Campus Square - Lehigh University

For 2008, both the Lehigh Valley Dairy Store-The Cup, and Johnny’s Bagels and Deli, two of Lehigh’s Campus Square Restaurants, won Best of the Valley titles.

Both The Cup and Johnny’s Bagels in Campus Square have been voted the region’s “Best of the Valley” by the readers of Lehigh Valley Magazine in their 13th annual Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll. More than 4,000 readers completed paper and online ballots to select winners like The Cup and Johnny’s.

Owners of the restaurants, along with the other 100 plus winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fogelsville earlier this summer.

Johnny’s Bagels was awarded the title of Best Bagels. Known valley-wide for their hand-rolled, huge, New York style bagels, Johnny’s has held fast to the Best Bagels title for three consecutive years now. Unique flavors such as cranberry orange and sundried tomato make their selections both appealing and memorable.

The Bethlehem Dairy Store- The Cup was awarded for Best Ice Cream. This also was not the first time they received a “Best of the Valley” award.  Over forty hard ice cream flavors, including sugar free, low fat, and seasonal flavors, continue to draw enthusiastic crowds year after year. Recently, the Cup was also featured as one of The Morning Call’s Top Ice Cream Parlors in the Lehigh Valley. 

Co-owner of the The Bethlehem Dairy Store, Bill Burkhardt, was not only enthusiastic about The Cup’s win, but also about Johnny’s and what it means for Campus Square. ”I am a very big supporter of community and small businesses,” he says. When asked what he thinks contributed to being a “Best of the Valley” title winner, Bill jokes, “Stop in Johnny’s for a bagel, then pop over to us for some ice cream and find out!”

All “Best of the Valley” winners are featured in Lehigh Valley Magazine’s July/August issue and on their website.

The six week temporary installation of local artist Ben Pawlowski’s “aMAZEing” art is complete, leading many faculty, staff, students, and visitors to ponder the images, wondering “What does it all mean?”…

Pawlowski was happy to explain, as only he can do in his own words. “There were many ideas and goals that went into this project. I had some limitations – the project had to be temporary and it couldn’t interfere with regular Campus Square activities – so I needed to embrace these limitations to get my message across.”

With these things in mind, Pawlowski created the theme, which spells out the solution to the mazes, “Change happens when you imagine”. Pawlowski’s artwork commonly contains double meanings and hidden messages reflecting both the world of art and his own personal life.

Pawlowski explains, “To capture the essence of change, I designed a project that would slowly change over time.” He hoped that while this change was going on it would cause people to imagine what the final images were going to depict.

“To reinforce the theme, I wanted to use people who followed this school of thought –which change only comes when we embrace our imaginations, and I wanted to use people who represented different types of imaginative thought.” Pawlowski says.

He chose images of the following people to portray his message: Ghandi represents spiritual thought, Benjamin Franklin represents inventive thought, Mark Twain depicts literary thought, and John Lennon represents artistic thought. Various colors used were to represent the different stages of the project, each color representing another step.

Silagh White, director of ArtsLehigh and guarantor for Pawlowski’s work appearing in Campus Square says, “It’s been wonderful to see people look at things differently, stop for a moment, wonder and be changed.”

His installation in Campus Square is one more project that has helped develop Pawlowski as a sought-after local artist. He’s been a featured artist at the Wired Gallery and Cafe on Main Street in Bethlehem. He can also be seen at various art shows and events around the Lehigh Valley.