little blog on the prairie

Mr. lbotp went to pick up some take-out the other night at a restaurant to be named later. He got there 10 minutes before their posted closing time.

The door was locked.

It wasn’t like he went in there to sit down and order 10 minutes before close. He had called ahead and was told the food would be ready in a certain amount of time. They seemed happy to accommodate him.

A waitstaff member disgustedly opened the door. They didn’t have a problem taking his money, but making sure he could get into the building was an issue. He somehow managed to get the food and get out of there, but not without adding a headache to his cold symptoms.

We interrupt this unintentional blog break to ask the following question:

Is a marble slab just another cold stone?

That’s yet to be determined, but very soon. Marble Slab Creamery is coming to town to take on competitor Cold Stone Creamery. It will be located in the expanded Savoy shopping center where the new Schnuck’s will open next year.

The gourmet destination ice cream havens will face off with each other, but only in theory; Savoy is a world away from Campustown.

I have to say, the folks behind the Savoy MSC have picked a very smart location. It’s almost next door to Pages for All Ages, an evening destination in and of itself, and right down the block from the Savoy 16. And lots of parking to be had by all. (Incidentally, I find it ingenious that they will be right next to Babyland. Perhaps they will have an honorary pickle mix-in for all the pregnant women who come in. OK, that’s a cliche. A really, really bad one.)

The nightlife in Savoy will be really hopping … especially with the addition of the really random Karaoke bar as reported in Deb Pressey’s column Sunday. How Bizarre …

If you look through the history of this blog, you will find several recurring themes — things I like, things I don’t like.

I like Trader Joe’s. To take a line or two from Cold Stone Creamery, I love it. I gotta have it. (In fact, I’m going to have me some TJ mac n’ cheese in a minute.) And many of you do as well. So I’ve decided to initiate an organized letter-writing campaign to TPTB (the powers that be) at Trader Joe’s to strongly suggest that they should consider coming to C-U. Other communities have tried letter-writing campaigns to “woo” TJ’s with mixed results.

By next week I will start a new page on this site (like the FAQ, etc. up top) where you guys will find a few sample templates for your convenience. If anyone would like to assist (gamera, cough cough), drop me a line.

The other crusade I have decided to take up is more local. It is high time for the Champaign Park District to stop dragging its feet on the creation of a dog “activity area” in the city. More on that later this month.

(No, I did not have too much coffee today.)

***In other business … before I forget to inform you, there is yet another C-U blogger bash coming up this Saturday evening. Unfortunately the lbotp family has a previous engagement, but hope y’all have fun.

If you’ve never been to an Atlanta Bread Company restaurant, you’re far from alone.

The company has stores in Rockford and Warrenville, a suburb of Chicago. That’s it for the state of Illinois. But somehow, the owner of the rights to ABC franchises in this area won the sweepstakes to occupy the sought-after site of the former Wendy’s on South Neil Street (as reported by the N-G last week).

Is it me, or this place (on the surface) just a poor man’s Panera? If you’ve been to an Atlanta Bread Company, give us your impressions.

Could Corner Bakery be next? That might complete the bakery/cafe chain trifecta.

Why in the world is Entourage star Jeremy Piven partaking in the festivities at Friday night’s Illini Madness?

I thought Ari didn’t go to the “flyover states.”

I know Jeremy grew up in Evanston … but it’s a long way from Evanston to Champaign.

• Trendspotting in C-U: Asian restaurants opening next to, or very close to, Asian grocery stores. It appears (and this is speculation) that the folks at Lee’s Oriental Foods, which is right next to Jerry’s IGA on Kirby, are about to open an establishment called “Yellowfin Restaurant.” B-Won, the new Korean restaurant on Neil, is two doors down from Korean grocery Green Onion …
• Say goodbye to Persimmon Grocery. It appears Thad Morrow’s experiment just couldn’t make it in downtown Champaign. (I wonder if that has something to do with his Web site being MIA for several weeks.) To all the gelato fans: don’t worry, you can find some at Tout Sweet in Campustown. Also on its way out: Verde Gallery. The going away party is November 30.
• Blog friend Kelly Searsmith has informed me about a new cafe that opened recently in Mahomet, right off of Illinois 150 near the Carle branch called Villa Caffe. She reports that the food is tasty, the place is cozy, wi-fi is coming, there is a drive-thru (always a plus in lbotp’s book) and it is kid-friendly. Impressive on paper. Might be worth the drive out there to check it out.
• It’s time for the annual pet fair at Prairieland Feeds this weekend. Stock up on your pet food at the best prices of the year. KC eats organic, just like Peanut. Insert joke here.

The headline in last Friday’s N-G was “Developer says he’s found spot for hotel.” The joke was on the readers, who never actually found out WHERE the hotel will be, only that it will be “close to the M2 on Neil office/retail/condominium project he’s proposing on the northwest corner of Church and Neil streets“.

What’s the big secret? There are only so many “spots” downtown. As for available spots, that’s another issue. The developer, Cody Sokolski, reveals plenty of details, including the number of rooms (102), the franchise name (cheeky Hotel Indigo, a boutique line by the same people who own Holiday Inn), and and the estimated cost (between $6-7 million).

I really don’t understand the logic behind this article’s emphasis on the potential “hotel.” It’s just another example of a wealthy Champaign developer floating a project that may or may not pan out. This is still many months from groundbreaking, and it could be well into next year before the mysterious property is purchased, if that even happens. (Here is a link to an earlier N-G article on this subject, which refers to the hotel/M2 project. It’s funny to note that the city called the M2 project “Two Church,” a name never adopted by the developers. Perhaps that’s because it would be too funny to say “I’m going to Two Church.”)

In other downtown Champaign news … in case you didn’t notice this last week, it appears that C-U “bar baron” Scott Cochrane put up enough cash to aquire the building on the corner of Neil and Chester streets, aka the Lox, Stock and Barrel (oops) Bagel building. (OK, who can tell me when that place closed? I’ve been in and out of C-U since 1998, and it was closed then.)

• Raise your hand if you’re surprised that K’s Merchandise is shutting down. That place was a time warp — it was like walking right back into the 1970s. Its one saving grace was that it had a good-sized baby department. It’s slim pickings in this town for baby gear and this won’t help. However … that would be a great location for a Costco. It’s probably too big for blog pet Trader Joe’s.

• Here at lbotp we’ve been starved for a local reality TV star (although now it seems so 2003). And once we found out about one, it was too late to give him any C-U love. This guy isn’t on TV — he’s on the Web in a reality contest on gofish.com called “America’s Dream Date.” Cast members shot videos of themselves showing why they should be “America’s Dream Date” (hence the name), and then the viewers vote for their favorites. His name is Nick Schmidt, and the one video I watched was really stupid — it showed him driving around town and eating at what I think is Legend’s. Voting is now closed, but the winners get a trip to Paris.

• The Pantagraph Web site has a new look, as does the Sun-Times. Interesting to note that the Sun-Times Web traffic is down 25 percent since the ailing Roger Ebert took sick leave to recover from cancer surgery.

• Deb Pressey reports that yet another restaurant, this one serving “Mediterranean” fare, is planning to go into the Village at the Crossing center in SW Champaign. Between the supposedly planned Papa Del’s branch, Billy Barooz, the new Jupiter’s, and Subway, there will be a new place to eat practically every day of the week at the corner of Windsor and Duncan.
• Northeast Urbana is indeed the mecca for cheap gas in C-U. All the cool kids know that the Casey’s on University Ave. or the station in front of Wal-Mart on Route 130 are the best deals in town. Mr. lbotp wants to know why the Wal-Mart gas stations all have different prices. Location, location, location …