree and finished with sheep sorrel.
Similarly, the number of canned varieties of beer is down to about 25, Muse said. Chef-driven menus, plus great tomatoes and corn
The six pubs sport significant variations in what Stiglitz called their chef-driven menus. “Chef-driven means that
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Two Stones
Continued from Page 36
there is no menu written by somebody at corporate,” he explained. “We allow the chefs to drive their own menus.” Sure, popular items are common to all the pubs, but about half the menu is developed by the executive chef and sous chef at each restaurant. Every quarter, they gather for tastings to consider potential additions.
Popular dishes spread across the group. “They’re particularly receptive to vegetarian and vegan dishes,” which are tough for meat-eating chefs who have difficulty thinking beyond butter or cheese to finish a dish. The result is far beyond crudites. “We put a lot of time and effort into it.”
Two Stones is known for craft beers, but it also celebrates wine (as in #Winetown and #wineWednesdays), paired here with blackened shrimp and scallops, buttermilk-plantain mash, mango slaw, raspberry mojo and micro radish.
They also put time and effort into sourcing. “We try to be as local as possible,” Stiglitz said, so a lot of produce in season comes from the University of Delaware farm in Newark and from Kennett mushroom dealers all year. Their regional supplier is Sysco Eastern Maryland, which pulls from as far away as Virginia – close enough that crops can be on plates just a few days after harvest, faster than produce grown in Mexico and
California, which lack the “same nuance and the same flavor.”
He is particularly particular about tomatoes and corn, since “Delaware and New Jersey are known worldwide for them. You have to be picky.”
Stiglitz was born in Boston, grew up in Laurel Springs, New Jersey, and now lives in Hockessin. Inspired by his family in the catering business, he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1999 and moved to Delaware in 2003 to serve as executive sous chef for Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant when it opened on the Wilmington Riverfront. After stints with other restaurants, he opened the first Two Stones Pub in Chesmar Plaza, in what used to be A Piece of Ireland, available after its owners decided to focus their attention on Sheridan’s Irish Pub in Smyrna.
“Craft beer had taken over as the hot trend,” he recalled. “And we served craft beer only. No mass-market brands.” More pubs quickly followed: North Wilmington in 2012,
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Two Stones
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Kennett Square in 2013, Hockessin and Jennersville in 2016 and Middletown in 2019. In 2015, he opened the 2SP Brewing Co. in Aston, Pa. The Chesmar location closed with a New Year’s Eve party, and the Christiana Road location opened 10 days later.
‘Highly recommended by our hotel’
The move to Christiana Road was spurred by Paul Isken, who owns the adjacent Holiday and Comfort inns. “I want your brand,” Isken told Stiglitz, after being connected by Joe Latina, Stiglitz’s longtime real estate expert at Patterson-Woods Commercial Properties.
Early reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp show the new location is drawing travelers. “Highly recommended by our hotel,” a Massachusetts couple wrote on TripAdvisor, where the restaurant is ranked No. 5 out of 275 Newark restaurants. “We were not disappointed!”
Any foreseeable future growth for Two Stones Pub would be
in Pennsylvania, Stiglitz said, because he does not want to cannibalize revenue from existing Delaware locations – unless he considers downstate. That said, the Aston brewery doesn’t have space to expand into a restaurant, and “South Jersey is always on our radar,” he added, noting he has looked at multiple Jersey sites off U.S. 322.
The Aston brewery makes six allweather beers, Muse said, and has 16 more spots for seasonal and experimental offerings. America’s 8,000 artisanal breweries compete intensely for attention, with the latest trend being what he called “the Instagram culture: fruited sour beers that look great in pictures.”
Two Stones Pub and 2SP Brewing have similar but differing names, because Stiglitz felt that Two Stones Pub “sounds like a local restaurant group” with 2SP has a broader appeal as a brand for craft beer. And that’s working: although 2SP is primarily regional, it’s sold as far away as Japan.
Pictures of infinite
Nestled in northern Newark, the Whitely Farms Trail forms just a small part of the White Clay Creek State Park, but what it offers to those who walk its steps is a journey of portraits, whose impact can not be measured in size
Photos by Jim Coarse
Text by Richard L. Gaw
From the time you enter the Whitely Farms Trail at its southern entrance, you are enveloped by the panorama of golden fields dotted with wildflowers, and from there, the full embrace of your journey will be measured by how softly you tread and how much you listen.
Tucked into the confluence of nature between Pleasant Hill, Thompson Station and Nine Foot roads, the Whitely Farms Trail is a 7.4-mile-long loop of changing variances, from wheelchair accessible paved walkways to gravel paths that are perfect for hiking, running and mountain bike riding.
The Whitely Farms Trail’s truest definition, however, is written in its ever-changing portrait of sight and sound, that reveals itself as a museum of nature, filled with thickened and hanging vines, the bend and gentle twist of mature trees that overlap hundreds of feet above, and the sweet aroma of hayfields that are skimmed by birds on seemingly endless flights of bliss, all in chorus.
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infinite beauty
Photo Essay
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John Ruskin, a leading English art critic and patron of the Victorian era, once said, “Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” We, on the receiving end of these pictures, are ourselves redeemed and nourished, and within the continuous loops that makes up the Whitely Farms Trail, all we need to do is walk quietly and pay attention to the art going on all around us.
The Whitely Farms Trail is part of the 37-mile trail network that makes up the White Clay Creek State Park, which represents 25 percent of the entire trail system in Delaware. For additional information about the Whitely Farms Trail and all parks within the White Clay Creek State Park, call the Park office at 302-368-6900, the Nature Center at 302-368-6560, or visit www.destateparks.com
|Newark Business|
To thousands of families, employees and students in Newark who visit Malin’s Deli, this family-run business has been a friendly and reliable neighbor for nearly 50 years. Just like their neighbors, Malin’s has embraced the changing identity of a town by continuing to deliver a great product
‘It’s about customers
about knowing our customers by their first names’
FBy Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
or the better part of three decades, James and Jean Malin raised their nine children in a four-bedroom Cape Cod house that was located two blocks away from the St. Elizabeth parish in the City of Wilmington.
In 1974, James, a butcher and meat manager, purchased the Stafford’s grocery store at 812 South College Avenue in Newark, so that he could know the feeling of owning his own business.
When the butcher shop and grocery first opened, the entire Malin family lived in a two-bedroom apartment located above the store. James and Jean occupied one bedroom, the three daughters took the second, and the six brothers slept in an attic that did not provide plumbing or heat. The space was dotted with mattresses that were tossed in makeshift angles.
“We all lent my father some money so that he could start his business,” recalled store president Ken Malin. “I lent him $3,000. I was only 20 years old at the time, but I lent him $3,000, which was all the money I had in the world, so that he could buy the place. We all pitched in and we made it happen.”
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All photos by Richard L. Gaw
From left to right, the Malin Brothers: Jim, Bob and Ken, behind the counter of Malin’s Deli, which has become a Newark institution since it first opened in 1974.
Malin’s Deli
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Forty-six years after the Malin brothers first moved from a four-bedroom home to that attic, Malin’s Deli has earned its place as one of the most successful family businesses in Newark. From Monday to Saturday, it has become a place of sure things: the comfort of knowing that customers will enjoy a freshly made sandwich that will be delivered on time; that they will be welcomed at the door; and that on any given day, there is a strong likelihood that they will carry on a decades-long conversation with Ken and his wife Stephanie; Bob Malin and his wife Barbara; brother Jim; and the store’s matriarch, Mo Miller.
Today, the hundreds of people who regularly visit Malin’s every day are not just customers picking up an awardwinning cheese steak or a to-go salad. They are witnesses to how a small business has continually adjusted to one town’s changing identity – the closing of a manufacturing plant, the expansion of a University and the widening breadth of its demographics and culinary tastes.
“Change happens slowly, and we’ve just rolled with those changes and continuously adapt to those changes,” Ken said. “You begin to develop a rapport with people, so if they want to order 40 or 50 breakfast sandwiches, you take
Barbara Malin prepares breakfast sandwiches for hungry customers.
care of them. That’s how you continue to lead a successful business – by listening to our customers, giving them a good product at a good price and you give them food service and you stand back and let the business come to you.”
When they first opened, Malin’s was a 3,000-square-foot butcher shop and grocery store, located beside a successful sub shop. In the late 1980s, as large box grocery stores began popping up in Newark, it caused a financial strain on the business. Meanwhile, right next door, the sub shop was pushing out sandwiches to hungry customers at a fast pace. For two years, Ken left the family business to work for the Wonder Bread Company.
“I wanted my father to begin making sandwiches to help boost our business, and he told me, ‘When I retire, you can make sandwiches,’” Ken said. “He didn’t want to get involved in that. In 1990, he came up to me and said, ‘I am ready to retire. You guys can do what you want.’”
Ken gave his employer two weeks’ notice. He got rid of the butcher block. He removed the band saw. He removed the produce case and meat case. Soon, the lines that were forming next door began forming at Malin’s. A year later, the competing sub shop next door packed up and left.
Over the course of the next 30 years, Malin’s has supplied breakfast
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Ken Malin takes a telephone order for lunch.
Malin’s Deli
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and lunch to every shift at the former Chrysler plant. It has fed three decades of University of Delaware students and employees -- especially members of UD’s athletic department and the Star Campus, whose offices are just down the street.
Every morning, the sweet aroma of coffee permeates the store, and breakfast sandwiches are made and packaged and end up in the hands of early-morning commuters on their way to work. As lunch hour approaches, the Malin family becomes an assembly line of interchangeable parts – taking phone orders, preparing lunches, slicing meats and condiments, patrolling the cash registers and stocking shelves.
If there is one intangible that has helped define Malin’s over the last several decades, it cannot be found in a breakfast, a lunch or in any jar or container on the shelves, and it’s a priceless one, Ken said.
“Too many times, customers come into a store and they’re given a number, and suddenly, they don’t have a name. They’re order number 01235,” Ken said. “To us, it’s about knowing our customers by their first names. For instance, when Pete comes in for his sandwich, we tell him, ‘Pete, you had the ham on rye? I’ve got your order right here.’ That small gesture is so important. It’s like the character of Norm on ‘Cheers.’ People like coming into a store and having people call them by name.
“We didn’t have a grill when we first began,” Ken added. “They want cheese
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The presence of James and Jean Malin graces everyone who visits the store.
Malin’s Deli
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steaks? We put in a grill in. Then they asked for French fries, so we put a fryer in. Then they began asking for salads, so we began making salads. We continue to listen and respond to the needs and the requests of our customers.
“It’s been done over 40-something years, and when I think about the way we have adapted to the changes we’ve all seen in Newark during that time, it’s pretty overwhelming.”
When Ken turned 65, he considered the prospect of retiring. He is now 66.
“Now I’m thinking of retiring when I’m 67, but in all likelihood, I won’t,” he said. “There is something magical that happens here every day. I get in, I get my coffee, I get the blood flowing and jump into the rhythm of the store.
“I am afraid that if I ever left this, I would miss that magic, and also, I know for certain that I would miss the customers.”
Especially the hundreds he knows by name.
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
In preparing their award-winning sandwiches, Malin’s Deli goes through hundreds of rolls every day.
When Jerome and Olivia Roehm of Newark competed in the North American Wife Carrying Championship in 2019, they just wanted to have a great time. They won the event, and now prepare to take on wife-carrying couples at the world championship in 2021
Team
Lovebirds
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
When
Jerome Roehm declared his wedding vows three years ago to his wife Olivia, it was to have and to hold forever.
There was nothing in the nuptials, however, that said anything about having to someday carry her.
Last October, the Roehms traveled to the Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine to compete in the 20th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship, to compete with 44 other couples from across the United States on a 278-yardlong course that was obstructed by one log hurdle, one dirt mound, one mud pit and an obstacle affectionately referred to as “The Widow Maker.”
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All photos courtesy
Jerome and Olivia Roehm won the 20th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship, held last October in Maine. Their win qualifies them to compete in the World Wife Carrying Championship in Finland, scheduled for 2021.
Team Lovebirds
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With a strong finish in the opening round, the Roehms – who competed under the name “Team Lovebirds” -qualified for the finals with a time of 55.95 seconds, and then proceeded to finish first in the finals, defeating the second-place couple by one second.
Before they left Maine to return to their home in Newark, the Roehms hoisted a large trophy on the winners stand, packed six cases of beer in the trunk of their car, and received five times the amount of Olivia’s weight in cash -- $555.
Olivia, a marketing strategist, said that being introduced to the event happened by accident, but became feasible when Jerome began to pursue his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Delaware last year.
“We were living in Kansas at the time -- where we met -- and for some reason, a video promoting the event came across my Facebook page, showcasing some of the people who were to compete,” Olivia said. “I thought it looked like fun, and we thought that if we were ever in the Northeast, we should check it out. When we moved to
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As part of winning the competition, the Roehms received six cases of beer.
The Roehms won their semifinal heat with a time of 55.95 seconds.
Team Lovebirds
Delaware for Jerome’s doctorate program, we thought, ‘Why don’t we take a weekend, drive up to Maine, and compete?’”
Nearly from the time they first saw the video, Jerome said that he and Olivia would make a great wife carrying team. After all, he is 6’ 6” and a former college football player, and Olivia is a 5’ 2” former dancer, and their athleticism, he said, allowed them to quickly maneuver through the course.
“We witnessed various techniques of getting over the log hurdle that ranged from laying on it, rolling over it, spinning around it and climbing it, but our sizes played to our advantage, that allowed us to actually twirl over the obstacle,” he said. “On our first run, I almost lost it, because my muscles were a bit fatigued and when I began to run down hill, I almost lost control and I could hear Olivia yelling at me, ‘Slow down! Slow down!’”
The Roehms had personal coaches who lined the course and gave them scouting reports; Olivia’s family had traveled to Maine from Ottawa, Canada.
“They had been watching the other couples compete, and they advised us to stay to the right side of the mud pit because it seemed to be a bit more shallow,” Jerome said. “There were some unfortunate couples that took spills in the mud pit which added to the entertainment value, but we remained relatively dry.”
The competition of wife carrying traces its origins to Finland, where it became a sport beginning in the 1800s. Within the rules of competition, each couple can choose not only who carries, but their own method of carrying. The Roehms, like most couples do, chose the Estonian Carry, where one partner is hoisted face-down over the other partner’s shoulders and holds his or her own legs while the other partner maneuvers through the course. Essentially, Olivia served as a human backpack to Jerome, and for the
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Team Lovebirds
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entire distance of the race, saw only her husband’s lower back, and the ground.
Contorting themselves into the Estonian Carry, the Roehms began training for the event at the soccer pitch at Papermill Park and the Newark Reservoir, which offered them to opportunity to train on the hurdles there.
“We got a lot of funny looks from people we passed by at Papermill Park,” Jerome said. “So now, when they read this article, they can say that what they saw wasn’t a large man abducting a smaller woman, but in fact two people training to compete in a national wife-carrying event.”
Their win in Maine qualified the Roehms to compete in the world championship on July 4 in Finland, but due to concerns stemming from COVID-19, the 2020 event was canceled.
“We were disappointed because of the fact that the event was scheduled for the Fourth of July, and if we had won, we would have been the first North American couple to win the world championship,” Jerome said.
The event has been rescheduled for 2021.
The Roehms plan to be there.
To watch the Roehms in action at the 20th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship in 2019, click on “North American Wife Carrying Competition – 2019” on YouTube.
If you are interested in helping to defray the Roehm’s travel expenses to the World Wife Carrying Championship in Finland in 2021, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/roehms-wife-carrying.
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
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