{ BUZZ }
OUR GUIDE TO NEW IDEAS, TIPS, TRENDS AND THINGS WE LOVE IN OUR COUNTIES.
RUFF LIFE
TIME TO VOTE—AGAIN This time there are no lines—we promise! Morris/Essex Health & Life ’s annual Readers’ Choice Poll is a go for 2021 despite the pandemic, and if you haven’t voted in past years, this is a great way to support local businesses. Visit msxhealthandlife.com/ readerschoice2021 beginning Jan. 11 to help bring glory to your favorite local spots, from restaurants to retail shops, brunch hangouts to barbers. And stay tuned to find out the winners, who will be revealed in our annual “Best of” issue in September.
There are kennels...and then there is The Barker Lounge. Two dog-loving brothers, Mike and Robert Gonnello of Millburn, opened the Livingston franchise of TBL this fall, giving pet owners what their area previously lacked: a year-round doggy daycare, overnight boarding and grooming center for dogs of all ages and breeds. With 11,000 square feet of indoor play space and another 4,000 outside—plus dog-crazy staff who entertain the pups all day—just be warned that after your furry friend’s first visit, he may not want to come home. • The Barker Lounge, 81 Dorsa Ave., Livingston, 862.707.BARK; thebarkerlounge. com/livingston/
WANT SAFE STREETS?
ALL HAIL HER MAJESTY Northern New Jersey has lately become a mini-Hollywood, with upcoming films The Many Saints of Newark and the new West Side Story having both filmed partly on location in Newark. Now Newark native Queen Latifah, who throughout her career has shown love to the Garden State, has returned. Latifah was spotted in November in her old stamping grounds of Jersey City filming her new CBS series, The Equalizer, a reboot of the ’80s original. In this thriller, the media mogul plays an ex-CIA agent and single mom in New York City. Catch Latifah (and the streets of Jersey City) Friday nights on CBS. MSXHEALTHANDLIFE.COM
14
We’re accustomed to thinking of “safety” in COVID-19 terms these days, but AdvisorSmith, an online “business insurance resource,” hasn’t forgotten crime. Recently it released a list of New Jersey’s safest communities (ranked by small, mid-sized and large), and a handful of the safest are here in Morris and Essex counties. The study used data from FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Dataset to compare low crime levels, and these towns ranked impressively: • Mid-sized: Chatham (#3), Verona (#7) • Large: Parsippany (#2), Bloomfield (#6)
DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021