Corning's Gaffer District Holiday Gift Guide 2016

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Corning’s Gaffer District

HOLIDAY GIFT Guide Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publishers George Bochetto Maggie Barnes Managing Editor Gayle Morrow THE BEST LOCAL COVERAGE. THE BEST REGIONAL PHOTOS.

THE BEST WRITING, PERIOD.

Design Gwen Plank-Button Advertising Director Ryan Oswald Advertising Assistant Amy Packard

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Sales Representatives Alicia Blunk, Richard Trotta Corning’s Gaffer District Holiday Gift Guide is published by Beagle Media, LLC, 25 Main St., 2nd Floor, Wellsboro, PA 16901, in partnership with Corning’s Gaffer District. Copyright © 2016 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail info@ mountainhomemag.com, or call (570) 724-3838.

Corning’s Gaffer District Holiday Gift Guide is distributed at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY.

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here is nothing more important to the job of strengthening our economy than shopping local. Well over 50 percent of employees in our country work for small businesses. On behalf of our entire downtown, I want to thank you for choosing to Shop Local, and I invite you to make Corning’s Gaffer District a stop—or many—on your holiday shopping excursions.

• We are an award-winning downtown offering one extraordinary experience after another.

• Travelers near and far are captivated by our historic downtown and its architectural magnificence.

• Our restaurants are so much more than a place to eat; they are the main ingredients in a recipe for one of the most sought-after dining destinations in the state.

• We are home to shopping that will make your head spin with the many choices available. Whether your passion is fashion, antiques, glass and collectibles, beautiful artwork, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and so much more, we are the place to find that “perfect something.”

• Our personal care practitioners are numerous. If you want to treat a friend or yourself to a spa package for the holidays, this is the place!

• Chocolate Trail!!! That’s right, we have one of the most decadent and extensive selfguided chocolate journeys anywhere!

• All of our businesses are passionate about what they do, and satisfied customers are their top priority.

• Right in our downtown, Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum are two of the most incredible ways to spend time with family and friends—and kids up to eighteen years old get in free!

• If you are into social media you will find our city is a wonderful place to share your story via #explorecorning. We are certain that if you do, you will discover unlimited reasons to come back and to tell your friends and family.

Our very best for wonderful holidays and a successful 2017!

Coleen Fabrizi Executive Director www.gafferdistrict.com 5

Gaffer District Guide

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Gaffer District Guide

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Ad Directory PAGE 94 West Antiques A Touch of Tranquility Spa AgeLess SPA AJ’s Hair and Makeup Bombshell Salon Bong’s Jewelers Bottles & Corks Brick House Brewery Brown’s Cigar Store Callahan and Hooey Real Estate and Insurance Carder Steuben Glass Shop Carey’s Brew House Cellar, The Connor’s Mercantile Corning Art and Frame Corning Chamber of Commerce Corning Museum of Glass Corning Palace Theatre Corning’s Gaffer District Crystal City Olive Oil Dippity Do Dahs East End Furnishings Erlacher Collection, The Everything Medical EXHIBIT A First Heritage Gaffer District Business Association Gaffer Grille & Tap Room, The Glass Menagerie, The Glaswerk Optical Gustin’s Gallery Goldsmiths Guthrie Healthcare House of Flowers Imagine That Market Street Coffee and Tea Market Street Antiques and Collectibles MASTERPIX Mint Velvet Oaks Sports Bar Old World Cafe Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes Pip’s Boutique Primp Pure Design R&M Restaurant Radisson Hotel Corning Rico’s Rockwell Museum, The Safari Smiles Serendipity Hair Studio Simmons-Rockwell Sorge’s Restaurant Source, The Steuben and Corning Centers for Rehabilitation Three Birds Restaurant Tossed Trinity Therapeutics Wellness Wegman’s Food Markets West End Gallery Wild Ginger Wine and Design Wooly Minded World Kitchen

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Cry

There’s no place like home for the holidays.

The spirit of good cheer is everywhere at Christmas time, even where you might not expect it. Corning Center and our sister facility, Steuben Center in Bath, provide long term skilled nursing care and short term rehabilitation to some of our greatest treasures – our elders. At Christmas time and all through the year the Centers spirit of Heart Health Home is evident in everything we do.

This year many of our residents will be bringing their good cheer to Market Street where they’ll help us light the tree and kick off the season. We invite everyone to stop by, say hello to some wonderful people, and help spread the holiday spirit.

Let’s all enjoy the holidays together.

Corning Center 205 E First Street Corning NY 14830

Steuben Center 7009 Rumsey Street Extension Bath, NY 14810

www.CentersHealthCare.com

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Festivals & Events New Northern Lights Celebration on Bridge Street During the 2015 holiday season, Arbor Housing and Development on Bridge Street in Corning hosted the lighting of the Christmas tree during the Northside tree lighting event the third week in November.

“It was a nice event. Our employees dressed up in costume. We had some music, lit the tree, boom, done,” says Judy Celelli, Arbor CEO. Then the Gaffer District offered an idea. “They wanted us to help with a larger version of that event,” says Judy. And so the Northern Lights Celebration on Bridge Street, presented by Arbor Housing and Development, was born.

The happening on the northern side of Corning’s Gaffer District on November 27, the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, has a couple of goals: the children will still have their own tree lighting, but now folks are encouraged to come onto Bridge Street starting at 3 p.m. for other activities and to stay and watch the parade.

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The holiday parade has always started on Bridge Street and marched to its finish on Market Street. This year, the full strike-up-the-band effect will begin on Bridge Street near Riverside Drive. It is a great opportunity for folks who live on the north side of the Gaffer District to be the first to see the party start!

Jeanne Glass is a Project Coordinator for Arbor, and she has been working with the Gaffer District to make the new event an instant tradition for local families. Arbor Development will serve as the “North Pole” spot to add to the excitement of the tree lighting. “Everything starts at 3 p.m. with goodie bags for the kids, a North Pole mailbox to get those letters on their way, and a Santa Selfie Station for photos,” Jeanne says. The staff at Arbor is working with the businesses on Bridge Street to add to the festivities. “We are encouraging owners to open their businesses that day so folks can see what they have to offer. For example, Stevens Paints will have some holiday treats to share, and Journey Fitness is planning children’s activities in their facility,” Jeanne relates.

At 4:30, DownBeat Percussion, the official drum line of the Buffalo Bills, will handle the countdown leading to the Christmas tree lighting in front of Arbor Housing and Development. The precision drum corps (which serves as the NFL team’s cheerleading squad, having replaced the Buffalo Jills) will then take its place in the parade line-up.

The parade will immediately follow the tree lighting.

Make plans to get the holiday happenings in Corning’s Gaffer District started early, and head for Bridge Street to be the first to hear the music. Details can be found at www. gafferdistrict.com/crystalcitychristmas.

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Festivals & Events

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The Crystal House A true community has a shared history, a collective memory of sorts. Former residents who meet up experience an instant bond when the “Do you remember?” conversations start. When it comes to Corning and the holiday season, one fixture is an annual favorite.

For countless area families, it simply would not be Christmas without a visit to see Santa Claus in his Crystal House on Centerway Square.

One of those families is Lisa Gill and her boys, Liam, nine, Ben, six, and Seth, who is three. “Each year the anticipation to see Santa at the Crystal House begins as soon as the weather begins to turn,” Lisa says. “For the three of them, seeing Santa and catching a glimpse of a reindeer at Sparkle is the highlight of the holiday season.”

How the elegant glass hut came to rest on the Square is something of a legend. Traveling through Europe, an executive of Corning Incorporated spotted the crystal house and immediately knew it belonged in the city that glass made famous. Its original relocation brought it to the parking lot of the Corning Museum of Glass as the admissions booth.

But the need outgrew the building, and museum officials graciously offered it to the city itself.

Eventually, the North Pole’s most famous resident would occupy the glass house.

People will tell you they really cannot pinpoint when the crystal house became a part of the downtown holiday celebration, but they will admit they don’t remember a Christmas without it. If Mother Nature cooperates with a little snow, the scene is even more magical.

This holiday season, Santa will be visiting with children in his Crystal House on weekends starting Friday, November 25, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, November 26, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, November 27, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. During Corning’s Sparkle Celebration, the Crystal House will be open on Saturday, December 3, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, December 4, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The schedule continues on Saturday, December 10, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, December 11, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, December 16, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, December 17 and 18, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The last chance to visit with St. Nick will be Thursday and Friday, December 22 and 23, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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Festivals & Events Holiday Concert with John Berry The third time will be the charm when country music artist John Berry performs his Christmas concert at the Corning Museum of Glass on Sunday, December 11 at 7 p.m. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of John’s holiday tours— and his third appearance in Corning’s Gaffer District—and he promises some special treats for the audience. Tickets are expected to fly faster than Santa’s sleigh, and they are available at gafferdistrict. com/holidayconcert or by contacting the Information Center of Corning (607) 9628997.

“My family and I always look forward to getting back to Corning. It’s such a lovely place to walk around—people are so warm and welcoming. My wife enjoys the Market Street stores, especially at the holidays. And we love that great Italian restaurant, Sorge’s! Hoping to get back there this trip.”

The tour, titled “O’ Holy Night – Celebrating 20 Years Of Christmas with John Berry,” will feature both holiday classics and some of John’s chart hits such as “Your Love Amazes Me” and “Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye.”

While concertgoers are coming mainly for the music, John urges them to not miss seeing the world-famous museum.

“The Corning Museum of Glass is a truly spectacular venue for a concert. In fact, we are encouraging people to come early for the show and see the exhibits. So many times,” John muses, “the folks who live near a national attraction like the museum never get there themselves.”

The musical highlight may well be John’s rendition of “O Holy Night.” Recorded just twenty-eight days after he had brain surgery in 1995, John recalls that everyone in the room knew something special was happening. “We had a wonderful violinist on that session, but she seemed to have trouble staying in tune, which was unusual. Then she told me she was so moved by the song she was crying, and her tears were hitting the violin strings.”

“Goose bumps,” says Coleen Fabrizi, executive director of Corning’s Gaffer District. “You get goose bumps when he sings that song.”

The smile is audible in John’s voice when he says, “If all I’m remembered for is being a good husband and father, and singing ‘O Holy Night’ really well—I’m good with that.”

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The Gaffer Experience Wooly Minded On a chilly fall day, with stainless steelcolored skies hanging over the Gaffer District, the warmth of Wooly Minded, at 91 East Market Street, is enough to fog your glasses.

Maybe it’s the stacks of yarn in every hue imaginable, already giving off the cozy feel of the sweaters, scarves, and socks they will become. Maybe it’s the charming English accent and sparkling eyes of owner Jean Gray. Or maybe it’s the laughter of the circle of ladies around a table near the window, chatting easily while they knit.

Asked about why they come to Wooly Minded and the answers have their own common thread. “Comfortable.” “Encouraging.” “Supportive, regardless of your ability.”

Jean, who is indeed a native of England, opened the shop nine years ago with the defined goal of offering an alternative to big box store craft supplies. She wanted to stock higher quality yarn and pair it with the kind of expert advice a true neighborhood business can provide.

The result is a real community of crafters who share project ideas to help each other out.

As the holidays approach, the window-side table fills up with crocheted snowflakes and knitted miniature stockings. Several times a year the store orchestrates the making of baby items for hospitals or warming shawls for a domestic violence shelter.

Jean oversees the work like a cheerleader, and steps in whenever needed. Doing so has provided her with special moments she will remember forever.

“An elderly lady came in with an afghan that her late mother had started, but never finished. I helped her complete it. It made me feel good to know that family story will live on in that blanket,” she smiles.

Wooly Minded (www.woolyminded.com) offers classes year-round, with Jean working up schedules for each quarter and deciding what to teach via an effective, albeit low-tech, system.

“I ask them,” she laughs. “I come right out and ask my customers what they want to learn.

Some classes fill up, others don’t. That tells me what I should offer again and what I should drop.”

Jean’s customers run the age gamut from seven to seventy. That range bodes well for the future. “Even Millennials have gotten the bug. Knit and crochet are social happenings now, not solitary endeavors. It’s been on the upswing for fifteen years. I don’t see that ending.”

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The Gaffer Experience Make Your Own Glass “Can I use this color?” The little girl points to a tray of blue shards of glass, and the Corning Museum of Glass employee smiles.

“You can do anything you want,” he replies.

That simple statement may define the best part of the Make Your Own Glass experience at the museum. People who have no artistic training can choose from a big selection of projects and then personalize every aspect of it. (www.cmog.org/ myog) That little girl’s blue glass might become wind chimes, dancing with summer brilliance and memories of a special vacation, or a picture frame to hold a photo of the magic day she became a glass artist. Another new glassmaker decorates a clock with the Maltese cross, the symbol of his firefighting profession, intended to grace his office. Want a nightlight with your child’s favorite superhero colors? Make it! And, it should go without saying, you can fashion an ornament for your Christmas tree.

Recent glassmakers included a table of four giggling girls whose parents had teamed up to arrange a glassmaking session as a holiday gift. Even in the world of teenaged ultraconformity, all four were making bold statements of their own in glass. The options are limitless. You can use glass beads to make wearable art or design a delicate pattern to be sandblasted onto drinking glasses.

After you make the creative decisions, a staff member whisks your work away to apply the heat that makes your idea permanent. In some cases, you can pick items up that same day.

For larger projects, you need to swing back by the museum a day or so later.

Kim Thompson, media and public relations manager for the museum, says the program gives people access to an elite class of glass artists. “So many of them have these stories about how they took glassmaking as an elective in college and it completely changed their lives,” she says. “They heard the roar of the furnace, and felt the heat and intensity of working with a 2300-degree material, and never wanted to do anything else.”

The staff channels that passion into helping folks make the most of their time with glass, striking a perfect balance between being helpful and letting you do your own thing. They hover nearby, ever watchful for a hesitant look, but their response is always the same, “What do you want it to look like?”

That, of course, is entirely up to you—and your inner glass artist.

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Arts & Culture The Erlacher Collection In the spring of 1953, fourteen-year old Kitty Erlacher graduated from middle school, got up the next morning, and got a job on Market Street.

She has been there ever since, and now you can find her at 5 W. Market Street, adjacent to the Information Center, at The Erlacher Collection, which showcases her and husband Max Erlacher’s Steuben Glass treasures.

Now seventy-seven years old, Kitty is a native of the Crystal City, while Max, eighty-three, arrived in 1957 from Austria to work as a copper wheel glass engraver. Mutual friends introduced them on a ski trip. Kitty’s brown eyes dance when she recalls that she had never been skiing before in her life. “Oh, but I wanted to impress him. Such a handsome guy. I liked him right off. It took him a couple of hours to figure out he wanted to marry me,” she smiles, clearly forgiving her husband for taking so long. They married in 1959, and their mutual love of Steuben grew from a piece here and there to a stunning collection. They came to the idea of sharing their pieces, which were often bought as investments. Their first retail store opened in the Gaffer District in 1974, and they have been on Market Street ever since.

“Hold this,” Kitty says, handing over a surprisingly heavy dish with graceful curved handles. “This is the world’s finest lead crystal glass. In 1933, Arthur Houghton declared that it would be the highest quality glass, and that has never changed. Feel how it warms to your hand?”

Striding across the small shop, she flicks her fingers against the lip of a vase and the air is filled with a melodic ring, substantial and delicate at the same time. “Nothing else sounds like that,” Kitty says. She calls Steuben “brilliant, elegant, sensuous. It reflects and refracts light, it’s fluid, it never stops moving. You couldn’t look at it long enough to fully appreciate it.”

But what place does handcrafted crystal have in the modern world? Americans have lost their taste for elegant living, dulled by technology and overbooked schedules. “Nonsense,” says Kitty. “People have had it with that foolishness. They want to set a nice table, have a real meal and good conversation. They are teaching their children about having, and appreciating, nice things.”

Max, long retired from Steuben Glass, still works every day, teaching and making commissioned pieces in his private studio. Kitty retired once, in 1999. It lasted eighteen months. Then she had to get back to her beloved Market Street.

“I’ll be here forever.”

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Arts & Culture Masterpix Memories, like the ones you capture in photographs, are meant to be indestructible, lasting a lifetime. It’s unusual to think of glass as the ideal material to preserve and protect those memories.

But, if you are Corning Incorporated, the company synonymous with glass, that disconnect is only a minor challenge to overcome.

Corning Gorilla Glass was initially developed to serve a wide range of commercial and industrial uses. Look at the face of your smartphone. That’s Gorilla Glass.

Durable and protective, though lightweight and easy to look through, the thin glass has many uses.

One of the newer applications of Gorilla Glass also represents the first time in a generation that people can buy a product directly from Corning Inc. without going through a subsidiary company. Masterpix Fine Glass Prints use Gorilla Glass to preserve photographs at their sharpest and most vibrant.

The process uses similar technology to other uses of Gorilla Glass, and then incorporates the photo. First, a primer is printed on the back of the glass. Next, the image is printed using a UV-based ink. Then white ink is overprinted to provide the proper opacity. Finally, a thin protective film is applied to prevent scratches and to hold the glass together.

The result is a photo that resists fading, scratching, and damage from UV rays. Masterpix prints come in several sizes and can be hung or stood on a surface, and can be framed like traditional photos.

Masterpix appeals to both consumers and retail businesses. In fact, Corning Inc. collaborated with several businesses in the Corning area to display Masterpix glass prints on their walls. The Masterpix team also worked directly with the Corning Area Chamber of Commerce to refresh the walls in the Information Center on Market Street with customized large-scale Corning Gorilla Glass prints.

In addition, the Masterpix team participated in one of the area's largest events of the year, the Wineglass Marathon, by showcasing Masterpix prints throughout the weekend at the Wineglass Marathon Expo. The team even arrived bright and early to cheer for runners at the launch of the race.

“Being active in the local community provides us with exciting and unique opportunities to showcase Corning products while also connecting us with our neighbors and giving us an opportunity to learn about what else is going on in the region,” says Kirk Christiansen, Corning's product line manager for Masterpix Fine Glass Prints.

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Arts & Culture 60 East Gallery “Corresponding is a lost art.”

It may sound like a strange thing for an art gallery owner to say, but Mary O’Connor and her husband, Patrick, have a special connection to the written word. They opened the 60 East Gallery almost exactly a year ago on Market Street, featuring Patrick’s large canvases as well as the work of other painters, sculptors, and glass workers. But it is Patrick’s smaller paintings that bridge the space between the visual arts and the fading practice of sending paper mail.

The O’Connors’ son, Tyler, serves our nation as a Navy SEAL. When he deployed overseas, they wanted to send him something that would truly represent his home and all he, and his comrades, are fighting for. They wanted him to know how very proud they are of him.

So Patrick used masking tape to frame the front half of a sheet of watercolor paper, folded into a note card, and painted within that frame. He recalled the pastoral scenes of his family’s heritage in Ireland and their love of being in the woods.

“When you create something that is truly personal and you add words that come straight from your heart, as Mary does, you have sent more than a card,” says Patrick. “You have sent them a tangible piece of home.”

The cards are true works of art, and framing them is the perfect way to keep them safe and preserve the cherished words inside. “Tyler will group three of them in the order in which they came and frame them together,” Mary says. Other folks have turned the cards into wine bottle labels.

The O’Connors have shared their passion for paper mail with school children in Elmira.

Bringing a stack of blank cards, paints, and a hair dryer, they have taught them to make their own masterpieces. “When we pull the tape off and they see what they created as a real card to be mailed, they are amazed,” Patrick smiles.

For the rest of us, the cards are available for purchase at the Gallery or online (www.60eastgallery.com). 60 East also, of course, sells the art adorning the walls. Mary and Patrick, who both work full time jobs in the fitness industry, strive to feature artists not represented elsewhere on Market Street. Open primarily on the weekends, the O’Connors are hoping to tap into area colleges to find students who will help them expand their hours, while gaining gallery management experience.

“Art is about connections between people,” Mary says, “and we enjoy helping that engagement happen.”

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Arts & Culture The Rockwell Museum at 40 Imagine inviting someone into your home and asking them to decorate it, with free reign to use anything you have available—in the attic, the basement, the garage. The only stipulation is that their selections need to tell a story, visually, about living in your house.

Oh, and this is to celebrate your anniversary.

The Rockwell Museum, at 111 Cedar Street, did something very much like that when they asked artists (and brothers) Steven and William Ladd, who work out of a New York City studio, to guest curate The 40th Anniversary Rockwell Museum Art Exhibit, on view until mid-January.

Only known to the Corning region through their work displayed at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Ladds were especially thrilled with the invitation and the chance to dig through the Rockwell’s 5,000-piece archive and create a special anniversary exhibit.

Deciding what gets displayed in a museum, and how, is a process light-years beyond just filling empty wall space. The goal of Rockwell curator Kirsty Harper Buchanan is to draw visitors into “a visual dialogue” with the pieces she selects. For instance, placing this painting near that sculpture gives them both deeper meaning. Using the natural light on this wall enhances an object here, while protecting a less durable piece from the same light over there. If done well, museum curating creates a more dynamic exhibit. Most museums get to exhibit 3 to 5 percent of their collection at any given time. Through Kirsty’s more efficient use of space, 12 percent of the Rockwell collection is available for visitors to enjoy—including children and teens admitted for free—seven days a week (with dedicated parking to boot).

To commemorate the anniversary of the museum, founded in 1976 by local business owners Bob and Hertha Rockwell to house their vast personal collection, a special exhibit was certainly in order. In 2014, a name consolidation, from The Rockwell Museum of Western Art to simply The Rockwell Museum, followed a new mission statement, which was to place their core collections into the larger context of American art. The following year, The Rockwell (www.rockwellmuseum.org) was honored with the designation Smithsonian Affiliate, one of some 200 in the country, and the only one in Upstate New York.

The pieces the Ladd brothers have selected depict themes like childhood, travel, ceremony, and war. “It was a huge honor to be asked to guest curate for the Rockwell,” said William.

“We have always enjoyed our time in Corning. Such a great energy. And we felt it again in the Rockwell.”

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Boutiques & Specialty Shops Gustin’s Goldsmiths Reach for the handmade iron door handle at the front of Gustin’s Goldsmiths at 71 East Market Street and you are reaching for an entrance upon the unique.

The jewelry store, which doubles as an art gallery, is an explosion of organically-wrought creativity. The display cases, even without considering the gems they house, are treasures. Built by owner Gordon Gustin, the round pedestal cases of wood and glass are bound by wrought iron grape vines, a nod to the region’s flora. The gallery walls are laden with the works of local artists, like David Blakeslee’s fanciful—and massive—wrought iron sculptures and the visions of local painter John Kotlinski. Russian style trinket boxes are everywhere, sporting richly painted tops.

Sculptures dot the floor. Depictions of Seneca Lake and the wine of the region glimmer in precious metals. The cash register is a wooden classic from the 1800s.

But unique is the norm at Gustin’s, where artists create custom jewelry by hand, using tools in the century-old tradition of American craftsman. Gordon grew up with a family jewelry store in Troy, Pennsylvania, and considered a career in art. He has succeeded on many levels, as twenty-five years worth of his creativity has poured out of Market Street and into the homes of countless area families.

“The national jewelry chains mass produce their goods,” says Gordon. “But, when a woman gets a ring made here, she has the only one of its kind in the world.”

Fellow craftsmen, like David Ackerman, a former corrections officer, will meet with a customer and make a wax model of a jewelry piece to be sure it is right before it becomes silver or gold. “We even do our own castings here,” says David, who works extensively in metal in both jewelry and sculpture.

David speaks for “dozens of others” who use Gustin’s “as a sort of artist incubator.” David acknowledges that Gordon, and his passionate support of local artists, set his life on a course he never could have imagined for himself. “Many of us owe this man for the level of gratification this work brings us. It’s indescribable,” David says.

That gratitude comes from the customers, as well. Often, someone returns to the store after a purchase just to say thanks. Gordon says it happens so often they have come to think of themselves as a true hometown jeweler. Out-of-town visitors also become regulars, as Gustin’s ships their creations across the country.

So even if you think you aren’t in the market for a beautiful unique piece of jewelry, an hour of just browsing in Gustin’s is an experience in itself. It might also be enough time for you to change your mind.

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Boutiques & Specialty Shops Pip's Boutique Picture this. You walk up to your boss, the owner of the business, and inform her that, one day, you are taking over.

And you are sixteen years old.

While in high school, Sarah Files said exactly that to Donna Grzesik, then the owner of Pip’s Boutique. “I totally pretended that place was mine when I worked there,” Sarah laughs.

It was a bold approach Donna could relate to, however, as she had taken over the store after working for the original owners. She encouraged Sarah to get a business degree, which she did at Keuka College, and develop a full-blown business plan for Pip’s. “I was going to be a marine biologist, but then I started working at the shop and found what I was really meant to do,” Sarah says.

Pip’s, at 89 East Market Street, is a clothing and accessory store, but it is also a place of support and empowerment for women. Owned by women for its entire thirty-five years, the shop’s philosophy can be summed up by the phrase on the tryon mirror: “If you are confident, you are beautiful.”

Trust in that statement has turned many customers into friends, to the point that the staff thinks of certain people when new items come in.“We will shoot off a text message that says, ‘Something really cute came in today’ to the ladies we know like that style,” Sarah smiles. Being a personal shopper for their clients is one of the reasons Pip’s is still catering to some customers who have been with them from the beginning. Pip’s stocks stylish yet classic pieces that will wear for years, including brands like Tribal, kensie, and Jambu.

In addition to classic clothes, Pip’s offers custom made jewelry, with some pieces featuring glass from the Crystal City itself. Sarah remembers that the Soul line of pendants proved very therapeutic for one family who had suffered a loss. “A customer’s nephew had died, tragically young. She came in to find something to wear to the funeral. I included a Soul necklace for her sister to wear, to represent the bond with her child. She told me afterward how much peace it brought the family,” Sarah recalls.

The month of April has always been important to Pip’s. The store opened in April. Donna took it over in April. Sarah took it over from Donna in April.

Sarah is expecting her first child, and she wouldn’t mind at all if it were a girl with an eye for fashion. “I would love to keep Pip’s in the family,” she laughs. Guess when Sarah’s baby is due?

Sometimes the universe is not so mysterious.

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Pampered In Corning AgeLess SPA What does it mean to be “ageless?”

To Shelly Cilip, CEO of AgeLess Integrated Medical Spa and AgeLess SPA, it doesn’t mean a mad dash into plastic surgery or radical weight loss. Rather, it is the achievement of a sense of comfort for whatever phase of life you are in. “I’m turning fifty,” she relates, while perched on the edge of her desk. “I don’t want to look thirty, that’s not realistic. But, I do want to look the best at fifty that I possibly can.”

Shelly and her husband, internist Dr. Michael Cilip, were running a busy medical practice eight years ago when they decided to expand their business to match their philosophy. The result was an Arnot Mall business, with parallel hallways for both medical and spa services. It became the merger of “feel good” and “look good.” Four years later, AgeLess opened a location in the Radisson Hotel in Corning. (Visit www.agelessllc.com for full details on each location.)

Now employing some forty people between the two locations, Shelly admits that she and her husband learned the spa business on the fly. “We learned as we went,” she smiles. “I had a passion for skin care. My husband is a doctor. The idea of a medical spa grew very organically.”

Impressively, Shelly and Michael managed to blend the two sides of their business without any impact to the medical practice. Dr. Cilip still sees a full slate of patients.

AgeLess prides itself on the subtle nature of the techniques they offer. “What we do is more discreet, more corrective than drastic,” says Shelly. “And, consequently, more affordable than other options. The greatest compliment we can receive is when a client tells us that their friends can’t pinpoint what is new about them, but they tell them how fabulous they look.”

At the Arnot Mall location, laser treatments, cosmetic injections, and medical weight management all team up with more traditional spa services to improve multiple aspects of a client’s health. Some things may be covered by insurance and the staff at AgeLess can help get that determined.

All of this is not to say that the classic spa treatments are an afterthought. Far from it, as one young lady found out when she and her boyfriend indulged in a couples massage at the Corning location.

“When they came out, there were lit candles and rose petals everywhere,” recalled AgeLess Sales and Marketing Specialist, Amy Gessi. “Then the young man got down on one knee and proposed. She was thrilled and we were thrilled to be a part of their special moment.”

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Great Eats R&M Restaurant When newyorkupstate.com launched their Best Upstate NY Burger tour, it may have been a surprise elsewhere, but everyone in Corning’s Gaffer District pretty much knew where the trophy was headed: to the R&M Restaurant at 101 W. Market Street. Because this wasn’t the first time lightning had struck here. Back in the early ’90s, the local newspaper had a contest for the best local burger. The paper prepared a voting ballot, and R&M wasn’t on it. “But we ended up winning it as a write-in,” chuckles owner Bob Pierri.

“From that point on, we were noted for burgers.”

Bob has run R&M for at least twenty-five years, having taken over from his father, who first opened the restaurant forty years ago. “There was nothing here but an old fashioned four-burner apartment stove and an old-fashioned refrigerator,” he says. But with those modest beginnings, a bar/restaurant was born. The restaurant evolved with the demand, upgrading to big coolers and stoves and fryers and everything that goes with it. And for forty years, Thursday and Friday (with their respective specials of rigatoni with meatballs and sausage; and fish fry with coleslaw and bread and fries or mac ’n’ cheese) have been the days the restaurant packs them in. Bob does it all with three other employees, one with thirty years in at the business, one with twenty, and one part-timer.

Then the contest happened. “Urban Corning nominated us in July,” says Bob, “with ten places from each region in upstate New York, a total of thirty nominations. It was narrowed down to six places by voter’s choice, and they added two more at the end for the judging.”

The team of judges went to each of the eight restaurant finalists to taste for themselves.

Bob didn’t know they were there until three people started asking a lot of questions about their meal, which they had cut up into chunks to share: the half-pound cheeseburger (with standard toppings including lettuce, tomato, and cheddar) and the Big House, which they ordered in its half-pound size (featuring marinated ground beef, banana peppers, Monterey Jack cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a special sauce). “We have only had that burger [the Big House] on the menu for about six months,” says Bob of the award-winner (pictured above with Bob). He laughs about what it’s done to his burger business. “From the moment it was announced, it was crazy for the next three or four weeks. We were going through almost 300 pounds of hamburger a week for that month. People just kept coming… from Syracuse…from all over the place.” Months later, “It has mellowed out a little bit. But the burger business is still up 100 percent,” he adds. And Thursday and Fridays? Rigatoni and fish fry once more rule the full house.

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Great Eats Tossed There is a reverent quality in the air at 88 W. Market St., home of the brand new restaurant Tossed (www.tossedonmarket. com), and it seems to come from everywhere: from the serene room to the sparkling glass that houses the bright salads and salad fixings right down to the owners themselves, Kelly Maurer and Todd Patterson. Todd says with satisfaction that, no matter what time you come in, “one of the owners will be serving you.”

That devotion to their new venture went in from the ground up. The couple did all the construction themselves, and everything in the place—except for the freezer and refrigerator units and the Giuseppe Arcimboldo vegetable portrait prints on the walls—is repurposed from somewhere else.

Actually, Kelly and Todd themselves come from many years at more removed plateaus in the food industry. Todd, a Bath native who has lived all over the place, has never been anywhere as long as he has been in the Corning area. Kelly, from Hamburg, was always on the go for her job, too, and trying to hew to healthy eating in spite of all the miles. California, Chicago, Philly—wherever she landed, she would send Todd pictures of the fresh fast food that impressed her. When they decided to open a restaurant together devoted to that idea, the choice of Corning, with its sophisticated population, was obvious to them both.

Every morning from Monday to Saturday, the vegetables are cut fresh and the quinoa and chicken and olive-oil sautéed tofu are all cooked fresh to create a salad selection of twenty-five items that can vary with the seasons (from strawberries to butternut squash).

The dressings are all gluten free. “We can make a salad as fast as McDonald’s can make anything for you. And it’s all fresh,” says Kelly.

Don’t get the wrong idea from the dozens of items devoted to greenery. The menu also includes bagel sandwiches and wraps and gyros and fresh soups and daily specials that are “rib-sticking good food like lasagna,” says Todd. The simple (and ample) brown take-out box that houses your lunch (and which you can fold down to take away if you manage any leftovers), the wooden utensils, and the take-out bags are all 100 percent biodegradable.

“The bags will be gone in five years,” says Kelly. “We are going the extra mile to be good to the environment.” To that end, if you need vegetable compost for your garden or your chickens or pigs, Kelly and Todd are looking for takers for all the vegetable trimmings— five gallons daily—so that, too, will be fed back into the natural cycle.

Now that’s building a salad from the ground up.

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Great Eats Cugini First cousins Lina Hickey and Aniello Palombo didn’t have to search very far for a name for their Italian market and café at 16 W. Market Street. Teaming with Lina’s son Marco Hickey (Aniello’s first cousin once removed), cugini (cousins in Italian) was a natural.

The seed was planted a few years ago when Marco and Aniello, making a familiar ninety-minute trek to an Italian market to buy an authentic lunch and imported Italian foods, started musing on the long trip back. “Why don’t we bring an Italian market and café to Corning?” Marco asked his cousin. “I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Aniello responded. And Cugini was born.

If it feels very Italian at Cugini (www.cuginicafe.com), with its windows that open up on the street in good weather, that is not an accident. “That’s what we strive for,” says Lina, who hales from Futani, Italy, in the Campania region. With its old-world charm and sophisticated yet casual menu, the handsome Cugini, opened in September, is a perfectly unique addition to Market Street.

For thirty-three years, Lina has owned the Golden Age Cheese Company in Woodhull, New York, and almost all the cheeses on the menu—the cheddar, ricotta, asiago, and made-freshdaily hand-stretched mozzarella, to name a few—are made there. Every day, fresh Golden Age ricotta goes into the cannoli filling, for the shells to be hand-filled upon order.

Italian specialties like grilled paninis and insalate (salads like caprese and antipasto) share space with classic subs. And specialty sandwiches cover both continents with offerings like the Marco Polo (prosciutto di parma, hand-stretched fresh mozzarella, pesto, and balsamic glaze), chicken and eggplant parmigiana sandwiches, and the Market Street Philly, the Cugini take on a cheese steak.

Cugini is also an Italian market, so grocery items like Italian pastas and scores of fresh cheeses sold by the pound are available, as is membership in a cheese of the month club. Bar Cugini features local New York wines, with a few Italians selections thrown in for good measure, as well as local beers on tap, perfect for cheese pairings.

Welcome to Italy on Market Street. Buon appetito!

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Great Eats The Cellar When The Cellar opened as a wine bar in 2007 at 21 W. Market Street, there was nothing on the menu but wine. But within months, when folks would have a drink and then amble down the street to buy dinner elsewhere, a small kitchen was installed and a tapas menu appeared. The owners contacted Michael Lanahan, then working as a chef at the Stonecat Café on Seneca Lake, to see if he would helm the new kitchen. “But I was learning a lot from [owner and executive chef ] Scott Signori, and having a lot of fun,” says Michael, so he turned them down.

Two years down the road, they asked him again to come aboard as the executive chef, and this time he said yes. “They told me, ‘You can do whatever you want on the menu,’” Michael relates. “That’s always a dream for a chef—not to be tied down to someone else’s ideas.” By 2011 the wine bar was a full-service dining operation and, when the owners moved, Michael added managing the whole show, books and all, to his job description. So when, in 2015, the restaurant was offered for sale, it was a “win-win” opportunity for Michael, who, with his wife Ellen, bought The Cellar (www.corningwinebar.com). Ellen is now the general manager, handling all aspects of the business end including special events, and fills in as necessary, whether in the kitchen or at the front of the house. “She also has to deal with me if I try to come up with a recipe idea at home,” smiles Michael. “I am Michael’s mental manager,” she laughs. “She balances me out and grounds me,” he agrees.

The Cellar is now billed as a wine bar, martini bar, and a modern fusion restaurant, and every one of those components is meticulously attended to. For the last five years they have won an Award of Excellence from the Wine Spectator. Tyler LaCroix, executive sous chef, invents dishes in collaboration with Michael. Mixologist Jeremy Haskins creates 99.8 percent of the inventive cocktails. Emmett Orr manages the wine portfolio (forty wines are available by the glass, and 100 by the bottle), balancing out the list in all ways including price and variety. Not many non-vegans or non-vegetarians have much of a “Yum!” reaction when they see menu items flagged that way. But The Cellar turns that preconceived notion on its head over and over again. When you find yourself craving Brussels spouts (The Cellar version includes roasting them with walnuts, brown butter, lemon, and a balsamic glaze), you know someone in the kitchen is doing something wonderful. If you are looking for a gluten-free extravaganza on a small plate, there is little to compare with their version of poutine (duck fat fries on melting cheese curds with sauce au poivre). “We do as much with local farm produce as possible. All of the flour we use to make our bread, all the cheeses, are local. All the produce that is possible,” says Michael. Every Thursday he goes to the Corning Farmers Market in season, which drives the weekend specials. “It can’t get any fresher than that,” he adds.

And that works for all of us, because a restaurant can’t get any better than this one.

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Great Eats Mooney’s Sports Bar & Grill The diminutive orange door on the street labeled “leprechaun entrance” is the first tip-off that things are a little different at Mooney’s Sports Bar & Grill (www.mooneyssportsbarandgrill. com). Open the main (adult-sized) door at 64 W. Market Street, and things seem pretty sports-bar-familiar. The walls are chock-full of bling, the majority mementos of our New York State champions past and present: pennants for the Buffalo Bisons, Buffalo Sabres, New York Knicks, and Buffalo Bills; signed helmets and photos; vintage beer signs. But open the menu, and things change back pretty quickly. On the Eighth Day, Mooney’s Created MACARONI & CHEESE, boasts the heading at the top of an entire page—sixteen varieties in all—of mac and cheese. Ah! That’s leprechaun magic, that is! They are all made fresh to order, as either a side or a whole serving (a whopping fifteen ounces and eighteen ounces respectively), and by far the most popular is the lobster macaroni and cheese. And when the steaming boat of creamy, cheesy macaroni studded with lobster chunks lands in front of you, you’ll know exactly why that is. Mac ’n’ cheese makes its way onto the menu in a few other categories, like the half-pound mac and cheese burger and the macaroni grilled cheese sandwich, along with all the other comfort pub food you can name.

So how exactly did this pot o’ gold end up on Market Street? The building sat vacant for years, severely damaged by the fire that destroyed Sorge’s Restaurant in 2008. Enter local real estate developer Brian Harris, who purchased the building and began engineering plans to turn it into a boutique hotel. Brian, in the meantime, had become friends with Kevin McFall, whose original Mooney’s restaurant in Buffalo had morphed into a small chain of seven Mooney’s Sports Bar & Grills, the additional six all fifteen to thirty minutes from the original. Kevin was a Corning boy in search of a homecoming. He had left the area decades before. Now, after all those years, Kevin found himself looking for a place in his hometown to launch a Mooney’s. On a visit to Corning to check out possible sites, he stopped in on his buddy at 64 W. Market Street and…well…Brian is still looking for that boutique hotel location.

The two-story bar and restaurant, opened earlier this year, has become an instant hit. It caters to the little ones, as well, making it feel as much family restaurant as it does cool bar.

One of the mac and cheese dishes is the Kenny Pow Supreme, and its description reads, “Mooney’s lost their builder and best friend of Mooney’s, Kenny Pow. They will donate a portion of all supremes sold to help put both his children through college.” It is only, says Brian, the beginning of Kevin’s loyalty and generosity. Kevin, he says, “is a modern-day Santa Claus. He gives back so much.”

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Becoming A Local Cap'n Morgan’s Sports Bar & Grill Sometimes, when beginning a new endeavor, it is better that we don’t know what we don’t know.

Denise Morgan, owner and operator of Cap’n Morgan’s Sports Bar and Grill on South Bridge Street in Corning, laughs when she thinks about her early days as a restaurateur, “I didn’t know what I was doing!”

A native of Pittsburgh, Denise had worked for nearly twenty years for J. C. Penney. She traveled to several states to set up stores, bought for the clothing giant, and handled myriad retail issues. One of those store assignments brought her to the Corning region, and something clicked. “I really liked the area, so I stayed,” she says, seated at a table in her restaurant.

In 2002, she found a business location, a closed bar and grill at 36 South Bridge Street, and reopened it with her name in the title. “I wanted to go back to the idea of a familyfriendly restaurant that also had a full bar for the grown-ups,” she remembers.

To say she went “all in” is an understatement, as she bought the entire building, threw open the doors of the business, and, in the time-honored tradition of innkeepers, moved into the upstairs apartment.“It’s a slow process, building a following for a restaurant.

Especially when you are trying to expand what the business can do.”

Admitting she is “stubborn to a point,” Denise dealt with a lot of challenges, including having to tackle building repairs herself, whether she had that particular skill or not.

“Never fixed toilets at Penney’s,” she laughs.

Among her blessings, she counts an excellent staff when she opened, something she has continued to have through the years.

A year ago, Denise set out to revamp Cap’n Morgan’s (www.capnmorgan.com). She did away with the nautical décor and the seafood-heavy menu that went with it. The massive boat sail came off the ceiling. A game room went in. The menu was re-worked. The upstairs was set for private parties. A catering menu was developed for both on-site and off-site events.

The exterior of the building was reborn as a paint canvas for a dramatic mural. Part of a program that teams the Rockwell Museum with the Corning-Painted Post High School Learning Center, the wall was painted by students. “This was extra special, since it was designed by nationally known artist Virgil Ortiz, to help celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Rockwell. I could not be happier with the outcome of the mural,” says Denise.

As for the challenges of her business, Denise smiles. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

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