Bala Cynwyd

Allegresse (French for "gaiety") was opened eight years ago by by the Brothers Wakim - Joseph, George and Michel. Business must have been good because they started another restaurant in 1984 called Evviva, just up the road. Allegresse has an elegant, turn-of-the-century French look with floral wallpaper, gilded mirrors and a rosewood wine cabinet that separates the two main dining rooms. Brass chandeliers and bonneted sconces provide soft lighting. Tables have attractive flower arrangements and chairs are very comfortable.

Two food-knowledgeable friends get credit for sniffing out Tartufo for me. The couple lives in Narberth but said that they rarely dined in the area until tiny Tartufo, Italian for truffle, arrived in nearby Bala Cynwyd and lured them away from their favorite Center City restaurants. Tartufo's owner is French/Italian, young and a talented chef. This is his first restaurant, and in less than two years he has made many friends. On a recent weekday, for example, we were earliest to arrive - before the place opened, actually - so there was ample opportunity to study the steady stream of patrons who followed us in the door.

LOUISA IS TOO embarrassed for me to use her real name. Like many victims of con artists, she is ashamed of being stupid and greedy, when she is really neither. Louisa - scalpel-sharp at 73, after a long career as a medical secretary and administrative assistant - was worked over by two fast-talking pros. In the early afternoon two weeks ago, as Louisa was piling groceries in her car outside the Acme in Bala Cynwyd, she was approached by a 40ish African-American woman in smart business attire holding a black clutch bag. Diana, she said her name was. Diana said she had found the handbag and asked Louisa if it was hers.

St. John's Episcopal Church, 404 Levering Mill Rd., Bala Cynwyd, will celebrate its 130th anniversary with an open house from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Brief tours of the church highlighting its Gothic architecture and stained- glass windows will be held at 1:15, 2:15, 3:15 and 4:15 p.m. There will be organ concerts at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. There will be a bake sale, with proceeds to benefit the Union Fire Company. There will be face painting and balloons for children, who can pet the church's llama, which doubles as a camel during the Christmas pageant.

A Bala Cynwyd company was accused yesterday of violating the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba by selling a chemical used in water purification to three foreign companies for eventual shipment to Cuba. Brotech Corp., which also operates as Purolite Corp., grossed $2.1 million from sales of ion-exchange resins to Cuba between 1992 and 2000, the 77-count indictment said. A federal grand jury charged the company and three of its officers with violating the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917 and Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

For the fifth straight year, the Bala Cynwyd Middle School won first place in the annual Southeastern Pennsylvania Academic Pentathlon held at Methacton High School in May. This year the team scored a record 23,499 points out of a possible 30,000 points in math, literature, social science and writing an impromptu essay. Besides winning more than 30 medals, the students also won the Super Quiz, in which the topic was astronomy, scoring 4,600 out of a possible 6,000 points. Eight schools from Southeastern Pennsylvania participated in the fifth annual competition.

When Ciemex-Wefa was launched in 1969, many Americans regarded Mexico as little more than a cheap vacation haunt with plenty of sun. The founders of Ciemex at the University of Pennsylvania viewed Mexico differently. To them, it was a developing nation with a wealth of economic potential. But they couldn't be certain. Little, if any, statistical information existed on Mexico's economy. So they set out to fill the void. Armed with note pads and pencils, teams of specialists gathered statistics on everything from production, distribution and consumption of Mexico's goods and services to wages, salaries and interest rates.

Fire from a cooking stove heavily damaged the Houlihan's restaurant in Bala Cynwyd during the dinner hour Wednesday. Fire officials said one person was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Flames got into the ceiling and heavy smoke spread as far as an 11-story office building next door. Both the restaurant and the office building were evacuated. The fire was reported at 5:45 p.m. Lower Merion Fire Chief Chas McGarvey said the restaurant, 555 E. City Ave., was likely to be closed for "some time" because of the damage.

Ira J. Pressman, 64, of Bala Cynwyd, was charged Friday in connection with an alleged $6 million Ponzi scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Pressman defrauded 20 investors out of more than $6 million between June 2006 and February, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said. Court papers alleged that since 2006, Pressman ran a company called PJI Distribution Corp.; the papers alleged the firm claimed it bought and sold closeout and overstock merchandise, but did not. Pressman solicited customers to invest in the closeout deals, promising returns of up to 100 percent a year; instead, Memeger said, Pressman used new investors' money to pay returns to earlier investors, and for his own benefit.

With a tumultuous flourish of his arm and a flick of his wrist, Matthew Phillips last week realized his lifelong dream of becoming a symphony conductor. Less than two years after graduating from the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University, Phillips made his debut Wednesday night as conductor of the newly formed Bala Cynwyd Symphony, whose 65 members range from doctors to homemakers and are from countries as diverse as the Dominican Republic, Japan and England. "Because of the difficulty, by the time you get a major position as conductor you can be 50. And I'm impatient, so I started an orchestra with the hopes of building it to a regional level," said the 24-year-old Phillips of Bala Cynwyd.