Business News
Following in the footsteps of many food and manufacturing businesses on the near West Side of Chicago, Cougle Foods (also known as Cougle Commission Company) is getting out of the Fulton Market neighborhood now booming with high-tech businesses and high-end residential development. The company, which has been one of the last holdouts in the former meat market district, now looks to build a new facility at 2841 S. Ashland Ave. on a vacant industrial site along Bubbly Creek, touching the northeast border of the McKinley Park neighborhood.
Cougle Foods owner Lee Freidheim said he is sad to leave the Fulton Market after over three decades at Cougle's custom-built facility. "I love it here. I like to be in a central area," he said. However, the potential for growth and modernization at the new site leverages the financial windfall of the sale of their valuable Fulton Market property, he said. "We're investing it all and then some."
Read more: Cougle Foods Plots Move to Ashland Avenue as One of Final Exits from Fulton Market
Another new restaurant is bound for 35th Street in the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago with the pending arrival of Chile Toreado, a full-service Mexican restaurant at 2022 W. 35th St. in the space formerly occupied by the Jazzy Bean cafe. Brothers Jaime and Alfonso Sotelo — both fine-dining restaurant vets and longtime McKinley Park neighborhood residents — are rolling out Chile Toreado to accompany Alfonso Sotelo's successful and highly regarded 5 Rabanitos restaurant in the nearby Pilsen neighborhood.
"Always be careful with the chile toreados" is the warning the brothers' grandmother gave them when teaching how to cook what is now the restaurant's signature dish, Jaime Sotelo said. Her recipes and the experience of cooking while growing up impoverished on a farm in Mexico helped expose the brothers to fresh, authentic Mexican food, most of which was gathered and hunted directly from their farm, he said.
Read more: Chile Toreado To Add Spice To Growing Restaurant Scene on 35th Street
Marz Community Brewing Co. at 3630 S. Iron St. in the McKinley Park Community Area of Chicago received the nod from Chicago magazine as one of the city's Best New Bars in an article published November 12. The top 20 list from writers Amy Cavanaugh, Karl Klockars and Tal Rosenberg highlights the best new watering holes across Chicago, with the Marz tap room being the only South Side pick on the list.
The article spotlighted the highly creative and varied brews from Marz, calling the tap room "one big beautiful freak-out dropped into an industrial corner of the South Side."
Read more: Marz Tap Room Lauded as One of Chicago's Best New Bars
MAT Asphalt opened its doors to the public on Saturday, September 21, for tours of the facility and questions and answers about plant operations with business executives, including plant co-owner Michael Tadin Jr. and General Manager Joe Haughey. The event attracted local residents and members of McKinley Park-based Neighbors for Environmental Justice, which has been one of the most vocal opponents of the asphalt plant.
Tadin said the tour is part of MAT Asphalt's outreach to "set the record straight" on how they operate. “Based on the questions that I fielded and other remarks on Saturday, it was clear that some people are still operating under inaccuracies and other misinformation,” he said.
Read more: Neighbors, Environmental Group Tour Asphalt Plant
Local students got their hands dirty this summer learning valuable and fundamental job skills through ComEd's Tools of the Trade program, a seven-week course taking place at the ComEd Training Center at 3536 S. Iron St.
McKinley Park neighborhood resident Phillip Chavez graduated alongside his peers in the program that puts tools and training in the hands of young people looking at careers in the trades.
"I'm interested in this," Chavez said. "I want to work on the smart grid."
Read more: ComEd Tools of the Trade Builds Hands-On Career Skills in Young Learners
