Why I Oughta...

After a bunch of nagging, i t seems that the City of Elmhurst and the City Centre are going to sack up and decorate the downtown business district with more Christmas lights . I have to say...the one tree that they *did* light up by the train tracks looks awesome.  Here's a shot in the very early morning hours on my walk to the train late last week.

We lost another retail business on York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre. This time, Elmhurst Olive Oil Company has closed their doors and the landlord has a 'for lease' sign up. We covered this place back in 2011 here on the blog when they opened. They made it four years and couldn't make it through the holidays this year.  This place replaced "Let's Have a Party". I think we stopped in there once in the four years it was open.  Well...besides the times when we went to the City Centre for Trick-or-Treat'ing over the years.  And that, folks, is part of the problem.

On the side marquee of the York Theatre in Downtown Elmhurst, they're advertising a special showing of a movie called "Hat Trick" that covers the Blackhawks championship run.  The movie is being shown this Saturday (December 5th) at 10 am.  Doors open at the York Theatre at 9 am. Here's the listing on the York's site .  Details: The Blackhawks’ full-length Stanley Cup Championship movie Hat Trick is coming to the York Theatre on Saturday, December 5 at 10:00 AM. Admission is $5 and ticket proceeds benefit Chicago Blackhawks Charities and Variety Club of Illinois.  Showings may include appearances by Blackhawks Ambassadors and the Blackhawks Street Team. Plus, the Blackhawks Store retail truck will be on hand so you can take home your very own copy of "Hat Trick". Sounds like a nice little event.  Ambassadors "may" appear?  Let's hope they do!

The plaza in the Elmhurst City Centre is all dressed up for Christmas with a big tree and a bunch of polar bears in the fountain. I took this photo on my way to the train this morning. I'm wondering...is this *the* tree for the City now?  We've gone to a tree lighting down by the Police Station on First Street in years past where the City had their official tree.  But...is this the tree they're going to light now?  Or still have that one down by the Police Station? That's one thing that the City Centre really lacks:  a real gathering place.  Would be nice to have a sizeable place - like a park of some sort - that is in the downtown.  I know...we have Wilder Park just a few blocks away, but that's NOT in the City Centre.

If you head down York Street, you'll now notice this massive scaffolding setup in front of (and down the alley of) the old Plass Appliance store on the west side of the street. You can check out what the plan is for the site here on the blog .  It is a terraced-looking building that appears to have retail on the first floor and condos(??) up on the upper floors.   The Plass building is two stories and based on the rendering this new structure is going to be three stories.  It isn't just York Street that will be impacted.  Check out what the 'alley' looks like going west towards Nu Crepes. I posted a few days ago about the Nu Crepes sign, but after hearing all the chatter about their sign-issues, I can't help but wonder if this construction is going to make things A LOT worse for them. But...on the good side, I'm wondering if the opening of the new parking deck will help them with foot traffic? And, they're going to save the Plass sign, right ?

There's a BIG set of scaffolding up around the Plass Appliance building this week as it appears that it is about to turn into a giant construction site.  As part of that process, it appears that the much-maligned Nu Crepes signage issue has a solve of sorts:  They have this sandwich board sign up right on the sidewalk.  Will it last?  Who knows! If you're trying to figure out what is going on with the Plass store, check out this post that shows the rendering of the new structure .

At the Elmhurst City Centre's Boo-tiful Saturday before Halloween, there were some folks giving out candy to kids and these 'coming soon' flyers to adults.  Looks like a new gym is coming to the City Centre and this one is going to be at 135 N. Addison Ave - which if you look at this LoopNet listing for space - is the new parking garage going up on Addison.   They have a site up for the Elmhurst studio here .   The odd thing is that I've heard about a different 'high end' gym/fitness place opening up on Addison, but on the west side of the street.  Check out this proposal to the City of Elmhurst for a Fitness Formula Club which is at 138 & 142 North Addison.  That's where the city parking lot is right now (I think!).   From the look of the proposal, it is a free-standing building and is HUGE.  Here's a screenshot of the front facade: I can't help but wonder...with places like FittRx and the newish Pilates place on York Street -

This is the second (I think) season for this Maxine pop-up store that is housed in the Shaved Ice place on the west side of York Street right in the heart of the Elmhurst City Centre.  Seems like a pretty good use of the space for the winter as the shaved ice store closes down after Labor Day.   Maxine is only open October, November and December. Maybe they should be called "Purses, Purses, Purses"?  (Like, Closets, Closets, Closets?)

This morning, on the walk to the train, I spotted the new window all set up for the Uptown Shop.   It moved from around the corner last month .  They don't appear to have their sign up just yet, but there's plenty of Halloween what-have-yous in the windows.  Get in there, folks.

This notice was posted on the front windows of Cocomera - the yogurt shop on the east side of York right across for the York Theatre. I covered the opening of Cocomera back in August of 2012 here on the blog . Sad to see them go, but the space is huge (always seemed way to big for a yogurt shop!), so I'm hopeful that we'll get something interesting in that location soon. Here's a post that showed the space BEFORE Cocomera (it was a salon that failed) and talked about how Inland was marketing the place.   This is the second yogurt place to open and close in the City Centre.  The first was YogenFruz up the street.  This leaves TCBY (which I think is Nat's favorite of the three anyway!) as the last remaining location of the great early/mid-20-teens yogurt craze in Elmhurst.

Continuing in the series of Art @ the York film series, the upcoming October run is Best of Enemies.  Here are the posts covering the inaugural July as well as the August and September versions. I took that photo in the morning on my walk to work. With the early fall days starting later, I'm getting A LOT of glare off the posters right now! Best of Enemies is a documentary covering a couple of 'public intellectuals'.   From the Classic Cinemas site : 'Best of Enemies' is a documentary about the legendary series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two great public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. Intended as commentary on the issues of their day, these vitriolic and explosive encounters came to define the modern era of public discourse in the media, marking the big bang moment of our contemporary media landscape when spectacle trumped content and argument replaced substance. Best of Enemies delves

Tomorrow over by the Elmhurst History Museum there's what I *think* is the inaugural Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest being put on by the Elmhurst Heritage Foundation and the Rotary Club of Elmhurst.  $35 tickets for 18 tickets that are good for 3 oz samples.  18 x 3 = 54 ounces of beer.  That's 4.5 12 ounce beers for your $35.  Seems like a fair deal. I'd call this a nice addition to the event calendar in town.  Hoping it is a success and that it becomes a repeat event.   There's quite a few breweries represented.  No Solemn Oath, though?!?  But lots of big guys and some interesting ones like Nat's favorite Stone and Revolution from Chicago.  Good job by the organizers to get *so* many breweries/beers lined up.   From the Brew Fest's site: This is the current list logo's of participating breweries. Check back often! We continue to add to the list. Goose Island  Ommemgang  Boulevard Brewing Founders Brewing New Belguim Sam Adams Angry Orch

I spotted the coverings on the windows of the Elmhurst Uptown Shop a few days ago on my walk home from the train and feared they were gone. Turns out...they're NOT closing. Just moving around the corner up on York Street to the old Leonard's mens clothing store which is just north of the toy store and jewelry shop on the east side of the street.   Here's a post from October of last year showing the closing of Leonard's .  Seems like a better location traffic-wise, but a worse location parking-wise, right?  I always seemed to be able to nab a spot in the police lot or out on first.  York is a total crapshoot.  Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you end up circling down Addison a few times. The Uptown Shop's site says they're having a big moving sale today and should open soon around the corner: WE ARE MOVING our Elmhurst store   The MOVING SALE will be HUGE   We are closed starting Monday the 14th to prepare.   Sale is open to the public Thursda

Photo from the Elmhurst History Museum's Facebook page Yesterday's post about the Elmhurst History Museum's archives being used for economic development purposes by the City of Elmhurst got me to poke around the Elmhurst History Museum's site and Facebook page.  I ended up coming across this piece in the Chicago Tribune by Steve Johnson that covers his Top 10 picks for Fall Museum Trips . Included in there at $6 was the Elmhurst History Museum and their new Beer exhibit.   From the story : 6. "Beer Chicago: The Refreshing History": Lots of institutions these days do beer-themed events. This is all well and very good. But the Elmhurst Historical Museum had the bright idea to make an actual exhibition based on the sudsy stuff. The show's menu includes a beer-making station and the history of the city's beers, beermakers and taverns. There's also a tie-in with the Sept. 19 Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest, on the grounds of the museum. Sept. 18 to F

Last week, I wrote about how there's a new rendering of a new construction building on the old Plass Appliance store in the Elmhurst City Centre that portends a new four-story terraced structure with retail and street-level and condos on the upper floors. But that isn't the only thing that has been plastered on the windows of the old Plass store.  This new "Picture Yourself In Elmhurst" three-panel photo went up and is pretty cute.  It is a bunch of laborers who are installing street lights for the first time in town.  It evokes the same feeling of the lunch on top of skyscraper iconic photo for me. Here's a closer look at the white box on the right side that shows the reason for the billboard: Some of the #hashtags are interesting at the bottom.  #walkable #downtown #citycentre. Based on the email addresses, it plainly looks like the city's Economic Development group had the idea, but if look closely, it appears to be a nice little bit of inter

While we were wandering around town on Sunday, we came across the 'Explore Elmhurst Express' Trolley down on South York Street.  It is a nice addition that has run all summer.  It is winding down and will run it's last route on September 13th with stops around the City Centre and down near Spring/Vallette. I'm thinking that they're likely tracking usage so they can optimize the run times/routes if they decide to extend the service to the fall or next summer. From the City of Elmhurst's site : The City of Elmhurst is pleased to announce the Explore Elmhurst Express, a free trolley service connecting Elmhurst City Centre with the Spring Road and York and Vallette business districts. Take a stroll or hop on your bike and head for one of the nearest trolley stops. Convenient parking is also located near each stop.   It's a great way to shop and dine locally and enjoy the City's numerous cultural opportunities, while saving some gas and bringing sa

I spotted these booths laying on the sidewalk outside of 100 South Chop House and Grill this morning.  Coupled with the re-doing of the writing on the black awnings on the place has me wondering if they're doing one of those 'restaurant/bar rescues' where experts come in and overhaul the place and put in a new look/feel for restaurants. Have to admit...I've NEVER been in 100 South.  I also didn't think it wasn't in any trouble in terms of people patronizing the place.  So, I didn't think they'd *need* one of those 'rescues', right?  My sister and my nephew love the place.  I think they sit at the bar and love the service and food.  But...me?  Never been in there.  Just doesn't look like the type of place that we'd spend time in.   I'm probably wrong!  But, now with - what looks like - a new set of booths and furniture in the restaurant, maybe we need to visit? Does anyone know?  Was this taped for one of those 'rescue'

This morning, on my walk to the train, I spotted this rendering that is up on the windows of the old Plass store on York Street.  It shows a three-story mixed-use building and has an entry on the 'public walkway' to the north of the existing Plass building with an entrance for something called "York Condominiums". I covered the building back in February when they took the asbestos out of the first floor here on the blog . It looks to have a terraced elevation with the second and third floors receding backwards - which I think will help with the street presence.  I am, a bit bummed that they're going to be ripping down the Plass building - along with the sign.   Take a look at this post that shows the sign and the building . I know that government's role isn't to dictate to property owners what they can/should do with their property, but as the Elmhurst City Centre continues to evolve, I think we'll wish we had *more* of the old buildings that

I *think* this is the parking deck topping out over on Addison Street in the Elmhurst City Centre.  I was walking down Schiller across from the Jewel and took this photo as I walked up to the light. When I say topping out, I think this is the total height of the new structure.  But there's still plenty of work left to be done to finish the construction. Here's a post from June of this year showing a different angle .  And here is a post showing the beginnings of the construction back in early May 2015 .

Back in June, I posted about the new "Art @ The York" film series at the York Theatre in the Elmhurst City Center .  Their first film was the Bansky movie "Exit through the Gift Shop". Walking by the theatre on my way to the train this am, I noticed they're advertising the next in the film series:  Little England. It is set to show on August 12th at both 1 pm and 7 pm. From the York Theatre's site  comes this synopsis of the movie: One home, one secret, one man, two sisters. The 20 year old Orsa is madly in love with the lieutenant Spyros Maltabes. As a closed character she won't reveal her secret to anyone. Her little sister, Moscha, dynamic and full of dreams wants to leave Andros, to escape the fate of the women of the island that marry sailors that are always away or drown at the sea. For their mother, Mina, wife of a captain who prefers the Atlantic Souf than his home, love means only big trouble and pain. Leaving aside the feelings of her