by Sally Deering

 

Dave  and his sister Anne Marie carved a niche on Grove Street with their handsome little restaurant, The Merchant, where the bar is cozy, the drinks are yummy and the food is All-American delish! It’s a great place to go for a business luncheon, watch a game or hang out with your friends and talk about life.

 Dave and Anne Marie decided to try something a little more upscale and 2-1/2 years ago they opened The Embankment, a beautiful fine-dining restaurant nestled in the heart of 10^th Street in the Hamilton Park neighborhood, where friendly neighbors drop by for brunch, dinner and drinks with friends.

 

 

A truly beautiful restaurant, The Embankment is a jewel in Jersey City’s crown with a warm and inviting dining room that seats 80-100. It’s a wonderful place for private parties, wedding receptions, christenings and corporate functions where corporate heads want to show their employees some class. There’s a sexy upstairs lounge, too, with low-lighting and cozy seating for 40. It’s best to get a reservation, Dave O’Brian says, because on Friday and Saturday nights the upstairs lounge is always booked.

 

The Embankment’s elegance is reflected in the menu – American-style dishes with added flavors that are a little bit French, a little bit Italian and a touch of Mediterranean. For entrees, how about Fried Catfish with Cajun Fries or a Rib-Eye Steak with mashed potatoes and mushrooms? For pasta lovers, you might try the homemade fettuccini primavera – that’s right, they make their own pasta! (Appetizers range from $6-$12; entrees from $18- $26.)

 

For an assortment of different flavors, you might like the Tapas – mini servings of flavorful dishes like marinated artichokes, mushrooms and olives. The Embankment offers 12-15 Tapas to choose from. For light eaters, a cheese plate with five different types of cheeses will definitely satisfy the palate and go beautifully with their vast array of wines from affordable to high-end. The O’Brian siblings also serve a large assortment of beer including cold draft beers – including Guinness, of course!

 

And then, of course, there are the burgers!  In 2009, “New” magazine cited The Embankment’s burger as No. 1 in Jersey City. The secret?

 

“We use high-quality ground beef, well-seasoned and cooked to perfection,” O’Brian says. “It’s simple, but it’s the best.”

 

The Embankment

234 10^th Street

Jersey City

201-222-6115

www.theembankmentnj.com

 

The post Dining Out – The Embankment Restaurant in Jersey City first appeared on River View Observer.

(Jersey City, N.J.)

Students enrolled in the school acquire the skills and knowledge to take the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) examination to become licensed radiographers.  Radiographers assist physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, and can find employment in hospitals, clinics and imaging centers.

            For an application or to obtain more information about Christ Hospital’s School of Radiography, please visit the School’s page located on Christ Hospital’s website, www.christhospital.org, or call:  (201) 795 – 8246.  

 About Christ Hospital

Serving Jersey City and the surrounding communities for nearly 140 years, Christ Hospital is committed to being Hudson County’s premier community hospital by continually adding state-of-the-art equipment and new programs to provide its patients with the highest level of quality and compassionate care. Christ Hospital is the only facility in Hudson County to offer IMRT therapy for the treatment of cancer and has recently opened a new maternity unit incorporating five-star care and amenities with state-of-the-art technology. In addition to medical/surgical care, specialty areas include: neurological and spinal surgery; critical care; pediatrics; oncology; obstetrics; psychiatry; cardiology; physical, occupational and speech therapy; counseling and resource center; radiation oncology; emergency medicine; same-day-surgery; nutrition counseling; and a sleep center. For more information, please call (201) 795-8000 or visit www.christhospital.org.

The post CHRIST HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF RADIOGRAPHY NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR ENROLLMENT first appeared on River View Observer.

Howard Pyle, the “Father of American Illustration,” was also famous for painting historic murals like “The Landing at Carteret” which hangs in the Essex County Court House in Newark and other works collected by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Delaware Art Museum and the Brandywine River Museum. But you don’t have to hop a plane to Frisco or a train to Delaware to see Pyle’s paintings up close. Four murals depicting the history of Hudson County hang in the beautifully restored, Beaux Arts landmark Justice William J. Brennan Court House in Jersey City, where people from all walks of life can view Pyle’s majestic and historic paintings.  

Adorning public buildings with historic art by contemporary artists was a popular concept at the Turn-of-the 20^th century and Pyle’s murals were hung at the Brennan (then called the Hudson County Court House,) soon after it opened on September 10, 1910 (this is the building’s centennial year.) Pyle’s murals are cherished commodities and respectfully maintained by the Hudson County Cultural & Heritage Affairs Tourism Development office housed on the first floor of the building where the department’s administrator Bill LaRosa and his talented staff – some of whom are artists, performers and writers themselves – carry on Pyle’s legacy:

Every month, the staff transforms the first floor’s Theodore Conrad Rotunda into the Brennan Gallery, a public art space that gives local artists a venue to show their work and the local community a chance to experience art up close and personal.  To LaRosa, his staff and the man in charge, Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, art is for the people and by the people.

 “The arts community is an important and growing part of our population,” DeGise says from his wood-paneled office on the first floor of the court house. “Ten percent of our capital projects go to public art. The Brennan was built 100 years ago and it’s still very beautiful and useful. There’s a lesson there. Do it right and with an eye toward the future.” 

And while Pyle, a master artist and illustrator of his time chose to look back in Hudson County’s history as the inspiration for the murals he created, LaRosa and the Cultural Affairs crew concentrate their efforts on artists who create contemporary works in all genres of the visual and performing arts.

 “We have some of the greatest murals of the 20^th century on our walls,” LaRosa says from his first floor office steps away from the marble-floored rotunda. “Why shouldn’t contemporary artists have the privilege of being seen here? The court house is an ideal location to showcase art work.”

To respect the dignity of the Brennan which is on the National Register of Historic Places, LaRosa and his crew stage the Brennan Gallery with the clever use of portable walls and strategic lighting.

 “I remember seeing the gallery when it was completed, it was just beautiful,” LaRosa says. “The paintings were up, the lights were on – the rotunda was made for it.”

Because the court house is a government building, the work is seen by a wide-range of people, from the high-ranking government official to the local citizen on their way to jury duty. Seeing everyday people appreciate the art gives LaRosa great pleasure, he says.

  “I’ll see jurors, sheriff’s officers and county employees looking at the art work and that makes me feel good because that’s what it’s designed to do,” LaRosa says. “Art is for everyone.  A public building shouldn’t be cut and dry. If it can serve a higher purpose, then why not?”

Looking back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Hudson County was home to many art galleries exhibiting local artists’ work, but times changed when storefront galleries became real estate gold. These days, local art galleries are practically nonexistent and many artists look for alternative venues to show their work like restaurants, office buildings, even city halls.

“There are very few galleries in Hudson County because of property values and lack of accessible public spaces,” LaRosa says. “The Brennan Gallery is one of the few.”

This week, the Cultural Affairs team is preparing for a special exhibit for Women’s History Month called “Herstory” curated by Assistant Administrator Eileen Gaughan and Program Development Specialist Meredith Lippman. The show opens March 2^nd and runs through March 26^th and features black-and-white photographs taken by local women photographers who were asked to go out into the community and photograph other women at work.  

“We thought what better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than with an exhibit of women photographing women working in unconventional roles in fields like architecture and mathematics,” Gaughan says. “Who knows a woman better than another woman and who can celebrate women better than her peers?”

 For the past two years, the Women’s History Month exhibition has given women artists like So Yoon Lym, a photographer and painter, the opportunity to have their work shown. Prior to having her work chosen for the 2009 show, Lym’s work was picked for the February “African Americana” exhibit.

  “For the African-Americana show, the artists had to be of African-American ancestry,” Lym says. “What a revolutionary and contemporary concept – that all Americans are in some way connected to this month and could be through their art work. I have always looked to New York City as the center of the art world and though this is true, it’s great to know that there are venues in Jersey City that showcase and promote contemporary artists.” 

Along with professional artists and photographers who exhibit at the Brennan, LaRosa and his staff present shows by senior citizens, teenagers, even patients from a local hospital. Lippman recalls a group show by students at St. Dominic’s Academy, a Catholic High School in Jersey City, who expressed their artistry in a series of painted wooden chairs.

“It was a knockout of an exhibit,” Lippman says.

As Program Development Specialist, Lippman also runs a workshop series to help artists manage their careers. An artist herself, she understands the problems they face trying to handle their careers while creating their art. So, she assembles panels of professionals who discuss important issues like writing artist statements, knowing what museum curators look for when producing shows, copyrights and other matters.

 “I email the artist community and ask them, ‘What do you need?  Give me an idea of what we can do to help you,'” Lippman says.

Along with the Brennan Gallery, LaRosa and his staff host the Brennan Coffee House, a once-a-month, Friday night hootenanny where the rotunda gets transformed again, this time as an intimate bistro with café tables and chairs. Local folksingers and musicians – some with a national following – perform on a portable stage and the acoustics are just right for folk music.  A pet project of County Executive DeGise who’s a real fan of folk legends like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, the coffee house has become a popular night of entertainment for local music lovers and within the historic setting of the court house, songs of protest and peace seem to resound with a deeper meaning.

In September, DeGise will host a special celebration honoring the Brennan’s centennial year. It’s been a hundred years since Pyle’s murals were hung in the court house, but the concept of giving art justice still holds true today through the work of DeGise, LaRosa and the Cultural Affairs staff.  Providing a public forum for art exhibitions not only nurtures an ever-growing artist population, it nourishes a community’s quality-of-life.

As County Executive DeGise says, “There’s a lesson there.”

 Sally Deering is a freelance writer on art and culture.

For more information, email SallyDeer@gmail.com

 

 

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an exhibition guest curated by Rocío Aranda–Alvarado and on view at Jersey City Museum February 5 though August 22, 2010. Hair Tactics features over 30 visual artists whose artworks explore hair as subject matter and medium. Increasingly, artists have begun to use both real and synthetic human hair to create works of art. Some use synthetic hair because it is widely and inexpensively available in urban neighborhoods, others because it is laden with social and political meaning, and still others because they are exploring the human obsession with hair. Texts written in hair, fancy hair motifs used to decorate a love letter, extravagant and multi-colored wigs, drawings featuring hair-covered bodies, and ladies with elaborate up-dos are all featured in Hair Tactics. The exhibition includes works in a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, prints, photographs, video, and installation.

Artists in the exhibition include Amina Ahmed, Elia Alba, Firelei Báez, Nina Lola Bacchuber, Melody Boone, Melissa Calderón, Ursula Endlicher, Zachary Fabri, Carson Fox, Chitra Ganesh, Asha Ganpat, Bill Gaskins, Renée Green, Hermanas Iglesias (Janelle and Lisa Iglesias), Kristina Jacob, Tamara Kostianovsky, Jessica Lagunas, Simone Leigh, Sharon Louden, Felicia Megginson, Irvin Morazán, Omar Obdulio Peña Forty, Saâ€dia Rehman, Kenya (Robinson), Nadine Robinson, Roger Sayre, Roger Tucker III, Quintín Rivera-Toro, Jayoung Yoon, and So Yoon Lym.

 

The opening reception for Hair Tactics as well as Jersey City Museumâ€s complete line-up of new Spring 2010 exhibitions will take place on Friday, March 5, 2010, 5-8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Founded in 1901, the Jersey City Museum is the major presenter of contemporary art serving the people of Jersey City, Hudson County and the region.  The museum organizes many group and solo exhibitions every year, featuring works by culturally diverse, contemporary artists and from its 10,000-piece collection of regional significant art and historical objects. Through exhibitions, educational initiatives and programs, the museum welcomes over 25,000 visitors each year, including 11,000 school-aged children and youth.

 

Jersey City Museumâ€s gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday from 11am to 5pm and Saturdays from 12pm to 5pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and students, and free for children under 12 and museum members. Jersey City Museum is located at 350 Montgomery Street at Monmouth in the Historic Downtown District of Jersey City, within walking distance of the Grove Street PATH and Jersey Avenue Light Rail stations.  For more information, visit www.jerseycitymuseum.org or call 201-413-0303.

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Holy Rosary  is  the Oldest Established Italian Parish in New Jersey

  

Holy Rosary Church has announced plans to celebrate a Traditional Solemn High Mass on Christmas Eve at Midnight. 

The Traditional Mass or the Extraordinary Form as Pope Benedict XVI identifies it in his Apostolic Letter “Summorum Pontificum” is celebrated in Latin according to the Missal of 1962.  This missal was issued under Blessed John XXIII and remained in use until some years after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. 

A prelude of seasonal music by Herbeck, Praetorius and Victoria will be performed by the Holy Rosary Choir preceding the mass at 11:15 pm.  During the mass the choir under the direction of Harold Bott will sing the Mass in G by Schubert accompanied by organ and strings. The Holy Rosary Schola will sing the Propers of the Mass in Gregorian chant from the Liber Usualis.

 Holy Rosary Church will begin a series of events in January 2010 leading to the gala celebration of its 125^thAnniversary in October.  “Holy Rosary Church is the oldest established Italian parish in the State of New Jersey,” said its pastor Rev. Rino Lararoni.  “As we begin a year of remembrance and celebration we return together this Christmas Eve to another time and celebrate the sacred liturgy in the manner which the immigrants who built this beautiful church attended. Father Lavaroni added that the Holy Father has written, “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too.”  It’s a significant way for us to begin this important milestone in the history of Holy Rosary.”

 Other masses scheduled include a Mass for Families in English at 7:00pm on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Day the schedule includes masses at 8:45a.m. in Italian and 11:30a.m. in English.

 Holy Rosary Church is located in downtown Jersey City and has been celebrating the mass in the extraordinary form for nearly eight years.  Holy Rosary Parish Council Chairwoman,

Anne Mc Govern, says, “Holy Rosary Church is unique in that it’s the only parish in the local area where Catholics may attend both forms of the mass.” McGovern stressed that Holy Rosary Church is leading the way by following the Holy Father’s example and wishes by honoring and preserving tradition in liturgy.”

The Latin Mass is celebrated every Sunday at 10:00 am.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  For more information contact Holy Rosary Church at 201 795-0120 or visit the church’s website at

http://holyrosarychurch.com

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Photo Caption: Eileen Clyne, Christ Hospital’s Human Resources Director (left), and Miriam Rodriguez, Benefits Analyst, offered healthy snacks and tips to quit smoking for employees and visitors who visited the hospital’s Great American Smokeout display on November 19. The event also served as the kick-off towards the hospital becoming a totally smoke-free environment by June 2010.

Each year cigarette smoking accounts for approximately one of every five deaths, or about 438,000 people. While smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, it costs billions of health care dollars every year.

In an effort to keep its employees and patients healthy, officials at Christ Hospital announced on November 19, the 34^th anniversary of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, that its campus will become totally smoke free- inside and out. This new policy change means patients, visitors, and Christ Hospital employees (including volunteers, medical staff, and affiliates) will be asked to refrain from using lighted tobacco products on all Christ Hospital- owned property, including outdoor areas and parking lots.   

“While our buildings have been tobacco-free for many years, we have permitted smoking in designated areas outside of our facilities. These smoking areas will be eliminated in the near future to reduce the dangers from second-hand smoke as we continue to fulfill our mission by promoting a healthy lifestyle,” says Christ Hospital President and CEO Peter Kelly.  

Research confirms the role of second-hand smoke in asthma, emphysema and lung disease- even in non-smokers. “As the healthcare provider of choice for over 100,000 people annually, we have an obligation to provide a healthy, smoke-free environment for our patients, guests and staff. The decision to eliminate smoking on our campus comes as over 60% of all hospitals nationwide have already developed policies addressing this issue and it is anticipated that by the end of next year, over 90% of U.S. hospitals will be completely smoke-free as well.”  

 “This new policy is simply extending the reach of wellness to the entire campus,” says Kelly. “To make this transition as easy as possible, employees will be encouraged to utilize resources provided by the state’s department of health and human services as well as attend local support groups that will soon be offered by the hospital.”

 

 

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