The Super Bowl! The one with Roman numbers nobody knows! The battle between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants! About Town thought carefully about where we would watch the game, and we chose... the Chandelier Room. Unorthodox, yes. Friends wondered why not a sports bar. But we had reasons. The Chandelier Room has lounge furniture rather than hard bar stools. Probably interesting people would be there, like high rollers with wild prop bets like ten grand on which team would win the coin toss. About Town knew the Chandelier Room wouldn't admit more people than necessary. We …
Awwww yeeaahh girl, looks like Snooks and the J-Wowwwwww are coming to Hoboken! About Town can't wait to party with them and pick their brains about SOPA. Apparently About Town is the only Hobokenite happy they may be coming. People are revolting, especially the young ones who've seen Jersey Shore. Hoboken's a classy town they say. Heck no to Snooki they say. Just like those loathsome lines of soccer moms clogging the sidewalk around Carlo's. What an abomination! Though inciting thousands of hooligans for St. Pat's Saturday, that's okay. Anyway, the things that slowed after New Year's are …
Four women who lost everything in a fire can begin restoring their lives thanks to some generous members of the Hoboken community. More than 75 people attended a benefit party at nightclub Room 84 on Friday night for the Jackson Street fire victims. “There is no way to say thank you,” Margaret Pauta, one of the victims said. “This is overwhelming. I'm so grateful.” Pauta attended the party with her roommate, Catherine Kim, as well as Anna Misiur and her roommate Nadia Nunez, who lived in the other apartment in the building. Guests to the party were asked to donate money in the amount of their…
This is going to be a memorable About Town, if for nothing else because we're writing it in a Starbucks at a train station in Washington DC. The scene is insufferable: clueless tourists, clunky luggage and chatty baristas. We're heading south, and we haven't heard anyone say youse guys in at least two hours. About Town is out of Hoboken for the next few days, a respite after hitting every holiday shindig everywhere in the city. There was our five-party odyssey last week, and our tete-a-tete with the local elephants and donkeys this week. We're so worn from all these late nights that we almost…
Clearly, the worst thing about having only two political parties in America is that come December, About Town only gets two holiday parties to attend. On Monday night we attended a party hosted by the Hoboken Democratic Committee. The Wednesday before we partied with the Republicans of Hoboken group. So that About Town can make no one happy by trying to make everyone happy, note that there are actually two GOP groups in town, and that the Democrats are split into what we call the Coke Democrats and the Pepsi Democrats. Before we tell you about who may or may not have slurred drunk karaoke, …
About Town went to five holiday parties on Thursday night, one in honor of every Cosby kid. To prepare we chugged coffee and exercised, then donned our finest and only suit and dress shoes, and splashed some Old Spice from daddy's old bottle. Then we pre-gamed at the Village Pourhouse. Our first stop at 6:30 was the Atlantic Environmental company party at the Chandelier Room. Host and Hoboken Chamber of Commerce president Michael Novak was there of course, and About Town also saw hMAG publisher Joe Mindak, Cultural Affairs director Geri Fallo, supermoms Peta Moran and Zabrina Stoffel, and …
Readers, this is actually the last column About Town is ever going to write for the Hoboken Patch. That's breaking news. Not even the Hoboken Patch editor knows this. See, About Town is leaving for L.A. with a ten-year, $254 million dollar contract. We're eager to become an aging, overpaid DH with diminished skills who people suspect is secretly five years older. Also, we're still drunk from last night. More on that later. The holiday party season has begun, and About Town is making the rounds. On Wednesday night we went to Teak on the Hudson for the Hoboken Shelter's annual silent auction. …
This year the Hoboken Rotary turned 90, and to celebrate the club threw a fancy party Saturday night at the Howe Center on the Stevens campus. The Hoboken chapter of the international service organization started in 1921, at the dawn of the disco age, when television had only three channels and you had to fax someone your Facebook friend request (or something like that). Of course About Town attended the party. We've always admired the Rotary for its work raising money for hospitals, awarding scholarships, promoting literacy and other worthy causes. This time the Rotary was raising money, …
In 1986 two important things happened. First, the Mets won the World Series. Second, the Hoboken Historical Museum opened. About Town loves the Museum. If you love Hoboken how could you not? It does a tremendous job of resurrecting the city's rich history. If you want to know about the Mile Square's heritage as an industrial hub, or as haven for immigrants, or about the birthplace of baseball or about the port that shipped millions of doughboys to war, visit the Museum. We were very excited then to attend the Museum's special “GalaPalooza25” 25th anniversary party in the ballroom of the W …
As a kid, About Town always had ideas for elaborate Halloween costumes that our Eastern European parents vetoed every time. They don't joke about scary things. They grew up terrified of Communist dictators, gypsies and roaming packs of wolves. Also they may or may not believe that Dracula is a real person. So that killed a lot of the fun about Halloween, and we developed an ambivalence towards the holiday. We don't dress up as an adult, and we sort of don't see the point. But other people like it, and so we made sure to attend a few of the many Halloween events this weekend in Hoboken. We …
The Manzo Brothers, Albie and Chris (OMG! The Manzos!) got to party last Friday at the Chandelier Room with Hoboken's other smoking hot celebrity, About Town. The brothers are known for appearing with their parents, who own the Brownstone catering company and reception hall, on the reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey. They moved to Hoboken last year. They've since enjoyed a first season of their spin-off webseries alongside roommate Greg Bennett, and are also busy working for their uncle's marketing company. The hosted the party Friday for new brand Tributo Tequila. Upon arriving …
About Town has a lot to say about attending New Jersey Fashion Week, so much that we're going to give you a special in two parts. Call it our White Album, without the acid, though as you'll see later we sure felt Sunday night that we swallowed some tabs. If you ain't hip to New Jersey Fashion Week, read first this prosaic account penned by About Town's less handsome alter ego. Readers of this column know that About Town has many interests, and fashion is one of them. We're fascinated by the process of putting together an outfit, including how to mix colors and accessories, and how people can …
(For Part One of this two-part About Town special on the second annual New Jersey Fashion Week, click here.) A lot of celebrities, from New Jersey and elsewhere, came to Hoboken to celebrate New Jersey Fashion week. About Town saw celebrity godmother Kim G. from the Real Housewives of New Jersey walk in multiple shows. We saw national boxing champ Eric Kelly and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, plus singer Lori Michaels, the Naked Cowboy and the Naked Cowgirl, Miss Teen America Katarina Kneer, socialite publicist Matt Martin and the suave Celebrity Magnet Tom Murro. We saw Food Network chef…
It's been a fun first year. Here are my ten favorite About Town articles, or the ones which I consider to be most important in building the column: My first City Council meeting (September): It was a heated meeting, though I wasn't shell-shocked or anything. Claire Moses, editor of Hoboken Patch, asked me to write my impression of it. She told me to get creative. I wrote thinking: I have to show these people what I can do. The Village Pourhouse grand opening party (November): I had been thinking I needed a go-to bar, and the Pourhouse made me feel at home. I've been going there ever since. A …
Dear readers, permit me to break the About Town royal we. This week brings an anniversary – time to reflect on my first year writing this column for Patch. I'm compelled to start with my life story. I always find ways to tell people about it. A few people in Hoboken know parts of it. I like stories, life ones most of all – everyone is the protagonist of his or her own novel. My life story is long like anyone's but I'll condense it here. I grew up in a working-class immigrant family. My parents were born with nothing and came to this country with nothing. I, however, had everything I needed …
Last week? Just About Town hanging with fashion designers, NBA players and reality TV peeps. We started Monday with the monthly New Jersey Tech Meetup gathering. About Town mingled at host Stevens Institute of Technology with regulars Bill Noonan and John Petersen and bragged about Hoboken to visiting entrepreneurs. During the presentation portion we sat next to the versatile Peta Moran. As always the meetup featured pitches from three start-up companies. This time saw Peerbelt, a search engine optimizer, Talisman, a college curriculum organizer, and Artsicle, a rent-to-own art vendor. The …
The fall festival! It's just like the one in the spring except possibly colder and if you go, you'll miss a couple of football games. Actually, the weather Sunday was serene. The rain everyone feared stayed away. Instead a gentle sun for short-sleeves. About Town avoided the awful burn we suffered from the spring festival. Apropos of faulty prognosticating, readers should also remember from that spring day the street presence of wild-signed charlatans portending the rapture in May, the second worst prediction this year after those who said the Sox would steal the East from the Yanks. This …
Fall is here! It's great! About Town loves cursing at cold mornings and having to wear extra layers. We got back to business last week. Lots of events. On Monday we watched the new Ibby's Falafel cut its grand opening ribbon. Councilwoman Jennifer Giattino, who represents the city's falafel district, was there. Also in attendance were Councilman David Mello and nearby residents Joe Branco, owner of Room 84/Scotland Yard, as well as Housing Authority Director Carmelo Garcia. You might have read the recent article on Patch about the so-called Hoboken falafel wars written by About Town's less …
The Italian Festival? Didn't we just have one last week? Or what about the thing this summer? Nope, this is Hoboken, there's always time for another Italian themed party. This particular one that started Thursday night is the festival that Molfettesse immigrants carried from their Adriatic port city home on the Achilles heel of the Italian boot to Hoboken 85 years ago. Here are fun facts about Molfetta courtesy of Wikipedia. The settlement dates to the Neolithic era and was governed or coveted at one time or another by the Byzantines, Saracens, Normans and Lombards. The current population is …
At the Spaghetti Dinner Thursday night, a lot of people asked About Town the same question: hey, where ya' been, I haven't seen you in a while. Well, we've been busy attending some special events. There was John and Jannel's baby shower, the 6th annual Black Sparrow League fantasy football draft, and the 19th biannual Townhouse Keg Race. We spent these events with old friends in Virginia, the land where About Town lived for twenty years before moving to Hoboken. If you didn't see us around, it's because we weren't. The Spaghetti Dinner was the first event we've covered in Hoboken in several …
