Just your cup of tea

IT'S BACK-TO-SCHOOL time, and, in an annual August migration, families from far and wide are flocking to Northeast Philly's Mayfair neighborhood — either to stock up on polo shirts and plaid jumpers or to sign on for youth fall sports.

Two of the Philadelphia region's powerhouse school-uniform suppliers have stores here: Flynn & O'Hara Uniforms, in the 6200 block of Frankford Avenue, and DiGiulio's Clothing, just up the street. (Note to procrastinators: While supplies are OK for now, DiGiulio's manager, Karen Rotondo, said that her store inevitably runs out of something or other in the crazed last week before school, so know that the clock is ticking.)

Off the avenue, powerhouse Mayfair youth-sports organizations, such as the Holy Terrors and the Lansing Knights, have been squeezing in mass registrations and early practices around families' late trips to the shore. Come fall, the swarms of kids buzzing after soccer balls in Mayfair will reach almost biblical proportions.

"Every Saturday morning, you're going to have hundreds if not thousands of people that are out there on the fields with their children," said Scott Cummings, who is president of the Mayfair Civic Association and juggles a weekend coaching slate that's not unusual for a sports dad in Northeast Peanut League territory. "I've been coaching three and four teams every season."

Martin Bednarek, of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, is another dedicated Mayfair youth coach. He's been at it for 30 years and is the storied founder of the AAU Rockers, now a force in girls' travel basketball.

"I thought the city kids were starting to fall behind the suburban kids and the kids from Jersey," Bednarek said. "We're there now. ...We went from four teams up to eight teams and then 16 teams. This year was a down year. We had 11 teams."

Of course, there's more to Mayfair than saddle shoes and shin pads.

Out of the back-to-school limelight, the neighborhood's retail district is a year-round magnet for the neighbors, of course, but also for a quirky mix of niche shoppers from across the Delaware Valley and beyond, ranging from club DJs and professional clowns to devotees of craft beer, Irish porcelain and high-end, dirt-cheap salon services.

The guy in the booth next to yours at the Mayfair Diner could be any of the above. In Mayfair, it wouldn't be out of the question to be seated next to some clown with nice nails who's partial to Troegs Sunshine Pils.

As the fall-preparatory mobs began to descend, the Daily News poked around Frankford Avenue and environs looking for the neighborhood's best-kept secrets. On Pages M6-M7, we've mapped out a bunch you should consider adding to your itinerary while you're up Mayfair way chasing down cardigans and knee socks.

Happily, a core of the stalwarts from vintage Mayfair remains, from the diner and Tony's tomato pies to Stein florists and Stutz Candies. And. in many cases, the old joints' regulars are "aging in place" right along with them, to use the current social-services jargon. A sizable 21 percent of Mayfair residents are now 65 or older — the highest proportion of seniors in the city.

(Many haven't filed yet for their economic stimulus checks. If you're among them, or know someone who might be, U.S. Rep Allyson Schwartz's district office, at 7219 Frankford Ave., is holding a workshop next Tuesday with Internal Revenue Service representativesto help people fill out the necessary paperwork.)

But the more interesting story in Mayfair is the stuff that's changing.

Today the neighborhood has a BYO bistro (Rylei), an authentic Mexican taqueria (Tacos Lucas) and a gourmet French-Thai restaurant (Kao Tip), among other exotic places to eat. "When I leave my house in Center City, it's like coming up here to the same thing," said Bob Domanico, a Jerry Blavat confidante and recording-industry insider who runs Pat's Music on the avenue.

The old "Lincoln Loop," a 2.3-mile circuit around Lincoln High School and parts of Pennypack Park, is a diverse crush of humanity in motion — now with distance markers so everyone can finally see how much mileage they've accrued walking in circles all these years. "It's a pretty neat walk," Cummings said. "You'll see baby coaches, people walking their dogs, people walking their ferrets."

Meanwhile, Mayfair's rabid culture of youth sports is making room in its packed schedule for a new culture of youth cultural programming. A local theater troupe's performance of "Seussical the Musical" played to packed houses for six shows this winter at the John M. Perzel Community Center, next to the Holy Terrors ballfields. A theater camp was one of the hits of the center's summer recreation lineup.

By next spring, the Mayfair Community Development Corp. expects to reopen the Devon Theater, at Frankford Avenue and Stirling Street, as a 500-seat performing-arts center — a beacon of hope to those who still remember its days of ignominy as the X-rated "Dirty Devon" in the early 1970s.

"It's going to be a big shot in the arm for that end of Frankford Avenue," said Reese Hartey, chairman and president of the Mayfair CDC.

Mayfair's senior citizens have changed, too. On any given weekday, you'll find dozens of them engaged in tai chi, yoga, horticulture, financial planning, Chinese, Spanish, ceramics and more at the community center. One group meets to body-sculpt together after stretching and toning in the center's hour-long Silver Sneakers fitness class.

"This gets us out of our housecoats in the morning," said 76-year-old Ellen Sulzbach, a Silver Sneakers regular.

Sixty-seven-year-old Lorraine Shelkin, the Silver Sneakers instructor, is on one hand vintage Mayfair: As a kid, she lived to roller skate at the Concord Rink, advancing to become a hat-check girl there and, later, in a promotion, to work at the soda fountain.

Now she's into yoga. Shelkin motivates her Silver Sneakers class with upbeat music (Rod Stewart is popular) and with jokes that are disconcertingly funny for a former hat-check girl who's leading 20 senior citizens through bicep curls. "I decided to take up exercise and walking because I wanted to hear heavy breathing again," she said.

One of her students moved here from Ireland 50 years ago. Another, 71-year-old Celine Young, takes Spanish as a way to connect with her 3-year-old granddaughter, Erika, whose mother is from Colombia.

Another senior exerciser, Japanese-born Yoko Welch, often walks from Tacony to Mayfair as a warm-up. She's taking yoga, tai chi and Spanish, plus body sculpting after Silver Sneakers. "We all want her body," Shelkin confided.

Possibly Mayfair's seniors are late with those IRS forms because they've been otherwise engaged. *