Friday, January 16, 2009
Jewel of India
I see the Git Sum Indian restaurant on S. Illinois has a new/old name now, since the sign out front now reads "Jewel of India". If memory serves, Jewel of India was the name of the Indian restaurant that operated inside the now closed Horizon/Holiday Inn on East Main. I remember being told at the time Git Sum opened it was run by people connected with the Horizon, this appears to confirm it.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale, Git Sum, Horizon Inn
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Spotlight Bar and Grille
Looks Like the Coal City Diner will have a name change soon as the owner of the Spotlight Bar and Grille applied for and was granted a Class A2 liquor license last night for the same location. It's my understanding that an A2 license requires that at least 51% of the business receipts come from the sale of food.
Labels: business, Coal City Diner, downtown Carbondale
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New Salon Opening?
After what seems like months of fits and starts, I see there's a sign on top of the old Saluki II Bookstore at 509 S. Illinois. I think it reads R 2 Salon but the R is pretty stylized. I'm glad to see something going in there finally but, given the half a dozen or so salons and stylists already in town, I'm wondering if the market for them isn't saturated.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Groundbreaking Postposed
According to the email I just received from the Chamber of Commerce, the groundbreaking ceremony at noon tomorrow for the new Stadium Grille on East Main has been postponed to "scheduling conflicts". 'sides, it looked to me as if the bulldozers that had been there for the last couple of weeks had already done a pretty good job of breaking the ground.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Friday, December 12, 2008
Cookies!!!!!
It's that time of year again. Time for cookie walks. The churches have wised up this year or at least two of them have. The First Christian Church (Gee, I didn't think any organization used geocities anymore) at Monroe and University is having their's tomorrow from 9 to noon, then St. Francis Xavier hosts their's NEXT weekend from 9 until noon as well. You see the cunning plan, don't you? The FCC sucks you in: "Why bother baking? Get your Christmas cookes for the home and office parties here." But what happens to those delicious cookies next week? They all get eaten, that's what. Then St. Francis comes along, a week later, with plenty more cookies to add to your holiday parties (and wasitline). In past years, wehn they had the cookie walks on the same weekend, there wasn't the opportinity to hit the cookie buyer with that one-two punch, but now.....
Labels: Christmas, church, downtown Carbondale, holidays
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Lights Fantastic
Caught most of the Lights Fantastic parade last night, which looked very well attended, despite the chill temperatures and brisk breeze. The Square had people standing 6 deep on the west side, all of them very well bundled up, except for the one guy I saw running around in shorts. The hot chocolate tent had a line of 10-12 people most of the parade and the funnel cake wagon was packed as well. I didn't see many people getting pictures taken with Santa and the reindeer but most of that action may have taken place during the pre-parade activities. I was wondering if any kids were getting confused since we had one Santa with the reindeer and one on the float at the end of the parade
Teardown was pretty well organized as well. The parade ended about 7 and traffic was back to flowing normally by about 7:15 when I headed back to the store to thaw my nose and ears out. Kudos to the city for that.
Teardown was pretty well organized as well. The parade ended about 7 and traffic was back to flowing normally by about 7:15 when I headed back to the store to thaw my nose and ears out. Kudos to the city for that.
Labels: downtown Carbondale, holidays, Lights Fantastic
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Champaign vs. Carbondale
I'm up in Champaign for the weekend and went walking through the downtown area last night. Much livelier compared to downtown Carbondale but I was struck buy how much the local food places rely on student custom. 10 p.m. on Friday night, Thanksgiving weekend and a good 80% of the walk in fast Italian, Chinese, burger etc. joints were closed, compared to about 20% of those in Carbondale.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale, siuc
Friday, November 14, 2008
Packlite Gone
During my wanderings around downtown yesterday, I noticed that Packlite Outdoor Equipment has vacated its retail outlet location in the Campus Shopping Center, in the space that housed the Rosetta Stone Bookstore. I noticed they were there during the C'dale Pig Out but don't get into that area as much as I used to so don't really know when the store shut down.
I also noticed Ragwear is still shut down, though racks of clothing still fill their old space and I see their webstite still places one store at the West Freeman location.
I also noticed Ragwear is still shut down, though racks of clothing still fill their old space and I see their webstite still places one store at the West Freeman location.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Kaleidescope Closing
Front page story in the Carbondale Times but little mention in the Southern or the DE. After 40+ years located across from what is now the Civic Center on S. Illinois, Kaleidoscope owner Caroloyn Tschomakoff has decided to close the store. I've heard talk off and on for the past couple of years that Tschomakoff wanted to sell the store but apparently the right buyer never materialized. There are big "Going Out of Business" signs in the windows and a clearance sale started Tuesday that will continue until everything is gone.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
McGowen Clinic Sold (or Rented)
It looks like the McGowan Clinic building at the corner of College and S. Illinois is off the market. I drove by late this afternoon and saw extensive remodeling going on inside. Good. One more empty building gone from the strip. Now if something would happen with the Saluki II Bookstore and Lance Jack's rumored burger joint....
Labels: downtown Carbondale
Monday, October 13, 2008
More Parking Downtown
It appears the razed Associated Lumber sheds are slated to provide additional parking for the Newell House building, Fusion and Club Traz. 70 more spaces will certainly make it more convenient for customers frequenting the businesses in those buildings, especially now that they don't have to feed parking meters during the day. The current parking there was always hard to manuver around it and ususally pretty crowded both day and evening. Hopefully, there won't be much trouble with people parking there who aren't cusotmers or employees of oone of the buesess there.
Labels: downtown Carbondale
Friday, October 10, 2008
Associated Lumber
I just noticed Associated Lumber has moved out of their long time location on Washington Street next to Spires Wholesale. Someone has pulled down the lumber storage buildings in the rear and the the retail space itself is getting remodeled. I see from the city permit notice posted on the front door this started at the end of August.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Monday, September 22, 2008
Lance Jack's Burger Bar
Doubt that's the name but catchy isn't it. Anyway, I heard over the weekend that his new place is opening at 701 S. Illinois Ave in the spot occupied for years by Carmen's China House and for months by Adelita's Restaurant. I noticed a banner in front of the building during the Pig Out reading "Hungry? Opening Soon." When I asked about it, I was told it's Jack's new place.
Will it last? Parking is darned inconvenient and you've got lousy visibility coming out of the alley onto S. Illinois. However, Carmen's did well there for twenty years, so it can support a restaurant. Success really depends on if the burgers are good enough to draw traffic to the area and if he stays open late enough to take advantage of the evening bar traffic. Since Rally's/ Zipp's closed many moons ago, there're no places specializing in either good or fast burgers in downtown.
Will it last? Parking is darned inconvenient and you've got lousy visibility coming out of the alley onto S. Illinois. However, Carmen's did well there for twenty years, so it can support a restaurant. Success really depends on if the burgers are good enough to draw traffic to the area and if he stays open late enough to take advantage of the evening bar traffic. Since Rally's/ Zipp's closed many moons ago, there're no places specializing in either good or fast burgers in downtown.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pig Out Starts Today
Parking will be in short supply downtown as the annual Carbondale Pig Out closes the 710 parking lot for two days. Expected attendance between 10,000 to 20,000, which is a pretty good sized range. I dont' remember last year's attendance but remember it (and beer consumption) were down from the previous year.
Labels: downtown Carbondale, Pig Out
Saturday, September 13, 2008
No Conflict
For the first time since the C'dale Pig Out started, it's not on the same weekend as the Murphysboro Apple Festival. Be interesting to see how that affect attendance, since Carbondale Main Street's take on the matter was always that the two events complemented each other rather than conflicted. People would take their families to the Apple Festival during the day, then come to the Pig Out in the evening, I was told. that argument never made much sense to me. If you've spent the day at one festival, you're not likely to go out to another one that evening. We'll see what attendance is like next weekend.
Labels: downtown Carbondale, festivals
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Glad They Changed the Sign
Nice article in the DE on the opening a few weeks ago of the Git Sum restaurant in the old Sambucca Joe's location. I'm glad to see they did paint over the Sambucca Joe's sign as leaving it up was just confusing to customers
Labels: downtown Carbondale
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Downtown Free Parking
I could be wrong, and lord knows it happens often enough, but I thought metered parking was free after 4 p.m. and weekends. Not according to the information on the city's website.
Labels: city government, downtown Carbondale
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Grower's Market on the Square
Looks like Carbondale Main Street's relaunch of its farmer's market on the Square is a moderate success, with about a dozen vendors showing up for the inaugural day last Saturday, about 3 times the number that showed up on Wednesday afternoons earlier this summer. About half the vendors were crafters of some form but there was still a good selection of peaches, tomatoes and even some grapes.
Labels: downtown Carbondale, Farmer's Market
No Whiskey Tango
Looks like the Whiskey Tango bar scheduled to open in the old Club 51/ Big Boy's Q'n location at the corner of North Illinois and West Jackson is a no go as I see there's a For Sale or Lease sign up the windows Sunday morning.
Labels: downtown Carbondale
Monday, July 28, 2008
Greyhound Station Moves
Making the whole process much more user friendly, the Greyhound ticket station and bus stop are now united in holy matrimony at the BP station on E. Main. And, as Dave points out, it only took 'em about three years. Just in time too. According to this article, the nation is seeing increases in bus ridership of anywhere between 5 to15% over the past couple of years. And guess what's causing it?
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale, economy
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