Restaurant

UNTOUCHED BY the Commerce Department's main-street makeovers that jazz up business boulevards all over the city, the Plain Jane blocks of Castor Avenue between Levick Street and Unruh Avenue transformed themselves into a foodie heaven of ethnic restaurants, powered by the new-immigrant diversity of not-your-grandma's Northeast Philadelphia. The city's best-kept restaurant renaissance secret ranges from Portuguese seafood-and-steak delights at Tio Pepe to African/Jamaican home cooking at Naana Xtra-O to the charcoal-powered Picanha Brazilian Grill to Northern Indian (Azaad)

  As Lucinda Bromwyn Duncalfe powered through a 10-minute pitch to an investor group earlier this month, seeking $1 million for her new healthy-meals delivery company, her audience breakfasted on low-nutrition, high-carbs bagels. They didn't come from Duncalfe! Her idea of acceptable morning fare, which her company, Real Food Works, plans to begin offering in January, includes wheat berry porridge with pomegranate and tofu-based vegetable frittata with spinach and shiitake mushrooms.

A server at the Grand Lux Cafe at the Cherry Hill Mall has sued the chain restaurant's management for sexual harassment, alleging she was raped by a company trainer who shared a naked photo of her with other employees. The assault happened in July at a Mount Laurel motel, and the woman reported the allegations to her managers and the police, according to the lawsuit. The trainer was arrested in August. But last month, the company showed employees a video clip depicting the trainer as a rock star and the woman as a fan, according to the suit.

Former pro golfer Ryan Jordan, 28, has soft-opened Top Notch , his American BYOB in Medford's former Scotch Bonnet (20 S. Main St., 609-654-6240). Simple, family-friendly atmosphere. Chef Dave Levecchia, whose resume includes Scaturros in Marlton, cooks good ol' faves, like French onion soup, Coca-Cola meat loaf, Nonna's sliders, and assorted pizzas. It's open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.   What's new West Chester's Steve DiMarco was visiting the University of Kansas with his daughter, Gabriella, when they stopped to eat at Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers , a Midwestern '50s-themer.

* Just in time for holiday gifting, Mount Airy's Geechee Girl Rice Café (6825 Germantown Ave., 215-843-8113, GeecheeGirl.com ) has issued the Geechee Girl 2013 Recipe Calendar, featuring easy-to-follow recipes by the BYOB chef/owner Valerie Erwin, with photos by Debbie Lerman. Snag one for $20 at the restaurant. * Suited for holiday gifts and entertaining is the 13-ingredient tapenade made by Respond Inc., a 45-year-old nonprofit that provides services, including job training, in and around Camden.

A giant Hershey bar brushed past me, waved, and stepped onto the escalator - and I'll admit I did a double take. It was morning. Hadn't had my coffee. And the prospect of breakfasting with a cast of human-sized Kit Kat bars and York Peppermint Patties at the Hershey Lodge was only just coming into focus. Of course there were walking Reese's Peanut Butter Cups here: Central Pennsylvania's cocoa capital, a playland of amusement rides, endless sweets, and candy-themed attractions that run straight through the holidays, is where every kid's chocolate fantasies can almost come to life.

In its quest to make the Camden waterfront a premier attraction, the Cooper's Ferry Partnership has applied for a $500,000 grant to attract a restaurant to the area. The nonprofit group is developing a $9 million three-story building across from the Ferry Terminal Building near the waterfront's cultural attractions. The structure would have 4,500 square feet for a ground-floor restaurant and 14,500 square feet of office space, a quarter of it going to the new Cooper's Ferry headquarters.

Baker Street Bread Co. 8009 Germantown Ave. 215-248-2500 bakerstreetbread.com Bolton Farm Market 1005 Main St. (Route 113) Silverdale, Pa. 215-257-6047 home.comcast.net/~torriechristy/index.html Magpie Artisan Pie Boutique 1622 South St. 267-519-2904 iluvmagpie.com Pine Island Cranberries 3353A Route 563 Chatsworth, N.J. 609-726-1330 picranberry.com Vedge Restaurant 1221 Locust St....

Are the "gauchos" who cut and serve meat in the Brazilian style at the NaBrasa Brazilian Steakhouse in Horsham professionals who, therefore, don't qualify for overtime? The restaurant said sim - Portuguese for yes - but the U.S. Department of Labor said nao, so the restaurant has agreed to pay $110,000 in back wages to 42 employees. Professionals generally don't qualify for overtime pay, according to the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act. NaBrasa owner Celso Leite describes the gauchos as professionals.