People, look at Yorktown mall. That place was a ghost town, stored closed, nothing really interesting there, a gap that never got full attention from corporate since the mall was dying. The owner decides to bring in a bunch of restaurants to start a base and build from there. Rock Bottom, Bucca, Capitale, Ra, etc.... they must have 10-15 restaurants there, then they add a nice little "downtown" type shopping thang, and presto, the place was damn near as busy at christmas as Oak Brook mall was. Rumor has it the Gap is going to move into a much larger store in side now that the mall has made a commitment to bounce back. People need to eat, bring in nice restaurants and people will come for that and maybe spend a sheckle or two on store as well. I think it would be a nice model to follow.

I completly agree with the above, just on a smaller scale.

Downtown needs to do what Yorktown did and bring out restaurants from the city and drop them in the burbs. That's the only way you are going to sell to the young families who moved from the city out here, selling to them a more urbanized life in a suburban environment. Ultimately, those are the folks this downtown is trying to market too. They're just doing it with the wrong products.

It's great to see Honey pulling in that Orange vibe from downtown. I'd love to see a Penny's Noodle Shop on Main St. Or a Joy Yee. Or Chicago Chocolate Company, or a Flat Top (though they opened one at Yorktown), or Wine D.O.C. would have been awesome in downtown GE.

Plus, how the EDC couldn't get PotBelly in the CBD is ridiculous. PotBelly should be in that empty space on Crescent and Main (former Villa Bianca) right now!

Potbelly's would struggle with getting enough traffic to keep them in business, hence the Roosevelt Road location.

My idea for a place downtown would be a music venue that doesnt serve alcohol. The Wheaton theater was quite succesful hosting bands before they decided to make it into a beutiful/expensive white elephant (archetcture fetish) This kind of venue would draw the under 21 crowd that needs a place to go. There would be a huge pool of people from Collage of Dupage to draw from. A simple food court could keep them fed.

Once you introduce alchol the dynamics change. Neibors get cranky, licences are needed and the demogrphic changes

quote:

Originally posted by Grateful:
Potbelly's would struggle with getting enough traffic to keep them in business, hence the Roosevelt Road location.

So, sounds like what your saying is that the "Bells & Whistles" sandwich place (that really is just a Potbelly's without the franchise support) will fail?

We didn't need it to be as large and as cheezy as the Potbelly's on Roosevelt. They could have designed it blend in to the environment like they do in the neighborhoods in the city.

quote:

Once you introduce alchol the dynamics change. Neibors get cranky, licences are needed and the demogrphic changes

But with alcohol you get charming, delightful people like Clamato.

BTW-you may want to spell check your post, lest Fish will call you out.

quote:

Originally posted by glellyn:

quote:

Originally posted by Grateful:
Potbelly's would struggle with getting enough traffic to keep them in business, hence the Roosevelt Road location.

So, sounds like what your saying is that the "Bells & Whistles" sandwich place (that really is just a Potbelly's without the franchise support) will fail?

We didn't need it to be as large and as cheezy as the Potbelly's on Roosevelt. They could have designed it blend in to the environment like they do in the neighborhoods in the city.

I tried to get Potbelly's to open a store a few years back in the old convenience store on Park and the RR tracks. I thought it would be a good location given its proximity to the high school, ample weekend parking and people getting on and off the train (breakfast, coffee, etc.) That was when the CBD had a glimmer of hope and was semi-lively. I'll called it the pre-cyclical stage. Unfortunately, we got another bank. Which has since moved.

Say what you will about the "bells and whistles" approach of Potbelly, but it sure has gotten my teenaged boy and his friends excited, and they're now loyal customers. They love to eat in there, at least once a week.

As opposed to that juice/coffee place that's closing - they never went there, even though it was closer to school. I do think, too, that there's something to be said about the Roosevelt road location and teenagers and cars and driving - most of the time they go out to eat, it's at night or the weekend, they have a car, and they want a convenient place to park (that's not parallel parking because they're all still a'scared of that). So that rules out the CBD for them, in terms of entertainment. I do think they equate the CBD with their parents, too - that's where we head for dinner - and so they naturally turn elsewhere.

I'm just spitballin' theories here, but I have noticed that my son and his friends spend most of their entertainment/dining dollars along Roosevelt or Butterfield road.

I was a little concerned about the Snakery's business plan. Sort of sounded like a Chuck E Cheese type place on the north side the business with video/arcade games. Just don't see how that will work, but that's me. Been very wrong before. One need only look at the excitement of drinking while getting a pedicure. Also, the turn of last century theme...do people buy into that? Especially kids? Just asking.

I understand that Honey has already hit the retro-cool theme on the north side of the tracks, but how about a diner-themed place. The kind that I can't really stand but others do. As long as it didn't have that irritating oldies music, I'd prolly take the family there...and so would everyone else. Pancakes in the AM, BLT's at lunch, booze for dinner...along with food.

I just spoke to the store manager of Treasure House Resale Shop and she asked me to let you all know that the store is not closing. In fact, they are looking to expand.

My spell check wont work on this site for some reason.

quote:

Originally posted by scribbler:
Say what you will about the "bells and whistles" approach of Potbelly, but it sure has gotten my teenaged boy and his friends excited, and they're now loyal customers. They love to eat in there, at least once a week.

I meant Bells & Whistles in reference to the name of the new restaurant going in to the spaces where the old Pharmacy and Popcorn Shop were. I meant that the plan sounds alot like the design/atmosphere of the original PotBelly's stores in the city.

Clamato refers to it as the Snakery, but I thought the name was Bells and Whistles.

quote:

Originally posted by glellyn:

Clamato refers to it as the Snakery, but I thought the name was Bells and Whistles.

The full name is the Bells & Whistles Snackery. I would guess that a SNAKEry, although novel, would scare off more patrons than attract.

Wasn't Potbelly's originally in the back of an antique store. I seem to remember that at their original spot on Lincoln. Anyone know for sure?

Here's a sweet SNAKEry.

Originally an Antique Store

Purchased store from original owners in 1996

Pretty good investment....

quote:

Originally posted by GE Fan:

Purchased store from original owners in 1996

Pretty good investment....

Fan,

Did you read the ENTIRE article? This line kind of blows our Fish Taco Stand…

“One thing working in Keil's favor is that he is not selling something trendy like fish tacos.”

Actually, I didn’t know fish tacos were trendy… I discovered them on my first business trip to Southern California and thought they were the bomb (oh, wait is “the bomb” trendy?).

This is *exactly* why downtown development is doomed to fail without a forward-thinking developer leading the helm. This is what multi-level thinking is all about, actually.

I will from this point call this the 'Fish Taco Theorem.'

The Fish Taco Theorem (TFTT) goes something like this:

1.0 A good fish taco is a good fish taco.

1.1 The typical misreading of cultural trends by conservatives has nothing to do with good tasting food.
1.11 The typical reading of cultural trends by conservatives has everything to do with bad tasting food.

1.2 A perception exists in untrendy locales that good tasting food is trendy.

1.3 Trendy food is to be avoided in untrendy locales so that the locales remain untrendy.
1.31 Untrendy food is to be embraced in trendy locales so that the locales remain trendy.
1.32 The untrendy repeatedly repudiate trendiness.
1.33 The trendy repeatedly embrace untrendiness.

1.4 Bad Development shuns interesting trends.
1.41 Bad development embraces uninteresting trends.

1.5 Good development embraces interesting trends.
1.51 Good development shuns uninteresting trends.

1.6 Good fish tacos are -- and shall remain -- good fish tacos, regardless of their inherent trendiness or perception of inherent trendiness or locale of preparation.

-----

Points 1.1 and 1.11 have to do with the "Mom, baseball, and apple pie" stuff. (Yes, neither Mom nor baseball are "food" per se -- but baseball reminds me of George Will and George Will pi**#s me off, so as far as I'm concerned, they're property of the cultural conservatives -- and that's enough for me to steer clear and embrace anything but. I do, however, love my mommy.)

Points 1.3, 1.31, 1.32, and 1.33 are the cool ones, I think.

Points 1.4 and 1.41 are unique to Glen Ellyn. I spoke about this one before in an earlier thread:

http://glen-ellyn.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4016037172/m/8...841063864#7841063864

Points 1.5 and 1.51 have to do with Naperville development and -- to a lesser extent -- Wheaton development. Perhaps Lombard will be placed here eventually . But the probability of Glen Ellyn experiencing 1.5 and 1.51 is -- at the moment -- exactly zero.

Untrendy locales have to be trendy enough to recognize the untrendy and actively seek the potentially trendy in order to transcend the untrendiness and become trendy. (The search is undertaken with the realization that the goal may be neither trendy or untrendy -- and may simply be a priori.)

Question: are the untrendy capable of making (for lack of a better phrase) a trendless-trend trendy?

Again: the only true way to trendines is authentic embracement of the untrendy.

But the key is to recognize that what you deem "trendy" may be neither trendy nor untrendy and, like a fish taco, simply exist as "good food." It's very untrendy to call trendy a food that is neither trendy nor untrendy. This is actually a level 1 blunder: denoting a trend or decrying a trend where no trend exists. The untrendy fall into this trap -- and usually get stuck there. Most stay stuck and remain happy to stick.

Comments?

I shall cogitate on this for the rest of the week and report back with periodic updates.

EDIT: Are the untrendy are mistaken in calling a "fish taco" trendy when in fact a fish taco might be -- a revision of the above -- untrendy. (Is this my Level 1 error?) Perhaps the untrendy can be become trendy by embracing the untrendy -- and in the process making it trendy? Imagine: an *untrendy* fish taco made trendy! Isn't this more interesting that mistakenly calling a fish taco trendy and rejecting it? Do the untrendy reject and the trendy embrace?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: farber55,

quote:

Originally posted by farber55:

I will from this point call this the 'Fish Taco Theorem.'

My brain hurts.


I just want a good fish taco.

One question, do you work for my company? If not, you really should. I never understand half of what theySenior Management is saying either.

I'm at the point now where any fish taco will do.

/wink

I really want a fish taco now. Anyone know a trend-neutral place to get one?

quote:

Originally posted by Mardie:
I really want a fish taco now. Anyone know a trend-neutral place to get one?

Perplexed - we need to start rolling on our idea. This board is a perfect indication that there is a pent up demand.

Mardie - most, if not all, will agree that Chix and Salsa has a decent fish taco....and NOBODY will or can argue that it is trendy.