Garage sale season returns to the Fox Valley
If asked for my first impression of the Tri-Cities area when moving here 40 years ago, one would think I would carry on about the wonderful Fox River region and the interesting and quaint downtowns here.
Or maybe I would point out the good schools, or the interesting mix of white- and blue-collar workers and jobs. Or maybe it should be noted that there were really good newspapers here and that's what brought me here to start my career in the first place.
Nope. I was probably too young to pick up on all of those things at once. So, my answer would have been:
"There are a lot of garage sales around here, and they seem to be really popular."
In fact, hosting garage sales was a significant talent in the first neighborhood I lived in on 14th Street on the west side of St. Charles. The people who got deeply involved in them made it clear I had never encountered a garage sale culture like this before.
They were true professionals and knew how to price items, arrange them in the garage and on a driveway and to pitch the stuff to increase sales.
When we held our own garage sales, others would come by to give advice on how best to set it up.
The street was a key connector from Route 64 to the St. Charles Mall site on Prairie Street, so it had plenty of potential buyers streaming down the street.
I get sort of nostalgic about garage sales when the weather starts getting warmer. But it also crossed my mind when seeing that St. Charles and Geneva are hosting citywide garage sales April 27 and 28, while Batavia hosts one the following weekend, May 4 and 5.
So the practice is alive and well, and those neighborhood sales remain good spots to get good deals.
By the way, these events are for a good cause as well. In St. Charles, it helps support the STC Underground Teen Center, in Batavia it helps the Fireworks Fund, and in Geneva it benefits the Swedish Days parade.
You get included in the maps and get signs and other things when you register your sale at these citywide events, and Geneva has an early-bird registration until April 17.
No brewing there yet:
Some new siding has gone up on the building, but construction continues on the Home Brew Shop at 225 W. Main St. in downtown St. Charles.
Work has been taking place at the site for several months, as the Home Brew Shop looks to add a winery in the upper level of the building as part of its overhaul.
"Everything has been approved by the city, so we are just moving forward and getting through each step as it presents itself," said building owner and Home Brew Shop manager Ed Seaman. "We won't be moving into it until mid to late summer."
That means Seaman will continue to run his business, which helps customers learn how to make their own brew, from the lower level of a building right across Third Street from the construction site.
Residents may not recognize the new site at first glance, considering a brick exterior has been replaced with Hardie board siding, a resilient fiber compost material with a reputation for being rugged in Midwest climates.
"The original intent was to keep the building looking the same if possible, but the other building materials were causing some of the problems before (that slowed construction), so we decided to go this direction with the new material," Seaman said.
It does give the site a more modern look, but not too different from something in the neighborhood like Third Street Dance Academy a couple of blocks to the south.
More than anything, the Home Brew Shop is hoping its new winery is a big hit once it officially opens.
Not too much thrift:
The New Uses thrift store in Batavia is no longer accepting clothes or other items, and its doors will be shut for good in the next month or so.
Owners plan to keep the site at 75 S. Randall open through the end of April and into early May.
But it appears the Batavia site wasn't generating enough business, though a New Uses in Aurora will remain open.
Your pizza pal:
Pizza lovers need to make note of this. Pal Joey's will be operating out of its new location on Randall Road in the former Golden Corral site starting April 29.
It is still operating through April 28 at its 31 N. River St. location in Batavia.
We'd rather have store:
A recent note from Fresh Thyme Farmers Market was interesting in that it let me know the company was incorporating on-demand grocery delivery service. That means you order through their website or an Instacart app and your stuff gets delivered to your house at a time you ask for.
But here's the thing that is far more interesting to those of us in the Tri-Cities area. How about getting the proposed new store along Randall Road in Geneva up and running soon?
Let's get this legal squabble about what can go in that empty Dominick's spot out of the way so we can visit the store and, once we get a better of idea of what we like, maybe use the online delivery service.
Final fish note:
In closing the 2018 book on Lenten fish frys, we need to pass along that readers kept telling us that the Friday fish fry at Filling Station in St. Charles is really good. We'll have to put that one on our "to do" list.
We were hearing the same about Colonial's beer-battered fish fry, and we did close out the Lenten season with that choice. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes fish and chips.
dheun@sbcglobal.net