North Shore Native Plans to Expand Marketing Franchise to Winnetka

Brian Mattingly says the North Shore area is a big push for his Georgia-based marketing company Welcomemat.

  Winnetka native Brian Mattingly is planning to expand his Georgia-based marketing company to the North Shore area and is honing in on Winnetka because of the area’s great schools, higher-income and family-oriented demographic, Winnetka Talk reported.  Mattingly says his marketing company can help draw new residents to local businesses and provide businesses with insights on their customers that can in turn be used to tailor marketing efforts, Winnetka Talk reported.  Welcomemat sends direct-mail coupon packages to residents new to a community and tracks how these residents use the coupons through bar-coding technology, lifestyle segmentation and geo-coding to provide businesses an insight to their customers, according to Welcomemat’s …

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A Hubbard Woods Plan Could Raze Building, Put Up Parking Lot

A developer says more parking is needed to attract an anchor tenant to the former Gap location in Winnetka.

  Wondering what’s happening around the former Gap location at 925 Green Bay Rd. in Winnetka? A Highland Park developer is proposing to bring in an upscale anchor tenant to the Hubbard Woods business district and put up a parking lot at 929 and 931 Green Bay Road, Chicago Tribune reported.  So what’s the reaction to the plan?  Terry Dason, executive director of the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce, says she likes the plan because it could bring in more business for the district—but Marla Reisman, one of the two retailers that would have to relocate, is not happy with the plan, she has a sign with a Joni Mitchell quote up in the window of her store, which reads, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’…

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Winnetka’s Gray Clothing Store to Close After 12 Years

Owner Laura Schoch will be starting a new venture, Laura Style, a blog about fashion tips geared toward women over 30 years old.

After 12 years, Winnetka women’s clothing boutique Gray, 821 Chestnut Ct., will be closing its doors, but owner Laura Schoch says she’ll be starting a new venture blogging about fashion styles and tips for women over 30 years old, Winnetka Talk reported.  Schoch, a Winnetka resident for 16 years, says she plans to continue her monthly trips to New York City to meet with designers and learn about new trends for her blog www.LauraStyle.com, Winnetka Talk reported.  Related Business Coverage

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Jennifer Fisher

5:27 pm on Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Thanks for letting us know about the typo, Ann. We have corrected the error.   more ›

Erwin Drechsler to Serve Dinner at Winnetka’s Café Aroma

Starting April 17, Erwin Drechsler will serve food focused on regional, farmers market food.

  Fans of Chef Erwin Drechsler will be able to taste his food Tuesday through Saturdays starting April 17, when the chef will be serving dinner at Winnetka’s Cafe Aroma, 561 Lincoln Ave., with his own staff and menu, ChicagoMag.com reported.  Drechsler will be serving items such as roasted cauliflower with prosciutto, grilled asparagus with chicken livers, Great Lakes white fish and his famous burger, ChicagoMag.com reported.  In July 2012, Drechsler closed Erwin, his culinary home for 18 years; the restaurant was a training ground for future James Beard Award-winning chefs such as Paul Kahan and Mindy Segal, Chicago Tribune reported.  Are you a foodie always searching for the next best food? Check out Patch’s North Shore Foodie Finds …

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Winnetka’s The Book Stall Finds New Owner

The new owner will officially take over the store on June 1.

  The Book Stall in Winnetka is about to get a new owner—long-time owner Roberta Rubin signed a letter of intent with Stephanie Hochschild, who plans to officially take over the store on June 1, PublishersWeekly.com reported.  Winnetka resident Hochschild, 48, had no book selling experience when she approached Rubin about buying the store in the summer of 2012, but quickly learned it over the fall, working at The Book Stall from October through December, PublisherWeekly.com.  A beloved bookstore in Winnetka for more than 30 years, The Book Stall was named Publishers Weekly 2012 Bookstore of the Year.  The success of Rubin's bookstore rests on a simple equation: Be hospitable to books, people and life circumstances. "We are one of the …

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Winnetka Antique Store Closing After 40 Years in Business

The Antique Emporium on Green Bay Rd. is closing.

The Antique Emporium in downtown Winnetka — at 915 Green Bay Rd. — is shutting its doors after 40 years in business.  "To our wonderful customers," a sign in the front read. "Thank you for 40 great years on Green Bay Rd. It has been our pleasure meeting you, serving you and hopefully pleasing you! And then you sent in the 2nd and 3rd generations. What a compliment! We will miss you all! Keep in touch!"  The note was signed by Sue and Vinny Graham.  The closing comes weeks after another notable downtown Winnetka store — the Gap — also closed for business. This story is developing and will be updated as more information is received.  For more news on businesses in Winnetka, be sure to 'like' Patch on Facebook and sign up for our daily …

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Photo: Winnetka Welcomes New Business, A. Perry Homes

The new Winnetka business offers small scale design concepts to full architectural and construction services.

Information provided by the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce. The Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony for A. Perry Homes, 564  Lincoln Ave. in Winnetka. The new business offers a range of services from small scale design concepts to full architectural and construction services.

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New Businesses in Winnetka, Northfield, Glencoe

From a new dance studio for babies, four new businesses expected in Northfield and a new eatery in Glencoe, here’s a look at some of local businesses in New Trier Township and businesses expected to open in the near future.

New Dance Studio for Babies Opening in Winnetka

Baby Take a Bow will open at 805 Elm St. on November 12.

Twirling toddlers and dancing babies will soon be a regular scene at a new dance studio in downtown Winnetka.  Baby Take a Bow, which offers a dance curriculum ranging from ballet to hip hop for students from infants to preteens, is expected to open on Monday, November 12.  The Winnetka studio will be Baby Take a Bow’s second location; the first opened in Chicago’s Roscoe Village in 2011.  “I was looking at Evanston, Wilmette, and Winnetka [for the second location], when I got to Winnetka, that’s when my search ended,” owner Kristen Ramirez said.  The 31-year-old says she fell in love with Winnetka’s neighborhood feel, “it’s like a small city within a cute, beautiful community.”  She chose the space at 805 Elm St. because it felt similar …

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North Shore Foodie Finds

Winnetka Store Takes Hot Dogs to the Next Level

In Patch's weekly column looking at unusual foods around the North Shore, we check out interesting hot dogs at D’s Haute Dogs.

Exotic sausages are a specialty at D’s Haute Dogs in Winnetka where the foods also have interesting names such as the Zeus, the Marley and the Delmonico.  So what exactly are in these dogs?  Zeus – gyros sausage, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, feta cheese and Tzatziki sauce. Marley – Jamaican jerk pork sausage, green onions, shredded lettuce and garlic aioli. Delmonico – Rib-eye steak sausage, sautéed mushrooms, fried onion crisps and horseradish cream sauce.  “Our butcher hand crafts our sausages for us on a weekly basis,” said owner Jared Boyar.  One of the best sellers at the store is the JHA, named after Boyar’s friend Jim Anderson. The JHA is a burger covered in Merkts cheddar, bacon and fried onion crisps.  While the store may be …

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