Schoop's now open in Tinley Park

Schoop's hamburgers is now open in Tinley Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Schoop's, a popular hamburger chain based in northwest Indiana, has opened its newest location in Tinley Park.

A franchised location opened Aug. 31 at 16703 S. Harlem Ave. in a small retail strip next to the CVS pharmacy. The site was formerly a breakfast restaurant and an ice cream shop.

Co-owner Maria Venardon said the first week was a little rough but worth it. "This location has a lot of potential.

"We did a lot of testing but you never know for sure until you open the doors," she said adding that she's still working on getting the right number of crew members per shift.

She said the customers said they liked the food and service despite the birthing pains of the new business.

"This is a great location," she said. "It's a residential area but there are a lot of nearby businesses. I saw a lot more working people coming in today."

The Tinley location is the chain's 19th restaurant and fifth site in Illinois, all in the southern suburbs. 

Two of those south suburban locations are in shopping malls in Orland Park and Chicago Ridge.  Two others are in Monee and Calumet City.

Venardon said this was her first Schoop's, but she has owned restaurants in the past. Her partner is Rich Ferro.

She said the Tinley location features a regular Schoop's menu with a variety of burgers and other sandwiches as well as fries and soups.

She said the Tinley location hours were 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

For information, call 708-781-9715 or visit www.schoophamburgers.com.

Enrico's announces its return to Frankfort

When Enrico's, a hugely popular Italian restaurant, closed in August 2012 to help make way for the Mariano's supermarket on LaGrange Road in Frankfort, the owners promised they would reopen.

The owners finally were able to make good on that promise when they announced earlier this month on their Facebook page they signed a lease for the former Wild Rover space at 20535 S. LaGrange Road in the Vineyards of Frankfort plaza.

Owners Bob and Harry D’Ercole announced renovations are underway and they hope to have a soft opening in December.

They also announced that Chef Frank and Delilah would be returning to oversee the kitchen and that the menu would include all of the old favorites including baked mostaciolli, baked lasagna and banana cream pie.

The announcement came a few months after the death of Enrico's co-founder Harry D'Ercole Sr.

The restaurant was a longtime staple in Frankfort and also operated a smaller pizzeria in Frankfort Square for some years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The owners said updates would be posted on the restaurant's Facebook page at Enrico's Italian Dining.

Portillo's opens in Homewood

The Portillo's restaurant chain opened its 40th store last week at 17500 S. Halsted St. in Homewood.

The store will feature a "groovy 1970s theme," according to a release from the company.

Company founder Dick Portillo, an Argo graduate, was on hand when the eatery opened  Sept. 14.

The restaurant will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Pink Stone opens in River Oaks

A new women's clothing store called Pink Stones opened recently at River Oaks Center in Calumet City. It is the retailer's first store in the south suburbs.

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

Maher Funeral Home opens in former Tinley Park Public Library

Maher Funeral Home is now open in the former Tinley Park library.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

A new funeral home has opened in the former Tinley Park Public Library building at 7051 W. 171st St.

"We received our occupancy permit last week," said Phil Maher, co-owner of the new Maher Funeral Home.

Maher said the funeral home is a family affair with his business partner and brother John Maher providing elder care and other legal services for their clients, his sister Julia Maher Dombrowski handling public relations and an uncle Robert Maher taking care of community outreach for the business.

Phil Maher has been in the funeral business for 24 years and spent many of those years learning from his late mentor Andrew J. McGann Sr., who operated a funeral home in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community.

"I started with him when I was 19 years old," said Maher.

Maher said he struck out on his own more than a year ago and spent a lot of that time looking for the right location for his own funeral home.

"We found the library in January and spent the last several months remodeling the building," he said. 

"We liked the space that was available and the location and the fact it had parking for more than 100 cars."

The building has two 14,000-square-foot levels and the funeral home is on the main floor. It was built in 1973 and served as the Tinley library until it moved into a new location in 2004.

"We're waiting to see about the lower level," Maher said. "We're not sure if it will offices or storage."

As for the main level, Maher said they kept the library's large windows in the front because of the view they offered. They also did extensive landscaping work to the site.

"We have too large parlors that can combined into one massive parlor, if needed," he said. "Each parlor has its own coffee room and each parlor has its own outdoor seating area. I wanted to make sure they were separate, to be more accommodating for the families."

Maher said village officials were very happy to have the family buy the building.

"It had been vacant for many years," he said. "Even the neighbors are thrilled to finally have the building open again."

Maher said the community was invited to check out the new building at its open house from 3-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20.

For more information, call 708-781-9212 or visit the funeral home website.

Jersey Mike's opens in Palos Heights

Southwest suburban fans of Jersey Mike's sub sandwiches won't have as far to go to get their fill, now that the East Coast-based food chain has opened in Palos Height. The next closest location had been in Orland Park.

Owner Mac Shimmon opened his latest Jersey Mike's recently at 12801 S. Harlem Ave. in Palos Heights in a former Foot Locker shoe store. 

It's the third new business in the former shoe store. A Lou Malnati's pizzeria opened there in September and a Great Clips hair salon opened in November.

It is the 12th Jersey Mike's franchise for Shimmon, who opened his first location in Orland Park in June 2011. He now owns Jersey Mike's in New Lenox, Frankfort, Elk Grove Village, Gurnee, Schaumburg, Glenview, Niles, Park Ridge and Buffalo Grove.

 “I am so excited to bring the Jersey Mike’s brand to Palos Heights,” said Shimmon in a release. 

Fans of the sandwich say you can feel the difference when compared to other submarine sandwich offerings.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. 

For information, call 708-671-8748.

Tinley Kmart adopts K-fresh format

Kmart has reconfigured its Tinley Park store at 16300 S. Harlem Ave. from a Super Kmart into a new format the chain calls K-fresh.

The Hoffman Estates-based retailer is changing most of its remaining Super Kmarts into the new format, which includes the removal of its butcher, bakery and deli food service departments.

The new format also includes less sales floor space, reduced operating hours fewer staff.

The company said least five of its remaining 11 Super Kmart stores would be converted. The Tinley store was the only one in Illinois.

K-fresh stores have replaced the service departments with prepackaged items, and offer reduced brand variety and pack sizes.

Store hours have been cut from 24 hours to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

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.

NAPA auto parts opens in Tinley Park

NAPA auto parts has opened a store at 16086 S. Harlem Ave. in Tinley Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

NAPA has opened another auto parts store in Tinley Park in the former Bud's sports bar at 16086 S. Harlem Ave.

The store is a franchise owned by Blissful Solutions LLC, based in Hillside.

Hours are from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

For information, call the store at 708-468-8854 or visit NAPA.

Station drops Marathon for BP

Sangha's gas station at 79th Street and Roberts Road in Bridgeview recently converted from a Marathon station to a BP station while a station and convenience store a few blocks away at 7901 S. 87th Court in Justice recently opened as a Marathon station.

Toy store closes in Mokena

Creative Toy Mart, a popular toy store that opened in 2009 at 11326 W. Lincoln High way in Mokena, closed earlier this year after holding a going out of business sale.

Mokena plant moving to South Holland

Fusion Chicago Investments has purchased the 11,000-square-foot former Steiner Electric building at 401 W. Taft Drive in South Holland, said John Watson, director of economic development for South Holland.

The building's new owners have signed a long-term leasing agreement with DirectSat USA, a communications infrastructure provider that provides installation, upgrade and maintenance services for major satellite content providers. 

DirectSat will use the property to warehouse and repair Direct TV equipment and Direct TV products for offsite installations. 

The move will see 44 full-time maintenance personnel and six full-time office workers relocate to South Holland from the Mokena facility. 

Ashley Furniture opens new distribution center

Ashley Furniture, which operates several franchised stores in the south and southwest suburbs, opened its newest retail store and distribution center recently at 1045 W. Crossroad Parkway in Romeoville.

The 425,525 square foot facility was built because of high customer demand in the greater Chicago and Milwaukee markets, the company said in a release.

The chain, which operates as a series of independently owned and operated stores, is known for its merchandising concepts and designs including Urbanology, Vintage Casual, Metro Modern 14-piece packages called The Works.

The chain operates a dozen stores in the Chicago market.

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

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

Grand Appliance opens store in Southland

Grand Appliance & TV has moved into the former Grant's Appliance store in Orland Park. It is the chain's first store in the southern suburbs. (Photo by Bob Bong)

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy 

It didn't take long for northwest suburban Grand Appliance & TV to pounce once Grant's Appliance finished its liquidation sale earlier this year.

The Zion-based chain quickly moved to take over the space at 14740 S. LaGrange Road in Orland Park.

"The company had been thinking about opening in Orland Park for a while and had had discussions with the plaza owner," said store manager Jeff Serr. "Orland was always Grant's top location. The traffic counts on LaGrange are off the charts."

As soon as Grant's was done for good, Grand swooped in and began renovating the space in February.

The 11,000-square-foot was gutted and renovated and held a soft opening last week under its Grand Appliance banner.

"We took everything down to the concrete," said Serr. "It was a tremendous investment."

It didn't take long for people to notice.

"We had seven people walk in today," said Serr. "We were thrilled."

Serr said the company was not concerned about ongoing construction on LaGrange.

"There is still plenty of traffic," he said. "The construction was not a deterrent."

There will be a grand opening later for the store, which is the chain's 18th location but its first in the southern suburbs. It has eight stores in Illinois, but the majority of stores is in Wisconsin.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Grand was founded in 1930 under the name Service Electric and while it sold appliances its main business was electrical supplies and light fixtures. 

After World War II, the company concentrated on home appliances because of the Baby Boom.

In 1966, then owner, Fred Reckling, moved the store to a bigger, more visible location on Grand Avenue in Waukegan. He also changed the name to Grand Appliance to signify the move and change in company focus.

The store in Waukegan remained Grand’s sole location until 1992 when current owner, Mark Reckling, convinced his father, Fred, to open a second location in Kenosha. 

For information, visit Grand Appliance & TV. 

LA Fitness opens in New Lenox

A new LA Fitness center opened recently in New Lenox as part of a six-acre retail center across the street from the Target and Lowe stores at U.S. 30 and Vancina Lane.

The 35,000-square-foot fitness center was the first of three planned buildings in the development. 

Also planned are two additional free-standing retail buildings. A 15,000-square-foot building is set to be built next to the LA Fitness and a 6,450-square-foot building in planned for an outlot parcel.

According to Carolyn Kostelny, InSite Managing Director, two other free-standing retail buildings are currently planned for the site — a 15,000-square-foot building adjacent to LA Fitness and a 6,450 SF two-tenant building on an outlot parcel. 

“This location is ideal for serving the high-growth communities of New Lenox, Mokena and Frankfort,” Carolyn Kostelny, managing director for the developer, InSite Real Estate LLC, said in a release. InSite also has plans to develop an adjacent 10-acre retail site. 

“Our central location and excellent access make New Lenox a natural location for regional shopping, entertainment and hospitality,” Robin Ellis, assistant administrator and community development director for the Village of New Lenox, said in a release.

Cooper's Hawk opens in Oak Lawn

Countryside-based Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant opened its eighth Illinois location last month at 4830 W. 111th St. in Oak Lawn's Stony Creek Promenade shopping center.

The chain opened the 11,000-square-foot Oak Lawn location in the shopping center at 111th and Cicero Avenue.

The new restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating, and a large private dining room that can accommodate up to 275 guests.

Signature dishes at Cooper's Hawk include Ahi Tuna Tacos, Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, Shrimp Campanelle and Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.

It is the chain's 19th location nationwide. It opened its first location in Orland Park in 2005 and has since expanded to Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

 “I’m thrilled to be opening our 19th location in Oak Lawn and feel privileged for the opportunity to extend the Cooper’s Hawk community in an area so close to where I grew up,” founder Tim McEnery, a south suburban native, said in a release.

Hours at the Oak Lawn location are from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to  10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

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.