The owner and the operator of Dali’s Cafe, located at 5128 – 5130 Main Street, have applied for a Façade Improvement Grant for $26,000 The plan is to make improvements and repairs to the fronts of both buildings, which together house the popular breakfast/lunch eatery.
The plan, details of which are located here, include:
- Replacing aged windows with new energy efficient units,
- Removing the wooden front and replacing and restoring the brick façade,
- Installing a new 6′wide canopy along the entire length of the building.
A sticking point in several previous applicants and grants, no EIFS materials are planned for this project.
The grant applicants asked for more than the max $15K based on Dali’s occupying two buildings, but staff is treating this as one restaurant, one project, and has capped their recommendation at $15k. Look for council to react favorably this week at workshop, and approve this project at next week’s meeting.
There have been eight previous projects approved under the Façade Improvement Grant Program, and if Dali’s ais approved, a little under $12,000 would remain in the fund. The project funds are derived from the CBD TIF District funds.
Love Dali’s. My only gripe would be that I wish they would expand into dinner service. With the right young culinary mind in the kitchen, its the kind of place you could envision being featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.
There is no way this place would make it on Guy’s show. Just my opine Meat. The breakfast is decent and very imaginative, but really it’s no better than Omega.
I have to agree with Chad on this one. I can think of many other places that would be a better fit DDD.
…with the right young culinary mind..
I’m guilty of seeing the potential versus the reality.
With a base of village, D58, D99, Township, Sanitary & Park Dist. employees and relatives, Main St. should be thriving. The rest of us in the real world are working on getting our Assessments down to ACTUAL MARKET SALES levels.
Kunze cajoles council
Linda Kunze Downtown Management Group Manager, laid out details of the Dali project that sounded like a remodeling black hole version of If You Give A Moose A Muffin, where trying to do one right thing led them into having to do five more expensive things, pushing the total over $60,000 for the project. She made a bit of a plea for consideration of granting more than $15,000 by consideration for the two distinct buidings. Sean Durkin brought up that since the project fund would essentially be done if they allowed for the Dali work to be considered two buildings and that they are on the tax roles as two buildings, maybe they should consider it. There seemed to be mixed and cautiously positive reaction to that, depending on what other projects were in the hopper that were asking for grant money. Staff will provide council a recap of the five other projects to see if they might be able to lend a bit more help to the Dali project.
Meat, like many of us you’re only guilty of enjoying the reality of good food every time you go there.
Mark-what your describing is what those of us with older homes call ‘might as well’ projects. You start out with replacing the trim around a door frame, well now the plaster broke, might as well tear it out, oh look, the old electrical conduit is exposed, might as well tear it out, hey, this leads into an old junction box, may as well update to 220…
Yes, the food and service are always outstanding, maybe I’m just being greedy.
My ‘might as well’ projects start with a “SON OF A —–!” pre-planning session.