Tenafly May 2024

Tenaf ly

May 2024

LANDMARK LIVING

THE ELIZABETH CADY STANTON HOUSE

MURAL MASTER

PAINTER MITCHELL SCHORR

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Kids and Mental Health Embracing Differences

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MAY 2024

Contents

16 20

12

8 IN EVE RY ISSU E

26

4

Publisher’s Note HOSPITALITY AT ITS FINEST

6

Mayor’s Corner WHAT’S COMING FOR SUMMER

8

Q&A THE TEF TENAFLY 5K RUN AND DOG WALK

26 Local Tastes FAMILY-OWNED MILLER’S BAKERY 30 Book Nook READING TO RAISE AWARENESS

F E AT U R ES

12 16

32 Photo Op A WALL OF COLOR

Life in a Landmark

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton house is both a monument to the pioneering feminist and home to a local family.

Painting the Town

Mitchell Schorr has displayed his artwork around the world—and brings his joyful urban murals to Tenafly.

20 OK With Not Being OK

Mental health advocate Danielle Sherman-Lazar strives to make the world more welcoming for her children—and yours.

O N T HE COVER

Danielle ShermanLazar channels her experience with eating disorders into positive books for kids.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS MARKSBURY

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Hospitality at Its Finest

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALYSON BARROW

home is evident in every detail, from the carefully chosen furnishings to the incredible restoration work. The thoughtfulness and attention to detail showcased throughout the residence speak volumes about Emily’s reverence for the past and her commitment to creating a welcoming haven for her family.

Beyond the exquisite architecture and tasteful décor, Emily herself is a beacon of kindness and dedication. As a devoted mother and lifelong resident of Tenafly, Emily embodies the spirit of community and heritage that the town is renowned for.

We want to thank Emily for allowing us to enter her home (well known as the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House), photograph a few of her favorite rooms and interview her for this issue of Tenafly magazine. We hope you all enjoy the piece.

And continue to email me with story ideas for future issues. I can be reached at hello@ tenaflymagazine.com.

Entering the historic residence of Emily Yang and her family was truly an honor. The warmth of their hospitality coupled with the rich tapestry of their home’s restoration efforts made the experience unforgettable.

Witnessing the meticulous care and love poured into every corner of the house was awe-inspiring.

Emily’s dedication to preserving the historical integrity of her

Gina Palmieri

Tenaf ly

MAGAZINE

Publisher Gina Palmieri Local Editor Jenna Demmer Art Director Sue Park Copy Editor Nancy Fass Writers D. Flynn Margo Fonder Christiana Maimone Julie Marallo Elisabeth Sydor Raina Wallens Mark Zinna Photographers Alyson Barrow Chris Marksbury WAINSCOT MEDIA Chairman Carroll V. Dowden President and CEO Mark Dowden VP, Group Publisher, Regional Thomas Flannery VP, Content Strategy Maria Regan Creative Director Kijoo Kim Advertising Services Director Jacquelynn Fischer Operations Director Catherine Rosario Production Designer Chris Ferrante Print Production Manager Fern Meshulam Advertising Production Associate Griff Dowden Tenafly magazine is published by Wainscot Media. Serving residents of Tenafly, the magazine is distributed monthly via U.S. mail. Articles and advertisements contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers. Copyright 2024 by Wainscot Media LLC. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent.

Publisher

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MAYOR’S CORNER

What’s Coming for Summer Tenafly’s mayor highlights happenings in our local community.

BY MARK ZINNA

up dinner from one of the wonderful Tenafly restaurants, sit back and enjoy the shows. The full concert schedule can be located on the Tenafly borough website.

The annual Tenafly Memorial Day parade, sponsored and organized by the Tenafly Elks, is on Monday, May 27. The parade lines up at 9:30 a.m. on George Street, kicks off at 10 a.m. and marches downtown through Washington Street and finally to Huyler Park.

The Elks will lead a memorial ceremony and read the roll of those from Tenafly who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. After the ceremony, everyone is invited to visit the Elks Lodge for hot dogs and refreshments.

Looking forward to seeing you there to usher in summer!

The 26th Annual Tenafly Educational Foundation 5K Run and Dog Walk takes place on Sunday, June 2. This is a great event for our community and benefits Tenafly public schools. Race events include the weekend kick-off party from 3:30 to 6 p.m. on Friday, May 31, in the middle school cafeteria.

Beat the race-day crowds and pick up your bib and T-shirt! Registration will be available. On Saturday, June 1, from 6 to 8 p.m., also in the middle school cafeteria, join in for a pre-race pasta dinner party, free for all participants.

The annual Tenafly summer concert series is set to begin Tuesday, July 9, in Huyler Park.

The first performance of our concert season is the Grammy-nominated, funky, electrifying rock and hip-hop family performance of Divinity Roxx. Join us every Tuesday and Thursday evenings throughout the summer and experience blues, Motown, salsa, jazz, Latin and classic rock bands. Bring a lawn chair, pick

Race-day registration opens at 7:30 a.m. in the middle school cafeteria. If you haven’t done so already, pick up your bib, T-shirt and other fun merchandise. Visit the family health and fitness fair in the gym and outside before or after you race. At 8:45 a.m., line up at the start line and join the team from Kaplen JCC for a pre-race warm-up. At 9 a.m., the 5K run, walk and stroller trot starts!

Meantime, enjoy spring!

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Q &a

A Weekend of Family Fun The directors of the TEF Tenafly 5K Run and Dog Walk share why the event is both popular and important.

BY ELISABETH SYDOR

INTERVIEW WITH

LORI AND ERIC LESKIN

Rain or shine, the Tenafly

Education Foundation (TEF) will hold the TEF Tenafly 5K Run and Dog Walk for its 26th year on Sunday, June 2. More than a thousand participants— serious racers, walkers, kids and even moms and dads pushing strollers—will take to the streets

of Tenafly. Dogs and their owners will follow behind on the same course, which begins and ends at Tenafly Middle School.

Rounding out the family festivities will be a one-mile fun run for all ages, Tiger Cub runs for children 6 and under, bouncy houses and a family health and

fitness fair.

The event is the largest fundraiser for the TEF, which supports teacher-initiated programs and projects that the public school budget can’t cover.

We spoke about the annual event with Lori and Eric Leskin, race directors since 2017.

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What’s your favorite thing about the race?

There’s something for everyone! And all our sponsors attend, introducing their products and services to the community. We get a lot of local support. The fair alone brings around 4,000 people every year.

How has the event played out over the years?

Unlike other races that add more and bigger events, we stay within our range. For example, we don’t want to pursue cash rewards for winners.

While people come from all over— the city, for example—we get people in Tenafly who come year after year.

What teacher projects has the race helped fund?

Everything from art performances to digital photo lab equipment. A few years before the pandemic, the TEF gave a three-year, more than $80,000 grant to purchase Chromebook laptops. When the pandemic hit, the grant enabled students to keep working remotely.

What else do people need to know?

We encourage everyone in Tenafly to join us. Small businesses can sponsor for as low as $150. Hundreds of volunteers are the biggest part of our success; participants comment on how friendly they are. We are grateful for support from our fire department and EMS. To register or learn more, please go to tenafly5k.com.

Will you be competing this year?

We have too much to do—but we end up covering a lot more than 5K just running around!

Elisabeth Sydor is a New Jersey-born writer and editor who loves to visit Tenafly.

MAY 2024

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The Elizabeth Cady Stanton house is both a monument to the pioneering feminist and home to a local family.

BY D. FLYNN

“I guess we’re old-house

people,” says Emily Yang.

Yang’s house is old by North American standards. The building at 135 Highwood dates to 1868 and became the home of 19th century feminist and abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Stanton may have penned and planned some of the key works of the American suffrage movement, including the Declaration of Rights for

Women, in the same place where Yang’s children do their schoolwork.

Stanton owned the house in her own name, not that of her husband, abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton. This was only legally possible because of the kind of activism that she performed.

In the 1800s, many states still endorsed a legal concept called coverture, which meant that a woman’s property

became her husband’s as soon as they married, and he usually kept it—and their children—should the two later separate.

Starting in 1839, states began to pass Married Women’s Property Acts that recognized female ownership rights. Stanton had personally promoted a similar law in New York, and New Jersey passed its own Married Women’s Property Act in 1852.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS MARKSBURY

Life in a Landmark

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Signs outside (left) and on the house (above) indicate the historic significance of the site where suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived with her family in the 19th century.

Today, Emily Yang (top), who lives in the house with her own family, sometimes fields visitors who are curious about the property and its famous former resident.

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of color. New Jersey’s women would not regain the right to vote until the passage of a nationwide constitutional amendment in 1920.

Changeable Laws During her years in Tenafly, Stanton wrote “History of Woman Suffrage” with Susan B. Anthony and other feminists.

Stanton also listed Tenafly as her address when she attempted to vote in 1880—at Tenafly’s Valley Hotel, which once stood on County Road. When no one took her ballot, she left it on top of the ballot box, daring the poll workers

not to count it.

Laws on women voting varied from state to state and decade to decade. In the late 1700s, New Jersey had allowed women to vote if they owned property equal to 50 pounds or more. As one letter writer told a newspaper, “Our [state] Constitution gives this right to maids and widows black or white.”

This changed with a new law in 1807, which excluded all women and people

Prizewinning Updates Yang describes the present building as “a busy house. It’s our family’s house.” Like the Stantons’, the current household is a large one. Yang and her husband (whose last name is Chang) have four children between the ages of 11 and 21, and are hosting a high school student from overseas.

Yang says living in a national landmark feels normal—at least on most days.

Yang and Chang first purchased the house when they realized they needed a larger home. They had nearly agreed to purchase another property when Yang heard that the previous owners had placed the Stanton house on the market.

Yang had grown up in Tenafly and knew the landmark. “You’d have to really love it,” Chang warned when she told him the news. Yang visited the house and found that she very much did.

What she didn’t love was the kitchen.

It was a modified eat-in with no room for a counter, and the rear of the building was crying out for a conservatory.

But the National Park Service hosts over 200 pages of best practices for landmark owners who wish to renovate.

Because the building was named a national historic landmark in 1975, Yang was not allowed to materially alter its external appearance.

She had more liberty to update the interior and replace wiring and plumbing, though not exactly at will.

Yang collaborated with a landscape architect who had worked on the property before and with an architect.

They applied for the necessary certificates from the town’s historic preservation commission. Yang, Chang and the architects went on to win a 2019 Bergen County Historic Preservation Award after three years of work.

A Lure for Visitors Curious visitors occasionally show up.

Last year, a group of college students saw the blue historic marker outside and rang the doorbell with questions.

“I’m not a historian,” Yang says. “I just

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Yang, with the help of architects, has spent years updating the home’s interior while preserving its historic character.

happen to take care of her house and live here now.”

More often, guests show up by prearrangement. PBS came to shoot some exterior scenes for a sequence on New Jersey history. In March, Girl Scout Troop 98106 began its Women’s History Month event on Yang’s front porch. The scouts learned about Stanton and her fellow suffragists, and examined the commemorative plaque.

Local high schooler Sophia Lee showed the scouts LEGO models of the house and of Tenafly Railroad Station.

(Both models will be on display at the public library through the end of May.) Stanton would have traveled to suffragist and abolitionist events via the station, which the town has decided to rename in her honor, with a dedication ceremony scheduled for May 18 at noon.

“It’s an honor to live in her house,” says Yang. “I’m grateful for the opportunity and proud of the history that exists in Tenafly. I think not enough people know about the pioneer that Stanton was in her time to stand up and be part of a movement that was brand new. Tenafly should be proud that she once lived here.”

D. Flynn is a writer who lives in Bergen County.

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Mitchell Schorr strives to create works that are playful, energetic and fun—like his iconic “Da Race,” which adorns a wall outside of J. Spencer Smith Elementary School.

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Painting the Town Mitchell Schorr has displayed his artwork around the world—and brings his joyful urban murals to Tenafly.

If you live in Tenafly, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Mitchell Schorr’s artwork even if you don’t know the artist.

Have you ever wondered about those dynamic diagonals bursting with color on the back wall of Triumph Tae Kwon Do? Or the echoes of the same vibrant tones adorning Fine Wine & Spirits and a Railroad Avenue gallery storefront?

These creations are Schorr’s work, and they might have made you stop and smile. If so, this was entirely Schorr’s intention.

“I want it to be fun,” Schorr says, as we stand outside of J. Spencer Smith Elementary School, the site of his biggest public artwork in Tenafly. The mural here is titled “Da Race”—a playful, energetic depiction of jovial ice cream trucks and colorful cars in whimsical, competitive motion.

Schorr painted his first incarnation of “Da Race” almost 20 years ago in the Bowery of Manhattan, alongside big-time artists such as Kenny Scharf and Shepard Fairey. From there, “Da Race” took off: Variations of the mural have been displayed in over 100 locations throughout New York City and the world, elevating spaces that would otherwise be drab and depressing.

Schorr’s intention is for “Da Race” to feel interactive, as if the viewer is part of the action.

So, every time someone views “Da Race” in a new place, a different car is in the lead.

Sometimes the ice cream truck is the presumed winner. At Smith School, the racing cars each have distinct numbers such as 1 through 5 emblazoned on their exterior, and one car has a K, for kindergarten—a playful wink from Schorr.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS MARKSBURY

BY RAINA WALLENS

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Childhood Inspiration The idea of “Da Race” grew out of Schorr’s oil paintings of ice cream trucks. A connection to happy childhood memories is often a theme in his artwork.

“The ice cream trucks are all about fun memories of being a kid—what appears to be free ice cream,” Schorr says. “It’s not free, but it kind of felt that way as a kid. At the end of the day, I just want to make happiness.”

The depiction of movement and energy is another through line that courses through much of Schorr’s art.

“Da Race” is intentionally painted in quick and loose strokes so the mural

looks and feels fast, as a race does.

Most business owners in Tenafly immediately welcomed Schorr’s artwork, but Schorr persisted for five years until he obtained approvals to paint at Smith School. Once he did, the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and supportive.

The positive accolades are not a surprise. On a gray day, “Da Race” adds much needed brightness and humor, and on a blue-sky afternoon, Schorr’s colors shimmer.

A New York City native, Schorr and his wife, Olya, were pulled to Tenafly because of its excellent schools. They moved here seven years ago, when it

was time to send their older son to elementary. (Yes, you guessed it, he went to Smith School.)

Schorr appreciates the town’s competing characteristics of having an abundance of nature while still being so close to New York City. “It doesn’t even feel like the suburbs,” Schorr says. “It feels like the country.”

He’s a big fan of the Tenafly Nature Center. And in areas where elements are not necessarily so picturesque, Schorr has been more than happy to brighten things up. He loves contributing to the community. Currently, he has his eye on the alleyway adjacent to the CVS in town.

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Beyond “Da Race” “Da Race” is clearly Schorr’s most iconic piece of public art. The mural is painted on the roof of the building that houses Schorr’s studio: 520 8th Avenue in Manhattan. You can view it from above using Google Earth.

“Da Race” graces Detroit’s riverfront, where it’s so large that if you stand in just the right spot in Canada, it can be viewed with a telescope. Schorr even once painted “Da Race” live on Rockefeller Center, commissioned by Ferrari for its 70th anniversary.

Schorr exudes as much energy as his paintings, and his work is by no means limited to “Da Race.” In fact, he considers himself more of a fine artist who works instudio with oil paints than a street artist.

Like his murals, Schorr’s oil paintings exhibit themes of happy memories and movement, and some cover the same subjects as his street art. But he’s completed several series that veer in different directions.

One such series is his chef paintings, which led to Schorr meeting chef and restaurateur David Burke years ago. Burke is a big supporter and often displays Schorr’s paintings in his restaurants.

Schorr’s work from his rock and roll series was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Mezzanine Gallery as part of its 2019 Play It Loud exhibition, and an ice cream truck painting is part of Detroit Institute of Arts’ permanent collection. Schorr’s art has been featured in The New York Times, Miami Herald, ARTNews and many other outlets.

But what Schorr finds especially gratifying is when people remember his work. As if on cue, a parent shares his appreciation to Schorr as the artist leaves Smith School.

“There are so many people out there making art,” Schorr says. “So to remember any of it, with all that’s flooded into our world—I take that as a compliment.”

More of Schorr’s artwork can be viewed at https://mschorr.info.

Raina Wallens is a writer and Tenafly resident who first met Mitchell Schorr when their sons were in preschool together. She has written several young adult books under pseudonyms, and her essays have been published in many publications, most recently Zibby Mag.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS MARKSBURY

In her books for children, Danielle Sherman-Lazar emphasizes that a variety of body types and “big feelings” in both kids and adults are normal and shouldn’t be a source of shame or fear.

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OK With Not Being OK Eating disorder survivor and mental health advocate Danielle Sherman-Lazar strives to make the world more welcoming for her children—and yours.

BY MARGO FONDER

To run into Danielle Sherman-Lazar around Tenafly is

often to encounter the most heartwarming sight: a doting mom and four look-alike daughters—like a mother duck and her ducklings.

Sherman-Lazar may have a toddler in one arm, with a diaper bag, backpacks and snacks weighing down the other, as her older three children run ahead, then circle back to their safe place: Mom. You’ll see the usual difficult bits of motherhood interspersed— sibling squabbles, overtired toddlers, skinned knees and tears—but Sherman-Lazar is here for all of it. It is the life she long dreamed of and at times feared might not be hers.

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When Mental Illness Strikes Sherman-Lazar grew up in Tenafly, but her early years were not easy.

Despite a happy homelife, she started feeling anxious at a young age, with no obvious outlet for her emotions.

“My parents modeled happiness only, and I didn’t know what to do with the negative thoughts in my brain,” she says. “It wasn’t my parents’ fault. They thought they were protecting my innocence.”

Perfectionism set the foundation for what would become a nearly two-decade-long battle with eating disorders, anxiety and depression.

Sherman-Lazar says her restrictive eating began at sleepaway camp when she was 8. “I was away from my parents, and food control helped

take the edge off my anxiety,” she says.

“That was the summer I stopped truly living.”

She describes the years that followed as bereft of joy and hope for the future.

“My focus became others’ expectations of me,” she says. “It was never about my happiness or my dreams.”

New Beginnings At age 26, she says she hit “rock bottom” and committed herself to recovery. In therapy sessions, she came to realize that she was not alone in her struggles.

She began a Facebook page called “Living FULL” to help those like her find community and hope. “I wanted to dismantle the stigmas around eating disorders so that others would not

have to wait until rock bottom before seeking help,” she says.

Motherhood brought its own waves of healing. “When my first daughter was born, I promised her and myself that she would grow up differently than I had,” Sherman-Lazar says. She began to write about motherhood to empower mothers and children alike.

Her content has resonated broadly.

Today, her Facebook page and Instagram account, @livingfullaftered, have amassed over half a million followers. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as Scary Mommy, Love What Matters, Her View from Home, Motherly, Today Parents, “Today,” as well as in the best-selling book, “So God Made a Mother.”

How does Sherman-Lazar balance

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motherhood, writing and working from home for her family business while juggling playdates, birthday parties and dance lessons? For one, she has learned to be easier on herself.

“Mom guilt cannot be allowed to dictate how we parent,” she says.

“Moms today are held to an impossible standard. It’s almost a given that we will fall short every day.”

She gives herself grace for “too much” screen time or for two straight nights of family-favorite Pizza Nova meals: “If we show up each day and try and love our kids unconditionally, then we are good moms.”

Writing for Children In 2020, she searched in vain for a resource to help her daughters understand the stress that the adults around them were under. Turning up empty-handed, she wrote her first children’s book, “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay: Adults Get Big Feelings Too.” “It was during COVID; we were all at home with our children on top of each other, so our kids were bound to see us crying, frustrated, angry and anxious,” Sherman-Lazar says. “These are normal feelings that we shouldn’t try to hide from our children but instead should normalize. Our kids watch how we deal with our emotions and learn from us how to cope in a healthy way.”

The demand for her message was clear: The book went on to become a No. 1 best seller on Amazon.

Her next goal is to help change the culture of appearance and body scrutiny. “I don’t want my daughters to live their lives worried about what other people think,” she says. “I want all our kids to live unafraid: unafraid to not be liked, unafraid to be themselves, unafraid to pursue their unique dreams.”

Her latest book, “It’s Okay to Embrace Your Body,” explains what body insecurity is and what children should do when they feel it.

“We live in an image-obsessed world where we get a lot of messages about what kinds of bodies look best, and this

breeds insecurity,” Sherman-Lazar says.

“It’s unrealistic to think our children won’t have insecurities at times, just like adults do. It’s important for children to know what to do when those feelings arise. We want them to feel comfortable approaching us so we can talk through their feelings in a positive, affirming way.”

Sherman-Lazar is thrilled to have returned to Tenafly with a healthy mindset to raise her young family. “I hope to help navigate my kids through

the things that were difficult for me,” she says.

While she has a global audience, she prioritizes the well-being of her home community. “I want young people in town to know they’re not alone in whatever struggles they’re going through,” she says. “I hope I can serve as a symbol that things can get better.”

Margo Fonder, MD, is a Tenafly mom of three, local dermatologist, novice reporter and fan of Sherman-Lazar.

MAY 2024

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Join us for the best road race in Bergen County – Right in your backyard!

Featuring something for everyone – 5K Run, 5K Dog Run/Walk, the JCC 1-Mile Fun Run, and Tiger Cub Races for the littlest athletes!

Sunday June 2, 2024 @ 9 AM Tenafly Middle School tenafly5k.com

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LOCAL TASTES

Flour Power Custom cakes have helped make family-owned Miller’s Bakery a go-to shop for four generations.

BY CHRISTIANA MAIMONE

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For the Millers, baking runs in the

family—four generations of family, that is. Miller’s Bakery has been open in Tenafly since 1994, but the story of the business goes back to the 1940s.

Current owner Dave Miller’s grandfather, Otto Hänel Müller, opened Miller’s Bakery in 1947 in Cliffside Park. In the early ’50s, Dave’s father, Donald, joined the family business, expanding the bakery to one of its current locations.

Miller’s became a hit, winning several awards for wedding cake design and decorating excellence throughout the 1960s and ’70s.

Fast-forward to the ’80s, when Dave’s father was ready to put the

business behind him, but Dave decided to help take over once he graduated from college.

“I went into the business and recharged him a little,” Dave says.

“He got excited about that because he didn’t think anyone wanted to touch the business. It’s a tough business.”

With some improvements and renovations, sales continued to soar, and Dave opened another location in Tenafly in 1994 with his brother Dwight.

A Diverse Clientele Between its locations in Cliffside Park and Tenafly, Miller’s employs 11 full-time bakers and a total staff of 40

employees. The family also bought Vito’s Bakery, an Italian bakery in Secaucus, which Dwight runs.

Five years ago, Dave’s son Mark joined the business as well, making his father proud and carrying on family traditions.

Dave has been a proud Tenafly resident since 1990. “It’s a good town—good people, diverse people, that’s for sure,” he says. “It keeps me going, keeps me on my toes.”

While Miller’s sells a variety of popular baked goods, the star of the show is its custom cakes, which have garnered recognition and praise from clients such as CNBC and Fox News as well as celebrities like Harry Carson from the New York Giants and the Giudice family from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

“You go to work and it’s never the same day,” Dave says. “It’s always different.”

For new customers, Dave highly recommends the pecan Bavarian cake, featuring a pecan meringue filled with Bavarian cream. “It’s an incredible seller,” he says. “On holidays we sell a hundred of them.” But his personal favorite is an old-school classic: strawberry cheesecake.

Whether you need an unforgettable cake for a special occasion or simply need to satisfy your sweet tooth, a trip to Miller’s bakery on Washington Street will surely be money well spent. Check out Miller’s on Instagram @millersbakery or visit the family’s online store at https:// millersbakeshop.com to learn more.

Christiana Maimone is a freelance writer based in Bergen County.

MAY 2024

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View All Our Issues!

Visit us online at tenaflymagazine.com

Tenafly

February 2024

PICKLEBALL

TENAFLY’S NEW INDOOR CLUB

Tenaf ly

January 2024

NORMA WELLINGTON

A CHARMING CAFÉ

GO GREEK

AT AXIA TAVERNA

TEACHER OF THE YEAR

DAVID CANTOR’S

COMPLETE

IN HISTORIC TENAFLY

GEM OF A JEWELER

FIND CALM

AT SACRED SPACE MEDITATION

A CUT ABOVE

GARY WHITEHEAD

BREAKFAST BREAKTHROUGH

BAVARIAN KNIFE WORKS

Designing Woman

PHARMACY CARE

The Woman Behind Gilly’s Organics

Ave Lumi’s Jenny Jackson Miller

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Tenafly

November 2023

GOLDSTEIN JEWELERS:

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Tenaf ly

December 2023

ON PRESERVATION AND NATURE EDUCATION

A FAMILY SUCCESS

Tigers Welcome a New Coach

Friendly Fitness with Gia Alvarez

Blazing New Bike Trails 11/8/23 3:52 PM

INTERIOR DESIGN

DOUBLING DOWN

LA PROMENADE:

SWEET TREATS

Tenaf ly

September 2023

CHAMBER PRESIDENT JONATHAN KRIEGER

MEANS BUSINESS

HOME-BAKED

10/11/23 12:27 PM

BIG PLANS FOR TENAFLY

MICHELE ROSS

WITH ADAM COHEN

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PRO TIPS FROM SHELLEY CEKIRGE

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

BEHIND THE SCENES

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JCC’S INCLUSIVE

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Tenafly

October 2023

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12/6/23 3:10 PM

ALONSO ESCALANTE

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4/29/24 4/30/24 1:14 9:08 PM AM

BOOK NOOK

Reading to Raise Awareness Books that can help anyone—including children— better understand mental health issues

BY JULIE MARALLO

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a perfect time to dive into books on this list suggested by librarians at the Tenafly Public Library. The titles offer a mix of nonfiction and fiction works, including books with relatable characters living with mental health issues, especially for children.

“NOBODY’S NORMAL”

By Roy Richard Grinker Anthropologist Grinker explains how cultural history has shaped our views of mental illness. From wars to the economy, the reasons behind stigmatizing mental illness have had little to do with science. Grinker examines cross-cultural research on neurodiversity and discusses his own family history to illustrate how we have the ability to eliminate the stigma behind mental illness and promote mental health awareness going forward.

“THE UNAPOLOGETIC GUIDE TO BLACK MENTAL HEALTH”

By Rheeda Walker Psychologist Walker discusses the special difficulties that African Americans face in the U.S. healthcare system, especially when it comes to mental health. Walker suggests ways to navigate that system, access mental health resources and mitigate the health crisis among African Americans.

“EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL”

By Mira T. Lee This novel deals with two sisters, Miranda and Lucia, who are close but very different. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, Miranda wants to help her. As Lucia’s mental illness progresses, so does her denial.

Lucia’s life starts to unravel, and Miranda must decide if she is willing to give up a new life in Switzerland to help her sister, knowing that her sister might not want her help. This novel illustrates the perspectives of the loved one as well as the person contending with the illness.

“RUNNING ON EMPTY”

By S.E. Durrant AJ, age 11, has depended on his grandfather to take care of the household as AJ focused on the sport he loves, running. When his grandfather dies, AJ feels responsible for taking care of everything, especially his parents, who struggle with mental illness. How can he balance the demands of family, school and track? Best for ages 8 to 12.

“OLIVIA WRAPPED IN VINES”

By Maude Nepveu-Villeneuve Young children (ages 4 to 8) struggling with anxiety will immediately relate to Olivia. Adults who cannot see the “vines” suggest breathing exercises and other forms of relief that do not help her. There is finally hope for Olivia when she meets a teacher who understands what the vines really are.

Julie Marallo is the director of the Tenafly Public Library and is proud to call Tenafly her home.

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PHOTO OP

A Wall of Color

Recognize this energetic splash of vibrant hues captured by photographer Chris Marksbury?

They’re part of a mural by painter Mitchell Schorr—one of a number of public works that the world-renowned artist has brought to Tenafly. For more on this resident mural master and his work, see page 16.

Have a great image for Photo Op? Submit your high-resolution shot to hello@tenaflymagazine.com.

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