Fairplay Foods Moving into Oak Lawn

By Bob Bong

Southland Savvy

Supermarket choices in Oak Lawn, which took a beating in recent months with the closings of the Oak Lawn Fresh Market at 95th Street and Cicero Avenue and the Dominick’s Finer Foods at 87th Street and Cicero, will pick up with the coming addition of Fairplay Foods, a neighborhood supermarket chain with seven locations across the Southland.

“We’re celebrating,” said Fairplay’s Mike Kozlowski, Vice President of Retail Operations and a partner in the business, which will be moving in to the former Dominick’s at 87th Street.

“We had a nice meeting with town officials and some of them knew us from shopping at our store in Worth,” he said.

“We’re not sure when we’ll be ready to open,” said Kozlowski. “We are redoing the store entirely. We’re going to give it a new look. We have to bring in all new equipment.”

Kozlowski said when ready, the new Fairplay will feature a bakery and hot food department, expanded produce and deli departments as well as the company’s trademark fresh meat department.

“We concentrate on our fresh meat department,” Kozlowski said. “It’s one of the things we’re known for; great quality.”

“We are a neighborhood store,” Kozlowski said. “Unlike some of the big box supermarkets, we know what our clients are looking for and we want to give them what they are looking for.”

The Oak Lawn store will be almost 52,000 square feet, which would make it one of the bigger stores for the 40-year-old chain.

Fairplay has three locations in Chicago as well as suburban locations in Hickory Hills, Worth, Markham and Dolton.

For information, visit http://www.fairplayfoods.com/.

New Nail Salon Opens in Mokena

Kal Nails Spa opened a few weeks ago at 10148 W. 191st St. in the space next door to 191 South in Mokena.

The salon offers manicures, pedicures and similar salon services. On its website, the salon says that one thing that sets it apart from other nail salons is that all of its specialists speak English so a customer can relate exactly what kind of service is being requested. It also will take customers as young as 5 years old.

The salon is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For information, call 708-478-6285, or visit its Facebook page or its website.

Farmer Agent Moves into City

Jose Saldiver recently moved his Farmers Insurance office from 7236 W. Benton Drive in Frankfort Square to 5215 S. Archer Ave. in Chicago’s Garfield Ridge community. The phone number is still 708-263-4493.

His office manager said the move made sense because the vast majority of their customers were from the city’s Southwest Side.

Blissful Banana Café Now Open

By Bob Bong

Southland Savvy

With lengthy construction delays finally behind them, Cyndi and Dennis De Zutter will open the doors today on their Blissful Banana Café at 15447 S. 94th Avenue in Orland Park.

The couple from Orland Hills originally intended to open their gourmet coffee shop and café in early January, but construction and other delays made that impossible.

They passed their village inspection last week and opened their doors at 7 a.m. Monday in a so-called soft opening.

Cyndi De Zutter said they would schedule a grand opening for later in the month.

In an earlier interview, De Zutter said everything on the menu was going to be made in-house and good for you.

“We’re steering toward healthy,” she said. “We won’t have any fryers and all of our lunch meats will be nitrate-free.”

De Zutter said the café will feature gourmet coffee, scones, muffins, side salads and a frozen concoction called a Banana Whip.

“We use pure bananas that are whipped into a custard-like soft ice cream,” she said. “Everyone who tries it will love it.”

The café will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For information, call 708-349-9600 or visit their Facebook page.

Paula Deen’s Kitchen Opens at Casino

Southern celebrity chef Paula Deen’s Kitchen will hold its grand opening on Thursday at Harrah’s Joliet Casino.

The restaurant and adjoining retail store have been open for a couple of weeks in redesigned space at the casino.

The restaurant features buffet stations and an ala carte menu modeled after some of Deen’s other eateries including Lady & Sons, Deen Brother’s Barbeque and Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House.

For reservations, call 815-740-7800.

Weenie Wednesdays

This one is a favorite of my 5-year-old grandson. The Creamery is again offering 99-cent hot dogs on Weenie Wednesdays at all six locations in the Southland.

Used Car Dealership Opens in Former Oak Lawn Saturn Lot

By Bob Bong

Southland Savvy

The former Saturn dealership at 9121 S. Cicero Ave. came back to life earlier this month when Indiana-based J.D. Byrider opened a used car dealership at the site.

“We opened March 5,” said General Manager Nicole Martin. “We are a specialty dealership that tries to help people with no credit or bad credit re-establish their credit and drive away with a car.”

Martin said the Oak Lawn location has about 25 cars on hand and is always adding more.

“Our cars are 2002 or newer,” she said. “We have all kinds of vehicles from compacts to SUVs.”

“All of our cars come with a Car Fax (vehicle history) and undergo an extensive inspection,” Martin said. “We especially look for frame damage, flood damage, odometer tampering and salvage titles. Any cars that have those problems are rejected.”

“We do a lot of repairs before we sell our vehicles,” she said. “It’s part of our credit re-establishment program. We don’t want someone to drive away with a car that breaks down and leaves them worse off than they were before.”

“We want to eliminate mechanical problems in all of our vehicles.”

Martin said most of her customers have been turned down by mainstream dealerships because of credit issues.

“We have a lender on-site who meets with the customer face-to-face. That personal touch is important. It gives someone with credit problems a chance to explain their circumstances.”

“Because the lender is on-site, we know the same day whether a person is approved for credit,” she said. “There’s no waiting around.”

The Oak Lawn dealership is Martin’s first but she plans more.

“We will concentrate our interests east of Interstate 294. When the time to expand is right, we’ll evaluate the marketplace and find our next location.”

Martin said the Oak Lawn location is nice because it’s farther east from the other three J.D. Byrider locations in the Chicago area and it’s the closest to Chicago.

“A lot of our customers have come from Chicago,” she said.

Martin said she went with J.D. Byrider because she liked its business model of helping people.

She said she had 15 years experience in the car business before opening the dealership.

“I spent eight years with a new car group and the past seven with ADP Dealership Services selling technology to car dealers to make them more profitable.”

The Oak Lawn location is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All Illinois dealerships are closed on Sunday.

For information, call 708-422-9100 or visit J.D. Byrider’s website.

J.D. Byrider was established in 1989 in Carmel, Ind. The company has 10 locations in Illinois and 135 in 30 states.

IDOT to Shut Down LaGrange Road

The Illinois Department of Transportation will close LaGrange Road between 135th and 143rd streets in Orland Park overnight, weather permitting, for four consecutive nights starting Friday, March 30.

The closures are required to install structural steel for the new Metra SouthWest Service Line bridge over LaGrange Road.

Starting at 8 p.m. March, 30, the road will be closed in both directions at 135th and 143rd streets, reopening the following morning at 9 a.m. The closure will be repeated Saturday, March 31, starting at 10 p.m. and ending the following morning at 9 a.m. On Sunday, April 1, and Monday, April 2, the closure will take place between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.

A detour route will be in place each night. Drivers will be detoured to 143rd Street, Southwest Highway and 135th Street to reconnect with LaGrange.

All businesses and side streets between 135th and 143rd streets will remain accessible while LaGrange is closed.

The work is being done in advance of the reconstruction and widening of LaGrange between 131st and 179th streets. That project is tentatively scheduled to begin in late summer or early fall, requiring two full construction seasons to complete.

New Look for South Holland McDonald’s

The McDonald’s on 159th Street in South Holland is expected to reopen this week after undergoing extensive remodeling.

Decorator’s Supply Relocates

Decorator’s Supply House has moved to 19811 S. LaGrange Road in Mokena from its longtime home at 9616 Willow Lane. The phone number remains 708-478-0777.