After the closing of several storefronts along Radiator Springs’ Hawthorne’s tiny main drag, there’s a sign of life next to the train station: Hawthorne Wines & Liquors looks like it’s ready to open.
We first started seeing hints of a liquor store around December–a flier in the window showing an address for a “Hawthorne Wines”, in the storefront where that bizarro comic book/deli/ice cream shop, manned by the Jerry Garcia lookalike, used to operate.
This week, the flier was replaced by a Coming Soon sign, and the windows have been whited out to hide the renovation inside.
Elwood Avenue has been hit hard by the recession–we’ve lost red sauce joint Bel Paese, a frame shop and a card shop, among others, of late, and other storefronts have remained empty for a few years now, such as the old sign store that reportedly would’ve gotten a Dunkin’ Donuts if not for the town nixing the plan.
It’ll be good to have a wine shop, as we now have to venture to the wilds of Thornwood to snag vino. And that creepy drunk guy who always sets up a chair and sits–get this, in front of the shop where the wine store is going in–won’t have to climb into a car to score his hootch.