Talerico opens retail bakery

Talerico-Martin has opened a retail bakery on 63rd Street in Summit. (Courtesy of Talerico-Martin)

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Summit's Talerico-Martin bakery, which has been selling baked goods wholesale to convenience stores for about three decades, has opened a retail bakery at 7334 W. 63rd St., across the street from Argo High School.

"We have a full line of products," said Gary Willard, assistant general manager. "Doughnuts, cookies, brownies, cakes and pastries."

He said the store would have a full coffee bar as well as offer snacks and juices.

Willard said owner Bob Talerico has spared no expense in opening the retail operation.

"It's a pretty decent setup," he said. "Bob is treating this nice. It's his baby."

"We're going to open the door and see who comes in," he said. "We'll have a grand opening in a month or so. We want to get any kinks worked out first."

Willard said customers would eventually be able to order cakes online and have them made any way they like.

"A customer will be able to have their face on the cake, if they want," he said.

Store hours will be from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Judging from the amazing smells that emit from the bakery on certain days, the goods should be fantastic.

Willard also said anyone who wants to see how the treats are made can just stop by.

"I'll take anyone on a tour who wants," he said.

For information, visit Talerico Bakery or check out their Facebook page.

Walgreens closes in Calumet City

Walgreens, the international pharmacy company that announced recently that it planned to close 200 stores over the next few years, has closed at least three stores in the south suburbs already this year.

The Deerfield-based chain said the stores slated for closing would be locations that were unprofitable. It said the employees would be offered transfers to other stores. It also said closings would hardly be felt by customers because of other nearby Walgreens. The company also said the closings would be offset by new store openings.

Those closings would be in addition to the closing in January of a Walgreens at 159th Street and Wood Street in Harvey, the closing in February of a store at 127th Street and Western Avenue in Blue Island and the closing recently of a location at 626 River Oaks Drive in Calumet City.

Some other south suburban stores are being demolished, and then rebuilt.

A new Walgreens opened recently at Southwest Highway and 95th Street in Oak Lawn. The new store was built on the same site as an earlier store, but the new version has a drive-through lane that the earlier store was lacking. The new store is about 62,000 square feet.

The new building was just sold for $10.7 million to a Northeast-based family office, according to a release from The Boulder Group, which represented both buyer and seller in the transaction. 

Walgreens probably won't be closing that site anytime soon. The chain has a 20-year lease with 11 five-year renewal options.

Domino's opens in South Chicago Heights

A new Domino's restaurant opened earlier this year at 45 W. Sauk Trail in South Chicago Heights.

The Michigan-based restaurant chain recently dropped the word "pizza" from its name but still specializes in pizza and sandwiches.

Hours at the new location are from 10:30 a.m. to midnight Sunday to Thursday and from 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

For information, call 708-441-3338 or visit Domino's.

 

Bobak's closes Archer Avenue company store

Bobak Sausage Co. closed its last company-owned store on Chicago's Southwest Side.

Loyal customers, some coming from as far away as northwest Indiana and Chicago's North Side, trekked to the store at 5275 S. Archer Ave. for the last time just before Easter.

The company, which got its start in 1967 and has operated the store on Archer since 1989, had moved its production to a bigger location last year but left the store open.

According to a letter the company distributed and posted on its Facebook page, a decision was made recently that it no longer made sense to keep the store open. The company said it was time to close the store and sell the building, which was otherwise empty since manufacturing was moved.

The company did hold out some hope for longtime customers by saying it might reopen the store at a future date.

Besides the regular Bobak products, which are carried in stores and markets across the Chicago area, the company store did carry some specialty items not available everywhere, such as its fresh Italian sausage, fresh Polish sausage and bacon sausage.

At one point, the company operated a handful of stores under the Bobak banner, including one in Orland Park. All of those stores were closed by 2007 after a particularly nasty fight between two of the sons of the founder.

If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.com