Hey!

What a title. I’m not ever sure what to title these entries. It’s been some time since my last post. A lot has happened and a lot will be happening too. I’m excited to talk more about them.

Blogging is difficult for me as I rarely plan things out and am pretty spontaneous. Its convenient to be spontaneous when you suck at organizing things. So I’ll leave it at that. I want to write more here so feel free to check back more often than every three months.

In the past I’ve hinted at a pizza place. Yes, another pizza place, and don’t complain cuz you know you love pizza. In fact, Chicago - Im including us suburbanites here - has the largest amount of pizza places per capita at like 0.85 per person. Don’t quote me on that, but I don’t think I’m too far off. That’s almost one joint per person!

If there is one thing that - we - as a collective - can use more of its definitely pizza places… and coffee places too. Sipping Funky Java coffee as I type.

However, moving in the direction of being pretty transparent with our ideas we are announcing that we will sideline our plans to open up a pizza place… for several reasons. One of the main reasons being that the building across the street likes its peace and quiet. They will protect that peace and quiet with bad reviews and dangerous pranks used to intimidate. Having young kids working at the store makes the situation something I won’t even consider. I’m never the victim of these things. Maybe its because I look like I have a bad attitude, but the young girls that work have been targeted and intimidated. Our last “situation” resulted in a green laser hitting one of our employees in the eyes and they were seeing spots for a few days. Ok, building across the street, you win. I can’t put these kids at risk like that.

That’s why I don’t have music outside anymore.

Anyways…

Our pizza cafe would have been an outdoor destination so maybe we will choose a better spot that is more conducive to this idea.

So what will happen with the next door unit? I think I finally have an answer to this question.

Next door will be set up as an extension of our kitchen, but for the main purpose of making videos for our social media accounts and other purposes. Of course we’ll use the space for prepping. What we’ll also get from it is that we will soon have a staged kitchen with proper lighting and cameras. It will also be an opportunity to make fresh content as well as post our experiments in the “keetch,” as I like to refer to it privately.

The space next door is just that - SPACE - so lets see what we can do to create some fun in the neighborhood. I’m still open to rooftop concerts, or if I can’t get that passed the village we can set up a stage inside the store and remove the windows.

I’m thinking out loud here I guess, but I just want to show that I am dedicated to generating new ideas that will make our cool little part of Villa Park a destination for people to come see for themselves.

If you’ve been to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Beale Street in Memphis, or Broadway in Nashville then you know how cool and fun these streets are. And what makes them so cool? The local government allows it to happen and even supports it. Let’s see how much fun we are allowed to have haha!

The future looks fun, no matter what happens.

-mj ‘21