Why I Oughta...

This seems like a relatively important development for our family:  a Starbucks is set to open in the outlot of the Lake Geneva Walmart.  Most mornings when we're up in Twin Lakes, I head out to either Bodi's bakeshop to pick up some donuts or to McDonald's for a couple of Big Breakfasts.  Then, I usually take a trip to the Walmart to pick up rations for the day.  Having a Starbucks there - and one with a drive thru - will be really nice and make a quick addition to the routine.  And, gives me another reason to make that 15 minute trip besides buying knock-off American Girl Dollie stuff for the girls along with the turkey and cheese stuff for Dallas' turkey and cheeses.

When we first moved to town, t here was an Anderson's bookstore right in the Elmhurst City Centre .  For real.  Then they closed down, scurried back to Downtown Naperville and a weird hookah place opened up in the same location just north of Francesca's on York.  Today?  That tobacco/hookah place is now closed and gone with the windows paper'd over and a 'for lease' sign up in front.  We lose another retailer and the associated sales tax, but we get a brand-new opportunity for something great.  I would think that parking is one of the tough parts with this location, but with the new apartment buildings gaining occupancy just north of this, there should be some demand for the space, right? But then again, right across the street from this is that other newly renovated set of storefronts ( where the old Salt Creek Pottery was located on the east side of York, just south of City Hall) that are all totally vacant, too.  Perhaps, retail isn't in the Elmhurst Ci

Back at the beginning of the month, I posted a photo of a relic from a long-gone Burny Brothers Bakery on York Street in Elmhurst that had recently been unearthed by the construction crew and owners of the soon-to-open Beerheads bar right in the heart of the Elmhurst City Centre.  You can see all the posts about the Beerhead Bar & Eatery construction here .    In that post, I expressed my hope that between the owners of the building, the contractor and the folks behind Beerheads , there would emerge a sense of history and conclude that retaining this cool relic would only add to the flavor of their new place. Well...guess what?  They're all over it!  Seriously.  I heard heard from the owner of Global Builders, Carmen Gratace, who said that they've confirmed with the owners that the 'welcome mat' from Burney Brothers is indeed staying.  Kudos to Global Builders.   You can find their site here .  We should applaud both Carmen and his entire company for going the e

If you walk by the construction site of the new Beerheads Bar on the Northeast corner of First and York in the Elmhurst City Centre, you'll see a bit of progress on the building.   I last posted about the status of the project here on the blog in February .  You can go down the whole rabbit hole of posts related to the site here on the blog . But, in addition to seeing the exterior construction progress, if you look inside one of the new doorways, you'll also see this - the photo above. It is a relic from the past. And was a stonework 'welcome mat' for Burny Brothers.  I had never heard of Burny Brothers, but 'teh Googles' quickly educated me. From this Burny Brothers archive site : Burny Brothers Bakery was founded in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois by a working-class immigrant family, and grew to become a successful, uniquely American enterprise. The founding family sold its interest in 1963 to Beatrice Foods Co., which in turn sold the wholesale divisi

If you haven't been in the Elmhurst City Centre in the past few weeks, you have likely not seen the progress being made at the old Plass Appliance site on the west side of York Street right in the heart of the City Center.   These concrete block structures are the elevators, right?  They're set way back from York and rise vertically in the middle of the site. We last covered this project back in January of 2016, more than a year ago when they tore the old building down . If you haven't been following along on the blog, here's the site concept for the location :  it is a terraced building that will have offices/commercial on the first floor and I think it started as condos up stairs, but now is going to be offices?   They're calling it the York Building and it will border both York Street on the front, but also that "Schiller" alley thing that connects the new parking deck over on Addison and includes Nu Crepes (who, somehow has survived all of the

I've covered the Elmhurst City Centre and the commercial developments and activities that take place down there on the blog for seven years.   You can see all the 'Elmhurst City Center' posts here .  There's a lot of them. But, there's big changes on the horizon for the downtown area.  If you live in any of the areas that are bordering the City Centre areas, you've probably noticed the sign you see above posted on various corners around town. The reason is that the City is going through a process to adopt a new Downtown Plan.  That plan sets forth some zoning changes that would amend the current zoning ordinance.   Full details can be found here on the City of Elmhurst's site . The City of Elmhurst should be commended for transparency and their efforts to engage the public on this.  In addition to these signs, they've also utilized a digital sign right on York.  I mean...they're really trying!  So, good work, City of Elmhurst. We happen to

If you walk past Hartmann Jewelers on the east side of York Street - just across the tracks - in the Elmhurst City Centre, you'll see this:  papered up windows.  And a little note that says that they're closed.  The note says that if you left a piece with them, they'll be in touch to get it to you. There were once three jewelry stores in the City Centre.  There's Cottage Hill Diamonds (still there!), plus this place Hartmann and one other.  Can you remember? Well, it wasn't so much a jewelry shop as it was a pawn shop.  Yep, for a sad period of time, we had a "GoldMax" on the west side of York Street in the City Centre.  This was back in 2012 . We've been in Hartmann a few times, but it was ONLY ever on the downtown Trick-or-Treat days when the kids wandered in there to pick up a lollipop or Tootsie Roll.  Oh well, I guess part of why they're closing is the community didn't support them. There was once three.  Now there's just o

Back in December of last year, there was finally a flurry of activity on the structure that sits at the northwest corner of First and York (just on the north side of the tracks) in the Elmhurst City Center.  I covered it here on the blog and at that time, Alderman Dannee Polomsky of the 3rd Ward shared that there was a new business going into the spot called Beerhead Bar & Eatery.  If you head to the Beerhead site, they now even have a page up for the Elmhurst location . For the better part of the past 60 days, there has been scaffolding up on both sides of the building as they do some exterior work on the facade, but as I walked by it earlier this week on my way to the train, I noticed the scaffolding was all gone. And the building looks great!  They added some black stone to the top and down the sides and cleaned up the brick it looks like to me.  The building, which if you look back thru the archives was a hodgepodge of a bunch of different uses including Polay's in

In a bit of a bummer, the MOD Pizza place on St. Charles near Route 83 is closed up and gone.  This place was right next door to the big hockey store on the south side of the road.   I covered the opening of the store back in September of 2015 and I really liked the place .  I guess that the people of Elmhurst voted with their wallets and decided to support other places. The sign in the window claims that they 'moved', but we know better, right?

It has been eight months since the storefronts down at the corner of First and York have sat gutted and boarded up.   I last posted about them here on the blog back in March .  And that's when the rumor mill was saying that it might end up being a Rosebud restaurant going in there.  But, I have no idea if that was real or just idle chatter. Whomever is moving in, there's suddenly progress going on with the building.  In that photo above, you can see a crew working on the exterior installing steel beams that look like they'll be creating an awning/little roof of sorts that sticks out from the brick facade.  Anyone know what's going in this spot?  A guy can keep hoping for retail, right? Update:   Alderman Dannee Polomsky of the 3rd Ward pointed out to me this am via email that this location is for a new craft beer place run by 'Beer Pros' called Beerhead Bar and Eatery .   From the City of Elmhurst's site : The City is excited to announce that Beer

It has been almost a full year since the Elmhurst Olive Oil Company closed it's doors in the spot just north of the York Threatre in the Elmhurst City Centre.  But, if you walk past the store today, you'll see these new signs hanging up in the window that herald a new beginning:  The Gaming Goat store is coming to the City Centre. Going back in the archives, I have this post from January of 2011 when this location hosted a recently-closed business called "Let's Have a Party" .  Remember that? But, what *is* the Gaming Goat?  I can't get to their site for some reason, but the Oak Park Store has a Facebook page and from the looks of things this isn't a video game store.  It is more of a Settlers of Catan-type of store.  Or Magic The Gathering-type of store.  Board and dice games.  The Geeks shall inherit the City Centre, it seems. I am assuming that they're going to hustle to get the store open before the holiday shopping season and I'm gl

Back in April of last year, I posted some photos of a new eye doctor place opening on York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre called Spex here on the blog .  If you walk by the place today, you'll see that they've rebranded to "MyEyeDr". Spex is a chain - you can see the locations here - and so is MyEyeDr -  so I'm wondering if it is a franchise kind of thing?  And the folks in Elmhurst decided to go a different direction?     Here's the new page on the MyEyeDr page showing the Elmhurst location .  Whatever the reason, they've spent a lot of money in awnings in just a year and a half, amirite?

At one point, I have to think that Elmhurst and our City Centre was one of the sweet treat capitols of the world.  We had - what - three yogurt shops.  And two ice cream shops.  And a shaved ice place.  All within like three blocks of each other. Now we're down to three total.  TCBY on the yogurt side.  And BrainFreeze on the ice cream side.  And the shaved ice place that operates seasonally. And that's because the Cold Stone Creamery on the east side of York - right across from the bowling alley - is shuttered.  That sign was posted on the windows earlier this month and if you walk by the place now, it is empty.  All the signage inside and out is gone.  The fixtures and furniture...gone. And while we're saying 'so long' to this place, I have to raise my own hand and say 'sorry'.  We just flat out didn't support this store.  Not sure the reason, but it wasn't in our world and didn't appeal to us.  Maybe our kids are too young to see the ap

If you walk by the storefront just south of TCBY on the west side of York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre these days, you'll notice that there's a 'for lease' sign up in the old Meeder Remodeling location.  They were in this spot for about a year or less only - as I posted about them moving out of their location further south here on the blog last December . If you drive down south on York near the Prairie Path, you'll see that they've relocated down there, which is great and means that they didn't close up shop. As for the City Centre, we need a mix of uses - from retail to restaurant to services to offices.  And Meeder was a part of that mix.  They didn't generate a ton of foot traffic, but I am guessing that they employed a staff that worked in the City Centre everyday that provided needed customers to the other tenants of the City Centre. Because storefronts are so scarce, I'm always going to advocate for office/showroom uses like thi

Last week, I posted a little update to the new restaurant coming to the Elmhurst City Centre right across the street from the York Theatre .  At that time, I didn't know the name, but today we do: One Fifty One Kitchen and Bar.  There's that new sign you can see above hanging on the fence if you walk by the site and you can check out their site here .  The url is 151 Elmhurst, so maybe that's how people will type it when they search for the location instead of [one fifty one Elmhurst]?? The sign proclaims:  An exciting new restaurant concept celebrating the bounty of the Midwest.

If you head down York Street through the City Center, you'll see this construction site that is just north of BW3 on the east side.  Directly across from the York Theatre. There's an interior gut going on as they transform the former Cocomera into the Elmhurst Craft Kitchen and Bar (or some other name!) as well as an exterior facelift. I posted about this place here on the blog back in February and I heard that they were planning a big out front on the sidewalk outdoor seating section, so the facade work is likely to make it a bit more inviting?  Based on the looks of things, they're a ways away from opening, so I'm thinking that this will be a fall opening at best?  Should be a nice addition to the City Centre and we'll be sure to give it a proper shot with the kids once it opens.

It was just back in April that I chronicled the closing of Goalie's Goodies on the east side of York Street, just south of the tracks in the Elmhurst City Centre.  Well....there's some good news:  if you walk past the site today, you'll see this brand new awning up that welcomes a new business:  Guac-n-Tacos.   They have a new site up , but there (currently) isn't any info up there yet besides their new logo - which I've included below. Think this will be a great addition to the City Centre.  The place isn't big, so it won't be a full sit-down place, I don't think?  Probably a counter to order and maybe a counter to eat facing out the front window? We have a Chipotle in the core of the City Center and The Salseria nearby and those two seem to co-exist with Chipotle being the quickserve that (increasingly!!) seems like it is being overtaken by Teens/Tweens/E-Coli???? and the Salseria, which is a full-service sit-down place. Where will Guac-n-Taco

Just a couple of weeks ago, I posted about the apparent closing of Mimmo's in the Elmhurst City Centre here on the blog .  Mimmo's was in the spot just south of Starbucks on the same side of York as the York Theatre.   At the time, it looked like Mimmo's was closing, but it was rumored to be slated to be replaced by another Italian eatery.  Turns out...that rumor was pretty close to being right. If you walk by the location today, you'll see these new signs in the windows announcing:  Coming Soon:  Bacci - Home of the Jumbo Slice.  If you go to the Bacci site, you'll see that they really play up the Jumbo slice angle .  Over there on the site, you'll also see a listing of 11 locations at the bottom.  One of them already is Elmhurst! I've been to Bacci before and I don't have a strong memory of the place other than it was a slice shop.  I was working on a campaign out in Aurora for Bob O'Connor for Illinois State Representative.  And right ne

Downtown Elmhurst just lost another business with the closing of Goalie's Goodies on the west side of York Street, just one block south of the tracks.  If you walk by it today, you'll see this brown papered-up window along with this small sign that says they're moving to River Forest.  Sad news for Elmhurst. I covered the opening of Goalie's Goodies here on the blog back in the end of April of 2013 .  So, she made it for just under three years in Elmhurst. For those of you following along, you'll remember that Goalie's Goodies took the spot of the short-lived Bleeding Heart Bakery . We shopped - what I'd call - regularly at Goalie's Goodies.  We'd buy packs of their corn for my Dad or for other gifts/parties.  And the girls just loved the stuff, so often times we'd have dinner at Pints or somewhere else, and we'd end up at Goalie's Goodies for a few tiny bags of Cheese corn. On her website , Debbie (who I think *is* the Goalie!

According to this piece by Patrick Guinane of the Chicago Tribune Daily Southtown , Mayor Jim Holland and the Board of Trustees in Frankfort have approved a new upscale movie theatre to come to town and occupy the now-vacant Dominick's store on LaGrange Road.   From the story : The Village Board voted 4-0 to approve Emagine Entertainment's proposal to build a 10-screen theater inside the former Dominick's grocery store at 19965 S. LaGrange Rd.   The vote came after a silent public hearing on a long-term plan to borrow $60.5 million to modernize the village's sewage treatment system, which could get a final vote at the March 21 board meeting.   The luxury theater, which will feature online reserved ticketing, powered reclining seats and beer and wine, drew rave reviews from Frankfort officials.   "It's been a long time since a project has garnered this much interest," said Trustee Cindy Heath, who expressed hope the theater would bring more show