Cookie Tour in Lawrenceville

The Joy of Cookies: Cookie Tour features cookies from around the world accompanied by recipes and a potpourri of arts and crafts, entertainment and a bite to eat. This year’s tour is the seventh and is dedicated to Jay Bernard, the tour’s founder who died last May.
Bernard, who owned Jay’s Designs, was involved with many activities in Lawrenceville and will be sorely missed. But the Cookie Tour will live on.
There were twenty-five stops on the Cookie Tour which ran from Thursday November 29 through Sunday December 2 and traversed almost twenty blocks on Butler Street. I limited myself to a cross-section of participants partly due to time constraints and partly due to the fact that I shouldn’t eat too many cookies. Starting “up town” the Zombo Art Gallery (actually on Hatfield Street) is billed as a “fun art gallery” and features t-shirts, computer-generated art and kitschy collectables. Much of the merchandise has a ’50s retro-look with a strong Cartoon Network influence. One special gift package featured a Fiesta ware teapot.
The Trinity Gallery, a little further down Hatfield, exhibits fine art black and white photography and included several craft-oriented tables for the tour. The silver-gelatin photos by gallery owner Dan Gaser are predominately of Pittsburgh cityscapes and are hand-printed using the same process that photographers have used for over a hundred years.
Several boutiques featured on the tour offer fashion, furnishings and accessories from the past and present. Elements is showcasing the work of three local artists: Laura Petrilla (photography), John Repko (jewelry) and Joktan Faulk (fashion.) Especially interesting is Petrilla’s “Glamour Behind the Lens”, a series of pin-up photos that captures the spirit of the classic calendar art with a Twenty-first Century approach. Accezzorize is a chic accessory boutique offering the latest in jewelry, shoes and handbags all with a heavy doze of glitz and bling. Both establishments feature pieces by local designers, but in contrast to the overflowing merchandise at Elements, Accezzorize has an airy, open display floor.
The Borelli-Edwards Gallery has been featuring local and international artists for over twenty-eight years. The selected works on display by Mary Mazziotti include the “cowgirl series”, miniature watercolors based on Medieval illuminations and acrylic paintings of local interest.
While the cookies may be gone (at least for this year) the art and the fashion remain up and down Butler Street for all to enjoy. I'm sure they will return next season.