Spin, the ultra lounge, opened last month at Mizner Park.
Expect a menu of small plates. Photo provided
By Jan Norris
The fall brings a number of parties and galas to Boca Raton, with the big blow-out being Meet Me on the Promenade, set for Oct. 21 and 22 downtown.
Bring walking or dancing shoes to the two-day fest that kicks off what’s planned as a monthly party showcasing the Community Redevelopment Agency’s Downtown Pedestrian Promenade at Sanborn Square Park.
The enhanced roadways and sidewalks connect the north and south downtown shopping, cultural and entertainment areas: Palmetto Park Road, Northeast First Avenue, Boca Raton Road, Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place.
The city spent $5 million to repave streets, widen and landscape sidewalks and install pop-up bollards that can be raised to close off the streets around Sanborn Square, allowing for street fests and other community activities. The goal is to attract more foot traffic throughout the area that the marketers have dubbed “the new generation downtown — for all generations.”
Meet Me on the Promenade kicks off Friday night with a ribbon cutting, followed by an Official Downtown Boca Bop community line dance (call it a city flash mob performance), choreographed by the Fred Astaire Dance Studio. It’s sponsored by the Boca Raton Resort and Club. The party continues in Sanborn Square with live entertainment and family activities.
Saturday morning, Oct. 22, more than 6,000 walkers are set to join the American Cancer Society’s 10th Annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, starting in Mizner Park Amphitheater, and routed through the new downtown areas. Pink bras — a pink bra is the breast cancer awareness icon this year — are encouraged.
The walk will be followed by a “Sip and Stroll” around downtown, with a program and map handed out for self-guided strollers to check out the shops, galleries and restaurants within the area. Segway tours and trolley rides are available for those who’ve walked enough. The Boca Historical Society will narrate a walking tour through historic downtown Boca.
Exhibits and displays include fashion trunk shows, a classic and exotic car show by Cruz-N-America, an inaugural “Picture Boca Raton” open photography competition and an Art Attack Artist and Crafter’s Village Art Expo.
Food will be available with special “Promenade” menus at participating restaurants and from gourmet food trucks gathered for a rally here.
Giveaways and prizes also are part of the event; a special raffle by Luxury Cars of Boca for a Honda Insight EX hybrid, with $100 tickets, will be drawn. The money goes to the American Cancer Society.
Shops and galleries will be open late Saturday, and the event will wind down with another street dance finale.
Jennifer Lopez was in Palm Beach to film Parker.
Palm Beach was atwitter in September with Jennifer Lopez in town filming Parker, a film based on Donald Westlake’s book Flashfire. But Palm Beach wasn’t the only ritzy locale to be used as a backdrop to the movie, which also stars Jason Statham and Nick Nolte. The cast bunked in Boca Raton at the Resort and Club and filmed at One Thousand Ocean, the new luxury oceanfront condominium at the Boca Raton Inlet.
J. Lo plays a Realtor in the movie and wears a blue dress in some scenes very similar to one worn by the tres chic Senada Adžem, a top selling Realtor who this summer sold a penthouse at One Thousand Ocean for a record-setting $10.4 million. Is J. Lo taking style tips from Adzem, sometimes called the Marilyn Monroe of real estate? Don’t know. We do know J. Lo dined at the same ocean front eatery at the Boca Beach Club (next to the condominium) that Adžem frequents.
More One Thousand Ocean news: Tennis icon Venus Williams scored a big win in Boca, and this one isn’t on the tennis courts. One Thousand Ocean, has commissioned V*Starr Interiors of Jupiter (owned by Williams) to design a new model residence.
Jamie Telchin, president of development for LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels, said he was certain Williams’ team headed by senior project designer Sonya Haffey, will deliver “eye-catching interiors that will appeal to our discerning purchasers.”
Florida Atlantic University boosters and alums can celebrate the completion of the new stadium and the school’s 50th anniversary at a black-tie event at the stadium Oct. 29.
Event planners are creating four different party themes on different levels of the stadium to satisfy all ages of the former students.
On the plaza level, a beach resort theme will be the stage for the cocktail party.
At the priority level, a Copacabana high-energy supper club with dancing and live bands, and the auction lots will be set up.
FAU’s Jazz Ensemble with perform with Chloe Dolandis on the premier level. A tonier party, with seafood and caviar bars, gourmet food and a dance floor make this the black-tie worthy element for the party.
At the suite level, partygoers will find American bistro fare and student and faculty music performances.
There’s a “halftime show,” along with a multimedia presentation of the 50th Anniversary Book. Attendance is limited to 750; invites are in the mail.
There will be more Owls this year to fill the 30,000 seats at the new stadium, according to the FAU newsletter. Enrollment in the freshman class is at a record level, with more than 3,300 enrolled this fall — a 21 percent increase over last year. The school has more than 29,400 students in all classes this fall; 64 of those make up the new medical school’s first class.
A new student recreation and wellness center, and new apartment complex for students, along with the $70 million stadium give students something to cheer besides the Owls, who kick off their home season against Western Kentucky University Oct. 15.
For the football games, the FAU National Alumni Association is sponsoring the first official tailgating parties — curiously, indoors — at the Marleen and Harold Forkas Alumni Center.
The FOWL party starts three hours before every home game (Oct. 15 and 22, Nov. 5 and 26 and Dec. 3). Cost is $20 if you’re not an NAA member ($10 for kids 3-12).
Spin ultra lounge opened last month in Mizner Park, bringing an über chic, modern club to the area. Easter colors — hot pinks, corals, lime greens and violets are spread around the lounge.
Expect small plates: There are just enough eats to keep the drinkers out of trouble. Chef Jason Feinberg, formerly of Barton G in Miami, put together a menu of sharing plates: Spin (Kobe) sliders, steamed beef buns, short-rib flatbreads, snacks like truffled popcorn and a signature trail mix. Desserts are spirited: “Drunken” compressed melon and pineapple; “Coffee and doughnuts” beignets with Kahlua mousse.
A DJ rocks the house on Wednesday nights.
Another Mizner Park long-timer, Dennis Max, is opening a new casual Italian restaurant out west. Assaggio del Forno is slated to open late November in the Regency Court at Woodfield on Yamato Road.
Artisanal pizzas and small plates, along with pasta dishes, are on the menu, along with traditional fare. Max will add a salumi bar and serve fresh seafood and meat dishes. The restaurateur took inspiration from eateries in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
Headliners around town…The Theater and Jazz Series at the Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University kicks off Oct. 15. The season’s lineup was announced, with headliners Clint Holmes and Jack Jones, and the political satire group the Capitol Steps.
For classical music buffs, they offer up Bravo Amici and the Florida Grand Opera Young Artists. Season tickets are available online at http://our.lynn.edu or at the Wold box office. For more info, call 237-9000.
The Studio Theater at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center will host Broadway and Beyond, a night of Broadway favorite songs, with performer Mary D’Arcy, who played Christine, to Michael Crawford’s phantom, in Phantom of the Opera. Karl Jurman, musical director and conductor of The Lion King, will join her.
The concert is Oct. 20 and benefits the Schmidt Family Center for the Arts; general tickets are $50. For information, go to www.centre4artsboca.com.
Area resident and folk-rock musician of note Rod MacDonald will give eight lectures on “Music Americana — the Magic of Song” at the FAU Lifelong Learning Series, beginning Oct. 6.
His new CD, Songs of Freedom, was recently noted in Maverick magazine, where they called it a collection of songs that “inform, question, challenge and celebrate community.”
MacDonald, of Delray Beach, will perform at O’Connor’s in Delray Beach on Oct. 20 and at the Wishing Well in Boca Raton Oct. 21.
More information about the lectures is at www.rodmacdonald.net
Briefly: Plans are under way to complete the movie theater renovation at Mizner Park by late fall, according to Lief Ahnell, Boca Raton city manager. He reported on the project at a June CRA meeting. The theater was shuttered in January.
The third annual PROPEL Golf Classic is Oct. 20 at Boca Lago Country Club. The four-person scramble benefits PROPEL, (People Reaching Out to Provide Education and Leadership). A cocktail party with silent and live auction follows the golf games. Call 366-4705 or go to www.propelyourfuture.org.
Boca Raton’s Greenmarket returns for its season beginning Oct. 8, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Vendors set up in the southeast corner of the parking area of Royal Palm Place. Emily Lilly is in charge of the market, run in conjunction with the Boca Children’s Museum through mid-May. Call 868-6875.
Jan Norris is a freelance writer. Contact her at www.jannorris.com. Thom Smith is on assignment.
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