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11. Catherine
    Member

    Gosh, ought one go to the Planning meeting or the school meeting about the laptops? Which is more important?

    (Riverside is so exciting.)

    Posted Saturday Apr 18, 2009 10:27 #

12. Fred
    Member

    To respond to an earlier post by Don. Why don't you open a place? "Spatz's East". If you can maneuver the politics of SF, Riverside should be a snap. Besides, we have to have 2 dozen people in Riverside who could play piano. The Gorman (different one) building at Burlington and Harlem is open. The Arcade is possible. I'd be in for $25k of backing, maybe 50. The key is your relationship with the administration (old or new). You are so well known and outspoken that you will get every benefit of the law. You are the Man! Can you do it?

    Posted Saturday Apr 18, 2009 12:29 #

13. spatny
    Member

    Thanks Fred, but at age 71 I like to go to restaurants and listen to music, not deal with all the hassles. Recently I went up to a place in Niles called Chambers that does live music - 8800 north on Milwaukee, I think. They have an intesting kind of operation - mixing food, bar and entertainment. We went a couple times - mainly because they had a guy I used to listen to in places on and around Rush St.- Fran D'Rone, a great jazz singer and entertainer. He was older than me when I first saw him so he must be at least 75, but his voice is still great and he is one of the best Sinatra-esque crooners ever. Frank S and Tony Bennett both said he was the best. I have all his CDs, and if you like that kind of music I'll make you a sample copy - or look him up on the web - his website plays about five tunes and you'll hear a real master. Here's his web site URL:
    http://www.frankdarone.com/

    I looked at a bunch of places I thought might be nice to have here. There is a place on Halsted whose name escapes me at the moment that has an interesting mix of services - there is an open front for a street cafe space, a bakery where you can just come in and buy things to go, a bar, and two floors of restaurant space. They open for breakfast all the way through the day and evening, and I think they have some light musical entertainment at night. I told them about the VC space even before it was finished, but too expensive. That's the problem - after redo it will all be too expensive to make enough profit for an operator. Wish we had the old Grill-Ette back, but again, selling coffee and sandwiches and cokes and the like the - the freight will be too high after the money goes in to refurb.

    When Henningers was still here I was hoping a pizza/italian place would go in there - hang some plastic grapes from a trellis, checked table cloths, chianti bottle candles - reasonable food. Again, I tried to get Papa Milanos interested - but there just isn't enough traffic. Same for the bakery - I loved to walk my dog down to Burlington in the AM and get a hot coffee cake when Provos was there - but they couldn't make it either. You need a bigger volume thse days for almost anything - 2-3 turns on the tables minimum, and overhead is a killer. I tried to talk Villa Nova into opening up in the Arcade - but they expanded to Lockport, were open about four mnhs and doubled the size of their place, now have another one somewhere. Let me do you a favor and break your arm so you can't sign the check to invest in a restaurant - everybody, they say, has a boat and a restaurant in them, but usually they are both mistakes - nine times out of ten.

    We do need to think up some way to get funding to save the Arcade, perhaps not as a sold out commercial venture, but possibly public/private combo. Wish we could segue the Wextrust plans into a "shovel-ready" project for rehab and use as something.

    I am just going to confine my activities to helping to reforest Riverside, which seems like a good way to end up my days.

    Posted Saturday Apr 18, 2009 13:13 #

14. Catherine
    Member

    I have heard Frank D'Rone, more than once! Back when there used to be lots of civilized little jazz clubs in Chicago. Well, the 30 years you have left in you should be enough for the reforestation.

    Kim from Grumpy's worked for Villa Nova for 20 years, including cooking. They have a kitchen at Grumpy's.

    You're right they need to clarify the liquor law if even we can't understand it.

    It was the cost of the VC space that kept it from getting rented; maybe still is, I don't know. I think Zimmer made an offer on it.

    Posted Saturday Apr 18, 2009 13:43 #

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