A taste of New Jersey in Lake in the Hills
A new sub shop with an east coast heritage is opening along the Randall Road corridor this week.
Jersey Mike's Subs is opening Thursday at 285 N. Randall Road in Lake in the Hills.
There are more than 450 Jersey Mike's restaurants nationally, but this will only be the eighth in Illinois, said Mark Michalak, who's opening the Lake in the Hills location.
Jersey Mike's sub business started in Point Pleasant, New Jersey in 1956.
People vacationing along the Jersey Shore would flock to the sub shop each summer, and crave the sandwiches when they headed back home for the winter.
A few more locations of Mike's Subs opening in the 1970s, and in 1987 franchises started opening. They soon spread across the country.
The first franchise came to Illinois a little over a year ago. Presently, there are locations in Vernon Hills, Lombard, Schaumburg, Naperville, Gurnee, Aurora and Mt. Prospect.
Michalak said it was about time a Jersey Mike's came to the Randall Road corridor.
He called Jersey Mike's a high-end sub shop with the freshest of ingredients.
At the store, customers can watch as the meat for their sub is sliced right in front of them, and their favorite toppings are added to their sandwich.
To help introduce locals to the restaurant, they're passing out more than coupons 5,000 free sub/donation cards to Jacobs and Huntley High Schools.
Every person that brings in the coupon and donates $1 to either school will get a free sub, Michalak said.
Both high schools will get to keep 100% of the money donated, he said.
The high school that raises the most money will get an additional $400 donated by Jersey Mike's, Michalak said.
They are hoping that many newcomers to the sub shop along the Randall Road corridor, as well as others who've experienced Jersey Mike's subs while traveling, will give the new restaurant a try.
Orphan Souls: As you're out there picking out some new shoes for summer, you might want to think about getting an extra pair.
Learning Express along Randall Road in Geneva is collecting new shoes, socks and shoelaces in their collection box.
The donation will benefit Shoes for Orphan Souls.
Shoes for Orphan Souls, a ministry of Buckner International, has distributed more than 1.8 million pairs of new shoes to at-risk children in the United States and to orphans in 68 countries around the world.
Author visit: Fans of Joyce Wold will want to mark June 19 on their calendars.
Joyce Wold, the author of God's Creations, will do a reading and sign books at the Border's Books along Randall Road in Algonquin at 10 a.m. that day.
• Amy Williams' column covers all the news of business along the Randall Road corridor from Batavia to Crystal Lake. Contact her at randallbiz@comcast.net or (847) 894-5036.