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I have more than 40 years in the news business and have successfully evolved into an electronic journalist. Comings & Goings and Southland Savvy track news about businesses in Chicago's Southland.

Irish pub called Ariel's opens in Tinley

Ariel's Bar & Restaurant opened this week in Tinley Park next to the Wingate Hotel.
By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Another bit of the auld sod has come to Tinley Park with the opening Monday of Ariel’s Bar & Restaurant at 18401 North Creek Drive next to the Wingate Hotel.

The bar had been under construction since last winter and had originally been scheduled to open in June.

Ariel’s says the menu will offer traditional Irish cuisine, such as fish and chips and shepherd’s pie, along with contemporary dishes, such as Moroccan barbecue salmon and seafood paella, in its dining room that has seating for about 80.

The bar seats about 50 and will feature craft beers as well as an assortment of Irish whiskies.
There are another 140 seats on an outdoor patio.

Ariel’s is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Monday to Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

For information, call 708-928-8080 or visit the website at www.arielsirishbar.com.

Tilted Kilt still planned for Orland Park

Even though it has been a year since the Tilted Kilt planned for the former Fat Ricky’s location at 16255 S. LaGrange Road in Orland Park was supposed to have opened, plans for the sports bar have not been shelved.

“Tilted Kilt is still scheduled to be in Orland Park,” Joseph La Margo, deputy village clerk and public information officer for the Village of Orland Park, said earlier this month.

La Margo said permits had been pulled for the bar, which is known for its waitresses dressed in plaid miniskirts.

Last year, the Orland Park Plan Commission approved plans calling for adding more than 1,500 square feet to the north end of the building. Plans also called for removal of a turret, elimination of a drive-through and the building of an outdoor dining area.

The closest Tilted Kilt franchises are operating in Bolingbrook, Joliet and Chicago Ridge.

Bonefish Grill now hiring in Orland Park

Bonefish Grill, a 5,800-square-foot seafood restaurant under construction at 15537 S. LaGrange Road in Orland Park next to the LongHorn Steakhouse has announced it plans to open its doors on Sept. 16 and has begun accepting applications for 100 positions ranging from kitchen staff to servers.

Applications are being accepted now through Sept. 16 at www.bloominbrandscareers.com/Bonefish. Interviews will be conducted with qualified candidates that apply online. 

Applications are being accepted for various positions including angler (server), host, bartender and kitchen staff. 

Florida-based Bonefish Grill got its start in January 2000 and has grown to more than 100 locations in more than a dozen states.

The Orland Park location will be the chain’s fourth in Illinois and the first in the Southland. The building has an estimated cost of $1 million.

The project is the last outlot in the Lowe’s Home Improvement footprint, and makes for quite a restaurant row with LongHorn, Chick-fil-A, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Jersey Mike’s lined up along that stretch of LaGrange.

For information, visit www.bonefishgrill.com.

Zoup! opens Orland Square Mall location

The newly remodeled food court at Orland Square Mall in Orland Park welcomed a Zoup! Fresh Soup Company restaurant on July 25.

 Zoup! is a fast-casual eatery that is in the midst of an expansion push in Illinois. The Orland location will be the company’s fifth location in Illinois and its first in the Southland. The company now has 51 locations in nine states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada. A store opened two weeks ago in Aurora and another is expected to open in downtown Chicago this fall.

 Owners of the Orland franchise are Mohammad Mansour and Faris Ballouta. It’s their first Zoup! location.

“We are excited to bring the Zoup! brand and culture to Orland Park,” Mansour said in a release.  “The wide variety of healthy choices, including soups, salads and sandwiches provide a great dining alternative for our community.” 

Zoup! features hundreds of award-winning soup recipes with 12 rotating daily varieties, including low-fat, low-cal, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options, all served with a hunk of freshly baked bread, the company said in a release. Customer favorites include Chicken Potpie, Lobster Bisque and Vegetarian Split Pea. The menu also features made-to-order salads and sandwiches, and all items are available in convenient catering sizes for groups of 10 or more.

The new restaurant will employ about 17 team members and will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. 

For more information, call 708-966-3010 or visit www.zoup.com.

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 follow business happenings at Comings & Goings.

7-Eleven closes Summit store

Signs on the door at the closed 7-Eleven at 7403 W. 55th Place in Summit thank customers for their patronage.
By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy 

There are a lot of rumors circulating about why the 7-Eleven store at 7403 W. 55th Place in Summit closed recently. 
 

There is a sign on the door thanking customers for their support and advising them to visit the chain's nearest store at Archer and Nashville in Chicago.


 According to Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for the Texas-based chain of convenience stores, it was a simple business decision.


"This had been a former White Hen store," Chabris said. "It was underperforming and was not franchised, so when our lease was up, we decided not to renew."


Chicago Lids Locker Room opens


Chicago Lids Locker Room is now open at Chicago Ridge Mall in Chicago Ridge. The store is located on the main level near the food court and features a wide selection of sports apparel, authentic signed sports memorabilia from NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB, sports merchandise including jerseys, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, tailgate gear and more. The Chicago Ridge location is the ninth for the chain.


For information, visit Chicago Lids.



Shoe Carnival opening 2 new stores


Evansville, Ind.-based Shoe Carnival is opening two new locations on Saturday, July 27, in Burbank and South Elgin.


 The retailer is opening at 9 a.m. at 4835 W. 77th St. in Burbank, and at 354 Randall Road in South Elgin. The first 100 customers at each store will receive a $10 reward card to use toward anything in the store.


Other grand opening events include:  A drawing for free shoes for a year at 10 a.m.; a drawing for $1,000 cash, courtesy of Skechers at 11 a.m.; doorbuster deals from 9 a.m. to noon; prizes and giveaways all weekend.


“We are excited to be opening a new store location bringing our customers a new spacious and inviting Shoe Carnival shopping experience,” Todd Beurman, Senior Vice President of Marketing, said in a release. “At Shoe Carnival we strive to give our customers a family friendly shopping experience with great deals on name brand shoes for the whole family.”


Shoe Carnival carries name brand shoes including Nike, Converse, Sperry, New Balance and many more. There are more than 360 stores in 32 states and Puerto Rico.


Ross Dress for Less opens in Crestwood


Ross Dress for Less, a discount apparel and home fashion chain, opened 20 new stores across the country on Saturday including a store at Rivercrest shopping center next to Ultra Foods at 13200 S. Cicero Ave. in Crestwood, a store at 1555 State Route 50 in Bradley, Hillside and two in Peoria. 


California-based Ross entered the Chicago market in the fall of 2011 when it opened stores in Matteson and Orland Park. Since then the chain has added stores in Bolingbrook and Calumet City and now has seven in the Chicago area. More stores are coming including one under construction in Tinley Park.


Ross stores typically carry brand name products priced 20 percent to 60 percent less than at department and specialty stores.


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 follow business happenings at Comings & Goings.

Meijer opens latest supercenter Tuesday in Evergreen Park

Speedy Burritos Opens: Speedy Burritos opened July 8 in the former home of Los 3 Burritos Express at 7108 W. 171st St. in Tinley Park. Owner Andres Angel (pictured in kitchen) is also the cook. His niece Jasmine Angel is the counter girl.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Grand Rapids-based Meijer will open its latest Chicago-area location on Tuesday in Evergreen Park.

The 156,000-square-foot supercenter employs 300 team members and is the retailer’s fourth of six new supercenters it planned to open this year in the Midwest, co-chairman Hank Meijer said in a release.

Meijer will kick-off its grand opening celebration with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting event at the store at 9200 S. Western Ave. The ceremony will be followed by remarks by Meijer officials and local dignitaries, along with the presentation of checks for $10,000 to the Beverley Arts Center in Chicago and $15,000 to the St. Bernadette Parish in Evergreen Park.

The store will also feature grand opening events, beginning Thursday, which include daily giveaways and the chance to win free groceries for a year. Additional events on Thursday include free 15-minute CoverGirl Makeovers, fun and games with Radio Disney’s “Magic of Healthy Living” team and $50 Meijer gift card giveaways every 15 minutes with WBBM-FM radio personalities. 

The store will also feature a cooking demonstration with Food Network star Herb Messa from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 3, and a free Digital Fingerprinting for Kids from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 4.   

Meijer said the new supercenter will also offer more than 600 varieties of fresh produce, a meat department with butcher shop service and custom cuts of high quality meats and a bakery that carries bread baked fresh four times daily.

Meijer operates a smaller scale store at 159th Street and Harlem Avenue in Orland Park and plans to break ground this year on a supercenter at U.S. 30 and Wolf Road in Mokena and at Vollmer Road and Crawford Avenue in Flossmoor.

Mattress war brewing as Eastern invaders eye Southland marketplace

Sleepy's will be opening soon at 159th Street and Harlem Avenue in Orland Park.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Mattress wars anyone?

Art Van Furniture, a Michigan-based chain known for its furniture and mattresses, and Sleepy’s, a New York-based company that calls itself the world’s largest mattress retailer, have both set their expansion sights on the Chicago marketplace in general and the Southland marketplace in particular.

Art Van, which made its first Chicago-area delivery this week, will open its first Illinois store on Saturday at 15080 S. LaGrange Road in Orland Park. The retailer is holding an invitation-only preview party and ribbon-cutting Thursday evening at the Orland location.

The company opened its distribution center last week in Bolingbrook. The center is 183,000-square-feet and will employ 48 workers.

"Opening our distribution center in the Chicago market brings us one step closer to inviting customers into our retail stores in and around the Windy City," Steve Caprario, vice president of distribution, Art Van Furniture, said in a release. "This is our first official footprint within Chicagoland and we are grateful for the warm welcome of the Bolingbrook community."

According to the company, the distribution center will service all furniture deliveries in the Chicago area.  Art Van will use five local trucks to start and anticipates increasing this number to 25 crews by the end of next year.  Deliveries will be offered from Monday to Saturday.

The company signed a 10-year lease on the property – a former Dominick’s store – earlier this year as it prepared to make its move into the Chicago market. The company spent the past six months converting the former Dominick’s supermarket into a 46,000-square-foot furniture store.

The Orland store is the first in “a planned expansion into the Chicago market,” said Diana K. Charles, director of corporate communications for the chain.

The store will be corporate owned and employ from 60-80 workers, Charles said.

In addition to the store in Orland Park, Art Van plans to open five additional stores this year at Ford City Shopping Center in Chicago, on Elston Avenue in Chicago, Bolingbrook, Batavia and Merrillville-Hobart in northwest Indiana.

As a result of the expansion, Art Van expects to create about 600 new jobs by the end of the year.

The Orland store is in the Orland Greens Shopping Center and cost an estimated $2 million. Hours will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Sleepy’s has already invaded the Chicago marketplace and one of its first stores is at 2650 W. 95th St. in Evergreen Park, which opened a few weeks ago.

The Hicksville-based company has more than 800 showrooms in 14 Eastern and mid-Atlantic states and carries a wide selection of mattress brands.

The company has plans for additional Sleepy’s in the Southland including a store at 159th Street and Harlem Avenue in Orland Park, next to 5 Guys Burgers in the Home Depot plaza.

The company, which got its start in 1931 in Brooklyn, did not respond to numerous calls and emails asking about its plans.

Both companies are going up against a trio of already established mattress retailers in the Southland, which are all expanding themselves.

Back to Bed recently opened a new store in Frankfort in a retail strip at the Hickory Creek Marketplace at St. Francis and LaGrange roads.

The Bedding Experts recently opened a new store at 1330 Torrence Ave. in Calumet City across from the River Oaks Center.

American Mattress has announced it will be building a new store this year in New Lenox and recently opened a new store in Naperville/Plainfield.

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 follow business happenings at Comings & Goings.

Willow Springs expects to tackle video gambling at July 25 meeting

By Bob Rakow
Southland Savvy

On a recent week night, a handful of patrons gathered at Judy’s Friendly Tap in Willow Springs. The dearth of customers is a significant concern for Judy Meissner, the bar’s longtime owner.

“It’s terrible. It’s just awful. We are a dying breed,” Meissner said.

Meissner has owned her establishment at 8240 Archer Road for nearly 39 years. But she’s worried about the bar’s future if Willow Springs officials don’t approve video gaming.

Several bar owners insist they need video gaming machines to remain competitive with taverns in nearby communities such as Justice, Burbank, Countryside, Stickney and Summit where video poker has been approved.

Opponents maintain that introducing gambling to the community is an unwise choice for a village that has strived for several years to shed a corrupt image.

The village board is not expected to vote on the matter until its July 25 meeting.

Bar patrons say the proposal to allow video gaming machines has been talked about for nearly a year — a lengthy period during which their businesses have suffered.

Even if the proposal is approved, tavern owners may have to wait up to a year before the machines are installed, Meissner said. 

Illinois Gaming Board spokesman Gene O'Shea said the village would have to notify the board that gambling was now allowed. That would open the door to bar owners applying for the state license.

"Licenses are issued first come, first served," O'Shea said, adding there are dozens of pages of pending applications listed on the agency's web site.

"Once they file an application, they go to the back of the line and have to wait," O'Shea said. "There's no way of knowing how long it might take to be approved."

Chuck Stroh, owner of Connie’s Grove Inn at 8258 Kean Ave., said a friend who owns a restaurant and bar in Brookfield makes about $8,000 a month on five video poker machines. He said the addition of the machines has led to an offer to purchase the establishment. 

Another friend, who owns a restaurant in Crestwood, also takes in about $8,000 monthly, Stroh said.
Stroh can only imagine what he could do with $8,000 additional revenue each month.

“That’s my mortgage, salary. I could expand or remodel,” said Stroh, who’s owned his bar for 14 years. 

Stroh cannot understand opposition to the poker machines.

“It’s a no-brainer. I personally cannot understand it. They’re tying my hands,” said Stroh, whose business has declined by 25 percent in the past year.

Vicky Stadtler, owner of Ashbary Coffee House at 8695 S. Archer Road, said she’s frustrated with the village delaying a vote on the proposal.

“We just keep getting pushed forward with every kind of excuse,” said Stadtler, who’s owned the coffee house for seven years.

“We’ve given (village officials) so much information. We don’t understand what the holdup is,” she said.

Stadtler has owned the coffee house for seven years and knows what it’s like to struggle. Additional revenue would help her increase employees’ salaries, make improvements to the business and pay bills, she said.

“We’re so day-to-day, bill-to-bill,” she said.

The village would receive 5 percent of gaming proceeds, which officials estimate at $30,000 to $45,000 annually, Mayor Alan Nowaczyk said.

The money would go into the village’s general fund. Officials said they will not discuss how the money would be used until they vote on the proposal.

Business owners and gambling distributors each get 35 percent of the proceeds while the state receives 25 percent.

Illinois enacted legalizing video gambling in 2009 as a way to generate new revenue, but allowed municipalities to opt out of the program.

O'Shea said 805 communities in Illinois have approved video gambling, 217 have prohibited it and 41 are considering whether or not to approve it.

"There are 412 communities that haven't even addressed it, yet," O'Shea said.

Indian Head Park Congregational church celebrates 170th anniversary

Parishioners line up to receive Holy Communion
as Lyonsville Congregational United Church of Christ celebrates its 170th anniversary.
By Phil Arvia
Southland Savvy

Hazel Sharp doesn't recall the first time she entered Lyonsville Congregational United Church of Christ.

 
After all, it was sometime during the Hoover administration.

"I was carried in," Sharp, 84, said.

Slyly, she waited a beat before adding, "I expect to be carried out."

It is a circle of life that Sharp may be in no hurry to complete, but it is also one the Indian Head Park church has seen navigated dozens of times in its 170 years. In fact, Sharp's great-great grandfather, Joseph Vial, was one of the 18 original members of what is now the oldest Congregational church in Cook County, and markers bearing the name "Vial" dot the Lyonsville Cemetery, which sits on the hill behind the church.

Two churches, actually, occupying the corner of Joliet and Wolf roads.

Overlooking Joliet Road is the original building, finished in 1858 at a cost of $1,800. An addition built in 1949 makes the connection to the current sanctuary, erected in 1961.

On days when church is in session and the curtains in the sanctuary are open, the view is of the cemetery.

"It's really quite beautiful," said Patty Haigh, a 30-year church member who also sits on its Buildings and Grounds Board. "And comforting, when you stop to think how many of our congregation have family there."

There are 15 Civil War veterans, killed in action, buried on the grounds. It is a fitting resting place, considering the role the original church played in the War Between the States.

Church lore says local soldiers on leave from the Illinois 127th Regiment essentially used the building as a recruiting post, laying out the muster roll on the communion table to fill ranks thinned by injury or death. Church records show 72 locals signed up in what was then called the Congregational Church of Flagg Creek to fight for the North, and 36 of those men were members of the congregation.

 Before all of that, in May of 1843, six pioneer families in the area officially established a congregation with the goal of building a church. The 170th anniversary of that decision was celebrated last month by the congregation, and is being referenced throughout the summer in Pastor Bob von Trebra's Sunday sermons.

On June 23, he recalled an earlier anniversary, when he was new to the church in the late 1990s. At the time, he'd uncovered a book of sermons delivered at the church in the 1800s, and thought he'd deliver one to his current flock.

Editing ensued. Heavy editing. And when he'd cut the sermon by half, it was still long.

"I can still remember the eyes glazing over," he said.

Von Trebra was preaching that morning to a group of perhaps 50 congregants, a far cry from the 449 members the church claimed in 1933, on the occasion of its 90th anniversary.

He dwells not on the size of the group, however, as much as he does the size of the group's faith.

"People will tell you this is as healthy as the church has been in some time," he said. "People are working together. People are feeling connected spiritually to God and what God is wanting us to do."

The church's mission statement contains five points of emphasis:

- Preaching, teaching and living the gospel.

- Sheltering travelers and refugees.

- Feeding the hungry.

- Healing the sick.

- Nurturing new churches and ministries.

Von Trebra noted that in his time at the church, three members of the congregation have gone on to seminary school and the ministry. Three other seminary students have interned at the church on the way to leading other flocks.

"We teach them and send them out," he said. "That is a very powerful thing."

Ultimately, though, the power that has sustained Lyonsville Congregational is in the folks who come back, Sunday after Sunday.

Lois Soehrman, 86, of Westmont, was a 29-year-old resident of Countryside when she joined the church in 1955. Her strong, clear voice is easy to hear when hymns are being sung during services, and one of her favorite moments of the anniversary celebration was joining in on a gospel favorite, "Oh Happy Day."

But her favorite memory of her church goes back decades, to a midnight mass in the old building — a simple Greek revival style rectangle, just eight rows of pews deep.

"My daughter played the flute, and at Christmas Eve service she was up in the balcony," she said. "We only had candle lighting. So many people came up to me and said it was very inspirational — that made me feel good."

Making people feel good is something at which Lyonsville Congregational seems to excel.  No further evidence is required than Sharp's answer when asked what makes a church a church.

"Community," she said. "That connection, here, is inescapable."

Pension reform conference committee embraces prexy college plan

Mike Zalewski
By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Lawmakers charged with figuring out a solution to the state's growing pension crisis are warming to a proposal promoted by university presidents to provide full funding for the State University Retirement System as a possible framework for the state. 

"The SURS plan is one which we feel might be something all four caucuses could live with," said state Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-23rd), of Riverside, one of the lawmakers named to the Joint Conference Committee by House Speaker Mike Madigan.

"We all sort of agreed that it was something to look at," Zalewski said Monday before the committee held its third meeting.

The SURS Six-Step Plan, as explained by Southern Illinois University president Glenn Poshard, is designed to provide full funding for the state university system in 30 years. The measure would increase employee contributions from 8 percent to 10 percent over four years, adjust the compound COLA for retirees to half of the Consumer Price Index, place new employees into a hybrid pension system that combines defined benefits and defined contributions, change the way to calculate the effective rate of interest used to determine a range of benefits, refunds and service credits set annually by the SURS Board and the State Comptroller, shift the normal pension costs from the state to the universities at a rate of 0.5 percent per year, and ensure that the state and/or universities make their payments into the pension system.

Zalewski said conference committee members like the proposal because it deals with COLA increases "which are the biggest cost driver of the pension crisis."

He said that savings under the SURS proposal would probably fall "somewhere in the middle" between the projected savings of the competing pension reform bills sponsored by Speaker Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton.

Poshard called the SURS plan "shared sacrifice," but said it had the backing of every university in the state.

He said that while crafted for SURS, its main components would go a long way toward creating a solution for the state's other pension systems, including the Teachers Retirement System, the State Employees Retirement System, the General Assembly Retirement System and the Judges Retirement System.

Zalewski said the conference committee was waiting for actuarial reports on the projected savings and that he would have a better idea on when a compromise bill would be available once those reports were received.

"We're working as hard as we can on getting those reports back," he said.

Not fast enough for Gov. Pat Quinn apparently.

The governor, who set July 8 as the deadline for a compromise, said Wednesday he would use his budgetary veto powers to hold back paychecks for state legislators until they come up with a solution to the pension crisis.

Zalewski, a staunch supporter of the Madigan proposal to solve the state's pension crisis, said he was mildly surprised to be named to the conference committee.

"I had been doing a lot of work on pension reform," he said. "Maybe somebody wanted me on the committee because I was familiar with the proposals."