Tag: FYI

618 MKT, a new 15-unit apartment building at 2 E. Seventh St., is now accepting applicants. The open concept studio and one-bedroom apartments boast modern finishes and features, and residents will never go hungry, with Italian restaurant Arde Osteria on the first floor of the building.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 5 highlighted the resurrection of the original Queen Anne-style building façade dating back to 1895.

To apply for an apartment or for more information, visit residemkt.com/618-mkt-property.

Firefly Music Festival, the East Coast’s largest music and camping festival, is returning to The Woodlands in Dover for the seventh year on June 14-17. Headliners are Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Arctic Monkeys, and The Killers, and the lineup also features ODESZA, Lil Wayne, Logic, Martin Garrix, SZA, alt-J, Portugal. The Man, Foster the People, MGMT, Mike D (DJ set) and more.

General Admission and VIP pass options go on sale Friday, Jan. 12, at 10 a.m. ET through FireflyFestival.com. Special one-day pricing will be available on Jan. 12 only, with General Admission passes start at $269.

Lodging packages will also be available for purchase through a new user experience and filtering system on FireflyFestival.com.

Firefly is once again partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for the seventh consecutive year and various initiatives will benefit their Music Gives to St. Jude Kids program.

A new speaker series held in the theater at Cab Calloway School of the Arts, “The Art of Conversation,” invites the public to listen to three distinguished professionals with ties to the Wilmington area. The series is a collaboration between Delaware Theatre Company and the Cab Calloway School Fund.

The talks kick off with Maurice Hines on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. in the Cab Calloway Theatre. Hines’ Broadway credits are numerous; he’s a revered actor, dancer, director and choreographer. He was a Tony Nominee for Best Actor in 1986.

Next, Susan Stroman, who began studying dance at the age of five at the Academy of the Dance in Wilmington and who majored in theater at the University of Delaware, is a Broadway director who has won five Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, among others. She will speak on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Lastly, National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign Sarah McBride will talk on Wednesday, April 25. In 2012, McBride made national headlines when she came out as transgender while serving as student body president at American University. A Wilmington native, McBride spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

The series is sold as one package for $75. Tickets are available online at cabcalloway.ticketleap.com. For more information on the speakers, visit artofconversations.org.

Locally owned and operated, Wilmington’s new retail store Riverfront Pets, at 311 Justison St., provides natural pet foods along with toys and other supplies and services like grooming, training, walking and pet-sitting.

Riverfront Pets is a partner of Wilmington’s own nonprofit no-kill animal care and adoption center, Delaware Humane Association. Riverfront Pets opened early last month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured Mayor Michael S. Purzycki, City Council President Hanifa Shabazz, Delaware’s Deputy District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration John Banks and more.

For more information, visit riverfrontpets.com.

Already 12 locations strong in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant is heading south to Rehoboth and even into the Old South—Greenville, S.C.

The Greenville Iron Hill is slated to open this spring, followed by the Rehoboth destination in the summer, to be located at 19791 Coastal Highway. Plus, the long-awaited Center City Philadelphia location is set for a spring opening.

Wilmington’s 8th & Union Kitchen (801 N. Union St.) is hosting a guest bartending night for Wilmington Jaycees on Thursday, Jan. 11, from 6-9 p.m. Guest bartenders include Karen Poore, Paul Calistro, Dave Feasel, Lisa Gansz, Steve Gansz, Jen Lee and Darren Wright.

Wilmington Jaycees helps foster leadership skills in young people through community service and personal development.

For more, go to delawarejaycees.org.

Delaware’s up-and-coming Brimming Horn Meadery introduced two limited-release meads late last month. Brimming Horn is a Scandinavian-style mead hall that features a tasting area where meads and ciders are on tap, and served in bottles, growlers and glasses.

First, the Milton meadery (28615 Lewes-Georgetown Highway) is churning out Wolf Peach—a honeyed beverage made with locally grown tomatoes and lemons, with a citrusy result, coming in at 11-14 percent ABV.

Why green tomatoes? Founder Jon Talkington says that tomato is an old-country wine maker’s favorite ingredient. “So I thought, ‘Why not make it a mead?’”

With 25 years of mead-making experience, Talkington and business partner Robert Walker, Jr., took the plunge.

The mead’s name derives from Germanic folklore. According to Talkington, the common German word for “tomato” translates to “wolf peach.” Folk tales indicate that witches used the wolf peach to produce and summon werewolves.

Second up is Blackberry Chai, made with local Georgetown blackberries and spicy chai tea. Sweet, fruity and spicy notes make up the mead, which also ranges from 11-14 percent ABV.

Both meads are available at the Milton tasting room (Fridays and Saturdays 12-7 p.m., Sundays 12-4 p.m.) as well as the online store brimminghornmeadery.com. The meads are limited to 12 cases each, and are on a limited tasting basis at the meadery for $3 per one-ounce pour.

In addition to the hall-style tasting area, other Scandinavian influences permeate the business, including the name— Brimming Horn. A horn, overflowing with mead, traditionally would be passed among friends and kin to toast and bring people together, and Talkington and Walker aim to recreate that for their guests

Delaware blues band Barrelhouse was formed in November of 2007 for the purpose of helping to raise money for a Middletown High School marching band trip. More than 10 years later, with a few personnel changes over the years, the band is still playing locations throughout the Delmarva region, with one notable national performance coming up. They’re taking part in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 16-20. Held each January, the Challenge is a worldwide search for blues bands ready to make the jump to the international stage. The event is judged by blues professionals from across the world who have years of experience listening to, producing, and creating blues music, while the Blues Foundation has established a set of criteria by which all acts are evaluated throughout the week.

Says vocalist and harmonica player Charlie Rickner: “We all agree that taking the stage on Beale Street, with the venue packed to standing room only, will be like an e-ticket ride at Disney World. To walk out on stage to a crowd that wants everything you can give them is a rush for any musician.”

Rickner says he and the band—Tom Nowland (guitar/vocals), Chris Miller (bass/vocals), John Whitely III (drums/vocals)—will take original material to Memphis, and hope to record it early this year.

“People have been asking us for a while about having a CD out,” says Rickner. “We think it’s time.”

For more, go to barrelhouse.rocks. 

Wilmington’s newest record shop, SqueezeBox Records, at 1901 W. 11th St., has it all—punk rock, gospel, country, rock and roll, soul, jazz, blues and sub genres. At the helm are vinyl aficionados and husband-and-wife team Rich Fisher and Kim Gold.

The shop opened this past October, and already a new component is in the works: a stage for live music. Fisher and Gold expect to launch this later this month or in early February. Once complete, SqueezeBox will house album release parties, live shows, and more throughout the year.

Meanwhile, SqueezeBox, home to Fisher’s collection of approximately 20,000 records, is open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m.-3 p.m.  SqueezeBox currently also sources some vinyl from Third Man Records out of Detroit and Nashville.

For Fisher, collecting started at age 13. The first albums he ever got his hands on were Aerosmith’s Get Your Wings and Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak.

“I was born and raised in the Detroit area and music was our lives,” says Fisher. “The feel of growing up in Detroit is different than anywhere else I’ve seen or been—times were tough, and music was our escape.”

His brother Larry was the lead singer in the band Sick and Tired, which had a solid fan base. Fisher has fond memories of weeknights sitting in on band practice at his family’s house and live music on the weekends. Since then, his passion has been vinyl, he says, and “buying every vinyl album, 45, or electronic that I could afford.”

Fisher always knew he wanted to open a record shop but was waiting for the right timing, he says. In the interim he worked music-related jobs, including local radio stations WDEL and WSTW, producing the Rick Jensen Show. Eventually, he took his cue from the resurgence of public interest in vinyl occurring over the past few years and opened a shop.

And naturally, his love for records overflows.

“Vinyl is a complete and full experience as opposed to pressing a button, putting in a CD and hitting play,” says Fisher. “The special thing about vinyl is that you have to interact with it and when you do, there is a feeling that comes through those speakers, the sound, the nuances of the music, the artwork on the jacket, the liner notes on the inner sleeve—it all culminates in an interacting event and experience like no other medium.”

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Billy Toulson, going by the name Sun Brother and originally from Delaware, is returning to his Wilmington roots this month.

On Saturday, Dec. 30, he’ll perform at Chicky’s Pizza Pub, 201 N. Market St., Wilmington). Listen to his sounds at soundcloud.com/sunbrotherde and facebook.com/sunbrotha.