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By Amanda Kushner
J. Hilburn brings custom shirts to the Twin Cities Pick your fabric, buttons, cuffs and collars.
Customizing your own shirt with the help of your personal shopper is what makes J. Hilburn different from other men’s clothing companies, and Sarah Ramsay, owner of Bella Sofie, is introducing the company to the Twin Cities.
She became a national ambassador for the company in July and in four months Bella Sofie became a senior partner.
J. Hilburn takes men’s fashion and offers a custom product at half the price, she said. The owner spent seven years building the business model, and the number of products sold will grow within the year, Ramsay said.
J. Hilburn, similar to Amazon, compresses the supply chain, therefore eliminating expenses to create J. Hilburn’s model. Custom dress shirts cost $79, $99 and $149, she said.
“We are combining this luxury brand scope of Calvin Klein with an Amazon.com with the kind of corporate culture and customer service of Starbucks,” she said.
Before working with
J. Hilburn, Ramsay hosted trunk shows for a women’s designer, and while in Dallas the owner of
J. Hilburn met with her to discuss the company.
“I realized that women’s luxury retail was not going to be coming up anytime soon, and it just seemed like a natural progression to go to men’s,” she said.
If you are interested in J. Hilburn’s products contact Ramsay at 651-216-6798 or sarah@bellasofie.com or visit bellasofie.com.
One of the partners of Nick and Eddie, 1612 Harmon Place, is leaving and the restaurant now has a new menu.
Also Nick and Eddie recently paid off their sales tax liability. Before the liability was paid the restaurant couldn’t order from wholesalers and was only serving wine, said waiter Doug Anderson.
“Instead of closing we decided we would make some money to pay everything off,” he said.
It was paid off the week of Oct. 12, said bartender Ryan Chermack.
Partner and chef Steve Vranian left Nick and Eddie, and Derik Moran started as the new chef about two months ago, Anderson said.
“The menu for the prices on entrees is quite a lot less, and the emphasis is just making a really good neighborhood restaurant and bar,” he said.
The staff is sticking around, and for the past couple of months staff has volunteered some of their time to help Nick and Eddie, Anderson said.
“Everyone that works with us is staying on board, and just waiting for us to finish this up, so everybody did volunteer a bit to help things along,” he said.
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Noted:
Local D’Lish, 208 N. 1st St., is teaming up with Nutritional Weight & Wellness to offer a class in the store. Local D’Lish owner Ann Yin said other weight-loss groups contacted her, but it wasn’t until Nutritional Weight & Wellness that she found a group that matched her philosophies.
The six-week series begins at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 4. The class will teach participants a balanced plan for eating real foods, what a healthful diet looks like and will teach people how to balance their blood sugar for better moods, said project manager Nancy Palm. Nutritional Weight & Wellness offers classes in 27 communities, but this will be the first class Downtown, she said. On Oct. 27 Nutritional Weight & Wellness will hold Balanced Foods For Balanced Moods, a two-hour class at Local D’Lish.
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On Sept. 15, India House, 1400 Nicollet Ave, closed, according to Nyima Choegak, who now owns the space. In the middle of November, Choegak will open Great Sun Buffet & Bar at that location. Great Sun will have an Indian and Chinese buffet, he said.
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Couple Pete and Kimberly Bedell Rhodes are celebrating 25 years in communications. On Oct 8, 1984, they launched the first African American owned cable-programming service — CBLS Cable music station. In 1999 they launched BlackMusicAmerica.com, and they’ve developed Minority Business Television. Studios are located Downtown in WCCO-TV.
Reach Amanda Kushner at akushner@mnpubs.com
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Carmichael Lynch drops Harley account
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 2:29pm
By Gregory J. Scott
When it comes to selling muscle bikes, three decades is enough. Downtown advertising agency Carmichael Lynch announced August 23 that it was resigning from its Harley-Davidson account, ending a relationship of 31 years with the iconic motorcycle brand. In a prepared statement, Doug Spong, president of Carmichael Lynch, said, "Our agency leadership came to the consensus that we've taken the Harley-Davidson brand as far as we can. It's in our best interest to part ways." Mark-Hans Richer, Harley’s CMO, said, "Our strategies have been moving away from a singular consumer target and a one-size-fits-all agency solution. Rather than accept this new reality, Carmichael Lynch chose a different path and we respect that." The
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Community notebook :: Florence Court apartments
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
At Florence Court, new apartments up, courtyard staysThe mid-August groundbreaking came and went quietly for the FloCo Fusion Apartments, a chic rebranding of a ramshackle cluster of student housing near the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus. Despite years of resistance from current residents, the new building is officially going up, fanfare or no. Florence Court, as the community used to be called, is one of the oldest apartment buildings in the Midwest, dating back to 1886. The L-shaped structure sits at the intersection of 10th Avenue SE and University Avenue, but is tucked back from the street, hidden until recently behind a BP gas station. The 33-unit complex surrounds a leafy courtyard, which its residents — a colorful
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Watching out for the homeless
By Sarah McKenzie
// Volunteer outreach worker Jerry Fleischaker honored with prestigious McKnight award //After Jerry Fleischaker’s wife died of Alzheimer’s disease, he came across a newspaper article about St. Stephen’s Human Services’ work reaching out to homeless people with mental health issues. The story inspired him to start volunteering for St. Stephen’s. Now the 79-year-old retired pharmaceutical sales representative volunteers full time for the Downtown-based organization. “My wife died of Alzheimer’s in 2002. I saw the care she needed,” Fleischaker told Monica Nilsson, director of street outreach and community education for St. Stephen’s. “I was haunted by the thought that people might be
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Downtown visioning session looks to 2025
By jake weyer
// Whether to add a park north of Central Library will be part of the discussion, meant to produce a 15-year plan for Downtown //It’s been nearly 15 years since Downtown business leaders got together with city staff and elected officials to hash out a long-term plan for the area. Back in 1996, those stakeholders came up with Downtown 2010, a vision that included such grandiose plans as a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins, a light rail line along Hiawatha Avenue, a new Central Library, completion of the Target Center and the development of the Downtown Improvement District — all realities today. “We’re standing now, planless,” said Sam Grabarski, president of the Downtown Council. “And a lot of good
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A mountain out of a bronze molehill?
By Gregory J. Scott
// The Sid Hartman statue stirs debate about public memorials Downtown //
OK, no one disputes that the guy deserves a statue. Sid Hartman, the nonagenarian sportswriter who has spent the last 65 years reporting for the Star Tribune and WCCO, is probably getting bronzed. The Department of Public Works is ironing out technical details for installing a metallic Sid replica, complete with TV reporter microphone and newspaper tucked under the arm, right outside of Target Center and a block from the Twins stadium, at the corner of 6th Street and 1st Avenue. The Public Works assessment is the final stage in a roughly six-week approval process to get the statue out into the public. No one’s upset about that. As Nick Legeros, the artist who designed
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Biz buzz :: Construction costing Elliot Park businesses
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
For Elliot Park businesses, street improvements come with a price
True to its motto, Band Box Diner can turn “grease into a feast.” But the Elliot Park gem can’t make much out of the road construction that’s transformed its streetscape into a scarred industrial zone.
The throw-back diner is one of the businesses standing to benefit from a sweeping, 15-block reconstruction of Chicago Avenue South — if only it can survive through to the project’s completion.
“It’s kind of like, if you have a half hour for lunch, and then you get lost for 45 minutes, what are you gonna do?” says Brad Ptacek, who has operated the diner for the last 13 years.
Ptacek’s breakfast
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