Sheila Burt visited several businesses in the West Loop and reports:
Cafe Ciao, 939 W Madison St, is a neighborhood cafe that strives to bring the community together with events such as wine tastings and dance night.
Owner Julie Chung says, “The West Loop still isn’t quite the destination spot that Wicker Park or Bucktown might be, but it’s still slowly getting there. We’re getting a little bit more retail, a lot of residential build-up, but still the retail is slowly building. Hopefully in the next couple of years it will grow even more.”
Ouest is French for West (and it’s basically pronounced the same way, folks). Owner Kelly Bry opened her French-inspired boutique, located at 1063 W Madison, in August. She says, “Since we’re one of the first over here, we’ve really been able to get all the different clothing lines that we wanted and more and more is moving in … It’s fun to be one of the first.”
We spent some time in Maxima Barber Salon & Nail Spa, 949 W Madison St. The salon has been located on Madison Street for six years though it’s been around the area for 17 years. Co-owner Rahman Williams says, “We chose the West Loop because it was close to downtown. A lot of our clientele is mostly white collar males who work in the surrounding Loop area.”
We can’t end West Loop week without mentioning Chicago’s Greektown. We stopped by Artopolis Bakery, Cafe & Agora, 306 S Halsted St. General manager Maria Melidis says Artopolis has been in this location for seven years, and it was opened to offer traditional Greek recipes. It features the works: sandwiches with fresh bread, wood-fired pizzas, “artopita” (flaky dough filled with things such as spinach, feta and ham) and entrees.