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July 21, 2005
Gloria Jeans out; Ethel's in
Over the years, one of our favorite places to visit while at Old Orchard was Gloria Jeans, located on Pear Lane. Now, I don't drink coffee, but my wife does, and compared to the other coffee offerings at the mall (mainly Starbucks), Gloria Jeans was the better option. I did get my fair share of steamed milk items, however.
Unfortunately, like many other retailers, Gloria Jeans pulled out of Old Orchard after their 10 year lease was up, resulting in the store closing a few months ago. We were saddened by this. Soon construction walls went up around the space with no mention of what was on the drawing board.
However, it appears a replacement is now in sight. We're getting an Ethel's Chocolate Lounge at Old Orchard! What's this all about? I'll let the Wall Street Journal explain this new concept owned by Mars, Inc.:A place for cocoa nuts: Mars opens chocolate cafe
By the end of the summer, Mars expects to have 6 locations open in the Chicago area, including the one at Old Orchard (slated for an August opening).
Friday, July 15, 2005
By Amy Chozick, The Wall Street Journal
At Ethel's Chocolate Lounge... couples and families relax on plush pastel-colored furniture, eating champagne chocolates and sipping mocha drinks. Behind a glass pane, espresso, pina colada and honey-flavored truffles sell for about $42 a pound. A sign reads "Chocolate is the New Black."
More precisely, Mars Inc., the closely held candy giant behind Ethel's (named after the late matriarch of Mars), is betting that chocolate is the new coffee. Decorated with pink-and-brown striped wallpaper and whimsical lighting, the new chain is Mars's attempt to make lingering over a plate of premium chocolates in a cafe space as mainstream as drinking a morning latte at Starbucks. For a company best known for making mass-market products like Twix and Snickers bars, this means transforming a lowly commodity into a high-price luxury.
...The $14.5 billion U.S. chocolate industry could use a shot of espresso. Dominated by decades-old products like Hershey bars and M&M's, the industry has posted annual sales increases of less than 3 percent from 2002 to 2004, reports the National Confectioners Association, an industry trade group. Meanwhile, sales at upscale coffee and cocoa stores (a category that includes Godiva as well as sit-down spots like Starbucks) rose 20.6 percent in the same period.
...The chocolate lounge dates back to 17th-century London, about a century after cocoa was brought to Europe from Latin America. Designed or the elite, European chocolate houses offered comfortable seating where the upper crust could socialize while drinking hot chocolate. Today, chocolate is still consumed in Europe more regularly than it is in the U.S., where consumers and manufactures have a more populist approach to it.
Old Orchard already has an upscale chocolate store (Godiva), but it's not really built for lounging. It should be interesting to see how this battle for overpriced chocolate plays out. If they have a good hot chocolate, I may check them out come this fall!
Posted by Tannerman at July 21, 2005 12:04 PM | Categories: Closed | Coming Soon | News | Old Orchard | Pear Lane