HughE Dillon: Best of Philly Party
Best of Philly Party • Thursday, July 28th
Thursday night at Vie, the newly renovated building that once housed the Wilkie car dealership, Philadelphia magazine held its 2011 Best of Philly Party for the winners and special invited guests. The space will eventually become the Cescaphe event hall, with nearby space being turned into Stephen Strarr and Marc Vetri restaurants. Below: Dave Maser escorted friend and artist Ellen Rohlfing along the red carpet.
Many of the guests are the movers and shakers of the city. I spotted a few politicians as well as the new owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer building, Bart Blatstein. Who knows? Maybe one of these pretty women might call it home one day. Below: Erica Busch, Leigh Rubin and Meredith Sable. Leigh is the graphic designer who created the logo on the cookies that were included in the gift bag, which I didn’t receive because I am always the last to leave a party for some reason.
Below: From the Vetri organization, Jeff Benjamin, Marc Vetri, and Best Chef winner Jeff Michaud from Osteria. One of my favorite Best of Philly categories was “best place to take a last date,” which went to R2L, ’cause no matter how traumatic, the view will linger on for the both of you.
Below: Stephanie Bacharach, Katie Cavuto-Boyle (whose restaurant, Healthy Bites, won for Best Breakfast Sandwich; she looks fabulous after giving birth to a boy just nine weeks ago, but she is a dietitian after all), Michele Seidman, Fox 29’s Jenn Frederick, and Meredith Hoffman.
Below: Stephen Starr brought his daughters Sophie and Sarah to the party. In fact it was sorta a family night at the party as Seth Williams brought his daughter Taylor, and David Katz from Meme (Best Brunch winner) brought his young son Ezra. And I know I saw someone bring in a baby carriage. The Starr organization picked up four wins this year, including for the french fries at Continental Midtown.
Below: Carrie Nork Minelli, Sabrina Tamburino Thorne (who had a sidebar in the issue of her own “Best of Philly,” which included Barclay Prime and Table 31), Tamar Olitksy and Scott Barnes. Scott just zipped back to Philly with minutes to spare as he had been in NYC finalizing details for the launch of Starr Events in NYC.
Below: District Attorney Seth Williams with daughter Taylor; State Rep. Tony Payton Jr.; Fox 29’s Mike Jerrick; party guest; Danny Cevallos; and Stephanie Larranagel.
Below: James Van Der Beek and wife, Kimberly. Van Der Beek is in town filming a movie called Backwards. This week they are doing all of their shoots along Kelly Drive and in the Schuylkill River. After the party Thursday night, the duo headed off to the Hamptons to attend the Baby Buggy event, which supports a nonprofit founded by Jessica Seinfeld. Jersey’s own Kelly Ripa attended too. I wonder if they talked about where the best cheesesteak could be had, ’cause as of Thursday night James told me he hadn’t had one yet.
Below: Ronald Pettie and Erica Atwood. Erica is right on target with the printed dress; these black-and-white numbers seem to be the new black for the summer parties.
Below: Marc Vetri’s parents, Sol and Barbara Vetri, made it an early night—I caught them leaving as I was making my way in. Always lovely people.
Below: 6ABC executive producer Mara Webb and 4 p.m. anchor Alicia Vitarelli. Mara just participated in a boxing segment that was featured last week on 6ABC with Adam Josephs and Brian Taff. She tells me that it’s much harder than you think, but very enjoyable.
Find more pics from last Thursday’s party at PhillyChitChat.
HughE Dillon covers parties, events and more for the Philly Post. Follow him on Twitter @iPhillyChitChat. Visit his daily online social diary PhillyChitChat.com.