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Daniel Holzman, chef and co-owner of the New York eatery The Meatball Shop, loves meatballs because they're easy, inexpensive and they allow him to be passionate about something without taking it too seriously. And they transcend cultures. "I think one of the greatest parts about a meatball is that they are celebrated all over the world and every culture has meatballs," says Holzman, whose business is one of five restaurants profiled on CNBC's Wednesday docu-series "Consumed: The Real Restaurant Business." "When we first had our first investor meeting, there was an Indian guy from India, a guy from China and like an Irish-Catholic American guy. And all three of them were talking about remembering their grandma's homemade meatballs and it really struck me in that moment like, wow. I always thought of the Italian grandma rolling meatballs because that's what I've got in my head, my image of living in New York. But everybody has a fond memory of their grandma rolling meatballs, which speaks to something." As the name suggests, The Meatball Shop, which has six locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, is all about the tasty little spheres, serving them alone or in sandwiches, sliders or entrees, using beef, pork, chicken and vegetarian mixes as well as a "special," which could be one of the 70 or so rotating recipes they've come up with over their five years in business. In fact, walk in at the right time and you might be able to order yourself what Holzman calls his most unusual recipe, the Reuben meatball. "There was a chef who worked for us," Holzman says, "... and he said, 'I would love to make this sandwich meatball. I've got this idea – it will be delicious – a Reuben sandwich with Swiss cheese and corned beef and sauerkraut.' "And I thought, 'That sounds really disgusting.' But I didn't want to stifle his creativity so I said, 'Well shucks, why don't we make a small batch and we'll taste it and see how it goes?' And it's so delicious. I don't know how he did it but – I do know how he did it, actually. It's amazing. The meatball is one of my absolute favorites. ... So I'm happy I didn't stifle their creativity in that case." What book are you currently reading? "I'm currently reading 'Onward.' It's the Howard Schultz autobiography." What did you have for dinner last night? "I had hot wings in a bar with a Budweiser." What's your next project? "Well, we have a manager meeting at 2 p.m. At this point, looking at the agenda, it looks like a project to me." When was the last vacation you took, where and why? "My mother celebrated a big birthday this year and we went to India. It was a lifelong dream of hers to travel and we took a couple of weeks and traveled around the north." BY GEORGE DICKIE Making a mean meatball on CNBC's 'Consumed' Daniel Holzman Luckily for "The Age of Adaline," Blake Lively has timeless beauty. That's precisely what the movie needs at its most basic point, since it casts television's former "Gossip Girl" as a woman whose age is frozen, thanks to one of those you-heard-it-in-a story metaphysical phenomena she encounters early in the 20th century. From that point on, the picture's makeup artists need not worry about making Lively look anything but her own age. The same goes for her co-stars in the film, given the story conceit. Put it this way: Ellen Burstyn plays Lively's daughter. Questions? Clearly, there's an emotional impact to staying the same age for eternity – and though Lively certainly pulls off the concept physically, looking like a total fashion plate in every era the tale covers, she doesn't quite have the acting heft to convey the eternal conflict of essentially staying the same while watching decades and people pass. Particularly exemplifying that is Adaline's effort to keep an especially ardent suitor (Michiel Huisman, "Game of Thrones") at bay in modern times, though that scenario sets up a good role for Harrison Ford as the man's father. Much of the fun of "The Age of Adaline" comes from watching Lively interact with such pros as Ford and Burstyn, but that also has the extra edge of showing how much more accomplished they are. That said, it's quite possible that most moviegoers will accept "Adaline" simply for the glossy romance it is. The cinematography certainly is lovely, and for however facile the script seems, there's always the question of how a story like this ends ... since the main character's life appears to have no end. Ever. In terms of telling a relationship story, director Lee Toland Krieger had more success overall with "Celeste and Jesse Forever," but that movie also has the benefit of considerably more humor. "The Age of Adaline" plays it much straighter, but at least it can be said that at any given moment, it does indeed act its age. BY JAY BOBBIN 'Age' doesn't come before beauty for Blake Lively Page 8 May 25 - 31, 2015

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