Ribbon Cutting at Central Street Café - Another Great Dining Experience Added to Evanston's Great Restaurant Scene
Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl along with Evanston Aldermen Mark Tendam and Jane Grover participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony recently for the area’s newest addition to Evanston’s outstanding restaurant scene, Central Street Café. The Central Street Café is located at 2800 Central Street.
"A unique dining and retail establishment has come to Evanston and it's right here in the 6th Ward. Mitch Dulin has studied the area and created a perfect complement to many of our other favorite restaurants and retailers,” said Sixth Ward Alderman Mark Tendam. "There's a lot of excitement about the Central Street Cafe coming to the neighborhood. I believe it will be huge success."
The Central Street Café is an attractively-priced bistro-style café with an exciting menu which will also offer an upscale cheese mart/Italian deli plus a small wine shop focusing on small-production wines and craft beers. The Central Street Café will give north Evanston and the near-western business district of Central Street in particular even greater diversity in its already-impressive dining offerings.
Proprietor Mitchell Dulin is well-known to connoisseurs of the Chicago food scene as the innovator who challenged restauranting convention in the 1980s with the groundbreaking Chardonnay, an acclaimed French-themed venue that offered good wine without the high markup typical in the US. Dulin then ran the Venice Café, one of the first "fast casual" concept restaurants in Chicagoland, for many years. Last decade he designed, opened, and operated the Tuscan Market & Café, a combo gourmet food market, wine shop, upscale deli and cafe in Arlington Heights. After taking a couple years off to teach budding restaurateurs, Dulin now returns both to his passion, uncomplicated French-Italian food, and to Evanston, a city he knows well.
Dulin was awarded a Façade Improvement Program grant from the City of Evanston to absorb some of the costs associated with the installation of new awnings and illuminated signage. Additionally, Dulin and the property owner made extensive improvements to both the interior and exterior portions of the building.