Most of the tables are full at Sen Sushi on a recent Thursday night.
Bess Lenz pours a beer at Kinderhook Tap Thursday night.
Kinderhook Tap
Sen Sushi
Sen Sushi
A tucked-away business district on South Oak Park Avenue near the expressway is hoping to grab the public’s eye by hosting its first public event in years this Saturday.
The Southtown business district has added a cadre of new businesses in recent years, everything from a neighborhood tap to a sushi bar. But the area’s business association remained relatively dormant, until a few merchants decided to reorganize and bring more attention to the area.
As part of that effort, the district is hosting the Southtown Family Fun Festival on Oct. 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. along Oak Park Avenue between Lexington and Van Buren streets. They weren’t able to close off the street for the event this year, but the travel-themed event will include activities such as face painting, sidewalk chalk and bank vault tours.
Organizers hope the festival shows other businesses along South Oak Park Avenue that Southtown is serious about getting organized and making some noise.
“It is taking a little bit longer than anticipated to rattle these people’s chains,” said Lydia Villanueva-Soto, head of the business association and owner of Tan Travel, 964 S. Oak Park Ave. “But hopefully that will change if this event is successful and they see people coming into this area.”
Tan Travel will be handing out Southtown passports to the first 250 children who show up on Saturday morning. Those include deals from about 20 businesses in the surrounding area, such as a free Halloween treat from Oak Park Bakery or free carnations at Westgate Flowers. Businesses will offer deals for adults, too, according to Villanueva-Soto.
Organizing the event has been a low-budget, grassroots affair, as they relied on small donations from shop owners. Villanueva-Soto said she donated $600 out of pocket to help bring the festival together.
“We acknowledge that there has to be some sort of initial investment for people to sign on,” said Maria Onesto Moran, who owns Green Home Experts, 823 S. Oak Park. Ave. “We were absolutely hoping that this is a springboard for Southtown to get organized and get moving.”
Organizers hope the event might lead to others down the line, possibly with a closed-off Oak Park Avenue. Villanueva-Soto said she hoped village officials would be in attendance on Saturday, and some ideas they’ve floated include a “traveling farmers market” or something similar to Downtown Oak Park’s Thursday Night Out.
Two Southtown additions
The Southtown business district has seen several new businesses open on Oak Park Avenue between Lexington and Van Buren, joining mainstays such as the Avenue Ale House and Pan’s Food Center.
Newbies include a sushi house, Brazilian eatery, neighborhood tap, coffee shop and a women’s clothing boutique.
Here are a couple of the additions.
Sen Sushi
Oak Parker Chaidanai Chaiprasert first opened Sen Sushi Bar about two years ago at 814 S. Oak Park Ave., which formerly housed S3 Kitchen.
He’s no stranger to the Oak Park dining scene, as he partnered with his mother 10 years ago to open Mama Thai on Madison Street.
Chaiprasert, 35, had always talked about opening a sushi restaurant with his friend and chef Tony Silp — who was previously a chef at Tsunami Japanese Restaurant in Chicago. The owner drives past the Southtown business district frequently and believed another restaurant would thrive there.
The menu features an array of fish, some imported from Japan, and they will only keep them for two or three days to stay fresh. Sen is Japanese for thousand, to signify the variety of their menu.
Sen Sushi has built a following as it averages four and a half stars on Yelp, based on 128 reviews.
At Saturday’s event, the restaurant plans to offer “Japanese craftmaking,” including origami and paper lanterns.
Kinderhook Tap
It’s was about a year ago that Oak Parker Kristin Graham and Chicagoan Marci Hughes opened Kinderhook Tap, nestled at the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Van Buren Street.
Last year, Graham described the restaurant as “comfort food done right,” in an atmosphere where someone can show up wearing a business suit or a softball uniform. The menu offers items such as burgers, a buffalo chicken sandwich on a pretzel bun with sliced apples and feta cheese, and a buttermilk-marinated fried pork tenderloin sandwich with herb mayo.
Hughes said Monday that they chose Southtown because of its potential, and the desire to build a neighborhood tap from scratch.
“We definitely saw an opportunity to help build that neighborhood up,” Hughes said. “Everybody in the neighborhood feels like there’s a huge growth opportunity.”
Business has been up to the owners’ expectations in the first year. Customers have built a thirst for local brews, Hughes said, and now they’re hoping to strengthen their offerings of locally distilled spirits and wines.
At the event Saturday, Kinderhook plans to offer half-off on its kids menu and 10 percent off the total bill, excluding liquor.
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