Friday dinner is a real recession-fighter
You can’t go wrong with a seat at ‘Anne’s Table
by LEN LEAR

A tilapia entrée on a bed of fresh spinach, topped with crabmeat and baked in a lemon cream sauce (right) and an herb-marinated thin-sliced grilled London broil, topped with a red wine and three-mushroom sauce (both entrees served with mashed potatoes and veggies), were just $15.95 a piece at Anne’s, which included a bowl of homemade soup or salad. (Photo by Len Lear)

More than a year ago, Local editor Pete Mazzaccaro, a resident of Glenside, told me about Anne’s Kitchen Table, a charming luncheonette (primarily) at 11 Wesley Plaza, just off Easton Road, one block past Waverly Road. “You really should go there and do an article,” he said. “The food is very good, the owners are really nice, and I’m sure some of our readers would enjoy it.”

Pete proceeded to give me a business card for Anne’s, which I put in my wallet. Unfortunately, my wallet is the pocket-sized version of the Bermuda Triangle. Over the years, I have put numerous cards into my wallet from Omaha Steaks and Metropolitan Bakery — the kind you get punched after each purchase, and after 10 purchases you get one item free — but after four or five purchases, the cards always seem to disappear. If I had all of the free loaves of bread and steaks I have been entitled to (but never redeemed) because of all my purchases over the last decade or so, I could open my own grocery store where Caruso’s used to be.

We can’t guarantee that you’ll see these 1800s’ antique Victorian button charm bracelet and jewelry at the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Antiques Appraisal Day, but we do know that the Freeman’s specialists will appraise your family heirlooms and attic discoveries professionally.

The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion at 200 W. Tulpehocken St. in West Central Germantown will host its first “Antiques Appraisal Day” Saturday May 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Mansion. The Antiques Appraisal Day will feature professional appraisers from Freeman’s, America’s oldest auction house, including Anita Heriot, Head of Freeman’s Appraisals Department, and Amy Parenti, specialist for American Furniture, Decorative and Folk Arts. 

The event is part of Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion’s year-long Sesquicentennial Celebration. Freeman family members, whose auction house is the oldest in the nation, are residents of Chestnut Hill.

The Freeman’s specialists will appraise your family heirlooms and attic discoveries including paintings, works on paper, jewelry, silver, glassware, pottery, clocks, tools and other treasures. All types of items both large and small are welcomed, except stamps, coins, weapons, toys, and dolls.  Freeman’s Auctioneers are donating the time of their appraisers, and all proceeds from the event will benefit the Mansion.

‘First Flush’ Tea at Hill Tea Bar’s 1st anniversary
by Pamela Rogow

Pam McLaughlin is offering complimentary “first flush” organic Darjeeling tea on the evening of June 12 at the Hill Tea Bar, just past the corner of East Hartwell Lane and Germantown Avenue. (Photo by Pamela Rogow)

Last year at this time, Pam McLaughlin opened the Hill Tea Bar, a beautiful café tucked just past the corner of East Hartwell and Germantown Avenues. She’s turned it into a jewel of a space, punctuated with art that changes monthly and is so sensitively selected that it feels, well. . . curated. Check out Eric Sternfels ‘Tea Sculptures,’ on display through June 16.

Still, it is the tasty treats, small meals, artisan beverages and especially the teas that draw a robust customer base here.

When I dropped by recently, a party of 16 was celebrating a prospective mom in the Garden Room, which they had reserved. Just past the tea bar itself, this space has become popular for tea parties (adult and “princess”), bridal showers and business meetings. When the weather suits, its French doors open onto a semi-private, beautifully manicured garden.

What do you get when you     mix music, artistic excellence, social activism, and feminist vision with our nation’s longest-running women’s choir? You get Philadelphia’s Anna Crusis Women’s Choir. Anna is beginning celebrations of her fast-approaching 35th year with a May 30 concert event titled, “All Our Children Can Fly.” It’s the launch of an exciting upcoming year, one with new artistic and musical partnerships — a springboard featuring new artists and organizations of excellence in the Philadelphia area.