Little Baby’s Ice Cream’s Cedar Park location closed after more than six years of operation. Here’s a sign on their door at 4903 Catharine St.

Two adjacent Cedar Park businesses, Little Baby’s Ice Cream and The Bar(n), have closed in the past month or so. Little Baby’s, the artisan scoop shop known for its unusual flavors, closed its doors at 4903 Catharine St. for good at the end of November after more than six years of operation. The Philadelphia-based company went out of business, according to reports. The owners posted the following message on their Instagram page in November:  Continue Reading

Check out some of the latest news, upcoming events and other happenings around the neighborhoods.

• Around 700 homes in Kingsessing were still without gas service on Tuesday night due to a water main break near 56th St and Woodland Ave on Saturday, according to NBC10. The water main break caused a disruption to the natural gas line. Initially 60 homes in the area were affected but during the repair work, hundreds more homes were disconnected from natural gas service as far east as 52nd Street, according to reports.

• Good news for Marigold Kitchen fans! The highly-acclaimed Spruce Hill restaurant, whose owner Robert Halpern is moving on (and moving out of the state), is not closing after all, as was initially reported. Well, at least not for good. Halpern sold his business to his own chefs de cuisine, Tim Lanza and Andrew Kochan, both 26, The Insider reports. Halpern’s executive chef, Keith Krajewski, will also continue his work at this location, according to The Insider. The restaurant will serve its last dinner under Halpern’s ownership on Saturday, June 28. After that, it will close for some kitchen refurbishment work and will reopen in early September.

The English elms at The Woodlands (Photo courtesy The Woodlands)

• The Woodlands Cemetery and Mansion is asking the community to help them save seven English elm trees (they’re called “The 7 Giants”), some of the most significant historic trees on the grounds thanks to their size and age (they date back to the late 18th century). The trees are suffering from Dutch Elm Disease, which may kill them if left untreated. Treatment and monitoring of the disease is costly, so the Woodlands has started a fundraising campaign to help cover the costs. The initial goal is $20,000. For more information and to donate, click here.

• Little Baby’s Ice Cream has created a new flavor called the Works, now available at LBIC’s Cedar Park location (49th and Catharine). Proceeds from the sale benefit Neighborhood Bike Works, a non-profit that offers youth bike education programs and bike repair classes for adults.

• West Philly based art rock band The Chairman Dances will present their new album, The Death of Samuel Miller (out 6/27 via Grizzly Records), on Friday, June 27 at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut). Spelling Reform (Facebook page) and Vita and the Woolf (Facebook page) will also take part in the album release show, which begins at 8 p.m. ($10). The Chairman Dances’ song “Prophetess” was No. 2 in WXPN‘s list of the 5 best Philly songs of 2013. The music video for the new record’s single, “Dance to the Neighbor’s Stereo,” is streaming on Vimeo.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream is already developing a flair for the dramatic. The artisan ice cream maker announced last-minute that it will open its anticipated Cedar Park location at 4903 Catharine St. at 2 p.m. tomorrow in what will be a busy Saturday in the neighborhood.

Here’s who will be at Little Baby’s:

Play on Philly Youth Orchestra
Sky Sisters Face Painting
Urban Nutrition Initiative’s
Rebel Granola Bars
Yumtown USA Food Truck
Art in the Age Spirits
Philly Roller Girls

The shop will be open until 11 p.m. tomorrow and “every day thereafter,” according to an e-mail.

While you’re on the 4900 block of Catharine, you might want to cross Baltimore Avenue to The Marvelous! for National Record Store Day. The day includes special music releases and, sometimes, live performances at record shops around the country. Here’s what The Marvelous is bringing in for the day (all on vinyl):

Scientist “Scientific Dub” 3×10″ on color vinyl
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, “Animal X” 7″
Rough Guide to Psychedelic Brazil
Aloha, “Here Comes Everyone”
Tame Impala debut EP
Cut Copy, “Bright Like Neon Love”
Can’s “Ege Bamyasi” played by Stephen Malkmus & Friends
Rough Guide to African Disco
Nick Drake comp
Brian Eno / Nicolas Jaar / Grizzly Bear
Grateful Dead, “Rare Cuts & Oddities 1966”
Trashmen, “Mean Woman Blues b/w Big Boss Man 7”
Notorious B.I.G., “Ready to Die” ltd. ed. white vinyl

This, of course, is in addition to the Go West! Craft Fest (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and the Uhuru Flea Market (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) at Clark Park.

Life in West Philly may soon become a little sweeter. A popular Philadelphia ice cream and frozen dessert shop, Little Baby’s Ice Cream,  has revealed plans to expand into West Philly and already has chosen a Cedar Park location. The property where the new Little Baby’s Ice Cream parlor is proposed is at 4903 Catharine Street, which is the old Fourth River Signworks property.

This Thursday, Feb. 21, the Cedar Park Neighbors Zoning Committee and the owners of Little Baby’s Ice Cream will review the proposed plans to convert 4903 Catharine Street into a takeout ice cream parlor/restaurant on the first floor of the property at a zoning meeting, which will begin at 7:15 p.m. at Calvary Center (48th & Baltimore). Vacant spaces are proposed on the second and third floor of the property. Residents are invited to the meeting to provide their feedback on this issue before a hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment scheduled on March 13 at 5:00 pm at 1515 Arch St.

If the proposal is approved by the ZBA and if everything else goes according to the plans, the new shop, titled “Little Baby’s Ice Cream Cedar Park Embassy,” will open in the early spring 2013.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream specializes in handmade, small-batch Philadelphia style ice cream and non-dairy and vegan frozen desserts, as well as handmade cookies and milkshakes.