The Nahrah Gallery on Center St., curated by John Kim, recently unveiled new work by Korean-born artist Tai Hwa Goh in an exhibit called “Suspicious Seed.” Goh, a graduate of the University of Maryland, also studied at Seoul National University in Korea. Her fine-arts background is in printmaking and sculpture, and her skill in both was evident in the pieces that were displayed at Nahrah Gallery last month. Her work is also part of several permanent collections, including the Washington, D.C. City Hall, the Lower East Side Print Shop and the University of Maryland. Goh’s work is done on a …

My travels through my favorite section of town this week revealed an interesting discovery: Flowers By Julie, a new flower shop at the eastern end of Main St. Located in a very convenient area near cafés, a frame shop and the stop for a few different buses, the store features tasteful arrangements and baskets as well as a wide variety of potted flowers and other greenery. Though the showroom area is small, it is both neat and inviting for customers—lush little trees greeted me on one side as I entered, while on the other side, there were orchids, clearly delicate but fresh and healthy, in a …

The works of watercolorist Leo Yeni are on display in the Fort Lee library throughout the month of May. A retrospective featuring the highlights of Yeni’s long career, the show features the artist’s signature street scenes and boat and ship scenes from different parts of the world. I visited the exhibit recently to take a look, but the official reception takes place in the library Saturday at 2 p.m. Yeni’s watercolor paintings feature soft light and subtle shadow—many are recognizable as Italian street scenes and buildings in the Italian countryside, and the painter captured the light quality…

Lime Tree Café has been around only since 2007, but in that short time has established itself as a comfortable place to sit and read or work, while enjoying the place’s remarkable hospitality. I first came upon it last fall on a day when, unfamiliar with the Fort Lee area, I found myself in dire need of a coffee and some directions home. The man behind the counter sold me the small coffee, doctoring it up with milk and sugar to my exact specifications, and then asked me to wait a moment while he got on his laptop. He then proceeded to give me two different bus routes, with timetables, that …

Fort Lee is in a lot of ways quintessentially American: it has its rows of houses with manicured front yards, small shops that are neighborhood institutions, a busy library and many other meeting places, both religious and secular, for community members to gather. Its quaintness in these aspects does not mean it’s exclusively American or old-fashioned: Fort Lee represents many cultures, featuring residents, shops and restaurants of diverse ethnicity. Here and there, though, elements of old-world charm are apparent and impossible to deny, even as they integrate well into the townscape. One …

This week, at last, it looks as though spring has arrived in Fort Lee—after a very cold and snowy March, flowers are starting to poke through the ground all over town. Taking advantage of the warmer weather, I walked all around the residential section of the town a few days ago to survey flowerbeds and parks. My casual knowledge of botany and gardening made the walk a bit more scientific than it would otherwise have been, but that is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Gardeners in the downtown Fort Lee area show considerable pride in their lawns, making early-spring flowers a beautiful complement …

On a stretch of Palisade Avenue untainted by any other restaurants, Hiram’s snack bar stands proudly, an American flag waving over the iconic sign at the top of its one-story building. With its façade also decorated with festive Easter banners this week, it seemed a perfect stop to make on a walk around the neighborhood on a sunny, chilly afternoon, to celebrate the encroachment of Spring. Hiram’s Roadstand, a prominent landmark in the Fort Lee area, has been around since the 1930s. Tourists to New Jersey, as well as the residents, come there to satisfy their curiosity about what is deemed by…

Joanne Hayes, whose artwork is on display at the Fort Lee Library this month, blends elements of fairy-tale fantasy with realistic portraits for a dreamlike effect: a girl lounges inside a pumpkin; the head of Poseidon rises from the sea; dolls preside over a nostalgic still life of a piggy bank and ballet slipper, staring. Hayes’s drawings and sculpture use a wide variety of media, from charcoal to ceramics to cloth, adding to the playful mood of her body of work. She is a young artist, having recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan with a degree in illustration…

Some days in Fort Lee are better than others. When I headed into town last Sunday, rain was pouring down and leaking through the roof of the bus onto my head; after disembarking I had not walked three steps before my sneakers and jeans were soaked through, despite an umbrella. And it was so cold—here we are in March now, which is supposed to be Spring. Melancholy can overpower you on a day like that, and as I walked around, wet, I let myself be sad over the demise of the Borders on Main Street. After it closes, where are people going to buy their books? I don’t know offhand of another …

  Fort Lee’s new Asian supermarket Han Nam, in the shopping plaza on Bergen Boulevard, is already quite popular—on a recent afternoon visit I saw shoppers in every aisle. But how does it compare to Mitsuwa Marketplace, the superstore in neighboring Edgewater? This week, I traveled to both to find out what sets Korean Han Nam apart from the well-known Japanese chain. HAN NAM A spacious supermarket, Han Nam is nevertheless packed with food of all kinds, much of it “exotic” or hard to find elsewhere, though staples of American supermarkets are also in long supply. A lush produce section takes up…

On a quiet stretch of Main St., there is a shop that is unassuming from the outside—if you did not peer into the windows to see the musical instruments in it, you might think it was an antique store or a place to trade in used books. On the day I stopped by, I was intrigued by the instruments, but its awning was covered in snow, and I feared the shop, whatever kind of shop it was, would not be open due to the Presidents’ Day holiday. When I opened the door, though, I was pleasantly surprised: this was Main Violin, Fort Lee’s bustling source for classical stringed instruments and accessories. …

Fort Lee resident Barry Shiff, who for years has been painting nostalgic scenes of New Jersey as it looked around the early 1900s, is the subject of a show going on now at the Fort Lee library. “I am pleased with the show,” Shiff told me recently via email. After having interviewed him a few months back about his inspiration and technique (read the feature here), I too am glad to see these pieces on display. Though many of them are railroad-station scenes, the subject for which Shiff is best known, library goers can also see other slices of turn-of-the-century life, set in other environments …

The bus into New York was very late, and I did not feel like shelling out extra money to board a Red and Tan coach—I carry only a New Jersey Transit pass these days. I shivered under the heat lamps at the bridge plaza, watching the sky for signs of snow, squinting down the highway toward what would eventually be my passage across the Hudson. A white Toyota pulled up beside me. “Do you want to get in?” asked the driver, a young guy around thirty wearing a business-casual outfit. “Carpool,” he said. “I’ll drop you off at the bus station. It’s free.” “Oh, it’s okay,” I told him. “My bus is …

Most residents of Fort Lee know about Palisades Amusement Park—many of them remember it well, having spent time within its gates during childhood or even worked there. But newer emigres, as well as visitors to the neighborhood, have never seen it and must content themselves with its history. Luckily for them, photos and stories of the park are well-preserved by dedicated locals, and late January, during yet another snowstorm, seems like a perfect time to recall summers past. Palisades Amusement Park, a prominent landmark of Northern New Jersey in the 20th century, closed down in 1971 when the…

Fort Lee is home to one of the more beautiful New Jersey diners, a shining example of a well-known and well-respected archetype. The Plaza is elevated from the street for a classic silver box look, and features a giant 1960s-era neon sign. I was there this week for a late lunch—the early bird special dinner, as it turned out—and discovered what a good place it is, too, for introspection. This diner can bustle: during the morning rush, late at night and on the weekends; during these traditional prime diner times, it’s often full (and it is ample enough to accommodate big groups). However, …

The Edgewater parrots are known to many residents of neighboring Fort Lee—a beloved mascot to some, a nuisance to others. I happened upon them once by accident before I knew what they were about, which I imagine is how most people learn about them: walking down Linwood Ave. one day last fall, I heard a loud noise, halfway between a squawk and a whistle, looked up and saw two medium-sized green birds fly over my head and perch on a utility pole. They were a little smaller than pigeons, with bright green backs and grey bellies. A few minutes later on Lemoine  Ave. I saw a small flock of them—…

It is usually a good idea to change your look around New Year's, if only for the sake of tradition—in this spirit, I headed to Hidy II Hair Studio last week for a much-needed haircut. The place's reputation preceded it, with special emphasis on lead stylist Jay, whom at least one online review called "a legend." When I got to the salon it was packed—it was Dec. 30,, and a lot of people had booked appointments. I worried that I would have to come back later and regretted my presumptuousness in thinking I could just traipse into a well-respected haircutter's on one of the busiest days of the …

The Antiques Roadshow, a PBS staple, tells the stories of beautiful collectibles and the clueless types who own them, most of whom have no idea how much money they are worth until they bring them before an appraiser. "At auction, I can say conservatively that this would bring upwards of five thousand," that professional will announce at the end of each segment. The suddenly-rich keeper of the Stickley chair or Bugs Bunny lamp grins, a superimposed caption shows the dollar amount accompanied by a bling sound effect, and my mom says, "This was taped a few years ago already, so I'm sure now it's…

As the Winter Solstice descends and Fort Lee residents understand it to be the Christmas season in earnest, people are spending a lot of time in that small-yet-stately public building on Main Street, just in front of the big municipal parking lot: the post office. The lines were long but moving quickly this week; the shelves where you can fill out your address form were piled with gift boxes. It is a good time of year to appreciate tradition and history, of course, and hopefully the locals were looking up at the murals above them. On the wall of the Fort Lee post office, framing the service …