On today’s radar:
*If you’re a C-U newbie, or even an oldie, you might want to tune in Thursday to our very own public television network WILL-TV, as the newest season of Prairie Fires debuts at 7:30 p.m. This is the only newsmagazine in the world that gives a damn about Central Illinois.
* Cody Sokolski and the One Main gang are taking their act up I-74 to Normal, where they plan to build three mixed-use edifices akin to the downtown Champaign project. Wonder if that will go up before or after the Sokolski-backed boutique hotel planned for downtown Champaign.***
*I got take-out from the brand new Chinese place “Shanghai 1938” the other night. Let me preface this by saying that I’m no connoisseur of Chinese food; it’s my last resort for Asian cuisine. But I was craving some sesame chicken, and we were in the neighborhood, so what the heck. Here are my impressions: the food was decent, although the broccoli that accompanied my chicken was overcooked completely. The decor there is a little more upscale than your average Chinese restaurant around here; it’s probably worth another go.
*If you clicked on the link above about Shanghai 1938, you might have noticed the announcement that Papa Del’s will finally move into Village at the Crossing sometime “this spring.” Whatever.
*** UPDATE: In today’s N-G, Don Dodson reports that Sokolski has backed off the boutique hotel dream. He writes: “Over the past year, Sokolski has expressed interest in developing a “boutique hotel” in downtown Champaign. But he said that as of Tuesday, he’s been unable to identify a suitable site for it. A preferred site fell through, he said.”
5 responses so far ↓
Mate'man // January 30, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Shades of the Liberty Herald!
What do you suppose “Shanghai 1938″ means? Chinese food pre-Japanese conquest?
Matt // January 31, 2007 at 8:56 am
I think the boutique hotel idea is dead, or at least on the back-burner for now. I seem to remember reading that they’d looked into the viability of putting in a hotel downtown, and that the interest/critical mass just wasn’t there… yet.
No one else seems to have remember reading that article, though, and keeps waiting for the hotel to start breaking ground, or something.
lbotp // January 31, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Matt — there was something today. I updated this post.
moon_grrl // February 3, 2007 at 4:17 pm
“What do you suppose ‘Shanghai 1938′ means? Chinese food pre-Japanese conquest?”
I was wondering the SAME thing when I ended up eating there last night (we’d gone to try Pasha, but the wait for a table was almost 30 mins).
Food was not bad with a reasonable price tag.
Milwaukee Brad // February 5, 2007 at 10:37 am
Is this the same Cody that used to own Periscope records at old farm and then later in Downtown Champaign? If so, then I find it funny that this guy has become a mini-mogul in C-U.
This would be the same guy who used to call my house repeatly to tell Charlie to come to work at the record store. Only 1 problem, Charlie never lived there, Tom his other manager did…
I guess this is a story of a risk loving person who made all the right investment choices…
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