Latest news with #Sips
Axios
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Historic Ruan space revived for Sips in the City
Sips in the City, one of Winefest Des Moines' most anticipated events, is returning downtown this year with a fresh twist — it's happening inside the newly renovated Ruan Pavilion at the Ruan Center. Why it matters: This is the first time the Ruan Pavilion — a former bank lobby turned office space — is being used for Sips, marking a new chapter for the used downtown venue. Ruan Center officials aim to transform the 11,000-square-foot space into a regular events destination. Catch up quick: The Ruan Center, added to the National Register of Historic Places this year, encompasses the 600 block of Grand and Locust avenues. The 36-story office building includes the Pavilion and the adjacent 14-story Two Ruan, which is under residential redevelopment. Flashback: The pavilion space was once a bustling public area with bank tellers. Over the decades, it was sectioned off for private offices until 2021, when those offices were relocated and the open space was mainly used for Ruan Center employee activities, building manager Jona Schmidt tells Axios. State of play: Ruan officials recognized the potential for an events space following a Des Moines Metro Opera gala there last year. Sips will help them assess possible future enhancements, Schmidt said. Zoom in: Sips was at Smash Park in West Des Moines in recent years and is moving downtown partly in response to guest feedback, Winefest board member Chris Diebel tells Axios. If you go: 6-9pm June 13.
Business Journals
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Dining news: Rita's Italian Ice launches new flavor; Tela's to close in Fairmount
By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . Join the Philadelphia Business Journal to unlock even more insights! As one Fairmount restaurant prepares to close, two ice cream shops are readying to open in Rittenhouse Square. With the weather warming up, Stephen Starr's seasonal Parisian cafe is set to return for its fourth year and Center City District is bringing back its annual Sips summer happy hour. Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard is adding a new limited-time flavor ahead of summer, and two new ice cream shops are ready to open in Rittenhouse Square. Here's what you need to know about the Greater Philadelphia dining scene this week: GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Rita's launches new flavor Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard added a soda-inspired flavor ahead of the summer season. The Trevose-headquartered dessert maker started selling a limited-time cola Italian Ice at all of its locations across the country on Friday. The new flavor is meant to give customers the taste of "old-school cola nostalgia." Rita's new flavor will also be served in a Cola Float Gelati, made with layers of cola Italian Ice and vanilla frozen custard, and a Twisted Cola Blender that tops the cola Italian ice with CocoLime Cream. With the blender, Rita's aims to jump on a recent social media trend of beverage experimentation, Rita's senior director of marketing Madalyn Weintraub said in a statement. Last month, Rita's launched a limited-time Skittles Italian ice and Skittles Pop'd freeze-dried candy topping in partnership with the rainbow-colored candy's owner Mars Inc. expand Tela's Market & Kitchen in Fairmount will shutter next month after more than 11 years in operation. Google Maps Tela's closing in Fairmount Fairmount restaurant Tela's Market & Kitchen plans to close its doors next month. The concept will shutter after brunch service on May 4, owners Daniel and Alex Greenberg announced in a social media post on April 21. Tela's is located on the ground floor of 1833 Fairmount Ave., an apartment building developed by Daniel's North Broad Living. In the post, the Greenbergs said it is "simply time to move on" after more than 11 years of running the eatery. "We will miss the breakfast meetings, our laptop remote-workers, our happy hour and dinner guests, our bottle-shop wine customers, and our weekend brunch crowd," the owners wrote. The Greenbergs added that they hope to share who is moving into the Tela's space in the coming months. Tela's Market & Kitchen opened in late 2013. The concept offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hour and weekend brunch. expand Brooklyn-based ice cream shop Malai will make its Philadelphia debut next month when it opens a location in Rittenhouse Square. Morgan Ione Yeager Malai, Weckerly's ready for Rittenhouse debuts Two ice cream shops are preparing to open in Rittenhouse Square next month. Fishtown spot Weckerly's Ice Cream will debut at 1600 Spruce St. on May 9. The following week, Brooklyn-born South Asian shop Malai will open to the public on May 17 at 260 S. 18th St. Weckerly's Rittenhouse Square shop, first reported by the Business Journal last fall, will serve up to 24 rotating small-batch ice cream flavors, along with its traditional ice cream sandwiches and to-go pints. This new location, however, will expand its offerings by selling coffee, tea, vegan ice cream flavors, and soft-serve ice cream. Owner and CEO Christina Torres took over Weckerly's in late 2023. Since then, she has expanded the business with a second location in the King of Prussia Mall. expand Weckerly's Ice Cream will open at 1600 Spruce St. next month. Weckerly's Ice Cream Malai's Philadelphia outpost will span 1,500 square feet and seat 15 people inside. The ice cream shop was founded in 2015 by Pooja Bavishi, a Pennsylvania native and winner of Food Network's Chopped Sweets competition. Bavishi will offer a new flavor, Cinnamon Honeybun, for the Philadelphia shop's opening. The ice cream flavor is inspired by Tastykake's Honey Buns. Quick bites: Cherry Hill Jewish delicatessen The Kibitz Room has opened its second location in King of Prussia. The 128 Town Center Road restaurant is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. has opened its second location in King of Prussia. The 128 Town Center Road restaurant is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Philadelphia-born chain Federal Donuts & Chicken opened its first location in South Jersey at 300 Route 73 S. in Marlton on Friday. The fried chicken, coffee and donut shop is the first of four locations for franchisees Mark Heinz and Debbie Grady, with another lease signed for an undisclosed location in Princeton. opened its first location in South Jersey at 300 Route 73 S. in Marlton on Friday. The fried chicken, coffee and donut shop is the first of four locations for franchisees Mark Heinz and Debbie Grady, with another lease signed for an undisclosed location in Princeton. Center City District's Sips returns for its 21st season on June 4. The popular summertime happy hour will run every Wednesday through Aug. 27 from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring food and drink discounts at dozens of bars and restaurants throughout the city. returns for its 21st season on June 4. The popular summertime happy hour will run every Wednesday through Aug. 27 from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring food and drink discounts at dozens of bars and restaurants throughout the city. Restaurateur Stephen Starr's Parisian outdoor eatery Café Click will reopen at the Comcast Center Plaza for the summer season on May 5. The cafe will serve lunch and dinner on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. through October. will reopen at the Comcast Center Plaza for the summer season on May 5. The cafe will serve lunch and dinner on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. through October. The Asian American Chamber of Commerce is launching a new 10-day initiative called Asian Eats. Running May 1-11, the program will include special food and beverage menus at restaurants throughout Philadelphia's Chinatown neighborhood, with the goal of highlighting neighborhood concepts during AAPI Heritage Month. In case you missed it: Sign up here for the Philadelphia Business Journal's free newsletters, and download our free app for breaking news alerts.
South China Morning Post
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong hosting World's 50 Best Bars is proof its drinks scene is on the up
It's an exciting time to be in Hong Kong for enthusiastic imbibers like myself. A few weeks ago, it was announced that the World's 50 Best Bars awards will be hosted in the city for the first time, on October 8. Advertisement Having previously hosted two editions of Asia's 50 Best Bars, in 2023 and 2024 (both at Rosewood Hong Kong), the city has been upgraded to welcome the world's finest bartenders, following in the footsteps of London, Barcelona, Singapore and Madrid. Not bad for a place that, post-pandemic, had struggled to convince wary tourists that we had some serious 'night vibes' going on. The image is helped by Hong Kong's own Bar Leone in Sheung Wan being crowned Asia's Best Bar in 2024, and runner-up in the world edition of the awards a few months later. It only seems fair to bring the party back to this side of the world. Bar Leone was awarded the best bar in Asia at the Asia's 50 Best Bars awards. Photo: World's 50 Best Bars And this year, when the world's most discerning drinkers descend upon Hong Kong, they'll have a new spot to flock to. Advertisement Timed perfectly for their arrival is a new project by Bar Leone's Lorenzo Antinori, who has teamed up with Simone Caporale of Barcelona's Sips, which was crowned World's Best Bar in 2023 and is currently ranked third.
Chicago Tribune
08-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Crystal Lake native's entrepreneurial spirit infused with her passion for coffee
Stefania Marzelia remembers taking her first sip of coffee over 10 years ago at a diner with her paternal grandfather, who she described as a 'huge coffee drinker.' She said a weekend at her grandparents' house meant the constant waft of 'around-the-clock caffeine.' That day, her grandfather encouraged the then-teenager to try the local diner's brew. 'I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but I took a sip and was like, 'Wow, I really like this,'' Marzelia said. At first, like so many others just starting out, Marzelia said she was a 'sweet coffee drinker,' noting that she would take her 'cream and sugar with a little bit of coffee.' As she grew older, she said she started to enjoy the flavor of black coffee more and more but believes there is 'always room' for some fun. She discovered much of that fun while working as a barista in high school and college. Now, Marzelia, 25, is the founder and owner of Sips, a business she started in October that offers freshly made syrups with minimal ingredients for coffee and other foods. The syrups, which are gluten and dairy-free, are flavored to be complementary to a traditional cup of coffee or espresso beverage but can be used in a number of innovative ways from desserts to non-coffee drinks. She said she 'always had a kind of entrepreneurial spirit.' 'I've always been one to step up and be the leader or problem solver,' Marzelia said. 'It's kind of fueled me and motivated me to never let anyone tell me that I can't do something.' Her entrepreneurial spirit poured into her passion for coffee, and Sips was born. Marzelia has maintained a presence on social media since 2020, sharing funny stories from her barista days and her own coffee crafts and espresso hacks. Gale Parmelee is a Sips customer from just outside of Portland, Maine, and has been following Marzelia on social media since before Sips' inception. Parmelee said coffee 'fuels my life,' so when he stumbled across Marzelia on TikTok and Instagram, he said he enjoyed her 'barista-based' videos. Parmelee said the major difference he noticed after trying Sips syrups is the feeling he has afterward, compared to 'those mass-produced coffee syrups and flavors that make you feel a little run down.' Parmelee said he loves when his Sips order arrives. 'You can just tell when someone has a passion for something, and Stefania has a passion for coffee and I love supporting people through their passion,' he said. Marzelia has built her following on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube — over 800,000 followers across all three platforms — since 2020 and continues to create content. She said she especially enjoys conversations with baristas through her platforms. Early in 2024, she put together a coffee bar in her apartment and stocked it with store-bought syrups until she decided one day to make her own. She started experimenting, perfecting and sharing online her recipes for homemade syrups and how to use them to make cafe-quality beverages at home. The first syrup she posted about was the vanilla bean syrup, which Marzelia said is now one of Sips' best-sellers, using real Madagascar vanilla beans that she special orders. After that, she was flooded with followers suggesting other flavors and she began introducing a new line of syrups every week or two. She put out flavors such as bananas foster, lavender and earl gray. 'All these different, unique flavors people were seeing and they were intrigued,' Marzelia said. 'One video kind of hit the algorithm and picked up steam, and suddenly I was getting tons of comments from people saying I should start a business.' Marzelia said she knew she would love to eventually build out her brand around coffee, 'but it's really funny how one day turns into today.' Since its launch, Sips has had a few rounds of syrup 'drops,' which Marzelia said tend to be inspired by the season. Current flavors include tiramisu and chocolate-covered strawberry. A Sips 'classics trio' order comes with vanilla bean, warm brown sugar and hazelnut toffee. Sips also sells coffee, such as a Gold Coast medium roast and a Bronzeville dark roast. The beans come from a coffee roaster in Connecticut that Marzelia said she found and decided to partner with. She said Sips' roots are in Chicago and her customers, who are based all over the country, like to learn more about the city, thus the spotlight on Chicago neighborhoods. There was a State Street holiday blend during the winter season. Marzelia said she is working on the spring drop, with plans to release a light roast as well as a decaf option. 'My goal is to really incorporate something for everybody,' she said. Delen Potter, a customer from Buffalo, New York, uses Sips syrups in hot chocolate and baking because she is not a coffee drinker. She said using one of the syrups as an extract in recipes is a game-changer. Her favorite so far was an apple cinnamon crisp syrup that is no longer available, but she said she is 'begging' for it to be brought back. Potter said she used a bit of that flavoring in french toast and it gave the meal a 'nice twist.' Potter not only appreciates that Sips products are gluten free, because of an intolerance she has, but also that she is backing a small business. 'She actually cares about the ingredients that she's using and is making her dreams come true the right way,' Potter said. In addition to its website, Sips products are available at Chicago Health Foods in the Gold Coast and collaborations with other city businesses are 'on the way,' Marzelia said. Sinisa Rasberger is the owner of Chicago Health Foods and said he prides himself on supporting local entrepreneurs in the health and wellness arena. When Marzelia reached out for a partnership, he couldn't refuse. 'I really liked her enthusiasm, her business plan,' Rasberger said. 'I like that she is not a lawyer starting a restaurant but somebody who's been a barista for so long and actually knows what she's doing and found the niche that I very much appreciate as someone who is fighting against all these preservatives and sweeteners.' Rasberger said the Sips products he has tried 'taste very clean, very tasty, and you can tell that they're genuine.' Sips ships to all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and Marzelia said she wants to expand to international markets because a good portion of her online following comes from Canada, Europe and other parts of the globe. Marzelia grew up in Crystal Lake, which she said was like other major suburbs in that there were 'a lot of Starbucks around.' After she turned 16, she went around town applying for jobs and ended up working at the Starbucks inside a local Target. At the time, she said she 'didn't really know a whole lot about serving coffee,' and her Starbucks savvy started and ended with cake pops and pastries. Then, suddenly, she was a barista. 'I had no intention of becoming a barista; I went to Target to apply for a cashier position, but the opportunity really just fell in my lap,' Marzelia said. She ended up working at a couple of Starbucks stores in the area before she graduated from Crystal Lake South High School in 2018 and went off to college, during which time she continued to work as a barista. 'Ever since I accepted that position at 16 to be a barista, coffee honestly feels like the main focus of my life,' she said. 'It's been such a huge part of my life and how I've developed my social skills and my customer service skills. I credit being a barista for a lot of who I am today.' Marzelia first went to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for about a year before transferring to the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She was there for a little longer than a semester when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and she went home to Crystal Lake. Eventually, she went back to Iowa for a couple more years then moved to Chicago in 2022 while finishing her last semester of college virtually and earning her degree in entrepreneurship. Marzelia has since been living in Chicago and currently resides in Greektown with her partner. For about a year after she moved to the city, Marzelia worked at Caffè Umbria in River North, which shifted her perspective, going from working for a corporation to a coffee shop that is locally owned. 'I had to unlearn certain things that I had known, and I was taught the true art of brewing a quality espresso shot,' Marzelia said. 'There was an emphasis on quality over quantity, on slowing down and really producing a cup of coffee or a latte that you're proud of serving.' She was inspired by the syrups and spice blends made in house at the coffee shop and that inspired her to create her own syrups using minimal and high-quality ingredients. 'I remember when I was working at Starbucks and was in charge of putting away orders and I would see the ingredients list on the back of some of these coffee syrups and sauces and thinking how are these ingredients even pronounced,' Marzelia said. She wants the Sips experience to be noticeably different, she said, where a customer never has that kind of reaction to her product's ingredients list and recipe. Marzelia, who said she wears 'every hat imaginable' in running her business, gets help from a couple of people, including her previous manager from Cafe Umbria and her mom. 'It's a small but mighty team right now, and I'm just so grateful for them,' Marzelia said. Sips currently operates from a 200-square-foot private kitchen within the Hatchery, a nonprofit food and beverage business incubator in East Garfield Park. The syrups are all made, packaged and shipped from the kitchen. The coffee is roasted fresh every week and comes to the local kitchen packaged and labeled, ready to be shipped. Looking into the future, Marzelia would like to see Sips grow into a physical cafe or coffee truck where she can share her products 'through an actual beverage.' 'I'm so grateful for where we're at and love everything that we're doing now, and there's been so much learned and probably a million things we still have to learn, but eventually, I really do see Sips growing into an in-person experience,' she said.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chocolate walk encourages shopping local ahead Valentine's Day
PERRY, Iowa — The annual Chocolate Walk brought together shops in Perry encouraging people to shop local ahead Valentine's Day. If you're wondering where to get your special someone that special something, Perry makes it a walk in the park. Held the second Saturday of February, this year the walk celebrated 22 years. 'We just appreciate everyone coming out and enjoying this. It's been going on for 22 years now, so it's a fun tradition for people to enjoy and explore what's new,' said Lynsi Pasutti, owner of Mary Rose Collective. Tradition is born; Paper Super Bowl kicks off weekend celebrations 20 shops took part in the walk offering boutiques, chocolate stores, and florists. Each year the walk grows with shops like Sips and TCG Planet joining the route this year. 'We have five new businesses on the chocolate walk this year, and so it's a great opportunity to get people in, see and explore new stores that they might not have known existed,' said Pasutti. The Farm Store and Bakery even gave shoppers a sneak peek into their store, which is due to open soon. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
