The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 103

103- JUNE 23, 1988 UFCSTVLC THE RECORD F-3 KlELSEAs Town and city Food for every taste By Barbara Hoffman mm Record Staff Writer mm Ff -nf if Ujp 3 CHELSEA ArnX I rrt Vy 1 it 1 Need a feathered mask, cobalt glassware, or a cotton quilt? Try Somethin' Else on Ninth Avenue, across the street from the General Theological Seminary. In the back room, along with Christmas ornaments and antique dolls, are reproduction toys from the 1930s, including a $4 windup Bambi. I "I think people come to Chelsea just to eat," says Louise Naw-! jocki, who remembers when 10th Avenue's Empire Diner was a greasy spoon. These days, the diner completely refurbished, artfully art deco, and lit up like a beacon in the night is a gathering place for the glitterati, or anyone else who'll pay $2.95 for a chocolate egg cream, even one made with creme de cacao. The big snack here is cold sesame noodles, and the chili is spiked with Rolling Rock beer.

During the brunching hours, a woman named Bea plays show tunes on the upright piano next to the restroom. In the summertime, there's al fresco dining on the sidewalk. Yuppies line up for this. Also on 10th is Chelsea Commons, which serves weekend brunches ($6.95, mimosa or screwdriver included) in its pretty, backyard garden. On your way out, check the oil painting of owner Bob Pols.

Heading east, to Ninth Avenue, is the oldest restaurant in Chelsea: The Old Homestead steakhouse, established in 1868. It has five dining rooms full of dark paneling and red vinyl chairs the perfect setting for power lunching. There's a two-pound, $25.95 porterhouse steak on the menu that should satisfy even the most power-hungry. Eighth Avenue is Chelsea's theater row. It starts out modestly: Between 19th and 20th streets are a Spanish coffee shop, a Chinese takeout, the Havana Chelsea Luncheonette, Szechuan South, and Buckwheat and Alfalfa, a vegetarian restaurant that serves a "grain of the day," as well as non-dairy lasagna and watermelon with shiitake mushrooms.

Farther down on Eighth is Miss Ruby's Cafe, where the menu features a different regional cuisine every week; Man Ray, the sleek red-and-black bistro named for the surrealist photographer; Cajun, for New Orleans jazz brunches and po' boys; and Mary-Ann's All-Homemade Chelsea Mexican Restaurant, for good, cheap enchiladas. On Seventh Avenue there's Claire, for Bahamian conch chowder and key lime pie (Claire has a branch in Key West, so it knows what it's doing); and Meriken, of the sea-green stucco and Liberty crown-topped doorway, which features seafood, sushi, and Sashimi. For gourmet food to go, shop Chelsea Foods (Eighth Avenue and 20th Street), with its garlands of garlic, chili-pepper bouquets, and bright bottles of sour cherry preserves. Around the bend, past the case full of quiches, pates, and salads (smoked turkey, chicken tarragon, snow pea) is a tiny, 10-table cafe where the cappuccino is frothy, and the carrot cupcakes so moist you have to eat them with a fork. Farther north is a new Tex-Mex takeout called Kitchen, which turns out superior tacos and blue cornbread a little piece of Chelsea to digest at home.

From CHELSEA Page F-l two-bedroom co-ops at Fitzroy Place browrBtone8 that were boarded up when the Nawrockis came to Chelsea go for $400,000. Nevertheless, says Tillman, a Southerner who moved to Chelsea 20 years ago, the area has a "small-town quality." Nowhere is that more apparent than at Dairy on Ninth Avenue. It's a vintage (1832), federal-style house turned general store. "Yes!" says the blackboard out front. "Fresh homemade meat loaf today!" Inside, at a table covered with a red-and-white-checked oilcloth, sits a young woman in a long skirt, sipping iced tea.

A man with a bandanna around his forehead and a quart of milk in his hands greets her by name, and she looks up from her magazine and smiles. "There are a lot of people in the neighborhood who've lived here their entire lives," Nawrocki says. "We're forever having block parties." Just west of the Chelsea Hotel, past the Congregation Emanuath Israel synagogue and the McBur-ney YMCA (in whose swimming pool, in 1908, Charles Merrill met Edmund Lynch), is London Terrace. You can't miss it: It has 1,670 apartments and looks like a fortress. Turn the corner, and you're in Chelsea's historic district.

Between 19th and 22nd streets and 9th and 10th avenues, window boxes brim with flowers, and wrought-iron gates surround the trees. The architectural gem in the heart of town is the General Theological Seminary (see accompanying story). Chelsea isn't all brick face and brownstones. On 17th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues is a porthole-riddled, concrete slab the former National Maritime Union building. It's now a youth shelter run by the Rev.

Bruce Rit-3r, founder of Covenant House. Another oddity, minus portholes, is the post office, still under construction, on 11th Avenue. Sleek, white (with a red stripe), and curvy, it looks like something out of "The Jetsons" or Los Angeles. Up the street, at 10th Avenue One of many windows with a view in Chelsea. ever be this big or this expensive.

At Barneys New York, men's shirts made-to-measure cost from $70 to $140 (monograms extra), and the women's section six floors in all sells Hermes scarves for $155. If those prices get you down, head up Seventh Avenue to 19th Street and the Peter MacManus Cafe. There, in its faded mahogany splendor, sit the locals: businessmen, blue-collar workers, artists, sports buffs, and, on this day, a man in a green T-shirt reading "Ulysses." Babe Ruth's behind the bar, Glenn Miller and the Beatles are on the jukebox, and there isn't a fern in sight. There is, however, Jimmy MacManus, who recalls the time Errol Flynn came in for a drink. "He was with that Irish actor John Ireland and he looked bloated.

They drank a quart and a half of vodka that night, and they walked out on a straight line!" As for Brendan Behan, the Irish author and playwright "He liked his food," MacManus says. "I saw him eat two platters of clam chowder, a basket of rolls, loads of butter, and two orders of corned beef and cabbage then he asked the waiter to bring him another round." He shakes his head. "His wife was a nervous wreck." JONATHAN PHALL THe RECORD and 27th Street, is the Terminal Warehouse. Once a terminus for railroad freight trains, it's now used for storage part of it, anyway. Another 15,000 square feet of it has been turned into The Tunnel, a nightclub for those on the fast track.

Further east, at Avenue of the Americas and 20th Street, is Chelsea's other big noise: the Limelight, a church turned disco. The pews are intact, but there's a video screen over the altar, and various and sundry events in the sacristy. For more sedate night life, there's live jazz at The Angry Squire (216 Seventh Ave.) and Nell's (246 W. 14th bluegrass or folk music at the Eagle Tavern (355 W. 14th cabaret at The Ballroom (253 W.

28th and comedy at Caroline's (332 Eighth Ave). And then there's theater: the WPA Theater on West 23rd, off Tenth Avenue, where "Steel Magnolias" and "Little Shop of Hor- rors" got their start; the Hudson Guild Theater (441. W. 26th St), and the American Jewish Theater (15 W. 28th), which migrated here from the 92nd Street Y.

For dance, there's the Dance Theater Workshop (219 W. 19th St.) and the Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Ave.) For more mundane pleasures, there's shopping. "With the exception of large department stores," says real estate agent Tillman, "you can do virtually all your shopping in Chelsea." Need a feathered mask, cobalt glassware, or a cotton quilt? Try Somethin' Else on Ninth Avenue, across the street from the General Theological Seminary. In the back room, along with Christmas ornaments and antique dolls, are reproduction toys from the 1930s, including a $4 windup Bambi. Few stores stock as many children's books as Books of Wonder (132 Seventh It has every "Oz" book ever written first editions, hard-covers, and paperbacks plus Cat-in-the-Hat jigsaw puzzles and puppets inspired by Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." When Barney Pressman opened his haberdashery in 1917 at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street, he couldn't have guessed it would MONTVALE ANTIQUE MALL N.J.'s Largest Quality Antique Center (f mi A Showolace For 35 Individually Owned Shops'.

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The transcript of the trial proceedings is then put into a computer. The technique of stenography used by court reporters can be learned by virtually anyone with fcod hearing and manual dexterity. Growing demand and expanding field With the well publicized backlog of court cases, courts are continuously expanding to keep the wheels of justice turning. Consequently, die demand for qualified court reporters has never been greater. The National Shorthand Reporters Association (NSRA) of Vienna, Virginia was founded in 1899 to promote the professionalism of court reporting and to acquaint die public with the profession.

Their membership today now totals over 22,000. Only one NSRA approved school in New Jersey NSRA began an approval for schools trarhmg court reporting. The American Business Academy in Hack-ensack is the only NSRA approved court repot ting school in the state of New Jersey. Excellent starting salaries A recent job study revealed that starting salaries for court reporters range from $35,000 to $42,000. Indeed, court reporters with as little as two years experience can expect job opportunities offering annual salaries over $55,000.

There are also court reporters who are either self-employed or who work for agencies. ABA now offers a day night course 'We wanted to give people the opportunity to explore the field of court reporting without leaving their full time positions" states the President of ABA. The course in Machine Theory meets Monday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 9 and serves as an excellent introduction to the field of court reporting. Those interested in The Court Reporting course should call die American Business Academy at (2Q1) 4SS-9400 or write to the school at 66 Moore Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Day school hours are from 830 to 1:20, Moo.

to FrL The full-time day Court Repotting course wul conv mence July 5th and Jury 11th. The full-time program offers federal lota Sl grants to A-B-A. students. Wednesday, June 22 through Saturday, June 25. Over 200 antique stained glass windows.

Batten berg lace curtains. English furniture from 1850-1920 You'll see many 'finds' like these plus decorator room settings. So come to browse. shop and enjoy. RESIDE QUARE 0.