My task for my second week in the internship was to begin taking pictures of storefronts that had the following signs or appearance: sale, closing, grand opening, coming soon, or an empty store. Many may not be familiar with Devon Ave so I will give a brief introduction to the types of stores that are available. There is a plethora of restaurants, clothing boutiques, and video rental stores that cater to the Indo-Pak community. Since there is such a large quantity of stores, there is a lot of competition! There are always stores closing down and similar ones opening up in their place. It was extremely cold when I went out to take pictures, but it was eventful nonetheless. I was able to take several pictures from Campbell Ave to Talman Ave and even grab some chai and somosas from a restaurant called Annapurna with a friend! This is only one block, but I found several storefronts that had recently opened, had been remodeled or closed down. I pass by these stores often, but it had never occurred to me at the unusual amount of new and closing stores that could be found in such as small section of Devon Ave. Below are some of the pictures I took and a short description about the history of the store.
This is the newly opened restaurant Urban India. The restaurant caters to an upscale dining experience and serves dishes mostly from the northern regions of India. The Gandhi restaurant was here prior to Urban India. Gandhi restaurant is known to have been the first Indian restaurant on Devon Ave.
Pita Xpress Grill is another new restaurant that opened a month ago and is merely a couple blocks down. The owners are Muslim and would like to cater to the Muslim population and therefore offer halal meat dishes.This is a fairly large restaurant and actually takes up the space of two stores that were previously closed down. The restaurant offers Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern cuisine. Some of their entrees combine seasonings from all three regions!
Taj Sari Palace is not a new store, but it recently went through renovations on the interior and exterior. Since the renovation the prices of the outfits have gone up as well. The store is known for selling traditional Indian and Pakistani outfits and accessories.
This was a video rental store that went out of business a couple of months ago. There are two other video stores right next door to this one, so it is understandable as to why this one closed down. Also online movie databases such as Netflix and even YouTube have started to offer Bollywood movies, so there is less of a demand for movie stores such as this one.
I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures and there will be more to come! For my next assignment I will take a trip to the Chicago History Museum, so stay tuned!
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