An Abundant Life - Fair Winds and Following Seas

When I heard that Chef Paul Gerard was consulting on the opening of another restaurant that recently opened in Closter, New Jersey by the name of Stern and Bow, though it's not within my usual traveling routes I had to figure out a way to get there. As I've written in these pages before, I am a foodie who loves to cook, and my tastes are very particular. I like food that is fresh and wholesome and delicious, and though I admire some of the techniques I've seen Chefs experiment with over the years, the food I love the best is seemingly fairly simple. I say seemingly because I've discovered over the years that making delicious food is a gift - even when you start with the best ingredients, it is the art and the talent and honest hard work of a Chef to know the right combination of seasonings and the right way to prepare and cook food so that it can take the tastes and senses to another level. There are many Chefs who I have met over the years, some who I have learned so much from and others who I have just admired from afar, but when it comes to Chef Paul Gerard, the Executive Chef and Partner of Antique Bar & Bakery and the Consulting Chef and Partner of Stern and Bow, the word that always comes to my mind is perfection. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Time after time when I bring friends and colleagues to try his masterpieces, all conversation stops when the food arrives because not only are people made speechless at the pure joy of the experience, they don't want to interrupt the pleasure of eating to talk. His own Instagram page and the pages of his restaurants have accolades from all over, and whenever I post about something I've had, my inbox fills up with admiration.

Russell Stern, the owner of Stern and Bow, is a Restaurateur with his own history of brilliant excellence. When the opening of his newest restaurant was announced, people who have known him over the years were waiting in expectation and excitement because they had missed having him around to visit and discover new delicacies and culinary delights with. His former restaurant Harvest Bistro & Bar was known and loved by people with discerning palates and was highly acclaimed by local residents and reviewers and others further afar, and though I did not meet him when he was the owner of that restaurant, I can understand why because of my experience at Stern and Bow. A play on his last name that reflects the names of the parts of a ship, Stern and Bow is not only a destination for those who are looking for a new adventure, but it is so beautifully planned and designed in every way that it would be easy to make it a choice for any night out, a lunch or a brunch or a special occasion. And the food is outstanding. The first time I went I was with a group of friends who didn't want to share and try different things, so I chose an appetizer of wood fire roasted oysters with the artisanal pasta Scialatielli Frutti Di Mare to follow. Both were so delicious, the pasta so perfect and the seafood so fresh, that this shellfish snob who grew up digging clams in the Sakonnet River, pulling mussels off of ocean rocks at low tide and catching blue crabs in the shallows felt like she'd finally found a new place to call home. And when it came to dessert and I noticed that Sticky Toffee Pudding was on the menu, I was over the moon. Outside of London there is only one other person I know stateside who once made it for me, and that was so long ago I kept dreaming about finding some way to get back to the restaurant where I first had it. I'm a chocolate lover, and that's usually what I choose if there's anything with dark chocolate on the menu, but Sticky Toffee Pudding is a favorite that so few people even know about never mind make that to have it as the ending of such a wonderful dinner was one of the best treats I've had in a long time. Add to that a delicious cup of coffee, decaf for this coffee lover who used to drink coffee all day but now tries to limit caffeine in the evening, and topped off with Russell Stern's recommendation of the luscious pear liqueur Belle de Brillet and I was ready to ask if I could stay forever.

When I went back recently, I invited a friend who I knew I could share and really try things with. She's a pescatarian, so we chose seafood, but I am sure that everything else on the menu is just as marvelous. After trying one of everything from the entire selection of oysters they had, I can honestly say each one was a perfect delight thanks to the excellent selection and knowledge of Kevin Joseph, the Oyster expert of Empire Oysters and the co-founder of New York Oyster Week who curates the extensive raw bar. I learned about oysters from my father who used to shuck them freshly dug from Long Island Sound. He wouldn't eat them anywhere else except for at the Grand Central Oyster Bar where he first visited when he was a young man commuting to Yale and later to and from his early jobs in Manhattan from his home in Westchester County or summers in East Hampton. These were all so perfectly fresh with carefully made and selected sauces that the experience was not only fun and educational but exquisitely delicious, and I knew my father would have loved the experience. After the oysters, we tried the fried calamari, the lobster roll, and the spaghetti and clam sauce, all things that I have had over the years in such delicious experiences that it's really hard to match or top the memories of them. The first time I had calamari was when I was fifteen, on a first date with my first love in Boston's North End, and how can you compare anything to that? But this one was so delicious and so fresh, with such a perfectly seasoned light and crispy coating that it knocked that cherished memory right out of Fenway Park. Clam sauce is so reliant on the quality of the clams and the skill of the Chef preparing it, and because the Executive Chef Pasquale Frola has such a wonderful way with food, this one was better than any I've ever had or made. The lobster roll brought back the sweet memories I have from beach parties in Little Compton and long conversations over shared lobster dinners with my father who taught me how to clean a lobster before I learned to cut a steak, matching that lovely goodness and bringing it into the present. After starting the evening with a perfect cocktail and sharing an excellent bottle of champagne, when it was time for dessert, though I would have liked to try something else, I had to have my favorite Sticky Toffee Pudding with fresh whipped cream again.

I am lucky enough to live within easy traveling distance of Antique Bar & Bakery, but if I lived closer to Stern and Bow I'd be visiting there more often. There's so much I want to try and explore, like the pizza that is cooked in a wood fired oven imported from Italy, the variety of pastas and meat and fish dishes, and more of those delightful sounding desserts. The experience of the menu and design and the combined knowledge and talents of Russell Stern, Consulting Chef Paul Gerard, Executive Chef Pasquale Frola and Oyster Expert Kevin Joseph makes for such a wonderful experience that I keep telling everyone I know that if they ever want to take a little drive to Closter, New Jersey, there's a restaurant there that's more than worth the trip. Add to that staff who are so friendly and helpful that this foodie who loves sailing as much as she loves to cook will not only hang up her apron, but she'll be more than happy to keep her sea legs on dry land thanks to Russell Stern and the rest of his crew at Stern and Bow.

Stern and Bow Restaurant

171 Schraalenburgh Road

Closter, New Jersey

https://www.sternandbowrestaurant.com

A Few Tastes From Opening Night

And A Second Luxurious Visit

The Added Wonderful Surprise

Of A King Kong Movie Night

The Clever Design Touch

Of A Beautifully Messaged Graffiti Wall

A Dreamy Sticky Toffee Pudding

With The Finest Belle de Brillet Pear Liqueur

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Dream Weaver

I met the Artist John Fathom in 2016 at the Cast Iron Lofts in Jersey City where he had curated a show for that year's Jersey City Art and Studio Tour. Another Artist friend had invited me to see her work there, and though I was expecting it to be a lovely afternoon, I was so thoroughly amazed by the space and the way the show had been curated in it that I asked who I could talk to so that I could find out more and write about it. I was introduced to John, and as we talked I found out that he was the Art Director of 660 Studios, an Artist collaborative space that he had started more than ten years before. When I visited him there, I was not prepared for the scope and vision of what he had created, and since that time I have been an avid fan of his work, writing and posting about him whenever I have the opportunity.

John is an Artist and a Designer with a background in industrial design, but he is more than that. He's a visionary with the courage to continue to do the work of creating a habitable and inspiring environment in places that other people don't understand or see the possibilities of. He has the ability to not only envision what can be, but to install and curate and build, using recycled and reclaimed materials and bringing out the beauty and structural integrity of a building or any indoor or outdoor space. I wrote about him at the end of 2016 and again in early 2017 when he had another show, and visited with him at 660 Studios for events, performance art, music and spoken word evenings he created and performed in. When I met him my own creative life was inspired and began to grow in so many ways. For a number of years I had been focused on youth and community development work and the creative work that I had done in the past was channeled into that area. After meeting John it was as if something that had been lying dormant awoke, and I was reminded of why I was drawn to a life of art and creativity in the first place. What he had created at 660 Studios, and what he creates in every space he works in, is something that is rarely done. He creates with a vision for making a universe in a space while still honoring the space or place and its own intrinsic beauty and form, and when we visit we are inspired by what we experience above our own imaginings. There have been so many people he has inspired and encouraged and given space and a creative home to, and he continues to inspire me and so many others with his talent, craftmanship and passion for creative life.

Over the past year, his space at 660 has been undergoing renovations, and though he has not had that space to work in, true to his never ending creative spirit he has been working on a project in another location to build a backyard garden and sacred space at a friend's home in Asbury Park. Beginning as a plan to build a deck, with his ever creative spirit that embraces the beauty and art within the environments he inhabits he began to do other work in the house itself to bring to life the inherent artistic sensibilities there and to give new life and inspiration to other areas. It is one of the admirable qualities that he has that he does not impose structural ideas into spaces or create without an eye for being serviceable and practical. The beauty he creates can be lived in and used, is comfortable and sustainable, bringing something of a feeling of having been there always while being entirely something new of his own design. I've been watching his progress through his posts on Instagram, and I visited with him there on Saturday. It seems perfect timing to have seen him in this new place, surrounded by the world he is creating, on one of the last days of not only this year but this decade, for it was in this past decade that I found my focus shifting for a time away from my own creative life and it was through the inspiration of meeting John Fathom that it began to shift back again. When I met him I had not thought that anyone like him still existed in this world that has at times seemed to completely commodify art. John Fathom is one of a kind, a master craftsman, a visionary, and a pure creative force who through his own constant seeking of new ways to give voice to the universe inside him gives life to everyone and every place around him.

John Fathom

In 2016

At Cast Iron Lofts

837 Jersey Avenue

Jersey City, New Jersey
https://castironlofts.com
http://www.jfathom.com

The Bar He Designed And Built

For The Opening And Closing Celebrations

Using Some Of His Signature Pieces

Lightboxes And Sustainably Sourced And Recycled Materials

The Artist Collective Space He Created

At 660 Studios

660 Grand Street

Jersey City, New Jersey

In Asbury Park With His Beautiful Dog Bulleit

Where He Is Creating

A New Sacred Space

His Visionary Moon Gate

With Solar Powered Lights

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Fresh Sustainability

At the Boutique Design Show at the Javits Center this year there was a booth that stood out from the crowd of beautiful displays because there were so many lush and luscious looking greens all around it. I am a gardener and a plant lover, and so I naturally gravitated toward the growing plants, and what I saw not only delighted me, but also amazed me and kept me talking to the company's Sales & Development Representative, Patrick Trevor, for quite some time. Farmshelf is not only a place that can help restaurants and school cafeterias, stores and other hospitality businesses have fresh greens and herbs year round, they also have a product that is attractive, streamlined and beautiful, and their growing containers are pleasant to look at while making eating healthy look fun and sleekly glamorous.

As someone who has taught nutrition to youth and adults of all backgrounds, I know the challenges that exist to helping people find food that is healthy for them to eat as well as encouraging them to eat the healthy choices that are available. But with a product like Farmshelf, eating healthy looks like something anyone would want to do. The greens are so fresh and inviting and the herbs have such a refreshing and flavorfully rich palate that it's exciting to think about introducing the company to so many people, as along with the work I have done in nutrition and wellness I also know Chefs and Designers and others in the Hospitality Industry who would enjoy knowing about a company as forward thinking as Farmshelf.

With engineering and design qualities that are top of the line, Farmshelf could easily fit into any decor. Personally I'd love to have one in my own vintage and retro style kitchen because classic design can always find a home anywhere. In addition to the excellent design, the output of each unit makes the possibilities for inspiration nearly endless with each unit yielding approximately 4-5 pounds of produce per week and more than fifty different leafy greens, herbs and edible flowers available for growing. For year round sustainable fresh-picked and healthy produce, there's a perfect fit for every need at Farmshelf.

Farmshelf

At The Boutique Design Show

At The Javits Center

New York City
https://www.farmshelf.com/

And On-Site At Different Locations

Photographs Courtesy Of The Farmshelf PR Team

ICR Strategic Communications & Advisory

https://icrinc.com/

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Dream Big

About a year and a half ago the Artist Joel Liscio invited me to a group show that he was part of at 313 Gallery in Jersey City. I had been to 313 once before, for another group show, and I liked the way it felt there, more of a party than traditional openings usually are, with lots of people spilling out onto the sidewalk and lots of conversations happening all around the platters of food on the tables and coolers filled with beer and wine and juice and seltzer. Joel is a good friend and a wonderful Artist, and so I made a point of going and looked forward to seeing the other work that was part of the show.

On that particular day Joel had told me that Jamie who was the Curator of the show would also be having a pig roast, and as I remembered only slightly where the gallery was, as I walked along the sidewalk I looked for the familiar plume of smoke. When I was near the gallery I saw it, and also an even larger group of people than before, because as I soon found out when I walked inside, some of the group of Artists showing that day had traveled long distances to be there. I began looking at the work and started talking with some of the Artists, and then at one point after taking photographs of Joel and his pieces that were on a wall close to the entrance, I turned around and saw the paintings of another Artist diagonally across the room. I don't remember if I walked toward it first or if Joel was leading the way, but I do remember him saying, "Now this guy is amazing." And he was right because in front of me was a wonderland of color and imagery, very intricately created designs that were painted with broad strokes and powerful colors that also showed an intensely focused attention to detail. It was astonishing work, like nothing I'd ever seen but reminiscent of some of the most beautiful figurative work imaginable. It was also playful and it had a dreamlike quality, with the kind of images that I remembered from some of my brother's lavishly illustrated comic books and his own drawings that told stories from his own inspiration. There was also a sense of graffiti art and mural art, but this was something altogether different and unique because the art that I was looking at was painted on surf boards, worlds within worlds on a very specifically shaped non-traditional canvas.

That afternoon I stayed quite a while to talk to the Artist who had created these masterpieces, CW Waddell. I had been planning on staying only a short time and leaving with my friend Joel, but when I found out that CW was not from Jersey City and that he'd be going back home to Virginia Beach after the opening, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to find out more about him. His work was so beautiful and the vision so authentically his own, and as we talked and I told him that I worked with Artists and that I'd like to try to help him find a space to come back for another show, we exchanged information through Instagram, and continued to keep in touch.

CW told me that he had started painting to focus on something positive after a breakup. In his own words he explained, "I've been around art/tattoos my whole life. Just got into doing it myself a few years back. One of my first tattoos my buddy did and I tried to create it as a painting! I started on surfboards because I liked how smooth the fiberglass was. I had a lot of trial and error, other artist friends saying my procedure probably wouldn't work!! I had a vision and made it work. I'm a firm believer in karma, faith and everything happens for a reason!! And here I am."

When he sent me a message a few weeks ago that he was going to be back at 313 Gallery, I scheduled myself to make sure to be there for his opening. In the time since we met, his work has grown, and though I'm still partial to the surfboards there were other newly inspiring pieces that were created from other shapes of wood that he cuts and designs himself before painting. CW Waddell is one of those rare people who continues to astonish. While we spoke he described how he is always learning new things from other Artists and that for him one of the most exciting and enjoyable experiences is to be able to share time with Artists and learn and be inspired. As I've written in these pages before, there is so much beautiful and inspiring public art in Jersey City, and visiting with CW was a reminder of how much of an adventure it is to walk and see the beautiful murals that are part of the fabric of the walls all around because of his own excitement at describing what he had been seeing. And CW himself is a part of it, though he calls another city his home. It's as if the dreams that he dreams have woven themselves into the fabric and have made dreams that are larger than life come alive.

CW Waddell

At 313 Gallery

313 Third Street

Jersey City, New Jersey

Instagram.com/corruptgarageartco

Blessings,

Jannie Susan