Bar Stools

The Cubby Hole, a coffeehouse on East Main Street, is true to its name. The dining area is no more than 200 square feet. It is big enough for two round tables, one by the bay window and the other about four feet away near the kitchen entrance, as well as for four bar stools along a counter that lines the wall opposite the door. "We tried to put in five bar stools," said Barbara Callaway, who owns and operates the Cubby Hole with her fiance, Jeff Baker. "But that was too much of a squeeze.

Nickname: LoLo. Age: 45. Neighborhood: Bensalem. Job: Beautyworx Salon & Day Spa in Mayfair. "We've been there for 24 years. " Marital status: Divorced twice. Broadcast bound: Graduated in March from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Cherry Hill. "It must have always been in my blood. " Going on the radio: "I want to be a conduit for talent and entertain, and I want to explore people without judgment. I want to teach but not preach. " Her famous dad: The late broadcaster Marvin Burak.

NEW YORK DOUBLE'S THE THING AT THIS RESTAURANT Make mine a double, please. That'll be no problem at Twins, a new bar and restaurant where even the most sober patron will be seeing double. Owners, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, busboys - they're all twins at Twins, which opens officially Friday on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "We decided to call it what we are," explained Lisa Ganz, who is launching the restaurant with her twin sister, Debbie. The 27-year-olds are identical, down to their waist-length auburn hair, their lipstick shade and the color of their manicured nails.

There's a jukebox now - a CD jukebox - stacked with Madonna, Roxette and the Stones. You can still chase a Calverts with a cold Bud, but they also carry Absolut Citron and something called Caffe Lolita. Lunch meat has given way to mozzarella sticks. The kitchen turns out Cajun fries. What has happened to The Church? Two weeks after the closing of the workingman's taproom in Juniata Park, chronicled in these pages, something completely different has opened in its stead.

Tony Sacca's tumultuous football career has taken him from Delran to Barcelona and back again, with stops at Penn State and the NFL in between. Now the South Jersey native is looking to parlay his athletic achievements into a touchdown in the business arena with Sacca's Pourhouse Pub, a bar he is about to take over in Pennsauken. Sacca, along with two buddies, has signed a sales agreement on Lombardo's Tavern & Package Goods Store, at Cove Road and Westfield Avenue. An assistant football coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia, he is dividing his time between the gridiron and tackling the bar business.

From their brief sojourn here, visiting Soviets may conclude that America's West is peopled with cowboys who wear Ralph Lauren, ride saddles that double as bar stools and paint a lot of pictures. Usually off-limits to Soviets, this spectacular mountain valley has unleashed its charms, both natural and designer-label, to impress the delegation accompanying Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze for his meetings today and tomorrow with Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d. Local organizers had to scramble to find a red carpet to roll out at the airport last night, and it took international diplomacy to find Shevardnadze's hat size for his gift Stetson.

Barbara Wallace spent most of Sunday night sipping brandy and enjoying the Motown sounds that blared from the jukebox at her West Philadelphia hangout. But with the yelling of three words, a relaxing night in a neighborhood bar turned into terror. "Hit the floor!" she heard someone cry as dozens of mostly middle-aged patrons dived from their bar stools. Then came the sound of rapid gunfire. "Shots were coming from all around," Wallace, 51, recalled yesterday. "I didn't know which way to crawl.

Three years after the Victor Lofts opened in downtown Camden with much fanfare and promise, the building will finally get two things residents have been clamoring for - a place to shop and a place to hang out. A sports bar, the Victor's Pub, and a convenience store, Miss G's at the Victor, have signed leases and plan to open on the first floor this fall. The Victor, which turned the abandoned RCA Nipper building into 341 luxury apartments, has been one of the few bright spots in the perpetual reinvention of Camden.

He opened his restaurant on June 13, 1973, under an auspicious full moon. And that evening, the 24-year-old astrologist who had spent a few years in L.A. as an actor began making his mark in Philadelphia's culinary history - and romantic life. "I thought, this is so insanely, fabulously perfect!" recalled Reed Apaghian, the owner of Astral Plane, one of the city's legendary and - as of yesterday - bygone restaurants. Over the years, under the influence of Mars and Venus, he said, the funky little place at 17th and Lombard has drawn lovers in all stages of smitten.

The trouble with using a liquor-by-the-drink tax to support the Philadelphia public schools is that there's a natural temptation to look for ways to keep tavern patrons perched on their bar stools longer. So, along comes a proposal from City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown to let bars stay open an extra hour - until 3 a.m., rather than the 2 a.m. closing time that's the rule in most cities across the country. Brown estimates the extra 60 minutes at the brass rail would mean the city raises an additional $5 million each year through its 10 percent per glass tax on retail sales of liquor, wine, and beer.

SO, YOU and I are on a pair of bar stools, big screens all around. We are doing what we should be doing amid such a scene: watching, opining, and above all, fixing. Yeah, fixing. No matter what our favorite sport, we're all repairmen at heart. At one time or another, each of us has been outraged by something that hurts our favorite team, dulls the action, or simply makes no sense. At one time or another, each of us has come up with an improvement or two or 20. So without further ado, here are some of the fixes my barstool friends and I have proposed over the last few months.

The trouble with using a liquor-by-the-drink tax to support the Philadelphia public schools is that there's a natural temptation to look for ways to keep tavern patrons perched on their bar stools longer. So, along comes a proposal from City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown to let bars stay open an extra hour - until 3 a.m., rather than the 2 a.m. closing time that's the rule in most cities across the country. Brown estimates the extra 60 minutes at the brass rail would mean the city raises an additional $5 million each year through its 10 percent per glass tax on retail sales of liquor, wine, and beer.

Nickname: LoLo. Age: 45. Neighborhood: Bensalem. Job: Beautyworx Salon & Day Spa in Mayfair. "We've been there for 24 years. " Marital status: Divorced twice. Broadcast bound: Graduated in March from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Cherry Hill. "It must have always been in my blood. " Going on the radio: "I want to be a conduit for talent and entertain, and I want to explore people without judgment. I want to teach but not preach. " Her famous dad: The late broadcaster Marvin Burak.

He opened his restaurant on June 13, 1973, under an auspicious full moon. And that evening, the 24-year-old astrologist who had spent a few years in L.A. as an actor began making his mark in Philadelphia's culinary history - and romantic life. "I thought, this is so insanely, fabulously perfect!" recalled Reed Apaghian, the owner of Astral Plane, one of the city's legendary and - as of yesterday - bygone restaurants. Over the years, under the influence of Mars and Venus, he said, the funky little place at 17th and Lombard has drawn lovers in all stages of smitten.

Three years after the Victor Lofts opened in downtown Camden with much fanfare and promise, the building will finally get two things residents have been clamoring for - a place to shop and a place to hang out. A sports bar, the Victor's Pub, and a convenience store, Miss G's at the Victor, have signed leases and plan to open on the first floor this fall. The Victor, which turned the abandoned RCA Nipper building into 341 luxury apartments, has been one of the few bright spots in the perpetual reinvention of Camden.

From the pandemic poverty, to the drugs and prostitution, to the gap-toothed city blocks of blighted buildings and empty lots - there are plenty of reasons to despair in Chester. And then there is basketball star Jameer Nelson. The elusive point guard with the relentless work ethic has, for years, been a rare source of pride for this struggling community. It started in March 2000, when he led Chester High to the state championship. It continued in college. In April, after he carried St. Joseph's University to an undefeated regular season and was named college player of the year, Chester handed him the keys to the city.

Christianity was hardly St. Patrick's only valuable contribution to the Emerald Isle. According to legend, the saint was the first Irish monk at the end of the Dark Ages to distill "the water of life. " Otherwise known as uisge beatha, the Gaelic phrase eventually became "whiskey" once Henry II's English soldiers invaded Ireland in the 1100s. The Irish may, indeed, have invented whiskey. But their pedigreed dark spirit has languished in the shadow of Scotch for most of this century.

He may easily be America's favorite barfly, so it seemed only natural to meet him across a bucket of suds in a local watering hole. George Wendt is his name, but to the millions of people who tuned in weekly for 11 years to watch "Cheers" on TV, he'll always be the salty beer-guzzler Norm Peterson. Sitting near the window of the small bar next to the Royale Theater, where he is appearing in the prize-winning play "Art," Wendt turns out not to drink suds at all. "Coke, mixed with club soda," he orders.

Tony Sacca's tumultuous football career has taken him from Delran to Barcelona and back again, with stops at Penn State and the NFL in between. Now the South Jersey native is looking to parlay his athletic achievements into a touchdown in the business arena with Sacca's Pourhouse Pub, a bar he is about to take over in Pennsauken. Sacca, along with two buddies, has signed a sales agreement on Lombardo's Tavern & Package Goods Store, at Cove Road and Westfield Avenue. An assistant football coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia, he is dividing his time between the gridiron and tackling the bar business.

The Cubby Hole, a coffeehouse on East Main Street, is true to its name. The dining area is no more than 200 square feet. It is big enough for two round tables, one by the bay window and the other about four feet away near the kitchen entrance, as well as for four bar stools along a counter that lines the wall opposite the door. "We tried to put in five bar stools," said Barbara Callaway, who owns and operates the Cubby Hole with her fiance, Jeff Baker. "But that was too much of a squeeze.