Look for Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Caribou Coffee and MattressFirm to occupy a three-unit building that’s about to be built next to the planned Chick-fil-A restaurant at the former Fauver Hill School site on the east side of Hwy. 16, south of Interstate 90, in Onalaska.
Construction of the multi-tenant building, and the Chick-fil-A, are expected to begin this spring. A Chick-fil-A spokesperson said in February that its Onalaska restaurant will open this fall, but declined to be more specific as to when.
Venture Pass Partners LLC, the suburban Minneapolis-based developer for the Onalaska development, has updated its webpage for the project to show Five Guys, Caribou Coffee and MattressFirm as tenants for the three-unit building.
Onalaska-based DBS Group recently said it’s been selected by Venture Pass Partners to build the three-unit building. It said construction is scheduled to begin in late April for substantial completion in late September.
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The MOB Stop restaurant in Holmen closed effective Thursday, but may reopen under new ownership.
“It’s not going away,” Ed O’Brien told me after the restaurant announced its closing on its Facebook page last week. The restaurant bills itself as the region’s oldest Chicago-type stand, offering the best in hot dogs, Polish sausage, Italian sausage and beef.
The Ed and Karin O’Brien family own the Old Town Center retail/restaurant/office development at 208 S. Holmen Drive in Holmen, and various O’Brien family members operate some of the businesses in it, including The MOB Stop.
“Family obligations were getting tough,” O’Brien said of the restaurant’s closure. “And it’s been tough” finding enough employees.
Since the restaurant announced its closing, O’Brien said Thursday, “We’ve had multiple people contact us about (taking over the business) and opening it back up again.”
The MOB Stop opened in April 2019 in Old Town Center as a year-round restaurant, after operating six years from a mobile food trailer. For more information, visit https://themobstopholmen.com or Facebook.
A year after it opened in Eagle Bluff Plaza on the North Side of La Crosse, Kristi Nystrom will have a soft opening of her 6-11 Crystals, LLC store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in its new, larger location at 115 Fifth Ave. S. It’s in the Scenic Center building in downtown La Crosse.
“We are definitely still a rock and healing crystals shop as well as a metaphysical shop,” Nystrom said, with merchandise that includes such things as cards, books, candles, oils, herbs, stickers, journals, tapestries, salt lamps and jewelry. “We have also more than doubled our local artists and art, and a significant part of the shop is dedicated to them.”
Nystrom said her shop also has a small stage for such things as live music, open mic, poetry readings and lectures. “We have a dedicated classroom space for not only crystal classes, but metaphysical classes of all kinds,” she said. It also can be rented by the public for group meetings and other events. The shop also will offer energy healing services, Nystrom said.
Her business outgrew its previous space in Eagle Bluff Plaza, along Hwy. 16 in La Crosse, where it had opened in February 2021. Nystrom started her crystal and rock shop before that In the Gallery 6 Salon in Onalaska.
“Downtown fits our vibe and our current customers are really excited,” she said of the shop’s new downtown location. “Plus, Fifth Avenue is rapidly getting filled up with interesting businesses, and we can’t wait to be a part of that.”
Regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. “We will have a grand opening April 1, 2 and 3 with special guests, sales and other fun surprises,” Nystrom said.
And speaking of crystals, Naomi Griffith opened Crystal Eclipse on March 17 at 138 N. Water St. in downtown Sparta, Wis.
She describes Crystal Eclipse as a wellness shop. Griffith is a licensed massage therapist — she has been a professional massage therapist for more than 25 years — and offers massages by appointment in her new location from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Online is one of the options for booking massages.
The new retail shop part of her business sells such things as crystals, many varieties of sage, topical analgesics, acupressure mats and massage tools, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Griffith’s shop also sells jewelry, books, tapestries, dreamcatchers and suncatchers. Some of the merchandise is made by area artists “and I’m always looking for more local artists” whose works she may carry, Griffith said.
“I’ve always wanted to have a crystals store,” Griffith said of her decision to open the shop. “I’ve loved crystals since I was a kid.”
Griffith, who moved to Sparta from Stevens Point, Wis., about nine years ago, said she plans to have a grand opening celebration, probably in late spring or early summer.
Town n’ Country Title, a Holmen-based title company, opened its 10th office on March 7 in Suite H at 1115 N. Superior Ave. in Tomah.
A grand opening celebration will be from 4 to 7 p.m. April 7, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. “All are welcome to join for a night of networking, snacks, refreshments and fun,” title company owner Nancy McHugh said.
Hours at the new Tomah office are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Its telephone number is 608-315-8148.
“We’ve had many requests to open a branch in central Wisconsin, and we are proud to say we are finally doing so,” McHugh said. “We’re confident we will be able to meet the needs of the community and be a positive addition to the city of Tomah.”
McHugh said Town n’ Country was founded in 2007 and is an independently owned and operated title company that serves both Wisconsin and Minnesota. With 10 locations and almost 50 employees, it provides title insurance and closing/settlement services to realtors, lenders, homeowners and more.
The company’s recently redesigned website has an updated logo that combines a house, tree and three-story building, which represents the customers and companies that it serves in town and in the country.