Later this month, the PBS show “Ideas in Action With Jim Glassman” will feature Marsh ROTC in an episode about what schools are doing to end the drop-out rate. Since ROTC and Coach David Bates came to Marsh in 1999, the students involved have performed better academically, and they’re staying in school. What’s more – the program receives barely any funding from the district, which pays for Bates’ salary, and that’s it. So, it’s no surprise that Marsh is a shining example of what a school can do with limited money and resources.

Most recently, the ROTC has been raising funds to establish a military museum, which we wrote about in our October 2011 issue. It’s a student-driven project that will help Marsh’s ROTC play a role in educating younger kids in the district while also honoring neighborhood veterans. They’re still collecting memorabilia. Call Bates at 214.549.1826 or stop by the school, which is at 3838 Crown Shore.

Check out this Advocate video to learn more about the museum:

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The 10th person to email “Bonjour Advocate” to mriney@advocatemag.com gets the tickets. On your mark, get set, GO!

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Brent Kollock's "The Age of Communication".

Garden Happy Hour is 4-6 p.m. Friday at North Haven Gardens, featuring local wine from Times Ten Cellars, beer and light appetizers. Get your gardening questions answered, and stick around for some giveaways.

Norwood Flynn Gallery presents “Painting as a Metaphor: An Artist Talk by Brent Kollock” at 7 p.m. Saturday. Kollock is a University Park resident and SMU grad. He’ll discuss his paintings and drawings, comparing literary metaphors and visual metaphors. The reception runs 6-8:30 p.m.

Stay up for Midnight Madness at the Inwood Theatre on Friday and Saturday. This week, it presents the cult classic, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Tickets are $10.

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White wines from France’s Rhone region aren’t particularly well known and, at least in this country, don’t get all that much respect. You don’t see many of them on store shelves or restaurant wine lists, and you don’t see many of them reviewed, for that matter.

Which is a shame, given that white Rhones are usually different and interesting, and that’s something I’m always looking for. The Belleruche ($12, purchased, available at Spec’s), from one of the Rhone’s largest producers, has always been one of my favorite wines for just that reason. When I can find it, of course.

This is a previous vintage, and the extra year of bottle age has given the wine, a blend of grenache blanc, clairette and bourboulenc, a little more character. There is lots of white pepper, some oiliness and just a hint of a green fruit, like lime or apple. This is a not a white wine for people who need something fruit forward, like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, but it’s not supposed to be.

And don’t worry that you haven’t heard of the grapes used to make it — almost no one who isn’t in the wine business has heard of them, either. Which is another reason why the wine is so interesting, and that’s three more grapes for your Wine Century Club effort. Chill this and drink it on its own or with something like goat cheese; roast pork with apples would be terrific, too.

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Post tags: Chapoutier, French wine, Rhone wines, white wine, wine of the week, wine reviews

In a press release announcing the store’s grand opening at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, Central Market senior vice president Stephen Butt noted that squeezing Central Market’s prototype into the former Borders location took some creativity, and the most obvious place to look for inspiration was New York City, ” a place with great grocery stores built into smaller square footage,” he says. The Central Market team spent months traveling to New York “to study the most innovative delis and grocery concepts to learn how to pack the most flavor into every square foot,” Butt says.

The Preston Royal Central Market will also draw from the Big Apple with an on-site bakery featuring traditional “boiled then baked” bagels and new bialys, and artisan salumi from NYC-based Charlito’s Cocina. Even with these new features, Butt promises that the smaller store also will “have everything our customers have come to love about Central Market.”

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The idea was born out of the J Camp and Early Childhood directors looking for more ways to get children out from in front of the television and into nature. Julie and Jay Liberman led a committee that came up with the vision and found local donors to help fund the project.

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Sabine Schennach of Austria takes measurements for her own yarn bombing project. (courtesy photo)

You’ve probably seen the reports about the Dallas Yarn Bombers who go around town colorfully knitting streetscapes. In September, they made an even bigger splash at the Winspear Opera House, which inspired a similar project thousands of miles away.

Neighbor Judy Smith is a W.T. White High School host parent for Stephanie Schennach, an exchange student from Austria. Stephanie took pictures of the Winspear project and sent them home to her mom Sabine Schennach, who is now starting her own yarn bombing effort around her neighborhood.

She’s calling it Project Dallas, in honor of our own yarn bombers. Sabine has been going around taking measures with a photographer in tow.

So, through a connection with our neighborhood school, a little slice of Dallas creativity has made its way to Europe.

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Post tags: Advocate Magazine, advocatemag.com, arts_events, local_business, preston_hollow

Mimi's Pizzeria Mimi’s Pizzeria now open Dallas-based Mimi’s Pizzeria is now open next to El Fenix at Hillcrest and Northwest Highway. Open for lunch and dinner, Mimi’s boasts New York-style pizza, which is typically large, thin and foldable. There are also homemade pastas, subs, calzones and salads, plus it’s BYOB. Stop by on Feb. 21 for the grand opening celebration and get half-priced pizzas.

Get in Contact • Mimi’s Pizzeria 6807 W. Northwest Hwy. 972.215.7290 • The Shops at Park Lane Park and Greenville • MesoMaya 11909 Preston 469.726.4390 • Dougherty’s Pharmacy 11970 N. Central 469.248.1000 • Spec’s Liquor 9500 N. Central 214.369.2800 • Send business news tips to livelocal@advocatemag.com

Plans announced for northwest corner of Walnut Hill/Central
A walkable, urban development with new retailers Dallas has never seen —that’s the plan for the 42-acre site at the northwest corner of Walnut Hill and Central Expressway. “We are talking with some very cool tenants that aren’t in the market right now,” says Leon Backes, president and owner of Provident Realty. The company has partnered with the Missouri-based Kroenke Holdings, which bought the land in fall 2010. Backes cannot comment yet on any specific tenants interested in the development, but it includes housing, a bank, “very nice restaurants” and a “relatively small” anchor. Backes confirms there will be no big-box stores at all, minimal surface parking and a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere with a plaza, water features and high-quality landscaping. The development will happen in stages over the next several years, and the first stage will make up about one-third of the project.

Bloomingdale’s, The Outlet Store to open at The Shops at Park Lane
The Shops at Park Lane has announced that Bloomingdale’s, The Outlet Store will open this spring. The new 25,000-square-foot store, located across from Nordstrom Rack and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, will offer women’s, men’s and children’s clothing; women’s shoes; fashion accessories, jewelry, handbags and intimate apparel.

MesoMaya launches brunch menu
MesoMaya, the new Mayan/Mexican restaurant that opened a few months ago at Preston and Forest under the leadership of the people behind El Fenix, is now open for brunch from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Dishes include chilaquiles rojos, chorizo con papas and huevos rancheros from Cuba Libre’s former chef, Nico Sanchez. The tortillas and tamales at MesoMaya are always made from scratch.

More business bits

1 Preston and Royal’s beloved Dougherty’s Pharmacy has opened a second location on North Central near Medical City.

2 Houston-based Spec’s Liquor has opened its first North Texas store at Walnut Hill and Central.

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The Victim: Kathie Taub and area homeowners
The Crime: Criminal mischief
Date: Thursday, Dec. 22
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: 11900 block of Tavel

The markings, some sort of Eastern letters, were certainly out of place. The colorful top-to-bottom scripted graffiti was now visible in two areas of Kathie Taub’s 12000 Preston Road Homeowners Association neighborhood near Preston and Willow. She knew it was time to call police.

Taub first noticed the graffiti on a traffic light box near her neighborhood. A few weeks later, the scrawl appeared again on a brick wall that stretches the boundaries of the entire neighborhood.

Police told her that was no gang activity in her area, and there was not much they could do as far as tracking down the person responsible.

“There’s really no crime in our area, and it was just unusual for our neighborhood. It’s definitely not good to have that up in your neighborhood,” she says of the graffiti.

Taub says she was worried that if the “taggings” were left up, more would follow. With that in mind, she planned to call the police after the holidays to inquire about removing the graffiti from the traffic light box, and planned on removing the graffiti from the neighborhood wall herself.

Dallas Police Lt. Richard Dwyer of the North Central Patrol Division visited the area several days later, but believes it had been removed already.

“Without seeing it, I really can’t comment on whether it was ‘tagging’ or ‘gang’ markings,” he says.

Dwyer notes that graffiti can be removed as part of the department’s Graffitti Wipeout Program. For more information on the program, visit dallaspolice.net and access the “crime information” section.

Crime numbers

01.12

Date when someone broke into Campisi’s on Lovers Lane through the back door but stole nothing

$25

Amount of cash stolen from a man at knifepoint in the parking lot of his apartment at Midway and LBJ Freeway

5:30 a.m.

About the time on New Year’s Day when someone set a woman’s car on fire using fireworks near Northwest Highway and Marsh

Source: Dallas Police Department

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