April 17th, 2008 12:49am
Deborah Austin
Colorlab Custom Cosmetics, the Rockford based company that has retail cosmetics counters in Paris and London, San Francisco and Chicago, is providing the makeup for the models in the fashion show at the All Star Salute to Service Excellence 2008, a benefit held by the Northern Illinois Branch of the Arthritis Foundation on Fri., April 25.
The event, on the Friday of Administrative Professionals Week, is offered by the Arthritis Foundation as a way for local employers to thank support staff. At Cliffbreakers Lexington Hotel, 700 W. Riverside Blvd., Rockford, it starts at 11 a.m. with a social hour and silent auction, and includes a noon luncheon. The fashion show, from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., features social and work-related apparel modeled by local rheumatologists and sponsors.
Colorlab will be applying the makeup for the models. It also produced a signature color lipstick which the All Star committee was allowed to name; the name chosen was “Casablanca Kiss.” Everyone who attends the event will be given a lipstick donated by Colorlab and a signature tote.
Colorlab was founded in Rockford in 1996 by Mary Swaab. Its Chicago locations include a flagship store at 857 W. Armitage, and the cosmetics counter at Macy’s at 111 N. State St. Its cosmetics also are available in Rockford by appointment, by calling the company’s headquarters at 815-965-2001.
Colorlab cosmetics are customized at the counter for each individual customer, by hue and formulation, like a cosmetics lab at the counter.
Reservations still are available for the All Star Salute to Service Excellence 2008 event, said Vickie Fogel, director for the Northern Illinois Branch of the Arthritis Foundation. The final deadline for reservations is Thurs., April 24, she said. For more information or for reservations, call the Arthritis Foundation office at 815-971-6380.
April 11th, 2008 05:18pm
Deborah Austin
Rinku Patel plans to open her fourth local Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins store on April 22 or 23 — about five days before the due date for the birth of her second child. She already has a two-year-old son. This juxtaposition does not seem to faze her a bit.
“I’m not the kind of person who can sit at home,” she told me on April 11. “With my first pregnancy I worked till the day I had to go to the hospital.”
Equipment is being set up now for the opening of Patel’s latest store, at 6747 Broadcast Parkway in Loves Park, in a new building across from Peak Sports Club. Rinku Patel and her husband Chirag Patel are owners and franchisees for Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins for the Rockford area.
Their other three locations opened in 2003 — at 2542 S. Alpine Road and 3511 E. State St., Rockford and 1550 E. Riverside Blvd., Loves Park — all in previously built stores that had been closed.
They now plan to close the East State Street store on April 30, and open in a different place in downtown Rockford; that location still is under negotiation.Â
The Patels moved to the Rockford area from Chicago when they purchased the local franchise. It was their first time owning a Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins, but the business is nothing new to Rinku Patel. Her parents owned some Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the Chicago area, and she spent many years helping out in the family business.
April 10th, 2008 08:13am
Deborah Austin
A new restaurant, Southern Butterfly, has opened at 1406 N. Main St., Rockford, in the spot where the Waffle Inn used to be.  While it offers some “soul food” specials, Southern Butterfly really is a family style restaurant with menu offerings such as club sandwiches, hamburgers and vegetarian dishes, said co-owner Kim Hunt. “We do say ‘We cook with soul,’” she told me this week.
The restaurant’s other co-owner is Hunt’s mother Earma Maypray. Both are from Rockford; Hunt has owned two previous restaurants here, Kemra’s Soul Food Cafe and Nawlins. It’s Maypray’s first time in ownership in the restaurant business.Â
 ”She (Hunt) does all the cooking and I do the management — and assist her in cooking now and then,” said Maypray, who had planned on retiring on her 65th birthday this year but decided to join in the restaurant venture to help ensure income for her daughter Kim and grandson Donavon.
Why the North Main site? Maypray also works for the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and she said when her daughter was looking to open a restaurant, ”I thought this would be a good area because i know how hard the city is working to build up this North Main area and the downtown area, and I wanted to contribute.”
While the restaurant does not yet have a Web site, Maypray said she plans to register with the Rockford Chamber of Commerce and get assistance from the chamber in building one.
The restaurant’s specials include include all-you-can-eat fried chicken on Wednesdays and all-you-can-eat pork chops on Thursdays, said Hunt. Fridays are Cajun night with red beans and rice, gumbo, Jambalaya, dirty rice and Cajun corn bread. Regular menu items are offered during those times as well.
Once the weather gets better, said Hunt, she also plans to offer ribs and pulled pork cooked outdoors but served inside the restaurant.
 Southern Butterfly opened March 9. For hours and more information on specials, call 815-962-8005.
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April 8th, 2008 11:34pm
Deborah Austin
Again, not necessarily coming or going, but pretty darned interesting!
Patch Products is looking for people who like to play games — board games, card games and dice games, that is.
The Beloit based manufacturer wants families and groups of adults to help it test new games it is developing. The company makes family entertainment products — like games and puzzles — which are sold at major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Toys “R” Us and K Mart.
The game testing sessions last about an hour. They allow the people at Patch Products to watch a game being played, and to get feedback from unbiased players.
You can sign up by snail mail by sending your name, address, phone number and e-mail address to:
Game Testing!
Patch Products
1400 Inman Parkway
Beloit WI 53511
Or you can e-mail your information to patch@patchproducts.com with “Game Testing!” in the subject line.
The manufacturer is looking for testers of all ages, but if you’re a kid, you should ask your parents to sign up as a family.
Once Patch Products gets the information, it communicates with potential testers via e-mail to set a time to come to its Game Testing Room at its headquarters and play a game. Afterward, the testers are asked what they like or didn’t like about the game, and how they would improve it.
April 2nd, 2008 05:34pm
Deborah Austin
Riverside Pavilion retail center — 5875 E. Riverside Blvd., at the corner of Mulford Road in Rockford — has been through a major renovation. This week its merchants are celebrating with prizes and discounted specials, culminating Saturday with the “Riverside Pavilion-Ace Hardware Big Game Give-Away” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visitors can register all this week to win a new 42-inch LCD HDTV: the “Big Game Give-Away” grand prize to be awarded that day.Â
The 87,000-square-foot retail center was acquired in 2007 by Paul Hemmer Companies — a Cincinnati, Ohio-based real estate development, building and construction services firm — and then went through the renovation. Ace Hardware then opened as an anchor store. Other businesses at the center include Cardinal Fitness, Island Tan, Domino’s Pizza, Hallmark, Moto Photo, ADT, Concord Custom Cleaners, Great Clips, Island Tan and Weight Watchers.
April 1st, 2008 08:28pm
Deborah Austin
After almost 80 years of manufacturing and selling mattresses and bedding products, Rockford Mattress Co.’s owners have decided to close. The company has stopped manufacturing mattresses and now is liquidating its inventory.
The Powell family, which owns the business at 212 Seventh St., is not sure when it will close its doors for good. Sales have fluctuated over the past five years, and the Powells knew by December that they’d need to close. Several factors led to the decision, they said: industry changes, rising costs of materials, and the overall economy.
You can read the full story, “Needs outweigh wants: Rockford Mattress to close,” at BusinessRockford.com here.
April 1st, 2008 05:28am
Deborah Austin
Not a coming or going, more like a doing:
Locations of The UPS Store around the country, including the one at 7431 E. State St. in Rockford, are teaming up with the Marine Toys For Tots Foundation for its first-ever year-round Toys for Tots Literacy Program.
Through the month of April, The UPS Store will be selling $1 donation cards. For every dollar donated, a book will be given to a local economically disadvantaged child, courtesy of Scholastic, Inc.
The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. network is the exclusive sponsor of the Toys for Tots Literacy Program. Since 2005 it also has been a national sponsor of Toys for Tots.
You can find more information at www.ToysforTotsLiteracy.org.
March 20th, 2008 05:50am
Deborah Austin
Clare Schwartz, owner of the High Maintenance Salon & Day Spa at 135 North Longwood,Rockford and in the new Peak Sports Club, 4401 Peak Drive, Loves Park, plans to open a new weekend-only by-appointment studio at Cliffbreakers Lexington Hotel, 700 W. Riverside, Rockford, by the beginning of April. No grand opening date has yet been set.
The Cliffbreakers location will be geared for bridal parties who are staying at Cliffbreakers, and will offer hair design with four hair stations, nail care and on-site makeup — all the things that bridal parties need. It will not offer hair color or waxing, said Schwartz. The Cliffbreakers location will have a team of people from High Maintenance as well as a team lead person.
“I have a bridal consultant who will sit down with them and find out what kind of look they’re doing for; they’ll do an extensive consult ahead of time so that when the team leader goes over there (to Cliffbreakers) to manage everything, it will go very smoothly,” she said. “We’ll make it so they don’t have to leave the hotel until they go to the church.”
Those interested in more information can call High Maintenance at Peak at 815-963-1948, said Schwartz.
Meanwhile, that High Maintenance at Peak location, which opened Dec. 8, is holding a grand opening and open house on May 17 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
And back at the original High Maintenance at Longwood location, a private room will be opened, also by the start of April, for chemotherapy patients who are losing their hair, and for Muslim women, who are not allowed to have men see their hair, said Schwartz.
High Maintenance also plans to hold a fundraiser sometime this fall ( no date has yet been set) to benefit the PAWS Humane Society which serves the Rockford area, said Luan Dean, co-owner of the High Maintenance at Longwood and owner of Lula’s Vintage Boutique, 221 E. State St., Rockford.
The benefit event, called the “Fur Ball,” will have a “Hair Ball” theme (a hair and fashion show), said Dean — and will be styled like a runway show, said Schwartz.
March 19th, 2008 01:21am
Deborah Austin
Brio, the restaurant and wine bar at 515 E. State St., Rockford, has started an “Industry Night” each Monday night for fellow workers in the restaurant and bar industry. On Monday nights, anyone working in that industry — except for fast food restaurants — can bring a current pay stub from his or her employer, purchase one alcoholic beverage at regular price, and choose an entree free from Brio’s Industry Night menu. Currently there are three entrees on that menu.
Catering director Sandy Johns said Brio started the program March 10, “to have fun and relax with the people who know our business.
“Monday nights typically are slow nights for people in the industry, so it’s a good night for those people to come together and have some fun,” she said. Monday night the 17th, the restaurant had a couple of tables full of industry folk, Johns said.
“We haven’t really been measuring how many extra industry people we’ve gotten yet,” she said. “We haven’t really gotten the word out yet.”
Johns said she does have ideas for trivia games and other fun activities to add if the Industry Night really takes off.
March 13th, 2008 05:20am
Deborah Austin
People in the Rock River Valley seem to care a great deal about their restaurants. By far the most comments I get on this blog are about restaurants either coming here or leaving.
When I wrote in January that Buffalo Wild Wings was planning to open a restaurant at 6275 E. State St., Rockford, sometime this summer, one enthusiastic reader responded:
“LOVE LOVE LOVE BWW!! I used to live in Bloomington and worked at the one there….I never liked wings or spicy things until I started sampling the buffalo menu. The atmosphere is fun and upbeat and even though it is a sports bar, its dining rooms offer a family setting as well. In Bloomington it is always busy! So good and so much fun! I can’t wait!1
Also in December after I wrote that the Del Taco restaurant at 1555 W. Lane Road, Machesney Park, had closed, I got several disappointed responses. One reader wrote,
“We live 15 miles from the Del Taco, but we loved it so much we went anyway.”
Another said,
“That’s sad. We lived in Southern CA for a few years and loved Del Taco. After we moved back to the Chicago area we actually drove 100 miles to this location. Luckily, one opened up about 10 miles from us in Oak Lawn, IL. I really hope it stays open.”
Responses were mixed to the opening of the new Ember Restaurant and Bar in A Perryville Place, 6957 Olde Creek Road, Rockford. Some people gave it rave reviews, others simply said, “don’t.” I got by far the most responses about this restaurant — both positive and negative — so I guess that means a lot of people are trying it out!
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