Great Expectations

I spent my “staycation” this sweltering summer bopping around my Midwest hometown, checking out new independent restaurants and boutiques tucked into formerly abandoned bars, stores and drycleaners. These enterprises sprout like fragile shoots from the ashes of the Great Recession, many developed by energetic young entrepreneurs.

What’s impressed me most about these places has been the elevated level of design on display, often created on a shoestring budget. Case in point: Barrio, a casual Día de los Muertos-themed taquería. The owner-designed space features hand-painted murals, hammered iron fixtures from a local artist and whimsical formal-dress-clad skeletons astride bicycles, suspended from the original tin ceiling.

Down the street from Barrio, a moldering family-owned bowling alley bar called Mahalls has been restored to its 50s rec-room-era glory, its walls stripped of the red-flocked wallpaper to showcase the original plaster finish, its yellowed wood floors sanded and polished to a high sheen. Large sparkling glass doors open to the street, with strains of live music from hot local bands beckoning to area youth. The owners have hit a hipster homerun.

And then there’s the Root Café, an organic bakery/coffee shop set in a former vacuum cleaner store. Local craftspeople lovingly restored the space, its walls serving as a gallery for local artists. From the recovered wood chair rails, bookcases, benches and science lab cabinets to the concrete counters, the shop has become a work of art itself. It’s flourishing, while the Caribou Coffee chain outlet across the street prepares to close its doors.

These and other area retailers have been embraced by locals. There’s pride and support for the homegrown, a phenomenon hardly unique to my community. And you know what? The big boys are paying attention. National chains like Starbucks, for example. I spoke with the java giant’s Americas design head, Bill Sleeth, for a profile of the 2013 VMSD/Peter Glen Retailer of the Year on page 40 of VMSD.

“The power of DIY design is amazing,” Sleeth says. “It’s not just putting pressure on us as designers, it’s enriching the conversation to the point that design is elevated. You can throw a stone and hit great design. What’s happening at the local level is raising the bar to such a degree that it’s making all of us better.”