News

Jul 09, 2023

NWI Business Ins and Outs: Jet's Pizza and vegan restaurant open; Chase Bank closes; Crown Point Toys and Collectibles moves

Joseph S. Pete The Region is of course swimming in Chicago-style deep dish, but the trendy Detroit-style deep dish is less common outside of the approximately 40 billion Little Caesars in Northwest

Joseph S. Pete

The Region is of course swimming in Chicago-style deep dish, but the trendy Detroit-style deep dish is less common outside of the approximately 40 billion Little Caesars in Northwest Indiana.

A Detroit chain is going to bring the square-cut Detroit-style deep dish that was allegedly first baked in a tin from an automotive factory and that's a staple at places like Buddy's Pizza, Belle Isle Pizza and Detroit Style Pizza Company.

Jet's Pizza, which sells its trademarked eight-corner pizza as well as traditional round pizzas, is coming to the Tri-Town. The suburban Detroit-based chain is moving to 332 Indianapolis Boulevard in the Shoppes on the Boulevard.

It's taking over the former Tzatziki Greek Street Food location. It was the only vacant space in a strip center that's also home to McAlister's Deli and Sport Clips.

Jet's Pizza's only other Northwest Indiana location is at 1613 E. 37th Ave. in Hobart, which opened earlier this year.

The pizza chain plans to start construction immediately and open within a few months.

“I’m excited to see Jet’s Pizza coming into Schererville," said Brett McDermott of Latitude Commercial, a leading commercial real estate firm that represented the landlord in the transaction. “The unit was already built-out as a restaurant, so the franchisee is able to utilize some of the infrastructure in place. They will be a great tenant for the center and the community will really enjoy their Detroit-style pizza."

Founded in 1978 in Sterling Heights, Michigan, it has since expanded to more than 400 locations in 21 states, bringing in $500 million in revenue last year. In addition to its signature Detroit-style deep dish, it also has hand-tossed, thin crust and New York City-style pizzas, as well as cauliflower and gluten-free crusts. Flavors include BLT, BBQ chicken, Aloha BBQ chicken, bacon chicken ranch and Hawaiian.

Crown Point Toys and Collectibles has been planning to move from downtown Crown Point to a bigger space with more parking.

The retro toy store closed on a deal acquiring 1191 E. Summit St. in Crown Point. It is growing from a 1,800-square-foot space across from the Crown Point Community Library just north of the Old Lake County Courthouse Square to a 4,000-square-foot space north of downtown, which will allow it to expand its operations and inventory.

Crown Point Toys & Collectibles opened at 103 N. Main St. in downtown Crown Point in 2020.

The toy reseller has seen growing demand for its nostalgic products, including many toy lines from the 1980s and 1990s. It caters as much to adults as to kids with vintage brands like Marvel, Star Wars, He-Man, G.I. Joe and Funko Pop!

It will move about a half mile north. Owner Tom Waddell said the store will have more space and a larger back area so it will be able to better organize its inventory and increase its selection of products like Funko Pop!, comic books and video games.

Crown Point-based Latitude Commercial represented the buyer while Joel Henderson of McColly Bennett represented the seller.

“The buyer had been searching for a larger location in Crown Point for quite some time. Upon spotting a ‘For Lease’ sign during a drive, I immediately contacted Joel to explore the possibility of a purchase," McDermott said. "Two weeks later, we were under contract, paving the way for CP Toys to find their perfect new home.”

The vegan restaurant Cuané is now cooking plant-based cuisine in Michigan City.

Billing itself as Michigan City's first vegan restaurant, Cuané at 1601 E. Michigan Blvd. specializes in American-style vegan comfort food such as burgers, shakes and desserts. It aims "to combat the inaccessibility of delicious vegan food options."

Restaurant owner DaWanna McCray grew up in Michigan City and went vegan in 2017. She would go out with her friends to friends and find little on the menu for her other than salads.

"Times have gotten better over the years," he said. "But after there was nothing for me to eat I thought why keep complaining and that I should build something to fill that void. This is coming out of that void. It's a void for me personally and there are no other vegan restaurants in Michigan City. Lots of people travel to Chicago."

She named the restaurant after her mother who she lost to cancer and her brother who she lost to gun violence.

The menu includes many vegan versions of cuisine carnivores love. It for instance has a cheeseburger and double cheeseburger with Beyond Burger plant-based patties designed to taste and bleed like ground beef, as well as vegan cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, mustard and vegan mayo.

The restaurant also serves vegan versions of the chicken sandwich, the Chicago hot dog, the New York hot dog and the American hot dog, as well as a Beyond sausage with caramelized onions and Cuané sauce. Sides include French fries and salads.

One can have vegan cookies or cupcakes for dessert and wash down the food with lemonade, coffee or vegan milkshakes.

"I wanted a fully vegan restaurant where people felt they were going to a barbecue," she said. "I wanted people to be able to go out and get what they would typically eat, like hot dogs at a ballgame."

It seats about 20 diners. She hopes to expand the menu and eventually add new locations.

"I'd like to expand to different cities that don't have a vegan restaurant in the area," she said.

The Michigan City Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the restaurant from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Aug. 11. The restaurant will offer 10% off that day.

Focusing on lunch and breakfast, the restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For more information, call 219-210-3282 or visit cuane.com.

Boba Tea and Coffee opened at 8317 Calumet Ave. in Munster, serving up the trendy bubble tea that's long been popular in Asia and has caught on in the United States.

It offers bubble tea in a variety of flavors including green tea, oolong tea, black tea, matcha tea and fresh fruit tea. The menu also includes rolled ice cream, coffee, frappes, yogurt, fresh milk and milk tea.

Ice cream flavors include Nutella, Banana, Oreo, Fruit Lover and Summer Tango. Teas include Strawberry Oolong Tea, Crush Peach Black Tea, Peach Orange Lemongrass Black Tea, Tropical Fruit Green Tea, Tropical Fruit Oolong Tea, Honeydew Green Apple Oolong Tea, Grapefruit Jasmine Green Tea, Navel Orange Jasmine Green Tea, Kiwi Jasmine Green Tea, Happy Tea, Lychee Black Tea and Pomegranate Black Tea.

Owner Bach “Andy” Pham bought the 10,000-square-foot building and opened The Boba Tea Cafe, B Nail Lounge and Viet-Ship. The latter allows people to go into the Boba Tea Cafe and ship money or packages to Vietnam.

For more information, call 219-999-7997.

Chase Bank is closing its branch in Lake Station.

The New York City-based bank will close its office at 3115 Central Ave. in Lake Station on Aug. 15.

Chase Bank has long had a large presence in the Region after acquiring Bank One, which had previously acquired Gainer Bank, which was long known as Gary National Bank before it moved its headquarters to Merrillville. It was once the largest bank by market share in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties but was surpassed by Centier Bank after closing several branches.

It's been shrinking its footprint nationwide along with many other banks in response to the migration to online and digital banking.

Orthopedic and Balance Therapy Specialists  just celebrated a grand opening for its new location at 1431 S. Lakepark Ave. in Hobart.

The chain, which has been named to The Times Best in the Region list for four years running, also has locations in Highland, LaPorte, Valparaiso and Crown Point. It aims to grow to 50 locations by 2026.

It specializes in treating pain, injury and discomfort, helping with healing and pain relief.

 For more information, visit orthopedicandbalancetherapy.com or call 219-945-3269.

Harvey Furniture Plus at 16330 Halsted St. in south suburban Harvey signed up as a U-Haul dealer.

It will now offer customers U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, support rental items and in-store pickup for boxes. One of the largest moving services in the country, U-Haul has a network of 21,000 dealers.

If you would like your business to be included in a future column, email [email protected].

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