Based on that menu, someone doesn't know how to use spellcheck software.

Or punctuate properly. What's with the quotation marks gone wild?

nsxtasy wrote:Based on that menu, someone doesn't know how to use spellcheck software.

What's wrong with wanting to eat "healty"?

nsxtasy wrote:Based on that menu, someone doesn't know how to use spellcheck software.

Yeah, it's a shame...they probably spent a fair amount of money printing those up, all in order to create a poor impression for as long as those menus are in use.

(Although maybe printed menus aren't the expense item they used to be.)

pudgym29 wrote:

Marshall K wrote: Appears that Jay and Maria Feldman couldn't make a go of it with Margie's. Stopped by on Wednesday to find it all locked up and deserted. Phone not working. It's a shame as I believe that they put their heart and soul into this place. I felt the food was great my favorites being the deep fried polish an exceptional beef sandwich and the thin cut fries cooked in olive oil. I feel they would have been successful in a different location.

Wait just a minute! Maybe you bypassed this post I updated a few weeks ago. It seems that Margie's did have a contingency.
I have gone past the location on N. Cicero Ave. on a southbound #54 bus and saw it closed; but wondered if I went by it on the wrong day or time.
Somebody needs to get inside it, though, and unplug the Eisenberg hot dog neon sign.
Anyhow, to see if Margie's can work in a different location, go over to North Ave. & Lavergne Ave. There's a free parking lot to its immediate west.

Last time I was in Margie's (Cicero Ave) I asked Fred about the sign I had seen on North Ave. He basically said it was BS and did not seem happy about it. Subject dropped. Next time I went they were closed.

stevez wrote:

Dave148 wrote:

the chain will open a location at 5033 N. Elston Ave.—within Chicago city limits—sharing the same address as Seafood City, the Filipino grocer.

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/6/13/1192 ... -late-july

Construction is moving along at Seafood City. That place is going to be HUUUUUUUGE. It looks to be at least a third bigger than the Super K-Mart it is (thankfully) replacing. Hopefully, there will be several restaurant offerings once it's built.

Reps from the Filipino grocer chain say they plan on opening in September, bringing with them a variety of fast-casual restaurants

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/7/26/1227 ... er-opening

Filipino Mega-Market Seafood City Opening on Wednesday in Chicago

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/9/8/12852 ... et-opening

Culver's will be inching closer to me. A new one is expected to be coming to Half Day Rd (Route 22) and Milwaukee Ave in Lincolnshire next to the Fresh Market.

Drover wrote:While it's not official yet, it's not exactly a secret either that M Pub, formerly Mirabell, has found a buyer and its days are numbered. I don't think I'm at liberty yet to say who the buyer is, but he's an executive chef from a fairly prominent downtown-area steakhouse who plans to convert it into a sort of Italian steakhouse. Hopefully they can swipe some business away from Olive Garden, whose lot is distressingly full on any given night.

I guess the cat is officially out of the bag now. The Mirabell/M Pub buyer is Arturo Aucaquizhphi, executive chef (now former executive chef I presume) at Gene and Georgetti.

https://twitter.com/MPubchicago/status/ ... 8957474816

Union Pizza, located a couple doors south of Dempster on Chicago Ave in Evanston (where it shares space with music venue SPACE) has opened a new location for its square, Detroit-style pizza about a block north.

Union Pizza wrote:WE'RE HERE! Union Squared is up and running at 1307 Chicago Ave! Dine in & pick up only, deliveries available for @temperancebeer tap room and @sketchbookbrew tap room all weekend. Open 5-9pm tonight & 5-10pm throughout the week. Come n get your Detroit style pan pizza

Drover wrote:

Drover wrote:While it's not official yet, it's not exactly a secret either that M Pub, formerly Mirabell, has found a buyer and its days are numbered. I don't think I'm at liberty yet to say who the buyer is, but he's an executive chef from a fairly prominent downtown-area steakhouse who plans to convert it into a sort of Italian steakhouse. Hopefully they can swipe some business away from Olive Garden, whose lot is distressingly full on any given night.

I guess the cat is officially out of the bag now. The Mirabell/M Pub buyer is Arturo Aucaquizhphi, executive chef (now former executive chef I presume) at Gene and Georgetti.

https://twitter.com/MPubchicago/status/ ... 8957474816

Oooo, that sounds promising. With any luck Olive Garden will go bye-bye.

Miko's Italian Ice coming to 4125 N. Kimball Ave., where an old convience store used to be. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2016072 ... rving-park

Pie Lady wrote:Oooo, that sounds promising. With any luck Olive Garden will go bye-bye.

LOL . . . unless someone's forcing you to eat there, who cares?

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Oooo, that sounds promising. With any luck Olive Garden will go bye-bye.

LOL . . . unless someone's forcing you to eat there, who cares?

=R=

Those of us who don't want our city to become a generic mediocre-chain-restaurant Hell indistinguishable from, say, Champaign, that's who. While I don't hope or expect that Olive Garden goes out business, it's painful to see their parking lot stacked with cars on any given lunch/evening hours while solid neighborhood institutions like Mirabell/M Pub disappear and La Villa's brand new dining room sits virtually empty. While I don't think it's fair to say Olive Garden put Mirabell/M Pub out of business, it sure didn't help and at the very least it was the final nail in the coffin.

Speaking of chains.....

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday: All 10 of the chain's Illinois restaurants abruptly close

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html

As reported in the Pork Shoppe thread, they have closed their Avondale location. Too bad I guess, but on the other hand we found ourselves going to Smoque 9 times out of 10...

Drover wrote:

Those of us who don't want our city to become a generic mediocre-chain-restaurant Hell indistinguishable from, say, Champaign, that's who.

I think that's unfair to Champaign. The downtown area in Champaign has a vibrant local restaurant scene, from Bacaro to Radio Maria to Jupiter Pizza, to Thara Thai to Seven Saints. Sunsinger Wine/deli is also excellent on the south side of town.

And then there's Urbana, with Silvercreek & Courier Cafe, and Mirabelle Pastries. And Apple Dumplin' (although to be honest, I didn't care for their, er, apple dumpling )

Yeah, there are a lot of chain restaurants, especially out by the mall and on the south side by Savoy. But it could be worse -- and it is in other central Illinois burgs.

Drover wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Oooo, that sounds promising. With any luck Olive Garden will go bye-bye.

LOL . . . unless someone's forcing you to eat there, who cares?

=R=

Those of us who don't want our city to become a generic mediocre-chain-restaurant Hell indistinguishable from, say, Champaign, that's who. While I don't hope or expect that Olive Garden goes out business, it's painful to see their parking lot stacked with cars on any given lunch/evening hours while solid neighborhood institutions like Mirabell/M Pub disappear and La Villa's brand new dining room sits virtually empty. While I don't think it's fair to say Olive Garden put Mirabell/M Pub out of business, it sure didn't help and at the very least it was the final nail in the coffin.

Oh, come on. I'd never willingly eat at Olive Garden but I certainly don't care how many of them there are in town. That number isn't going to directly affect me no matter what it is. And I don't care if you put ketchup on your hot dog, either. It's a big city and there's room for all - even the crap. And I try not to wish for anything that results in people losing their jobs (though, like most everyone else, sometimes I can't help it).

Beyond that, I don't believe Olive Garden's appearance in that location had anything to do with Mirabell's fate. I think Mirabell did a fine job of putting itself out of business. Especially over its last few years, they seemed to stop trying and it really showed. The place was sad long before Olive Garden popped up across the street. And they probably didn't create any fans with that pathetic cash grab they pulled after they announced their plans to close.

I live in a suburb where most of the locally owned places are shit. But we've also had a number of chain outposts come and go here rather quickly, including Chili's which is really popular with the chain lovers. It's certainly anecdotal but I don't believe the success and failure of places in these separate categories have much to do with each other. Restaurants close (and reconcept) all the time, even the critically acclaimed ones. Even the ones run by companies that are wildly successful.

=R=

I'm going to tell you right now that Olive Garden gets a bad rap--as chains go, they do a great job for those of us who have to feed picky kids/teens and still want a reasonably decent meal. Olive Garden's soups salads and pasta dishes are consistently fresh, don't have tons of sugar in things that don't need it (salad dressings, pasta sauces) and are always consistent. Do I eat there in the city? No. But when traveling with the kids, I'd rather hit an Olive Garden than pretty much any other chain. So for what it's worth..,

There may be room for locals and chains alike -- for now. But the more the chains get a foothold with their massive marketing budgets, the more the locals get squeezed out. I don't want to see that happen here like it has in other places -- The Courier in Urbana referenced above being one instance, whose owners recently announced they're hanging it up because, among other reasons, they're tired of trying to compete with the chains.

Drover wrote:There may be room for locals and chains alike -- for now. But the more the chains get a foothold with their massive marketing budgets, the more the locals get squeezed out. I don't want to see that happen here like it has in other places -- The Courier in Urbana referenced above being one instance, whose owners recently announced they're hanging it up because, among other reasons, they're tired of trying to compete with the chains.

You definitely raise some interesting points. My son attends U of I in Chambana and I've been appalled by the lack of locally (or even regionally) owned options for pizza, especially relative to when I attended. So, we defiantly marched into Papa Del's, ordered and then waited nearly an hour (as the menu warns) for our pizza. And you know what? It was disgusting. I mean laughable. Would a chain pizza have been better? I don't know but it would have been hard for it to have been worse.

So, I'm just not convinced it's quite so black and white. Sure, some independent operators cite having to compete with chains as one reason for their ills. That may very well be their perception and it may even be true. However, perhaps they'd always kept busy -- in spite of their mediocity -- simply because they never had to compete for business. In the end, the market doesn't provide these places with free passes. Once alternatives pop up, these guys who may have been coasting along for decades suddenly don't find things as easy as they once were. Yes, chains have scale and resources -- and I generally despise them -- but quality should always win out. Just because you're local, doesn't mean we're going to fall in love or stay in love.

=R=

Exactly right. We're in Mishawaka right now and Italian was, as usual, the consensus pick. Went on Yelp, Trip Advisor and asked the folks at our hotel--all directed us to a local spot that was Olive Garden-ish according to the menu. After eating, kids and adults agreed that the place was about 50% worse and cost about 25% more. That's why Olive Garden is popular.

Papa Del's... yeh, probably one of the most overrated institutions in all of Chambana. Next time you're in town, maybe try Jupiter's or Manolo's -- obviously a fresh pizza and not their by-the-slice offerings in the latter case. Or in a bid of desperation, there's always Rosati's. (Then again I like Rosati's when they're firing on all cylinders.)

I think it's hard to generalize about the pizza situation in Chambana because so much of the pizza market is geared toward broke college kids whose primary concern is stretching their dollar. But what about up here in Chicago where there's a Domino's or Papa John's every four blocks despite there being innumerable local options of widely varying style/price/quality? How does Jet's keep muscling their way into town with one new franchise after another? And what about Toppers -- remember that nasty place?

I went to EIU in the early 90s (hence my Jimmy John's fetish) and if I recall correctly, that's where Topper's originated -- either there or in Champaign. But in either case, they were so awful that even the college kids stopped eating it. So they closed all their Illinois locations, packed up their Champaign headquarters, and fled to the Wisconsin college-town market where presumably the kids wouldn't know any better. I was in Stevens Point a couple years ago and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a Toppers (now minus the apostrophe), having thought they went under completely. So I ordered one to see if it was still as miraculously awful as it was back then; and much to my delight, it was.

And yet they're creeping back into Illinois -- and not into the college towns where they were before, but here into Chicago. How do places like Jet's and Toppers march into a town like Chicago that's already saturated with pizza places of every conceivable price and quality point? Obviously, a big part is they have marketing budgets and economies of scale that the small guys can't match, even if the latter can spank the bottom-feeder chains all day and night on overall quality or just quality-per-dollar. I mean, if you're going to get a mediocre pizza to save a couple bucks, you might as well do your part to keep your neighborhood mediocre pizza purveyor around and keep your money local.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Beyond that, I don't believe Olive Garden's appearance in that location had anything to do with Mirabell's fate. I think Mirabell did a fine job of putting itself out of business.

The last time I ate at Mirabell (and there's a reason it was the last time), we were treated with shocking disdain and rudeness and were made to feel most unwelcome. (You're just going to have to trust me that the problem wasn't us.) So I'm not shedding tears at the moment.

Folks, just a reminder that this thread is best suited for announcements about business openings and closings. Commentary and discussion are best done in other threads so others can more easily know about the discussion and contribute to it.

Thanks,
Darren
For the moderators

Drover wrote:I don't want to see that happen here like it has in other places -- The Courier in Urbana referenced above being one instance, whose owners recently announced they're hanging it up because, among other reasons, they're tired of trying to compete with the chains.

I think, and this Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette article persuades me further, that this statement does not describe that particular situation well. While the owner comments on the difficulty of non-chain restaurants competing with chains, the facts are that his two restaurants, The Courier Cafe and Silvercreek, have been hugely popular and successful for 36 and 26 years, respectively. He's made plenty of money on both, he's been in the restaurant business for more than 40 years, and he says he's ready to retire and do other things.

Furthermore, he isn't closing The Courier Cafe or Silvercreek; he's looking for someone to buy them. I can't imagine he'll have much trouble finding a buyer or buyers. As he says himself: "(The Courier is) the longest running, continuous operating restaurant in Champaign County. It's been amazingly successful. After I opened the Courier in 1980 our sales grew every month for 17 years."

I'm not basing my opinion solely on the News-Gazette article; I just searched for that to check the facts. I'm basing it on my personal experience. I lived in Champaign and Urbana for 14 years and have visited often since and have never--except once; for wedding reception at the latter this past April--didn't have to wait in line to eat at The Courier or Silvercreek.

But if you're not comforted by the idea that it's highly unlikely that The Courier or Silvercreek will close anytime soon, I hope you'll be relieved to know that the Ruby Tuesday in Champaign is closing.

Nighthawk Chicago, coffee bar & tavern, is finally open! 4744 N. Kimball
https://www.facebook.com/NighthawkChicago/

The new Jollibee in Skokie opened yesterday. I drove by around 5pm and again around 10pm, and both times the building was surrounded by a huge crowd of people waiting to get in. They had a special tent set up outside for people to wait in line under - it looked like a movie premiere or something.

Jollibee
3534 w Touhy Ave
Skokie, IL 60076

Katie wrote:. . . I'm not basing my opinion solely on the News-Gazette article; I just searched for that to check the facts. I'm basing it on my personal experience. I lived in Champaign and Urbana for 14 years and have visited often since and have never--except once; for wedding reception at the latter this past April--didn't have to wait in line to eat at The Courier or Silvercreek.

But if you're not comforted by the idea that it's highly unlikely that The Courier or Silvercreek will close anytime soon, I hope you'll be relieved to know that the Ruby Tuesday in Champaign is closing.

For that matter, so is every Ruby Tuesday in Illinois. Already happened actually.

My wife has been a big fan of The Courier for as long as she can remember. We've been there plenty of times when it wasn't anywhere near full. We stopped going as often because in our opinion they were starting to slip.

Her brother is considering buying it. He has asked us to consider going half in with him. There's about a zero percent chance of that happening because a) we have no money; b) we have little business acumen; and c) we have no restaurant/hospitality experience, so we're confident we'd run it into the ground in quick order.

bnowell724 wrote:The new Jollibee in Skokie opened yesterday. I drove by around 5pm and again around 10pm, and both times the building was surrounded by a huge crowd of people waiting to get in. They had a special tent set up outside for people to wait in line under - it looked like a movie premiere or something.

Jollibee
3534 w Touhy Ave
Skokie, IL 60076

That brings back memories of the opening of the first Chicago outpost of Pollo Camparo in the Brickyard. viewtopic.php?p=39698#p39698. The lines quickly died down after the novelty wore off.

stevez wrote:

bnowell724 wrote:The new Jollibee in Skokie opened yesterday. I drove by around 5pm and again around 10pm, and both times the building was surrounded by a huge crowd of people waiting to get in. They had a special tent set up outside for people to wait in line under - it looked like a movie premiere or something.

Jollibee
3534 w Touhy Ave
Skokie, IL 60076

That brings back memories of the opening of the first Chicago outpost of Pollo Camparo in the Brickyard. viewtopic.php?p=39698#p39698. The lines quickly died down after the novelty wore off.

Yep, that's exactly what it looked like.

Never even heard of the place, so I looked at their website. Weird, fried chicken, spaghetti, burgers, burgers with gravy and SPAM sandwiches. Weird.