While students were away from Evanston this Christmas season, a new restaurant opened and two businesses shifted to new locations.
Pan-Asian specialty restaurant Lulu’s reopened over the break at 804 Davis St., two blocks west of its original location at 626 Davis St.
The shift in location comes as a business initiative to minimize costs, according to owner Daniel Kelch.
“The (original) lease where we rented the retail space was up,” Kelch said. “And it made sense in the long term to buy the new property instead of continuing to pay rent.”
A new restaurant, Rinky Dinks, will share space with Lulu’s in its current location. The American Grill, which opened on Dec. 29, will be run by the same management as Lulu’s. The new eatery specializes in sandwiches, salads, meatloaf, pastas, salMonday, seafood and beef stew, according to Kelch.
Lulu’s new location is twice the size of its old site. Rinky Dinks was connected to Lulu’s to fill up the increased space and to provide a variety of cuisine that would cater to residents in the downtown Evanston area, Kelch said.
“A doubling of retail space does not guarantee a doubling in business,” Kelch said. “But one restaurant with two dining rooms serving two types of cuisine could solve this problem by doubling the palate available.”
In contrast to Rinky Dinks’ American cuisine, Lulu’s offers Asian noodles and dumplings, including Japanese, Chinese and Thai dishes, in an open, bright atmosphere. As their tagline goes, Lulu’s serves dim sum (small dishes of Chinese food samples) and then some (entree-sized dishes including soups, salads and stir-fry).
Another business that was transplanted over the holiday break was Kamala Perfume, Inc. Originally located at the Carlson Building on 640 Church St., the new store will open Jan. 10 at Southpoint Plaza on 635 Chicago Ave.
High rent at the original location and maintenance issues spurred the shift, according to store owner Dana Haefner.
“Expensive fixed costs and numerous floods in the last five years contributed to the decision to move,” Haefner said.
Haefner predicted that sales would not increase dramatically in the new location at Southpoint Plaza, although she expects profits to increase because of the reduction in rent.
“By slashing the rent in half, profits should increase two-fold,” Haefner said.
The specialty store sells body oils, blended scents, candles, incense, and natural products for the bath, body and home. It also stocks more than 200 herbs, resins and woods for culinary, medicinal and magical use.
