Plan a trip close to home with a visit to Tropical Smoothie Cafe in St. Charles

The guys could really surprise their girlfriends or wives for Valentine's Day by saying they have planned a trip to the tropics.

With the weather being so rugged the past few weeks, it would be the perfect time to do so - except traveling during the pandemic isn't the wisest decision.

We're left to dream about such things unless we walk into a place like the new Tropical Smoothie Café in St. Charles.

A glance at the menu board indicates this is a tropical place, which is better than no tropics at all during our pandemic lockdown and winter blitz. Categories like Super Veggies, Balanced Fusions, Fruit Blends and Tropical Treats help that imagination float a bit.

But how does a business touting tropical smoothies do so when the weather and public health woes are working against it?

"We have real fruit smoothies and tropical food, and that is why people are coming out," said cafe manager Sam Vatel. "Some who come in here already know about what a tropical smoothie is, so that's why they come here and also come back."

Vatel is probably right. With names like the Sunrise, Sunset Smoothie, or the Island Greens Smoothie, it could easily draw attention.

"People really like that Sunrise, Sunset Smoothie because it has mango, pineapple, orange juice and strawberry mixed in," said Vatel, whose store at 3839 E. Main St. near the Target retail complex has been open for about three months.

Island Greens comes to its customers in the form of spinach, kale, pineapple and banana.

When pressed on which ones seem to be a customer favorite during these first few months, Vatel said Sunrise, Sunset was likely a top seller, while Island Greens was right behind.

The cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, for all three meals of the day.

This line of franchised cafes finds one in St. Charles and one in Huntley at this time.

"Business has been good so far," Vatel said.

It could get better as more people long for a trip to the tropics, without the concern about travel.

Shop concept works

It's somewhat of a family affair for the owners of Light & Pine Collective, Desmond Brown, The Other Half and Unboring Granola in Batavia.

The shops were part of the Boardwalk Shops concept at Route 25 and Wilson Street last summer. The concept calls for the small-business owners to spend a year on that boardwalk with their startups and then maybe expand into an open spot in Batavia.

Together the four shop owners decided to keep this mall concept going by opening the Wilson Street Mercantile at 222 E. Wilson St., a large house just east of Route 25.

"We were thinking about something together and decided to take this space," said Kasey Hoag, owner of The Other Half men's store. "We have developed this family feel to what we do, even though each store operates individually.

"One of us could decide to stay open, even if the weather is bad, while the others may not," Hoag said.

Mostly, Wilson Street Mercantile illustrates the value of starting out with the Boardwalk Shops and seeing the value of staying in Batavia and expanding.

It won't hurt Wilson Street Mercantile that it is located nearly right next to the Boardwalk Shops.

"It's been a great thing for us," said Suzy Ray, owner of Light & Pine Collective, which occupies the largest space inside of the large white house that Wilson Street Mercantile calls home.

"I have some room to expand here, and also have room for storing the online orders and getting those out," said Ray, who also operates the home décor business Real Happy Space.

A sign in front of the house alerts shoppers of the Wilson Street Mercantile location, and parking is set up in the rear of the house.

The mercantile is closed Mondays and Tuesdays but opens at 10 a.m. the rest of the week and 11 a.m. on Sundays. It is open until 7 p.m. Thursdays, the only day of the week it is open past 5 p.m. (4 p.m. Sundays).

In the arm it goes

After plenty of confusion and trying to sign up for a COVID vaccine in the second phase, doing so with the Meijer Pharmacy in St. Charles turned out to be a good idea.

With plenty of easy-to-understand communications and confirmations from the pharmacy, I went in last week to have the Moderna vaccine shot into my left arm. Granted, my age and having had cancer may have put me on a faster track than others.

There were a lot of people there, but it went smoothly - with about a 5- to 10-minute process to sign in and get to the pharmacy technician's table for the shot.

Afterward, you sit for about 15 minutes in a different area to make sure you don't have a bad reaction.

Meijer was smart about that aspect, too. They closed off the garden and outdoors seasonal aisles and set up chairs for people to just sit and chat or look at their phones.

I was next to Weber grill accessories, so it was nice to think about warmer weather. After all, subzero wind chills were whipping outside at the time. But we certainly weren't in the way of any shoppers. They were probably looking at warm clothes, boots and shovels.

My next shot takes place in a few weeks. Hard to say which aisle we'd be placed in by that time.

The parade can wait

The St. Charles Business Alliance is doing the right thing by skipping the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown St. Charles this year and instead coming up with various other events spread out through town.

Should make social distancing and such a little easier for the Saturday, March 13, festivities.

Those most-played albums

I'm getting some interesting responses to my suggestion that readers chime in about the three record albums they feel they have played the most often during their lifetimes.

Of course, some are referring to cassette tapes or CDs because they didn't always have a turntable. And that's fine.

I'm still taking comments at my email address below if you want to join in. I'll be sharing as many as I can in the next column.

dheun@sbcglobal.net