Also this issue:

Go Ask Alice
One woman's trip through the looking glass as a kids' holiday party attraction.
-Laura Lewis

Words to Give By
A last-minute gift option with a message.
-Debra Auspitz

Icepack
-A.D. Amorosi

December 19-25, 2002

naked city

InFusion

by Howard Altman

It was somewhere in Indonesia that Jason Huber and his wife, Jocie Dye, were tossing around the idea of opening up a coffee shop/art gallery/community space in their native Philadelphia when they reached out to Betty Ann Fellner, owner of the Sedgwick Cultural Arts Center, via the Internet.

Huber and Dye, a young married couple traveling around Southeast Asia in the fall of 2001 -- "We were in Indonesia on 9/11," says Huber -- wondered what they were going to do with their lives. Huber was a teacher and Dye worked with nonprofits for troubled teens. Both believed in the concept of global responsibility and wanted to open an establishment that would serve free-trade coffees and teas that, whenever possible, would be organically grown.

Fellner had a vacancy for the last six years and was looking for someone to come in and open up a space that would breathe new life onto Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy.

A little more than a year later, their dream is becoming a reality. This week, InFusion opens next to the Sedgwick, providing a much-needed place for locals to gather while sipping gourmet coffees and teas, and eating locally baked goods from Baker Street and The Night Kitchen, both in Chestnut Hill. InFusion will be serving coffees by local roasters Torreo and La Colombe.

"Our motto is think globally, meet locally," says Huber, who will also manage InFusion's art gallery, which will hang on walls painted olive green, empress blue and something called "Grand Canyon" -- an orangey color on the back wall where the sofa, bookcases and children's table are located.

In the warmer weather, a rear patio will give guests a chance to sip their favorite beverage (including the planned milk shakes and smoothies) al fresco. While this is their first restaurant venture, neither Huber nor Dye is completely new to the business -- "We have 25 years of restaurant experience between both of us," says Huber, adding that his stepfather owned The Astral Plane for 27 years.

As Huber and Dye rush around putting the final touches on InFusion -- though it unofficially opened on Monday, workers are still removing a barrier erected to protect the beautiful mahogony exterior during construction -- local artist Phylinda Reynolds sips coffee and talks about her exhibit.

"These masks are all of the same face," she says, pointing to four very different masks, in various hues and materials. Reynolds' masks will be joined by those of fellow Mt. Airy artists Bruce Gast and Terri Cook and Madlene Kyerematen of Germantown.

At InFusion, it's not just the walls adorned with artwork. Local artist (and Dye's cousin) David Baker designed a poured cement bar with inlaid, backlighted stained glass. And the bathrooms are also miniature galleries.

Aside from serving residents and area shoppers, Fellner says InFusion will be a natural destination for people attending shows at the Sedgwick.

"We are very excited about this," says Fellner.

And who could blame her? A successful InFusion will do wonders for Mt. Airy.

InFusion, 7133 Germantown Ave., 215-248-1718, opens Thu., Dec. 19, 7 a.m., with artists Reynolds, Gast, Cook and Kyerematen.