It's Your Business: Flower shop/art gallery open in Urbana
A friend told Sarah Compratt she'd flourish in a flower shop of her own in downtown Urbana.
And voila! She had the name of her new shop at 110 S. Race St.: Fleurish.
Compratt is now operating a full-service florist business/art gallery in the space that used to house Record Swap.
She has two large art walls in the shop and will host monthly exhibits of local artists one evening a month. The first will be later this month or in early March, she said.
Opening a shop in Urbana is a homecoming for Compratt, who grew up in Champaign but has lived the last 18 years in Los Angeles, where she was the designer/manager of another floral business.
"I always wanted to have my own place," she said.
Shop hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Delivery is available in the Champaign-Urbana area.
For more information, call 607-0015.
Dine Vietnamese-style
You can try pho noodle soups, boba teas and a lot more at Xinh Xinh Cafe, a new Vietnamese restaurant at 114 N. Vine St., U, in the Schnucks Plaza.
The menu includes appetizers such as charbroiled beef skewers and deep-fried chicken wings with a spicy sweet sauce, spring rolls, 14 kinds of traditional Vietnamese sandwiches, six kinds of soups and an extensive beverage menu offering smoothies, boba drinks that have sweet, chewy tapioca pearls at the bottom, teas, juices and sodas.
Owner Shai Mauth says his parents have always operated their own businesses, and he is following in their footsteps with a restaurant of his own.
He has lived from coast to coast, but came to Urbana to open his restaurant at the urging of his mother, who makes sushi for the Schnucks grocery at the same plaza.
Xinh Xinh Cafe is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is closed Sundays.
New hours
Skins'n'Tins Drum Shop in downtown Champaign is now closed on Mondays.
The store hours stay the same for the rest of the week: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, says owner Liz Hawkins.
Grand opening
The Fitness Center will hold an open house at its new facility in Tuscola from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
There will be tours, refreshments, trial group-fitness classes, body-fat analysis and giveaways, said Lori Curtis, who handles marketing for The Fitness Center.
The Tuscola location – located in a 55-year-old building at 109 W. Pembroke St. that the owners bought from the city and renovated – joins the main Fitness Center facility at 2508 Galen Drive, C, and a satellite center in Monticello.
Moved
Armored Gopher Games, formerly at 75 E. Chester St., C, has moved to Urbana's Northgate Plaza at 1502 N. Cunningham Ave, Suite E.
The shop needed growth room and has doubled its former space with the new location. It also now has more visibility, free parking, more playing space and is wheelchair-accessible, according to owners Dave and Heather Hoover.
Armored Gopher Games specializes in hobby games including European-style and family board games, role-playing games, miniatures, paint and gaming accessories. Open gaming space is available free, and tournaments and other events are also held.
For information, see the Web site at http://armoredgopher.com.
Debra Pressey can be reached by phone at 351-5229 or 800-252-3346; by e-mail at dpressey@news-gazette.com; or by regular mail at The News-Gazette, c/o It's Your Business column, P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677.
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