Opening to Joy at Lotus Yoga

5 Apr

Lotus Yoga’s studio at Stockton and Myra Streets. 

Lotus Yoga is an oasis at the corner of Stockton and Myra Streets in the Riverside neighborhood.  The second floor studio is a bright, open space with warm wooden floors and ceilings and exposed brick walls.  Colorful mats are rolled out on the floor as yoga enthusiasts listen to the calming voice of studio co-owner, Bonnie Murdoch, as she moves the group through deep breathing exercises and strengthening and flexibility poses.  But it wasn’t always an inviting, peaceful haven that yoga students see today.  Back in 2008, her co-owner Bethany Crawley discovered a large, dilapidated space with dingy windows, holes in the walls and ceilings and insulation dangling from its rafters and then immediately contacted Bonnie.  The duo saw past the unlikely spot’s “wrinkles” and “envisioned an open, inviting, and light-filled space.”   After transforming the spot, they named their studio after the lotus flower to symbolize “growth and the emergence from the darkness into the light” and “to represent growth, light, purity and wisdom.”

As two busy attorneys at different Jacksonville law firms, they knew all too well the stresses of demanding careers and hectic personal lives.  Yet each followed a different path to the study and practice of yoga before joining forces in September 2008 to establish Lotus Yoga.  About ten years ago, a friend invited Bonnie, a former triathlete and long-distance runner, to attend a yoga class at the YMCA.  After taking a few initial classes, Bonnie felt a sense of both energy and relaxation.  “I had no idea how worn out I was…A seed was planted,” she notes.  Soon she began attending classes regularly and knew “something began changing inside of me.  I started to feel better; the seed was taking root.”  Her business partner, Bethany had previously studied dance and gymnastics before training as a spring board and tower diver.  About eight years ago, she started to practice yoga as a natural blend of “the strength of gymnastics, the grace of dance, the weightlessness of diving.”  And like Bonnie, Bethany realized that her yoga practice was “most importantly, a path for transformation and spiritual growth.”

Co-owners of Lotus Yoga, Bonnie Murdoch (l) and Bethany Crawley (r)

Lotus Yoga primarily offers vinyasa flow and modified ashtanga vinyasa classes.  In vinyasa yoga, one posture flows into the next in harmony with the movement of the breath in and out of the body, creating a meditation in movement.  The studio also offers restorative chair yoga classes for those students whose access to yoga may be restricted as a result of trauma, injury or natural aging.  Private lessons are also available upon request.  All studio instructors have a minimum of 200 hours of teacher training certifications and have attended a number of workshops and classes with experienced instructors.  The studio also enjoys bringing in other well-respected national instructors for their students and their own practices of yoga.  National teacher and author Rolf Gates offered a special two-hour Vinyasa class with on Tuesday, March 27.  His visit will be followed by a weekend workshop with Kathryn Budig, a world-renowned yoga instructor and contributing writer to Om Yoga and Yoga Journal Magazine, from April 13-15.  Ms. Budig is known for exuding an adventurous and playful spirit and inspiring others to explore their minds and bodies in creative ways.

If you’re looking for a way to restore and reenergize yourself, pull on that loose, comfortable clothing, grab that yoga mat and a bottle of water and stop by Lotus Yoga at 869 Stockton Street, Suite 7, across from The John Gorrie, or check them out on the Web at lotusyogajax.com.

–Bridges DelPonte, http://www.bridgesdelponte.com

 

Flour Power Rules in Riverside

10 Oct

Quiches are made fresh daily. photo credit: CariVicarious.com

Bakery Moderne is closed on Mondays, but pastry chef and owner Nathalie Mockler is hard at work kneading bread dough. While Riverside sleeps, she arrives at 4:30 a.m. daily to prepare her signature baked goods and brew fresh coffee from local Bold Bean Coffee Roasters.

Her hand-shaped artisanal breads, from classic French loaves and croissants to contemporary sundried tomato-basil and asiago-cracked peppercorn, are made from scratch with organic herbs from her garden and without preservatives. It’s “a three-hour process just to make a small batch of French bread” and she’s “got some biceps” from the daily workout. The owner/baker takes a quick break to share how she turned her one-time hobby into Riverside’s hip European-style bakery and café.

Originally trained as an architect, the Jacksonville native earned an architecture degree minoring in art history from the University of Miami. For years she helped design educational and institutional facilities such as the Student Union Parking Garage at Florida State College’s Kent campus and the Social Sciences building at the University of North Florida. While completing those projects, she built a dedicated following among family and friends for making delicious multi-tiered wedding cakes part-time for nearly eight years. She admits that lengthy design and construction processes couldn’t compete with “the immediate gratification” of “putting a smile on a customer’s face right away” with cakes. Eventually she pursued formal pastry training at Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach (now Lincoln Culinary Institute), followed by a three-year stint as a pastry assistant at Epping Forest Yacht Club.

Bakery Moderne. photo credit: VisitSouth.com

A Riverside resident, Ms. Mockler scouted local vacancies and soon discovered this light, airy space with its tall glass windows, high ceilings and exposed brick walls at the corner of Stockton and Myra Streets. In December 2009, she opened Bakery Moderne with its art nouveau lettering harking back to her architecture and art history roots. The café is located across the street from the John Gorrie Junior High School, where painstaking renovations have burnished the school into an architectural gem (the couple that spearheaded the effort, Wayne and Delores Weaver, recently stopped into the café after reviewing the project’s final “punch list”). The pastry chef hopes the Gorrie development will further revitalize the neighborhood. Giving back to the community is important to her, and the owner/chef frequently donates baked goods to local organizations, such as the Sulzbacher Center, Riverside Fine Arts and Lender Processing Services’ charity events.

 
At an earlier visit, a lunch-time diner raved to me about the fresh breads and savory quiches. Mockler is especially proud of her Cuban sandwich made with slow-roasted pork and fresh-baked Cuban bread borrowed from her Cuban grandmother’s recipe. But she likes “to keep an open mind” to customer suggestions or ideas for new items. Her husband helps out “a lot behind the scenes” cooking up corn chowder and St. Augustine datil sausage and spicy black bean soups to accompany her fresh breads. With her high-quality standards, one of her biggest challenges has been to find trained staff to help with baking tasks. Admitting that “sweets are her first love,” the chef reminds diet-conscious customers that they don’t have to avoid all pastries. “It’s all about moderation and portion-size,” she says. “Our mini-tarts are all about portion control” and “fresh fruit is good to have.”

Pastry Chef and Owner, Nathalie Mockler, Bakery Moderne

With a busy holiday season right around the corner, she notes that fresh petit fours, dinner rolls, fruit pies and Yule logs will be in demand. The bakery also delivers catering services for special events, including dessert tables, breakfast and lunch platters and custom cakes for client meetings and events. So whether it’s baked goods for breakfast, lunch or a special occasion, be sure to stop by Bakery Moderne, 869 Stockton Street, where flour power rules.

–Bridges delPonte