The Mayor and City Commission of Wilton Manors are inviting business owners and concerned citizens to a chat-and-chew on May 17 at 9:00a.m., in the city’s Hagen Park Community Center. The Small Business Roundtable will include coffee and refreshments as well as presentations by officials about recent business-friendly initiatives, business incentives offered by Broward County’s Economic and Small Business Development Office and updates from local business organizations. Part of the time will be devoted to discussing the current State of the City economy and brainstorming best practices, ideas and initiatives to help the businesses of the Island City.
RSVP Gina Ray at Gray@wiltonmanors.com, or call 954.390.2120.
(Thanks to Krishan Manners of Wilton Manors Main Street for the heads up.)
The View from the Sidelines
Laurie Whittaker and Marty Kildea, proprietors of Sidelines Sports Bar in Wilton Manors, are celebrating the 5th Anniversary of their destination establishment beginning Thursday, May 12, and continuing through that weekend, with contests, prizes and drink specials from open to close. Five years is an impressive number, and a tribute to
the hard work, perseverance and fine attention to detail the bar owners demand for their customers. (An arguably even more impressive count is the number of years Whittaker and her long-time partner, Sidelines marketing director Jennifer Morales, have been together, having met during their salad days on the campus of Florida State University: 30-plus years and counting.
(Do you think it will last?)
Sidelines also recently began offering valet parking service both for their customers and visitors to Wilton Drive who are looking for a safe, secure place to park. The sports bar teamed up with Gelato Station owners Nick Berry and Shawn Bombard and other neighbors to pool their resources and offer valet.
$5 gets you parked all night, with the service offered seven days a week starting at 4 p.m.
Sarah Palin Need Not Apply
“What America needs is a good five cent Tea Bag.” – Attributed to Congress-woman Michele Bachmann.
It’s been over a decade since the halcyon days of summer when Club Caribbean Resort (now long defunct and formerly located on the site of the present day Original Pancake House on North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale) rocked Sundays poolside with a T-Dance sans pareil, with great music, great people and great fun (and a much younger version of Your Kindly Writer throwing down to Kid Creole and the Coconuts). The rumor mill (What? A gay rumor mill? Shocking!) has it that we are mere weeks away from the launch of what could be a slamming summer poolside T. To be continued.
Get Me to the Church on Time
Inside Baseball: A sincere and heart-felt congratulations to Chris Hamel, office administrator at Multimedia Platforms, LLC (publishers of MARK Magazine and the Florida Agenda, and operating partners in JumpOnMarksList.com), on his recent engagement to partner Banning Hendriks. The couple – known collectively as, ahem, “Channing” – will tie the knot on Labor Day, September 5, in Provincetown. (Noteworthy: Prior to this achievement, Chris’s most notable “honor” was making it to Week Eight before being the last gay contestant voted off the 2004 Fox reality series Playing It Straight; could there be a guest spot on The O’Reilly Factor in the none-too-distant? Stay tuned.)
Quotable
“I don’t want you to be easy; I just want you to be good.” – Local real estate mogul, to the object of his (momentary) attentions, at Georgie’s Alibi.
“He has a slab he wants to put in my downstairs bathroom.” – Employee of said mogul, in an unrelated conversation.
If you’re “Open for Business”, you can contact Business Writer and Director of Sales, Cliff Dunn, with your story at Business@FloridaAgenda.com
