Latest news with #OvertheMoon
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Minnow Teams With Over the Moon for Limited-edition Capsule Collection for Women and Children
Minnow, the family lifestyle brand known for its swimwear and elevated essentials, has partnered with Alexandra Macon's e-commerce platform and wedding and baby registry Over the Moon. Together they have launched a women's and children's capsule collection. The offering includes a 14-piece limited-edition capsule of women's and children's coordinating swim and terry sets. More from WWD Third Annual CFDA/Genesis House AAPI Design + Innovation Grant Opens Submissions Emma Grede Partners With Coco Gauff and UPS to Mentor Emerging Entrepreneurs Misplaced Sunglasses? Meet Rosa Rims, the New Luxury Eyewear Brand With a Low-tech Solution 'We drew inspiration from iconic Americana summer days on the water. The collection with Over the Moon features nostalgic florals, crisp ginghams, and a classic red, white and blue palette — a nod to both brands' shared love of heritage and storytelling,' said Morgan Smith, founder of Minnow. 'This collaboration is classic Americana meets refined coastal glamour,' Macon said. 'As a mother of three who dresses my children in Minnow, I'm delighted to debut this special collection alongside their team. I know my littles ones and I will be wearing these pieces all season long — even after the school year begins.' The collection is accompanied by an ad campaign, shot by Anne Rhett. Prices range from $54 to $208. The line will be available online at both Minnow's and Over The Moon's Web site, as well as Minnow's Charleston and New York City stores. The collection is being manufactured in Vietnam. Over the Moon is an elevated destination for categories such as fashion, jewelry, timeless pieces for the home and nursery. Best of WWD Why Tennis Players Wear All White at Wimbledon: The Championships' Historic Dress Code Explained Kate Middleton's Looks at Trooping the Colour Through the Years [PHOTOS] Young Brooke Shields' Style Evolution, Archive Photos: From Runway Modeling & Red Carpets to Meeting Princess Diana
Chicago Tribune
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Around the Southland: Andrew Wind Symphony hits right note at SuperState, more
Victor J. Andrew High School band students once again were chosen to play in the state's premiere band festival in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The high school's Wind Symphony played at the 2025 University of Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival, which serves as the state championship for concert bands. About 80 ensembles submitted applications that included a recorded performance, and 24 high school bands were asked to perform at SuperState. Andrew students also marked a first this year – being chosen as the Class 2A Honor Band, which means they will return in 2026 for a feature performance. They performed 'Galop' by Dmitri Shostakovich, 'Over the Moon' by Frank Ticheli and 'Deep River' by Benjamin Horne. 'I'm just really proud of the kids,' Director Mark Iwinski shared in a news release. 'They play so musically and have a desire to play some of the best repertoire in the best places.' Reservations are being taken for the free event Hike the Freedom Trail, set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 7 at the boat launch at Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve, 134th and the Little Calumet River. Seating is limited for the program, which features expats providing a historically accurate story from experts of the Midwest Underground Railroad Network about the hundreds or even thousands of escaped slaves known as 'freedom seekers' who traveled on the Underground Railroad in the Chicago area's south region prior to the Civil War. One site is the farm owned by the Jan Ton family, which is near Beaubien Woods. The tour, sponsored by the Forest Preserves of Cook County and the Calumet Heritage Partnership, includes a bus ride and a moderate hike. Dress for the weather. Sign up online or call 773-370-3305 or email tonfarmugrr@ Southland College Prep Charter High School in Richton Park recognized all 145 graduating seniors during its 12th All In celebration, noting that once again all of them were accepted to college and earned $50 million in scholarships. For the first time, four seniors earned scholarships from the newly created Kwarteng Foundation, which honors Alex Kwarteng, of Matteson, who immigrated to the United States from Ghana in the 1980s. His daughters, Lisa, Amy, Sandra and Esther Kwarteng, established the foundation, which awarded $10,000 in scholarships to four 2025 graduates of Southland College Prep: Itohan Salami, Terri Mensah, Dhayra Gomez and Kehinde Sowemino, who was class valedictorian. Amy and Esther Kwarteng are Southland alums. In addition, 10 Southland seniors were admitted to California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo with full-ride scholarships worth $2 million, and as a result of the growing partnership with the two schools. Two graduating seniors, Rickaiya Bernard and Mofuluwake Arogundade, earned a cumulative total of more than $750,000 in scholarships to top universities from the QuestBridge National College Match Program. Celebrate local artistry and entrepreneurship during Rhythm & Roots: An Artisan and Entrepreneur Showcase from noon to 4 p.m. at the Up House – Building D, 13811 S. Western Ave., Blue Island. The event highlights live music from recording artist Gregory Echols and a lineup of wellness experiences, small businesses and tastemakers such as Spa in Your Space, Health Hair Institute, The Chi Concierge, Make Us One Productions and The Entrepreneur Expo. Participants can connect with Black-owned brands, enjoy wellness experiences and discover handcrafted goods, all while experiencing live music. Tickets cost $25 in advance at or $30 at the door. Adults 50 and older can socialize with friends and neighbors at 3:30 p.m. June 6 at the Green Hills Public Library, 10331 S. Interlochen Drive, Palos Hills. Puzzles, coloring sheets, board games and coffee will be available during the program. Information is at 708-598-8446. The annual Kickoff to Summer Celebration sets sail from 3 to 8 p.m. June 1 at Briedert Green in downtown Frankfort, featuring a theme of 'All things yacht rock.' A DJ splints turns starting at 3 p.m. with hulu hoop contests, limbo challenges, classic lawn games and a water balloon toss planned. Bubble Captain Jason Kollum will provide a sea of bubbles from 3 to 5 p.m., and a balloon artist and face painter will entertain kids 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. From 5 to 6 p.m., the first 500 guests will receive free homemade popsicles from La Michoacana de Frankfort. A mini car show from the Frankfort Car Club will highlight iconic vehicles from the 1970s and '80s. The Yacht Rock-ettes will play soft rock hits from 6 to 8 p.m. Details are at Sire Holloway, of Chicago, a senior at Marist High School in Chicago, has earned The Gates Scholarship, one of the country's most competitive scholarships for minority high school seniors who show exemplary leadership. Holloway plans to major in computer science at Howard University. While at Marist, he was a member of the National Honor Society, president of the Black Student Union and an active leader at the school. The Gates Scholarship, which fully covers college tuition and room and board, is presented each year to 'exceptional student leaders from low-income, minority backgrounds, helping them realize their maximum potential.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This beloved Tacoma restaurant has new owners. If you haven't noticed, that's a good thing
Over the Moon Cafe, perhaps Tacoma's most romantic restaurant and one of its smallest with just 36 oft-filled seats, quietly changed hands last year. If you hadn't noticed — and Over the Moon is the kind of place that some people return to several times in a year to celebrate — owners new and old did their part. Unrecognizable transition was very much the point, explained founder Deanna Harris-Bender in a February phone call. Importantly, it was part of the paperwork, but 'I really wanted these guys to be successful,' she said. 'Sometimes when people hear about these things, they tend to shy away until the dust settles. I didn't want to do them any disfavors.' Both parties agreed to refrain from making an official announcement until the timing seemed right. 'I guess the cat's out of the bag!' said Daniel Espinosa, who purchased the Opera Alley haunt with his wife Jennifer, in a recent phone call. 'We didn't want anybody to know, especially when Over the Moon has been a staple in the community for the last 23 years,' he explained. 'My fear was for patrons to get notified that the restaurant had been sold off, after building an emotional connection with Deanna, and for them to be like, 'Well, there goes Over the Moon.'' People have a penchant for viewing change in a negative light, he added, at least when it comes to something as intimate as a restaurant — maybe even more so for one with such a hearty reputation as a date-night haven and an anniversary dinner magnet, or celebration of any size or style, for almost a quarter-century. Espinosa has worked as a chef and in corporate food management for just as long: 'I've been a chef for 23 years now. It's all I've done since I was a teenager, and I never thought about owning a restaurant or opening one, to be quite honest. If I did … it would have to be one that was a sweetheart of the town.' He and Jennifer moved to Puyallup several years ago. In casual conversation with a barista at a coffee shop, they asked for recommendations on weekend activities in the area. 'She said, 'Oh my gosh, you have to try the cutest little spot in Tacoma. It's called Over the Moon Cafe,'' recalled Espinosa. He perused the menu online — common for a chef but also his personal needs as a person with Celiac disease. Indeed, Harris-Bender's menu has somewhat surreptitiously catered to gluten-free diners for more than a decade. She herself is not Celiac, but after a lengthy battle, she was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which led her to the Autoimmune Paleo Diet. Over the Moon has eschewed labels, instead allowing the dishes to speak for themselves. It's why the house lasagna, assembled with thinly sliced butternut squash, is listed in quotation marks and why the berry cheesecake-meets-mousse dessert has a paragraph-long description. (The secret, sort of: coconut butter and ground dates!) So the Espinosas made a reservation. Almost immediately, 'We kinda looked at each other,' said Daniel Espinosa. The food was great, the service kind and attentive, the ambiance just wonderful. 'We became regulars.' Soon they had celebrated birthdays including their daughter's 18th, their own anniversary and just your usual date night. 'When we found out it was for sale, it was an immediate yes,' said Espinosa. The new owners trained with Harris-Bender for a few months, while the longtime sous chef, Michael, moved into a leading role. Harris-Bender eventually dipped out, but her daughter, who served and managed the front-of-house for many years, stayed through last October before returning to school and moving to the East Coast. Her son still works in the kitchen. 'My kids grew up there,' said Harris-Bender. 'It was a bit heartwrenching, but there's a shelf life, right? That's what it felt like for me … It's a young person's game. Small restaurants are exhausting! They just are.' When she opened Over the Moon in 2001, she was in her 40s. She now recognizes that time in her life as 'my midlife crisis,' she said with a laugh. It was her first ownership adventure but a return to the kitchen after working in restaurants as a teenager before moving into the legal field and running a home-based business for a spell. As her kids grew up, she started searching for the answer to a question some know early and others maybe never find: 'What do I really want to do when I grow up?' Tacoma, she continued, 'was in such a cool place' at that time. Primo Grill had just opened, a truly seasonal, local, chef-driven restaurant. (That mainstay also recently was sold to new, younger owners.) Over the Moon has likewise withstood the tests of time, garnering a loyal fan base and a reputation as a must-visit for out-of-towners, too. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely complicated its future, as Harris-Bender, now in her mid-60s, began contemplating her next steps. She and her husband are avid pilots; they have since moved to Sequim, from where they now frequently take off in a Cessna 180 Skywagon, nicknamed JulietLima. (In July, she and a friend will compete in the 2025 Air Race Classic against 50 other women, flying from Washington to Alabama. The nonprofit race was established in 1929 and supports women in flight.) The restaurant was for sale for almost two years, but none of the offers seemed right. You hope to find buyers like the Espinosas, said Harris-Bender — who appreciate what you built and want to carry the torch, not tear it down. Astute observers might have noticed an unusual Instagram post just before Memorial Day last year. At first blush it was a restaurant-anniversary post, but it featured Harris-Bender, who didn't post frequently and rarely was in front of the camera. 'I kept all your notes — years and years of notes: 23 years of your experiences, your joys, your thoughts, your prayers. Business cards from businesses come and gone,' she said. 'It's amazing that Tacoma and beyond created this, in this little hole in the wall, and I love all that you guys have brought to me personally, to my crew, and to all the guests that come in and get to read your notes and look at your silly pictures. Thanks for sharing with us, all of this, all of these years, and here's to 23 more.' It was actually a goodbye, admitted Harris-Bender when I spoke with her earlier this year. The love-note tradition began organically, as guests started scribbling on napkins or an old receipt in their wallet and slipping it into a decorative box on one table. That box became several and the notes overflowing. 'To me it was always such an authentic piece of people that came into the restaurant … because that's really what I intended for the restaurant to be,' said Harris-Bender. 'When people get what you're trying to do, it's an amazing kind of feeling. It was about the food, but it was very much about just having a safe place for people to come and just be authentic.' The Espinosas have enacted few changes. The biggest might be the menu layout itself — now just one page instead of several, but featuring a similar number and variety of dishes with some new additions such as angel-hair arrabitata and prosciutto di Parma with burrata and pickled cantaloupe. Most of all, said Daniel, the 'same incredible ambiance' is here to stay. ▪ 709 Opera Alley (Court C), Tacoma, 253-284-3722, ▪ Tuesday-Thursday 4:30-8:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday 4:30-9:30 p.m. ▪ Details: new owners at Opera Alley mainstay, reservations recommended
