Five Below to Open In Tinley on Friday

Five Below will open at 9:30 a.m. Friday at 191st and Harlem in Tinley Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Five Below will open at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Brookside Marketplace in Tinley Park.

Five Below, a national discount retailer that caters to teens and tweens, will open five new stores in the Chicago area at 9:30 a.m. on Friday including one in the Brookside Marketplace at 191st Street and Harlem Avenue in Tinley Park.

Store hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Each day during opening weekend, the stores will be giving away free Five Below T-shirts with any purchase to the first 300 customers. The stores will also offer 5-cent hot dogs, and other giveaways including a $100 Five Below shopping spree. In addition, Benny the Bull from the Chicago Bulls, Southpaw from the Chicago White Sox, and Staley Da Bear from the Chicago Bears will make special appearances at the stores throughout the weekend.

The new store is part of an expansion of the mall between Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods. Also opening soon will be an Old Navy and HomeGoods stores.

The opening is part of a surge of Five Below stores into the Chicago market. A store opened earlier this year at 94th Avenue and 159th Street in Orland Hills.

Other stores opening Friday include Woodfield Village Green, 1465 East Golf Road in Schaumburg; Woodgrove Festival, 1001 W. 75th St., Suite 171 in Woodbridge; Oakridge Court, 802 Randall Road in Algonquin; and North Riverside Mall, 7501 W. Cermak St. in North Riverside.

A sixth location, in Kennedy Plaza in Chicago, will open this fall, bringing the total number of Five Below stores in the Chicago market to 16.

“We took Chicago by storm this year,” says David Schlessinger, co-founder of Five Below, in a news release. “Never before have we opened so many stores in one region in such a short period of time. In 2012, we’re going to continue to penetrate the marketplace, and give even more Chicago customers access to our product offerings.”

The opening of these stores is part of a rapid growth initiative that will see Five Below open 50 new stores in 2011, increasing its total number of stores to just under 200 by year-end.

Zante Lounge Holds Anniversary Party
Zante Lounge will celebrate its second anniversary at 8888 W. 159th St. in Orland Hills with a party starting at 3 p.m. Sunday featuring the music of Maggie Speaks, a $1,000 bean bag tournament, a free pig roast, a dunk tank, burger eating contest and a chance to win a 9-day trip to Jamaica. For information, call 708-364-0100.

Breakfast Nook Now Open in Mokena

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Daniel Luna recently decided the time was right to stop cooking for other restaurant owners and took the plunge to open his own eatery.

The result is The Breakfast Nook, which opened three weeks ago today at 19140 S. 80th Avenue in Mokena. The location has been home to at least two other restaurants, Dragon Palace 2 and Sicilian Joe’s.

Its name is appropriate, too. The space is small but cozy with a handful of booths and tables.

Luna, 34, was the chef at Mary Todd’s in Frankfort and Egg Cetera Café in Mokena and has brought his culinary skills with him to The Breakfast Nook, which has an extensive menu ranging from skillets and omelets for breakfast to wraps and burgers for lunch. Tea drinkers take note, the teapots are enormous.

While Luna lords over the kitchen, Christina Billings – who worked with Luna at Egg Cetera – runs the dining room with one other waitress, who knew Luna from their days at Mary Todd’s.

“We were leaving Egg Cetera about the same time and he asked me if I wanted to come with him,” she said.

As for business?

“So far, so good,” Billings said, noting they haven’t even done much advertising yet.

The Breakfast Nook is open for breakfast and lunch from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. The phone number is 708-478-0908.

Five Below to Open Friday in Tinley Park
Five Below, a retailer that caters to the teen and tween market with everything priced from $1 to $5, will open Friday morning in Tinley Park’s Brookside Marketplace at 191st Street and Harlem Avenue.

The chain carries an assortment of merchandise including sporting goods, games, fashion accessories, jewelry, candy and snacks, books, DVDs, room décor and school supplies.

The chain was founded in 2002 by David Schlessinger, who also founded Encore Books and Zany Brainy.

Bayberry Pantry to Reopen Soon
Bayberry Pantry, 8004 W. 171st St. in Tinley Park, looks to be reopening soon under new ownership. The convenience store closed some time ago in the Bayberry Plaza at 171st and 80th Avenue.

CJ Frank Grand Reopening
CJ Frank & Son, a tax and accounting firm, is celebrating its reopening on Friday, Aug. 19, with a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. at 18610 Burnham Ave. Suite A in Lansing. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Dominick's to Close in Orland Park

Dominick's is closing its store in Orland Park in early October.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Orland Park's supermarket scene, which took a hit earlier this year when Green Food and Produce closed in the former Bobak's Plaza at Wolf Road and 159th Street and then was rocked when Randy's Market shut down a couple of weeks ago, will suffer another blow on Oct. 2 when Dominick's closes its store at 15080 S. LaGrange Road.

"It was a business decision made by the company," Dominick's Director of Public Affairs Lauri Sanders said Wednesday.

"The Orland Park store is a casualty of not being able to be a part of a profitable business," she said.

Sanders did know how many workers would be affected by the shutdown, but said Dominick's was committed to helping them during the transition.

"Our goal is 100 percent transfer or absorption into the company," she said.

An employee at the Merrionette Park store on 115th Street said some workers there are afraid they will get bumped from their positions by workers with more seniority transferring from the Orland store.

A spokeswoman for Local 881 of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union said all non-management workers at the Orland store are members of the UFCW and by contract are allowed to transfer to other stores in the chain.

"Usually, transfers are done regionally," she said. "Workers from Orland Park most likely would transfer to nearby stores such as Palos Heights or Frankfort."

The Orland store was older and slightly smaller than newer stores and did not have some of the latest features such as a Blockbuster Express machine, Starbucks and an in-store Chase Bank.

Despite those losses, Orland Park grocery options are still plentiful with Aldi's, Jewel-Osco, Trader Joe's, Costco and Meijer stores open for business in the village.