Dinner

Donna Summer's family says the singer died of lung cancer even though she wasn't a smoker. TMZ says the diva believed she contracted the disease by breathing in toxic air after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. Summer, who died Thursday at 63 in Naples, Fla., lived near ground zero. Summer's family rep, Brian Edwards, also said on Friday that the singer's funeral would be private and declined to disclose a time or place for the event. J-Lo: I'm undecided Jennifer Lopez denies she's already quit American Idol.

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

Guillermo Tellez and Rob Boone, veterans of Charlie Trotter's in Chicago and the top hands in Striped Bass' kitchen at the end of its run, have surfaced in Chester County after buying the old Northbrook Orchards and installing a market/cafe. Their wives, Christine Boone and Leslie Tellez, work with them. Starting July 8, they plan to offer fixed-price dinners ($65 a person, reservations required) at their 24-seat chef's table upstairs. What's new Braddock's Tavern (39 S. Main St., Medford, 609-654-1604)

New-age Irish singer Enya's music played softly in the background, as the freshly lit candles sent a soft glow over a table graced with fine china and generous glasses of wine on a table covered with a crisp linen cloth. Yup, it's Wednesday night dinner at Scott and Maureen Murphy's modest townhouse in Chesterbrook - and that's how it is every night. But it wasn't always so. Scott Murphy was happy to take on the task of making dinner every night after he and Maureen got married.

Members of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce had no trouble grasping the message of their guest speaker at the organization's $75-a-plate, red-carpet dinner Tuesday night. The speaker, Msgr. Andrew J. McGowan, director of community relations at Mercy Hospital, Scranton, blended his wit with a call for community involvement before about 200 members and their spouses at the Great Valley Hilton and Conference Center. His speech was interrupted with applause and laughter, and after the dinner, members swarmed around him with congratulations.

Last night might have been the best night of the year to snag a table without a reservation or a wait at the city's best restaurants - the streets were clear, the parking was decent, yet hordes of people had canceled their reservations earlier and stayed home. An informal telephone survey of some of the city's better restaurants turned up a bunch of lonely restaurant managers amid empty tables, mostly because the unusual nature of the storm produced piles of forbidding snow in the morning that quickly melted on the roads, making travel fairly easy later in the day. So, for a rare change, diners could walk into just about any restaurant in the city and get a table without a wait or a reservation - and with an eager staff waiting to serve.

IAGREE with your Sept. 16 editorial on the waterworks. The city should encourage the restaurateur who can provide the most exquisite dining experience. As for the obstacles: complicated parking, structural and historical limitations, and the need to fit a wide range of diners' pocketbooks, the first two are routinely encountered when dining in Center City or Old City, and the last needn't be an issue. The restaurant should be a special destination/special occasion one that would be so tempting to "foodies" that they would travel here and stay overnight.

It's the only political fund-raiser for which candidates pay $125 a ticket, knowing the money may help somebody they're running against. That's the Democratic City Committee dinner, which drew about 1,600 party faithful to the Franklin Plaza last night, according to treasurer Norman Loudenslager. Another 300 or so paid $250 apiece for a cocktail reception. Mayor Goode, the guest of the party that endorses him, made it clear - in the name of unity - that he will be fielding his own slate of candidates in the May 19 primary.

Over and over, we hear that the nagging by Republicans, the media and former female acquaintances should end, and President Clinton should be allowed to do his job. I'm in favor of everyone doing the job for which they are hired and paid, whether it is a corporate CEO, a bartender or a kid who mows the lawn. And at times I'm amazed that anyone has the energy and brains for the demands of the presidency, which is the most awesome job in the world. So I would be delighted and relieved if President Clinton could be spared distractions.

State Sen. Manville Powell, candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, cordially invites you to a campaign fund-raising dinner, during which he will be murdered. He probably has it coming - he's a thoroughly disagreeable sort - and David Goldstein is more than happy to oblige. Goldstein has been killing off politicians at dinner for more than a year. Right now the murders are occurring in Boston; Dallas, and Shrewsbury, Mass., as well as in Philadelphia. And in September, the mayhem will spread to Tampa, Fla., and Sacramento, Calif.

Inside the Barnes, guests were served lamb chops and smoked salmon cannolis with a lemon aioli sauce along with champagne and red and white wine at the $1,500-a-plate opening-reception dinner. Outside, at 20th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the menu was drastically different. A coalition of homeless-advocacy groups and others protesting the Barnes' move from Merion dined on doughnut holes, salmon dip, bread, apples, bagels, rice, and string beans served on paper plates with plastic utensils.

Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat: Craig LaBan: Last week was my wedding anniversary, so I dusted off the dinner I cooked 15 years ago when I proposed to Elizabeth — seafood linguine with garlic bread. I would have gone all-out with a shellfish stock reduction, rare seafood, and a pop of Pernod. But Elizabeth prefers a simpler touch: I sweat garlic, onions, and chile flakes in olive oil, then add a splash of white wine. Once reduced, I add a can of hand-crushed Mutti tomatoes (from Eataly)

Bring your mom — or your sisters, aunties and girlfriends — to a Momma's Day Brunch Cocktail Party hosted by Brown Betty Dessert Boutique and Jonathan Adler Philadelphia at Adler's shop, 33 N. 3rd St., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Hors d'oeuvres by the Cedar Kitchen, cocktails by Marc Yanga of Liberte Lounge and, of course, desserts from mother-daughter team Linda and Norrinda Brown of Brown Betty. $35. Details at brownpapertickets.com/event/242227 . Is yours a country mom or a city mom?

LIKE EVERYTHING else in our celebrity-saturated society, the White House Correspondents Dinner has become a red-carpet affair. Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan were invited, courtesy of Fox's Greta Van Susteren, and other news stations, magazines and news services now bring so many celebrities to the event, it's a wonder there's room for any journalists. For example, Politico invited Charlize Theron and Eva Longoria. Newsweek/The Daily Beast brought in Reese Witherspoon and Viola Davis.

DEAR ABBY: My 11-year-old niece, "Nina," has no table manners. I didn't say anything when Nina slathered clotted cream on her scone with her fingers, but I was disgusted. I did suggest she use a spoon after she scooped rice out of a communal bowl with her hand. Both of these incidents happened in restaurants. Is there anything I can do when I must eat with this child? I know it may have been wrong of me to correct Nina in front of her mother, but we were all eating from the same bowl.

IT WOULD HAVE been an expense-account report to make my editors and the new millionaire owners (how you doing, guys?) very happy. I wanted to take U.S. Rep. Bob Brady out to dinner Wednesday night after his return from Washington, and it wouldn't cost a cent for him. Brady would not eat because he's on the weeklong Greater Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge, organized by the Coalition Against Hunger and the Jewish Federation. The gimmick: Enlist celebrities to help illustrate how hard it is for the poor (including children, elders, the disabled)

You can see the smile creep into actress Patricia Kalember's pretty face as her eyes widen in the role of a married woman named Jacqueline. She has just picked up the phone to hear the voice of Robert, an old friend and the best man at her wedding, and from that smile and those eyes, you know something's going on. That little something turns out to be one of, oh, maybe 15 causes for deception in "Don't Dress for Dinner," a wholly amusing farce...

This classic pairing of asparagus and poached egg is such a lovely weeknight dinner, especially as a herald to spring. It's not something I would make on a weeknight for the kids, I will confess, too challenging to poach all those eggs. But it is perfect supper for one or two. Though it is a few steps, the results are well worth the effort. This recipe, from Jane Hornby's newest offering, Fresh & Easy: What to Cook & How to Cook It, adds a sauce of balsamic vinegar and butter to the asparagus, for a spot-on finishing touch.

DOMENIC Angeline Sr. last saw the youngest of his three children, Valerie Marie Angeline, on Friday night for his 59th birthday dinner at the Red Lobster on Baltimore Pike in Springfield. After the family returned to their Bryn Mawr home, Valerie drove back to her West Philly apartment at about 9:30 p.m., he said. Within the next 24 hours, she would be dead - with multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck. "She was a beautiful girl," her father said Sunday. "She didn't have any enemies.

Walnut Street Supper Club is the most nostalgic of the bunch, but it isn't the only place where you can enjoy dinner and a show. Here are a few others: Live From Loew's: A monthly performance series at the Solefood Restaurant and Lounge inside Loew's Hotel. March 19, features "rockjazz" pianist and Camden native ELEW (a/k/a Eric Lewis); April 26 showcases singer-songwriter Sarah Miles. No cover or minimum. 12th and Market streets, 215-627-1200, www.loewshotels.com/Philadelphia-Hotel . Eddie Bruce & Friends: The veteran Philly crooner does four sets every Friday at SugarHouse Casino backed by the Tom Adams Trio and featuring a changing roster of guest performers.