Montclair Magazine Back To School 2016 | Page 18

THE BUZZ ARTFUL IMBIBING 800-854-4644 There are a lot of pasta sauce competitors lining local grocery store shelves, but only one brand, we believe, that may be replenished following a Facebook message request. Montclair resident Brad Finkel, owner of Hoboken Farms, a vendor at over 30 New Jersey farmers’ markets, produces HOBOKEN FARMS BIG PASTA SAUCES; its Big Red Marinara Sauce was proclaimed best sauce in the country during a blind taste test by the Wall Street Journal. Kings Food Markets, Shoprite, Bed Bath & Beyond and Gristede’s in New York all carry his sauces, which include Big Boss Vodka and Big Basil varieties. Finkel suggests notifying him via 800 number or FB message when your market is sold out; he’s been known to make a local delivery or two. Van Gogh may not have 51 Upper Montclair Plaza, needed vino to produce art, Upper Montclair but for many of us… It doesn’t 862-500-1165 hurt. With ARTEVINO STUDIO, Upper Montclair now has a “paint and sip” setting where friends, families and groups can receive art instruction while listening to music and enjoying wine and beer. “It’s the BYOB alternative to going out to a bar or dinner,” says manager Kim Vitale. Acrylic painting classes designed for amateurs are taught by instructors who’re not only fun-loving, but have backgrounds in customer service as well as art, she says. Classes are open Thursday through Sunday evenings, can fit 40 participants, and are popular for Ladies Nights, bachelorette and kids’ birthday parties, bridal showers, fundraisers and corporate team-building events. DOLLYMOO FOLIAGE ON MAPLE A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME 80 Maple Ave., Montclair 973-783-7300 The name change – Exotic Foliage to FOLIAGE ON MAPLE – may seem small, but since buying the business earlier this year, owner Jesse Diaz has transformed the former warehouse, turning it into a large but welcoming florist’s shop. The business now caters not only to wholesale clients, but to walk-in customers, businesses large – PSE&G, Quest Diagnostics – and small, and event planners as well; it also offers landscaping services. Exoticism is still part of the business model; the store’s palm trees helped a bar mitzvah look like a Florida beach; $45,000-worth of their wares made a setting in New York’s Natural History Museum look like a prehistoric forest. And Foliage on Maple’s hibiscuses and sweet potato vines brighten up Bloomfield Avenue in downtown Montclair. 16 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE BACK TO SCHOOL 2016 HELLO, DOLLYMOO 217 Glenridge Ave., Montclair 973-655-0220 Hard at work, and wish you weren’t? Picture this: You’re getting into a tub infused with a DOLLYMOO bath bomb, soaking in mango and cocoa butter and fragrant oils. There; didn’t your blood pressure just go down? The real experience is far more relaxing, of course, and can be had by visiting the storefront opened by sisters Nicole Silva and Amy Rivera, where their homegrown products are created and sold. “Body scrubs and oils are our flagship products, and we can’t keep up with production on our bath bombs,” says Silva. Prices range from $5 for the Oatmeal Milk & Honey Bath Bomb to $24 for the Coconut Citrus Body Scrub. Items may also be shipped. BIG PASTA: HOBOKEN FARMS; ARTEVINO: ARTEVINO STUDIO; DOLLYMOO: NICOLE SILVA GO BIG (AND) GO HOME HOBOKEN FARMS BIG PASTA SAUCES ARTEVINO STUDIO