The Business End

Madeline Woods Chicago: Entrepreneur Turns Hobby Into Purse Business

After high school, Frankfort's Madeline Woods took her love of sewing and transformed it into a home-based business, selling her original, handmade purses online and at local outlets.

Sewing is a tradition in Madeline Woods's family. Her grandmother sews. Her mom sews. And since she was 5, Woods has sewed, graduating from doing it by hand to using a machine, from stitching bean bags to crafting stuffed animals. But it wasn't until high school that the idea dawned on Woods that her sewing could be something more than a hobby. "I made a purse for sewing class, and one of the girls said, 'I'd totally buy that. You should sell that to me,' " said Woods, who has lived in Frankfort since she was 9. "When she said that, it kind of opened my eyes. Maybe I could sell them. Maybe other people would feel the same way." READ: Mom and Daughter Find Balance Working Together Etc. Stores When she turned 18, Woods began selling her …

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The Business End

Smokey Barque: Restaurant Owner Takes Unique Approach to Barbecue

Frankfort resident Tommy Ridings has taken his love of experimenting with flavors and turned it into the eatery of his dreams.

Tommy Ridings likes to do things his way, which sometimes means doing those things a little differently from everyone else. That's why he opened a barbecue restaurant--Smokey Barque--in downtown Frankfort, instead of your average pizza place or burger joint. It's why the restaurant uses a smoker to cook, a technique that gives the meat a unique taste and tenderness. And it's why he enjoys experimenting with different flavors, such as whipping up a white barbecue sauce he calls "The Alabama" that incorporates mayonaise, horseradish and other spices. "You can make a lasagna or a potato salad, but I always have to put my spin on it," said Ridings, who has lived in Frankfort for 17 years. "Not just to say that it's my own, but something that …

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The Business End

Glory Bee: Shop Owners Want to Bring Antiques Back to Frankfort

Carol Wilger and Cindy Vassell hope their new new undertaking revitalizes the village's antique-selling reputation as well as downtown business.

Over the years, Frankfort has earned a reputation as being a hotbed for antiques. And although that reputation has stuck with the village, the actual presence of antique shops has diminished.  But Carol Wilger and Cindy Vassell want to bring the antiques back to Frankfort, and they've started that mission with Glory Bee, which opened this month "People come to Frankfort and ask 'Where are the antiques?' " Wilger said. "The town is known for its antiques, and we felt that was an opportunity for our business and would bring people to Frankfort." READ: Moving Downtown Becomes Homecoming for Owners of Cottage Creations Vassell and Wilger aren't novices when it comes to starting up shops in downtown Frankfort. Wigler owns and runs the Frankfort…

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The Business End

Let It Rip Sports: Owner's Baseball Dream Reborn at New Location

The indoor baseball and softball facility was sidelined over the summer. But a chance encounter led to its doors being reopened at a bigger and better spot.

This summer, Andy Paszko and Kim Baker had to bench their business, Let It Rip Sports. The brother-and-sister owners hadn't lost any of their desire to run the indoor baseball and fast-pitch softball training facility, but when the terms of the lease at their old location changed and they couldn't find a suitable replacement location, the two called it quits. "That place was my life," said Paszko, who is also a coach for Lincoln-Way East High School's baseball team. "I was there through December (to) April, May, seven days a week. It became my life. ... To build up to that point and and all of the sudden have it fall from underneath me, that was it. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I wanted to do nothing." LIKE WHAT LET IT RIP SPORTS …

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The Business End

Cottage Creations: Moving Downtown Becomes Homecoming for Owners

After being in Mokena for about five years, Liz and Marty Connolly return their gift shop to Frankfort.

When Liz and Marty Connolly started to downsize their life earlier this year, the owners of Cottage Creations decided to turn it into a homecoming of sorts, returning the Mokena gift shop to its Frankfort roots. "We decided that (relocating to) Frankfort--since we started here--would be best," said Liz Connolly about the store's move this month. "We tried to find something here available and luckily the first day there was. So it was meant to be to come back to Frankfort." The Connollys opened Cottage Creations in 2000 in Frankfort where The Paper Spot is now. They stayed at that location for about five years until they moved both their shop and house to a spot on LaPorte Road in Mokena. The business thrived, but after time, it was …

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The Business End

The Wild Rover: Brothers Open Sports Bar With a Fresh Attitude, Menu

Jack and Jim Dillon, of Oak Forest, wanted a tavern people could go to catch a game and have a drink. Now they have it in Frankfort. And that's just the beginning.

When it came to opening their new sports bar together in Frankfort, Oak Forest brothers Jack and Jim Dillon have been pretty much in agreement on everything over the past two years it's taken to get their establishment off the ground. Whether it's been settling on the Vinyeards shopping center location or the freshly made items on the unique menu, the Dillons have been working off the same page. But the one thing they couldn't agree on? The bar's name. That is, until someone suggested The Wild Rover. "It's one of our dad's favorite Irish songs, and it was the only one we could ever agree on," said Jack Dillon. "It was brought up at a Sox game that we should name it The Wild Rover, and it was the only name me and (my brother) really liked. …

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The Business End

Classical Martial Arts Academy: Owner Stresses Fitness, Not Competition, in His Classes

Although the dojo has been in three different locations in Frankfort since opening in 2009, sensei Tom Revell hasn't changed his spiritual approach to teaching martial arts.

Two things led Tom Revell to open Classical Martial Arts Academy: a terrible commute and the desire for a career change. In 2004, Revell, who has lived in Frankfort for more than a decade, was running a car dealership in Hammond, Ind., and still driving--sometimes as much as two hours a day if traffic was bad--to New Lenox to do his martial arts training. That became too much for Revell, and with the blessing of his sensei, he decided to open up his own dojo in Indiana in 2004. While Classical Martial Arts has changed locations over the years (it has had three different locations in Frankfort, moving to the current spot earlier this year because it outgrew its old space on Lincoln Highway), the academy's teaching philosophy has remained …

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Lil Miracles: Teaching Sign Language Becomes Mom's Personal Calling

Monica Blouin learned to sign to better communicate with her daughter who suffers from Down Syndrome. Now she's started her own business to teach parents and children how to do it.

Raising a child with Down syndrome has its challenges, and for Monica Blouin, the mother of a 4-year-old with the disorder, one of those challenges was communication. Blouin's solution? American Sign Language. Blouin and her daughter, Madeleine, have been using it to help communicate since Madeleine was very young, and while it helped mother and daughter interact, it also created a new opportunity for Blouin, who began a business — Lil Miracles Sign Language Academy — teaching sign language to parents and children. As a legal data analyst in Chicago, Blouin had a job that paid well and offered her professional satisfaction. But it also meant 15-hour work days that took her away from her two children.  READ: Mom, Daughter Find Balance …

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The Business End

Etc. Stores: Mom, Daughter Find Balance Working Together

Open for less than a year, Kirsten Larsen and her mom, Tania Sylvester, are already looking to expand their shop, which deals in consignment purses and dresses, as well as crafts from local artisans.

Listen to Kirsten Larsen and her mom, Tania Sylvester, talk about their consignment and crafts shop, Etc. Stores, and there's one word that will pop up: balance. It's practically the mantra for this mother-daughter team, especially when they describe their business relationship. "We balance each other out," Sylvester said. "She's more of the business person, and I'm more of the (person who does) decorating, moving things around, finding people. And she's more of the marketer." "And if I freak out about something, she's like, just calm down, it's going to work out, it's going to be all right. Don't worry," Larsen added. READ: Etc. Stores' Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Event The two opened Etc. almost a year ago--the day after …

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Gary L Price

10:21 am on Monday, October 24, 2011

Thank you for the opportunity to show my art. This article helped me get to know you better. Gary Price   more ›

The Business End

All Small Miniatures: Owner's Love of Dollhouses Comes Through for Her Customers

As a girl growing up in Germany, Hildegard Popoff fell in love with small, delicate things. She's taken that passion and turned it into a business that she's run since the mid-1980s.

Walking in to the All Small Miniatures shop in downtown Frankfort is a bit like walking in to a fairy tale of sorts, what with its intricately designed dollhouse furniture and accoutrements. In fact, the passion for the miniature world of dollhouses that owner Hildegard Popoff possesses has its own fairy tale feel as well. Popoff grew up in Germany's Black Forest just before World War II, living with her widowed mother and brother. They had no TV or radio, so to pass the time together, Popoff's mother taught them to sew and do other crafts. "I have always loved little things. I've loved dolls, old things, little things, and it stayed with me all my life. ... I just like delicate, small things.," she said, adding that eventually as a child…

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