Making Lemonade

The beauty of growing up in the Renzulli family is the absolute belief that nothing is impossible.  Not only that, if you come up with a crazy, far out idea and you tell everyone you know and then some, and then your idea fizzles into nothing, you don't miss a beat.  In fact, you aren't even embarrassed!

There.  Now I will share the news that it is highly unlikely that the Oak Park School of Rock will be located in the Westgate building.

But Westgate gave us lemons and sugar and a secret ingredient.

In dreaming about the Westgate location, we landed on a Good Idea.  And that idea may very well be a market differentiator.

Note:  This concept needs a name, an identity, so read on and please let me know if you have any suggestions.

The Good Idea

(Located next door, to the left of Trattoria 225 - will work on posting a photo of the actual location)



The Good Idea is to create an indoor / outdoor stage with big door(s) that would enable us to provide a street fair stage, simply by opening up the front door.  The location will not only serve as the music school, but in most cases, the venue as well.  And... even better, we will have option to open the stage to the street, to blend seamlessly with the community outside of the school's four walls.

We are pretty sure that this concept is unique and will give the community something that is not available elsewhere, making it a valuable Oak Park and School of Rock asset.

What if we could keep the performances here in Oak Park?  What if we could help to drive a captive audience to the local restaurants and also rely on those establishments provide the food and beverages for the events?

With performances that can draw anywhere from 75 to well over 300 people, in addition to the daily coming and going of the students and parents (many of which commute from other suburbs), this would be a boost to an area known for its festivals and street fairs.

With that said, we are still keenly focused on early spring as our target opening date.  We are aware that this property also comes with some challenges, but feel strongly that it would be a great location, both for the success of our business, but also for the Harrison Street Arts community.  We will continue to research other options so that we have a "Plan B" (or is it "C" at this point?).

What do you think?  Reactions?