Wrought Iron
Wrought iron tables and “gelato”
A lone gelato freak searches for the scoop on Buffalo’s best
Hooked on the tasty confection after a trip to Italy, gelato freak finds local offerings delizioso
By Aidan Ryan
Not long ago I stood in a small gelateria on the banks of the turgid Arno River, packed in with Florentines and international epicureans alike, all seeking shelter from the storm outside, watching the fluorescent lights of Florence reflected in the puddle-catching cobblestones.
In my hand was a petite cup of gelato, which my friend Lavinia, a native of Florence, said would be the perfect soul-salving end to an exhausting day under the Tuscan sun. Gelato – that’s just Italian for “ice cream,” right? I was wrong. She was so, so right.
Electric limon. Rich raspberry of near-erotic tang. And chocolate – cioccolato – so dark, so earthy, it made most American cocoa-treats taste like I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter spray. With less than half the fat, twice the sugar and almost no air compared to American hard- and soft-serve ice cream, gelato is healthier and denser, at once more refreshing and more filling. I had gained a new obsession. When I returned to the States, it wasn’t long before my sweet tooth started to ache. I needed the best Buffalo had to offer, and I needed it fast, Florentine style. What I found was at turns stimulating and illuminating – all told, I wasn’t disappointed, and no gelatophile has reason to be.
Shortly after hitting the Buffalo-Niagara tarmac I set out for Gelateria Luca, at the southwestern corner of Elmwood and Potomac avenues. I heard that the tiny shop, offering “A taste of Italy on Elmwood,” offered blood-orange, and I knew I had to see for myself.
Small but filling portions encourage combination. Pomegranate-lemon is a personal favorite of mine, along with mango-raspberry and chocolate with, well, just about anything. The quality of the gelato here – always reliable, always fresh – has encouraged my friends and me to return again and again.
On a recent visit I tried four varieties for $5.40: chocolate and coconut gelato with lemon and blueberry sorbetto. (The latter is like gelato, but made from fresh fruits).
Each variety is distinctive not only in flavor but in texture. The blueberry was cool and complex, and not at all too sweet. The coconut was pleasantly grainy (a reminder that this gelato is not flavored, but made from the “real stuff”) and tasted particularly good with the chocolate, which was rich, dark and dense.
I couldn’t discern my favorite part. At first I thought it was the lemon, which, though it didn’t quite match gelato made from the toddler-sized “bread lemons” of the Amalfi coast, was an extraordinarily refreshing choice for the 80 degree day, and the most powerful flavor of the bunch. Then I tried the chocolate, made in the Italian style, which I recognized at once. This was the real stuff; the platonic ideal; the very essence of cioccolato.
Though you’ll find no strolling gypsy accordionists in the Boulevard Mall, the Incorvia family established the first Sweet Melody’s on Transit Road hoping to give the Italian practice of mixing light food and light entertainment an outlet in Western New York. The original location near the intersection of Transit Road and Millersport Highway, was rather unfriendly to the average urban flaneur and has closed. The Incorvias still use the kitchen there to whip up fresh gelato for their Boulevard kiosk and for catering events.
I visited the boulevard location and ordered a perversion of the Neapolitan: hazelnut chocolate, lello (white chocolate coconut) and amarena (cherry).
The hazelnut chocolate was a creamy treat, though I remain partial to a darker Italian cioccolato. Combined, though, the three were strikingly delicious.
Of all the gelaterias I visited, Sweet Melody’s wins the prize for culinary daring. The shop’s Facebook page references caramel sea salt, olive oil gelato and lemon-basil sorbet, to name a few. Alexis Incorvia mentioned a new Greek yogurt gelato fad, before shocking me with peanut butter bacon banana. This last was created at a customer’s request – something which, according to Incorvia, Melody’s makers are more than willing to indulge.
Of course, the boulevard location – near the food court – is a bit too noisy for the sort of singing-while-we-scoop service seen on Transit. With two new locations opening soon in Snyder and Lockport, though, Incorvia said the shop probably will return to its melodic roots.
By the time I reached Country Peddlers, the day had gone from hot to muggy, and the marbled skies threatened the sort of rain that would bring little relief. I looked up to the shop’s menu – featuring 28 flavors – and breathed a sigh of relief. I ordered a cup of pineapple and chocolate (my measuring stick for good gelato) and sat down at one of the many wrought-iron tables outside.
The chocolate was unique, more like fudge than the others, satisfying but not dark enough for my tastes. The pineapple, though, was far and away the most refreshing sorbetto I tasted during my journeys, the perfect mix of sweet and acidic snap – it transported me to a sunnier afternoon in Florence, when I had stood outside yet another gelateria, slowly indulging in a cup of kiwi-raspberry-mango, watching a bride and groom march in wedding-wear up a winding road, as a beaming, leonine father-in-law filmed on his iPad.
Chris Sullivan, manager at Country Peddlers, gave me a tour of his gelato kitchen, and explained both the science and the art of his craft. Sullivan graciously offered me samples of pomegranate (pleasantly crunchy) and cannoli (surprisingly light, a good alternative if you crave the taste but don’t want to fill up on the real thing).
Sullivan also likes experimenting. “If you think of it, you can come up with it,” he said.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Vincenzo’s sits in a quaint shop on a quaint street at the center of Orchard Park. Though the shop is earning attention in the city and surrounding suburbs, it’s best known as a favorite with locals – I came at the recommendation of my friend and OP epicure Kevin. “We get the same families, it’s funny,” said serving veteran Maggie Guzzino. She said the shop, open only in the summer, is filled with kids during the day and young families in the evening, many of them coming from kids’ baseball games at the diamonds up the street.
What stood out first was the size of the scoop. Guzzino gave me the most generous meduim-sized cup I’ve yet seen (for $4.25), enough to delay my dinner. I ordered chocolate (of course) and dolce de leche, a caramelesque treatment of sweetened milk.
Dolce de leche lived up to its name. Aggressively sweet, this flavor leaves its taste on the back of your palate – something I appreciated when I moved on to the chocolate. I found the caramel flavor paired well with Vincenzo’s dark, fudgy chocolate – similar to the variety offered at Country Peddlers, but richer. Vincenzo’s takes the prize in that cocoa category.
But the dolce de leche was better. I scooped and swirled with enthusiasm – you simply won’t find caramel-chocolate ice cream this sweet or satisfying.
from buffalonews.com
Wrought iron design for the Prison Hotels
Prison hotels: welcome to a night in the nick
Plans for new ‘superprisons’ mean some of the UK’s most famous old slammers could get a new, very different, lease of life … as boutique hotels. It’s a model that has proved popular elsewhere
British boutique hotels could be about to get a boost from an unexpected quarter. Yesterday, new plans were put forward for a series of “super prisons” holding as many as 3,000 inmates. Which will mean that some of the nation’s most famous old slammers could get a new, and very different, lease of life.
A thinktank has suggested that notorious nicks such as Dartmoor, Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville could be reinvented as boutique hotels. Where once meals were shoved through hatches in the door, Bolly and blinis will be delivered on room service. In-room massage treatments will replace doing time on a hard bed.
The idea is not entirely new, of course. Back in 2005, the Malmaison boutique hotel company re-opened Oxford prison as a 95-room addition to its cool chain, promoting “Nights in the nick” from £95. In the notorious A-wing (familiar to fans of Inspector Morse), smart rooms were fashioned by knocking together the original 19th-century cells. They had the advantage of nice, thick, sound-proofed walls, if a somewhat claustrophobic feel, courtesy of high windows and iron bars.
The model has proved popular internationally, too. In Boston, Charles Street jail was given a makeover so chic you could be forgiven for never guessing its original role, except for the tongue-in-cheek name – the Liberty hotel. The Karosta hotel in Latvia has taken things in a different direction. This ex-military prison offers a freakish themed experience complete with strict guards and cold, unconverted cells.
Most conversions, though, go for the style ticket. At the Het Arresthuis hotel in Roermond, Netherlands, oversized chandeliers and violet mood-lighting soften the effect of what were once gloomy corridors lined with wrought iron. This Dutch creation is a model of how to spin spartan into modern minimalism.
If every town in England has a prison hotel, won’t the novelty be lost though? And while it’s a bit of a giggle to sip a cocktail where inmates once ferried meal trays, who wants to try to patch up their marriage in a lifer’s old cell?
Certain former prisons lend themselves better to the hotel idea than others, too. It will be one thing to wake up with views across Devon moorland, but not all the prisons on the list have the aesthetic attributes of Oxford, or a location such as Dartmoor. There is a chilling hint of Colditz, for example, about Shepton Mallet in Somerset. At 400 years old, it was the UK’s oldest working prison until its closure in March, and once housed the Krays. It is a forbidding building in a location that has little to recommend it besides being walking distance from the Mulberry factory shop. Then again, it is splendidly handy for bands booked to play at Glastonbury. Who would have guessed that HMP Shepton Mallet could have a future in jailhouse rock?
from guardian.co.uk
Wrought iron, gardens and relax in Europe
Gardens provide relaxing stops, allow vacationers to truly unwind
Take time to smell the tulips
By Rick Steves
I head to Europe every spring, ready to start afresh on a new season of travel. It’s an exciting time, as I dive into exhausting days of non-stop guidebook research and travel-show filming. With age and wisdom, I’ve learned to take some of my own advice: on any trip, I slow down and smell the roses — or tulips.
I may not have the greenest thumb (and I’ve got the weeds to prove it), but wandering through a European garden is one of the better ways I’ve found to unwind and enjoy the world. Whether tucked into a little corner of a big city or decorating the grounds of an old aristocratic home, gardens soften the edges of life. Wherever you travel in Europe, there’s bound to be a garden in bloom nearby when you need some (aroma) therapy.
In France’s Loire Valley, Villandry is an average château, but its Renaissance gardens make the estate a show stopper. The original builder, a wealthy 16th-century finance minister, installed the famously formal gardens as an interlocking series of flower and vegetable beds. The eye-popping, geometric plantings are as manicured as a putting green — just try to find a weed. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Queen of Hearts pop out from behind the topiary in this wonderland.
On the other end of the valley is the Chenonceau château, France’s first great pleasure palace. King Henry II built it for his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. The girlfriend immediately got to work, planting extensive flower and vegetable gardens. But when Henry died in a jousting accident, his wife, Catherine de Médicis, kicked Diane out. The queen let Diane’s garden go to weeds and planted one of her own. Today, there’s a “Diane” garden and a “Catherine” garden on the estate — each lovingly maintained and safely separate.
Sometimes a garden escape can be no more than a soothing glimpse. Some of London’s residential squares are behind locked gates, but your eye is free to wander over these pretty, well-maintained gardens. In the tangle of Seville’s Barrio Santa Cruz, flowers cascade along the wrought-iron latticework of whitewashed houses, providing a psychic refuge from the heat and bustle of the city.
But for a full-fledged urban break, nothing beats Luxembourg Garden in the middle of Paris — it’s a colour-filled Impressionist painting brought to life. After a day of pounding the cobblestones, I like to stop off here and slip into one of the green chairs that ring the central fountain. I can admire the first flowers of spring, all the while watching Parisians being French.
When it comes to gardening, the British seem to forget all about their stiff upper lips.
The best of their gardens are an unabashed assault on the senses. My nose always thanks me for detouring to the fragrant gardens at Hidcote Manor, in England’s Cotswolds area. Hidcote is where garden designers pioneered the idea of outdoor “rooms.” Close your eyes and sniff your way through a clever series of small, sweet-smelling gardens. In springtime, clouds of wisteria and magnolias drift overhead.
For another take on traditional English gardening, seek out Sissinghurst Castle, near Dover. In the early 20th century, writer Vita Sackville-West transformed the grounds into the quintessential English “cottage” garden. There is always something blooming here, but the best show is in June, when the famous White Garden bursts with scented roses. When the sun is shining, Sissinghurst is perfect.
The granddaddy of the European bloom parade is Keukenhof. This 80-acre park, situated between Amsterdam and The Hague, has the greatest bulb-flower garden on earth. (Those without a car can ride the bus right to the park from Amsterdam, Haarlem or Leiden.) For two months in spring, Keukenhof’s seven million tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils conspire to thrill even the most horticulturally challenged visitor. The place is packed with tour groups daily — go in the late afternoon for the fewest crowds and the best light on all those happy flowers.
Dedicated tulip-gazers don’t have stop with Keukenhof. It’s possible to rent a bike (available at Keukenhof for a reasonable €10/day, about $13.50) and head out into the surrounding Dutch landscape. Tooling along on two wheels among tulip fields is a special kind of bliss.
For me, a garden is a way of thinking about travel. If we are like seeds, the travel experience provides the dirt. The act of travelling plants us. And the people and experiences we encounter in our travels are like watering the garden. Combine the dirt, seeds, and water properly, and you get the blossom. Happy travels!
from vancouversun.com
Wrought iron and Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day 2013
Connecticut history from the ground up
by Marisa Nadolny
Who says you can’t reinvent history? Or, at least, replant it? On Sunday, June 23, the team behind Connecticut’s Historic Gardens marks 10 years of doing just that with Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day at 14 historic locations throughout the state.
In 2002, a group of tenders of various historic sites in Connecticut pooled resources to get some visibility by participating in the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show in Hartford. Ten years later, the group continues its work to raise awareness of “distinctive historic sites and gardens within Connecticut’s borders.”
Locally, the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, the New London Historical Society and Shaw Mansion and Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford will participate and offer special events that illustrate the unique nature of their gardens.
And really, what’s a historic house without a historic garden? These living installations provide additional context to the historical periods preserved in a given museum; or they simply offer a window into yet another historic period.
“In terms of Connecticut’s Historic Gardens, we deem ‘historic’ to be gardens designed by a known designer or reflect an historical garden style or design philosophy,” explains Tammi Flynn, a spokesperson for Connecticut’s Historic Gardens. Historical relevance, though, doesn’t necessarily exclude creative expression. “The gardens in New London County have great personality,” Flynn notes.
At the Florence Griswold Museum, the resident beds reflect the eclectic style of Miss Florence herself, who was an avid gardener. None too formal, Miss Florence opted for a hodgepodge of plantings that offered splashes of color. Visitors to the museum can expect to see variations of hollyhocks, iris, foxglove, heliotrope, phlox, cranesbill and day lilies.
Admission to the gardens will be free on Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day, and painting supplies, refreshments and artist demonstrations will be made available to visitors.
Over at Harkness, park staff and volunteers will lead free tours of the gardens that surround the circa-1906 Roman Renaissance Revival-style mansion. The gardens reflect the work of Beatrix Farrand — one of the first noted female landscape architects in the United States — whom Edward and Mary Harkness commissioned to design their gardens from 1918 to 1929. Farrand’s designs combine Asian statuary, wrought-iron fencing and benches with plants that reflect Mary Harkness’ preferred colors.
Visitors who prefer to cover as much historical ground as possible might consider a stop at the New London Historical Society’s Shaw Mansion.
“You get two time periods at a time at the Shaw Mansion — a formal Victorian garden in front of the house and a colonial garden in the rear of the house,” Flynn says.
The colonial garden is a nod to the mansion’s heritage; Capt. Nathaniel Shaw constructed the building in the 1750s. His great-grandson, Dr. Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, inherited the structure in 1845; the Victorian garden illustrates that transition.
And don’t forget to take a look at the mansion’s accompanying summerhouse, intriguingly referred to as a “gentleman’s folly.” This little getaway was constructed in 1792 and offers views of the Thames River.
A local croquet club will play a match and offer demonstrations at the mansion during Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day, alongside a plant sale. Refresh after the game with strawberry shortcake and lemonade.
from theday.com
To repair a 130-year-old-plus shotgun house off Seventh Street with a new wrought iron fence
Volunteers repair Louisville couple’s 19th century house
by Martha Elson
Preservation Louisville and New Directions Housing Corp. combined forces Saturday to repair a 130-year-old-plus shotgun house off Seventh Street that’s home to an elderly, disabled couple.
A crew of volunteers from St. Agnes Catholic Church on Newburg Road in the Deer Park area painted, caulked and made other repairs to the house on Jordan Avenue as part of New Directions’ 20th annual Repair Affair project, and also for the preservation advocacy group’s S.O.S. — Save Our Shotguns project.
It was among 31 homes in Jefferson County that were scheduled to undergo repairs Saturday during the kickoff day for the summer-long Louisville Metro Repair Affair project, designed to help low-income homeowners who are elderly or disabled. The kickoff for the Southern Indiana Repair Affair was June 8.
The S.O.S. effort began last year to draw attention to the city’s multitude of long, narrow shotguns — considered “historic assets” by the group — and help restore them. It was the second house that Preservation Louisville has targeted for exterior restoration as part of the S.O.S. project, after work was completed earlier this year on the first home on West Main Street in Portland.
At the Jordan Avenue shotgun, a new wrought-iron railing that was donated by the local Marion Development company had been installed Friday along the steep front steps leading from the sidewalk, and the Door Store was donating a historic-looking security door.
Max Monohan, a resource development specialist with New Directions, noted that the Jordan Avenue shotgun still had its fish-scale siding, which was being painted mauve by St. Agnes volunteer Chris Hettinger and others.
“It’s all original,” Monohan said said of the front exterior. Marianne Zickuhr, executive director of Preservation Louisville, who also was helping at the site on Saturday, said the joint project came about after she was invited to speak to New Directions about the S.O.S. project, and Monohan realized that the Jordan Avenue house could be a candidate for the program.
New Directions expects to improve about 150 homes throughout Louisville during the summer, Monohan said. The Jordan Avenue home is in the shadow of the historic former American Standard manufacturing building, which has been converted into a parking garage for University of Louisville’s Bellamy apartments — a project that won U of L a “Preservation Success” award from Preservation Louisville.
The St. Agnes volunteers included the Chandler family — father Todd; mother Sarah; Camille, 13; and Campbell, 11. Todd Chandler had volunteered for Repair Affair in the past, and Sarah Chandler said they wanted to teach their children how to help the community.
The couple in the house had been living without running water, and it was an opportunity “to make their lives a little easier,” volunteer Judy Steilberg said.
from courier-journal.com
