Old pet shop space to become French-Asian bakery in Arlington Heights
Three Asian-inspired eateries are planned for an old shopping center that's under new ownership on the south side of Arlington Heights.
The new owner of the Arlington Towne Square Shopping Center, on the southwest corner of Arlington Heights and Golf roads, has inked leases for three storefronts: a 2,700-square-foot Marbling Korean Restaurant; 2,442-square-foot Tous les Jours bakery; and 1,400-square-foot Hello Boba tea shop.
The three restaurants have the "potential to enrich our community's culinary landscape," said Jason Park, the property manager from Rolling Meadows-based Direct Group Holdings, which received special use approvals and a parking variation from the village board this week.
Officials in the village's community development department expressed concerns about the viability of two full-scale Korean restaurants in the same shopping center, which already hosts Hanshin Pocha in an outlot.
But a market study provided by the shopping center owner declared the proposed Marbling restaurant wouldn't be in direct competition, since it offers Korean barbecue, and Hanshin Pocha specializes in Korean soul food.
Meaning "everyday" in French, Tous les Jours is a sit-down bakery specializing in French-Asian pastries, handcrafted beverages and coffee. Since launching in the United States, it has nearly 100 locations in the country and more than 1,650 worldwide.
Its location within the strip mall is the former Happiness Is Pets shop, where a construction worker was on site Wednesday hauling blocks of concrete from the interior demolition into a parking lot dumpster.
A few doors down is the vacant storefront for Hello Boba, which would serve tea drinks with chewy tapioca balls - a refreshment that originated in Taiwan in the 1980s and has only grown in popularity.
Opening dates haven't been announced, but when they do open, the bakery and tea shop are expected to be open everyday. Marbling would have dinner hours and be closed on Mondays.