WHITING — The Region knows how to throw a party, as anyone who's been to the crowded streets of downtown Whiting during Pierogi Fest can attest.
This year, the world will know.
At least 10 television stations are expected to come out to cover Pierogi Fest this weekend.
"It will be covered by CBS Worldwide, which reaches up to 1.8 billion viewers around the globe," organizer Tom Dabertin said. "This is one of the most covered festivals in the Midwest in terms of media coverage."
CBS 2, ABC 7 and Fox Chicago all plan to cover Pierogi Fest live this year, he said. WGN and NBC also plan to send reporters to film footage.
"We've got commitments from the Chicago news media, of course," Dabertin said. "We've become a fun, attractive event for such a wide audience. The media realizes we're a fun place to be with good family entertainment."
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The wild and wacky weekend-long celebration of the Polish dumpling and Northwest Indiana's ethnic roots has garnered widespread media coverage over the years, including from the Food Network, the Travel Channel, PBS's "Wild Travels," CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, TripAdvisor and Oprah Winfrey. It's also gotten international news coverage, including in Poland, Slovakia and Germany.
More than 70 food vendors will sell more than 1,200 food items, including every variety of pierogi one can think of.
This year, Pierogi Fest added a new main stage at 119th Street and White Oak Avenue. In addition to pierogi, halupki, Polish sausage and other Polish fare, it will have 50 live acts on six entertainment stages.
Performers will include the Ron Smolen Polka Band, the Eddie Wojcik Orchestra, Nomad Planets, the MuddSharks, Jessi & The Fizz and ABBA tribute band Dancing Queen.
Six String Soldiers, a band of active-duty U.S. Army soldiers, will play on the main stage at 8:30 p.m. Friday. Part of the U.S. Army Field Band, the group performs country, folk and bluegrass, including on television shows like "Conan," "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "Morning Express with Robin Meade" and "Harry with Harry Connick, Jr."
Allie Sealey, a headliner at the Tootsie's World Famous Orchid Lounge on Honkey Tonk Highway across from the Ryman in Nashville, will perform rock, country and original songs with her band at 8 p.m. on the main stage Saturday.
"They're known to get people on their feet," Dabertin said.
Pierogi Fest takes place in downtown Whiting from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information or a full schedule of performers, visit pierogifest.net.
NWI Business Ins and Outs: Southlake Mall restaurants, Morkes Chocolates, Pandora Jewelry and Junkluggers of Greater NW Indiana opening
Coming soon
Chicken Paradise and Cinco De Mayo will soon open in the food court of the Southlake Mall at U.S. 30 and Mississippi Street in Hobart.
The fast food restaurants are chains that operate in other mall food courts.
"It's a local operator," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "They have other locations in our other centers as well. The same operator will be opening two spots."
Cinco De Mayo specializes in Mexican food while Chicken Paradise has chicken sandwiches, fried chicken and wings.
They should open in the next two months, she said.
"We have a lot of new tenants, a lot of action coming to the center," Filetti said. "We're excited about our leasing activity."
Coming soon
Morkes Chocolates, a chocolate shop with more than a century of history in Chicagoland, will soon open in Cedar Lake.
Founded in Chicago in 1920, the vintage sweet shop has sold candy since 1920. It has locations in Palatine and Huntley, specializing in sophisticated, fine chocolates.
Kris VanderPloeg, who had worked at the Paltantine location, plans to open a Morkes in Cedar Lake in August on West 133rd Avenue in front of Strack & Van Til. It's been a longtime dream.
"It's historic," she said. "William Morkes, who worked at Nabisco, opened the first one in 1920 at 26th and Trumball in Chicago. It was a chocolate shop with sodas, ice cream and doughnuts. That was the original. His son Bill Morkes opened in Palantine in 1967. It was the same thing, very old school with wicker baskets with different hard candies, different chocolates, caramel apples and everything. We've served chocolates to generations."
Historic roots
The Cedar Lake sweet shop will be located in a historic 2,400-square-foot building that belonged to Dr. Robert King.
"He was the first medical practitioner in Cedar Lake. It was a medical doctor's office where he's making house calls and things like that," she said. "He's been called the father of Cedar Lake. We realized that when we bought the building. There was a plaque to Robert King and we knew his son. We were floored when we found out."
The space is decorated with black-and-white photos procured from the Museum at Lassen's Resort to play up the historical vibe.
She drove by the building and knew it was where she wanted to open the chocolate shop she always dreamed of.
"It was like a wedding dress," she said. "You just know it's the one."
Many different sweets
Morkes Chocolates offers many candies chocolates, caramels, caramel apples, toffees, fudge, Mint Creams, Original Silks, truffles, peanut butter cups, chocolate bars, double stuffed cookies, chocolate graham crackers, Peppermint Barque, Morchunkies, Coconut Haystacks and Sponge Candy. It will have a line of sugar-free chocolates for diabetics. Velvety French Cream is the signature item.
It also has Pecan Puppets, which are like turtles with caramel, pecans and chocolate but thicker. The store will have eight different candy dispensers with jelly beans, malted milk balls, Swedish fish and other sweets.
The Cedar Lake candy shop will carry Dairy Belle ice cream. It will seat 12 to 15 people and have a party room with another 20 seats and closed-circuit television cameras that will let parents and grandparents watch the kids from another room if they prefer.
Morkes will furnish candy, ice cream and pizza for the parties. The kids can play and make their own chocolates.
"We'll have a lot of kids' birthday parties," she said. "They'll get to do chocolate-making, dipping things in chocolate and taking home whatever they make. I want to make it easy for moms who have to do so much. I'm a mom myself. It's a one-stop shop for moms for birthdays and other parties."
A place where people are going to be motivated to try every single different piece of chocolate
She expects it will be a destination since people would drive as far as an hour away to visit the Palatine location. The Cedar Lake Morkes will not carry the doughnuts but will otherwise be very similar.
"I want to create a place where people are going to be motivated to try every single different piece of chocolate," she said. "I want to create a place where people are going to be very comfortable to go back to, a place where the owner is nice and independent."
Morkes Chocolates will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit morkeschocolates.com, find the business on Facebook or call 219-390-7161.
Open
Surf's Up recently opened in the Southlake Mall in Hobart.
The restaurant specializes in seafood, fish, shrimp and fried lobster. It also has salads, wings, tacos, desserts and fountain drinks.
"It just opened," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "There's a lot of action going on in our food court."
The menu includes crab legs, lobster, perch, catfish, tilapia and whiting. Most of the seafood can either be ordered fried or grilled.
Sandwich options include salmon burgers, shrimp po'boys and The Bomb Sandwich, which stuffs a lobster tail and shrimp in a toasted garlic brioche bun, topping them with lettuce, pickle, tomatoes and house-made surf sauce. Sides include potatoes, corn on the cob, collard greens, cheese grits, shrimp and grits and fried green tomatoes.
The restaurant is located on the second floor of the mall at 2109 Southlake Mall.
For more information, call 708-516-4924.
Coming soon
Pandora Jewelry will soon open a location in the center court at the Southlake Mall in Hobart.
The Danish jeweler sells customizable charm bracelets, designer rings, earrings and necklaces. It sells jewelry at more than 6,700 retailers in more than 100 counties on six continents.
"Bridal & Co. had Pandora and Albert's Diamond Jewelers did too when it was here," said Kristyn Filetti, Southlake Mall Marketing & Business Development Manager. "But this is actually their first location here and their first location in our portfolio. They specialized in the personalized bracelets you can add onto with charms."
The company was founded by Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen in 1982 and debuted its signature charm bracelets in 2000. It became the world's third-largest jewelry company in sales volume in 2011, trailing only Cartier and Tiffany & Co. The company employs more than 26,000 people worldwide, including at its manufacturing site in Thailand.
Though worldwide in scope, Pandora's business is concentrated mainly in Europe and the United States.
Pandora Jewelry plans to open in an 882-square-foot space on the first floor on the superregional Southlake Mall near the other jewelry stores that flank the center court in the new few months.
"It should be open by the end of summer, in August or September," she said.
Open
The Duneland Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Junkluggers of Greater NW Indiana, which opened last year at 157 W. 1050 N. in Chesterton.
The business specializes in eco-friendly junk removal. It's a nationwide franchise that a University of Connecticut student founded while drinking boxed wine and listening to a friend play guitar while studying abroad in Australia. A friend mentioned he made $100 for lugging away a neighbor's fridge and CEO Josh Cohen realized he could do that.
It offers residential and commercial junk removal, curbside pickup, e-waste recycling, senior downsizing, estate cleanouts, appliance removal, construction site cleanouts and furniture removal. It will clean out attics, basements, garages and storage units.
For more information, call 219-248-2094 or visit junkluggersofnwin.com.
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Joseph S. Pete
Business Reporter
Joseph S. Pete is a Lisagor Award-winning business reporter who covers steel, industry, unions, the ports, retail, banking and more. The Indiana University grad has been with The Times since 2013 and blogs about craft beer, culture and the military.
