Cursed Location

 

In the world of restaurants and retail stores, there are locations that are seemingly cursed.  Not cursed in the horror movie sense of being haunted by spirits or apparitions, but that no business is able to thrive in the location despite the best intentions and efforts of the proprietors.  We have two such locations near our house.  Both are restaurants and both have had several restaurants start and fail in the fourteen years we have lived here (I am assuming our moving here did not curse the locations). 

One is within walking distance of our house and the focus of this bloggy bit.  It is on Waukegan Road, US-43, just north of Everett Road and is kind of the retail and banking center for the west side of our town.  There are three other food and beverage stores in the same small shopping plaza as the curse location:  Starbucks, Lou Malnati’s, and Jimmy Johns.  They do quite well and mostly carry-out.  Across Waukegan Road there is another small shopping center featuring a grocery store with a vibrant carry out department, a well-known and popular sushi restaurant, and a local pizzeria which closed this location early on in the pandemic. 

The cursed location at the end of the L shaped strip mall can’t seem to sustain any restaurant that goes in there.  We have tried out each of the four restaurants that have been in that location.  There has been an Asian (Thai/Sushi) restaurant, followed by what I would call an eclectic bistro, another Asian place, and the latest was Little Tails.  We tried them all… a few times each.  We liked having a restaurant that close and wanted support these start-ups.  The food was good and the prices reasonable for nicer but casual ambiance of each restaurant that took a shot at the cursed location.  The problem has always been a lack of customers.  We would go on a Friday or Saturday evening and there were never a lot of people there no matter which restaurant was there.

I really thought Little Tails was going to make it.  Tails, as we learned, was short for cocktails.  So, it was a place to go have a few drinks and enjoy a fare of really good steaks, huge delicious burgers, salads that easily served two, and other bar food served in generous portions.  The first time we went, the owner came by, introduced himself, and thanked us for coming.  He had several TVs and around and wanted to create a place folks could come and watch their favorite sports teams, have a great meal, and a few drinks.  He was enthusiastic and very committed to creating a popular family friendly sports bar and grill.  I thought, we might finally have a restaurant that would break the curse of the location.

Sadly, Little Tails did not last one year.  Each time we went, only two or three other tables were occupied.  The fourth time we went there to dine and watch a football game, it was closed.  All the lights were on, but as they say no one was home.  The door was locked and there was no sign on the door indicating the demise of the business.  It closed six months before the pandemic started.

I went to the Starbucks today and notice that the Little Tails sign was finally down.  The windows of space were papered over.  There was a poster announcing that two new restaurants were coming in March 2021.  Two restaurants?  That
sounds double ambitious.  The two restaurants will be Everett Farms and The Station.  Both are billed as “farm to table.”  Everett Farms will be an American Café where The Station is to be Mexican. 

My first thought was an obvious kind of question in these times:  Who opens a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic?  The poster also touts that these restaurants are the creations of chef and proprietor John Des Rosiers.  I did not recognize the name, but a quick Google search revealed that this Waukegan native is the creator and owner of highly regarded and successful Innovasi in nearby Lake Bluff.  He opened two other restaurants Wisma (Sandwiches) in Lake Bluff and Moderno (Italian) in Highland Park.  Both have closed, I am guessing due to the pandemic. 

Maybe, two restaurants will be the ticket to finally break the curse of this location. 

The poster has websites for both restaurants… and both links go to a “want to buy this domain name?” site.  Not encouraging .  So, we have well-known chef and proprietor open two restaurants in a cursed location, during a pandemic, and neither website is functional.  I am not feeling optimistic.

Nevertheless, we will try them both when they open and wish them luck.