Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 10

4B COURIER-POST, Monday, January 9, 1995 i i i in in iyi ii -i-i ii nr( Cherry Hill. 'M 'V I pavinigway for sidewalks car," he said. John Halkias, owner of the nearby Chow Wagon Restaurant, agreed. "This is not a neighborhood where people take walks," he said. Slusher said sidewalks can change those perceptions.

"Without sidewalks, no one will walk," he said. "But if you give them the opportunity, someone might say let's take a walk, so you create a flow. I believe there ujr rvi oioiniiarui, uuuntjr-rusi Good food: Corinne Powers, owner of Corinne's Place at 1254 Haddon Camden, checks in with regular customer Wayne Langford of Mays Landing. SQUIE3 JGRSEV Woman cooks up soul food Her passion how her living By KEVIN RIORDAN Courier-Post Staff CAMDEN Even when Corinne Powers was a social worker, she always seemed to end up behind the stove. "I'd come home from work and unwind by cooking," the youthful grandmother of two says.

"And at work I was always put in charge of the parties. I loved it." So Powers decided to try to make a living from her longtime passion. She started a catering business and opened Corinne's Place, a cozy little sit-down and take-out restaurant at 1254 Haddon Ave. "I bought this place in '85," Powers says, taking a break from the kitchen on a recent weekday afternoon. "It was nothing.

Just a shell. "I couldn't get a loan," she "So I took my time. I got a catering job, I bought chairs. I got another job, I bought tables. I went room by room.

Weekends at first i "We opened five years ago. At first only on weekends," she continues. "Gradually, we added the days." Corinne's Place is now open Wednesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday for a daylong buffet. "Sundays are good," says Powers, who was born (she won't say when) and raised in Camden. "Very good." As she speaks, customers are digging into heaping plates of A'hat Corinne's Place advertises as "soul food with a touch of class." Baked chicken "smothered" in hearty gravy.

Fish fried in a light but piquant batter. Steaming cubes of cornbread and bowls of sweet potatoes and green beans and golden potato $alad. By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC Courier-Post Staff CHERRY HILL It isn't quaint, it doesn't have a downtown and it's home to one of the largest sprawling malls in South Jersey. But these factors haven't derailed Cherry Hill from bringing a bit of the city to the suburbs, most notably on Route 70.

Last year, volunteers donned gardening apparel and planted flowers along sections of the highway. Now comes a proposal to put in sidewalks where none exist in the hopes of attracting pedestrians along a transit way unkind to foot traffic. The township has applied to the state for $70,000 in federal funds to construct sidewalks along both sides of Route 70, from Cuthbert Boulevard to Haddon-field Road. It's the first phase of a plan to sidewalk the entire length of Route 70 through the township, and then Route 38, an equally congested shopping district. "Route 70 will never be quaint," said Mayor Susan Bass Levin.

"But you take what you have and work with it. We believe these sidewalks will make the road more user-friendly." Sidewalks, especially with amenities such as benches and lighting, will make it easier for people to walk from hotels to restaurants and clubs and will give local employees an incentive to stay out of their cars on occasion, said Max Slusher, executive director of the Cherry Hill Economic Development which spearheaded the sidewalk effort. However, small businesses along the first stretch seemed less than enthused by the program. Jim Kelley, owner of Bayard's Chocolate House, acknowledged the walkways may be a convenience for hotel guests and office workers. "But we don't get foot traffic.

Most of our customers come by will be an increase in business, even if it's marginal." Moreover, sidewalks will make it safer for people to use bus stops such as the one in front of the office complex that houses Stone and Webster. "There's no sidewalk at all now. You can't encourage mass transit like that," Slusher said. The money, if approved, will come from the Transportation Enhancement program, an annual $10-million component of the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, the massive 1991 provision that funds everything from highway construction to streetscaping. Cherry Hill's application is one of more than 130 submitted this year, totaling $200 million, said Bob McHugh, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, which administers the program.

An advisory committee will rank the applications in terms of worthiness and render a decision in March, he said. Since the program began, the committee has approved 50 grants, ranging from $10,000 to $1 million. "Typically, $300,000 is awarded," McHugh said. 'Touch of class' A visitor with Yankee roots claims to be familiar with soul food, the popular name for a style of African-American home cooking with a decidedly Southern flavor. But what's the "touch of class" ingredient? "Tender loving care," Powers laughs.

"I'm a gourmet soul food cook I just add that special something. I just take pride in it. "When I'm back there in the kitchen, it's like an artist with a painting," she adds. "I'm in my world I live here." Literally. In the old-fashioned tradition of small businesspeople in the big city, Powers and her husband and partner, Jerry, live above the restaurant.

Corinne can be found in the kitchen most days, often with her mother, Fannie Anderson, who taught her how to cook. There's also daughter Dana, who works as a waitress. And everyone else at Corinne's, including the customers, seems to be part of the family. Many customers bring the kids. The walls are covered with photographs and family mementoes.

And the atmosphere is as warm as the fragrant air billowing out of the kitchen on a cold winter day. "I came all the way up from chicken and Turner's working on the fried fish. "It tastes like mom's home cooking and grandmom's home cooking," says Wilson, a 34-year-old Pennsauken resident. "It's excellent," adds Turner, who is also 34 and lives in Lawnside. "It's not too spicy.

It's just enough." Shaheed Elamin, a 48-year-old engineer, says he comes up from Deptford "specifically to eat" at Corinne's. "The ribs are great," he says. "The meat just falls off the bone." Adds June McCoy, a 38-year-old Camden County employee from Blackwood, "I've never had anything Corinne makes that isn't good." While Powers won't reveal any of her culinary secrets, she does acknowledge being "blessed by the grace of God" with talent in the kitchen. "I want to be known as a good cook," she says. "Not (a cook who makes) the same old thing.

I cook Italian, Chinese you name it, I can cook it. "What do you like?" she inquires of her visitor, the one with Yankee roots, who is thinking of ordering lunch. "Chicken? Fish? We have excellent fish," Powers says. "And how about vegetables? Green beans? You can't go wrong with green beans." Mays Landing," says Wayne Langford, sitting at a window table with a view of traffic and people hurrying past on busy Haddon Avenue. He's well into a plate of fried fish, potato salad, collard greens and corn-bread.

"I stop in and have a good, home-cooked meal," the 46-year-old manufacturing supervisor says. "The way I grew up with it." Diane Wilson and Alison Turner, co-workers at the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, share the adjacent table. Wilson's having the smothered Cherry Hill is hoping to be added to the list, not just this year, but in the future. But given the amount of money, there's no guarantee of becoming an annual recipient, McHugh said. "Getting the money one year doesn't mean subsequent applications will be helped or hindered," he said.

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