Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Make way for Cheesecake Factory ... maybe?

The last businesses are vacating the 200 block of South 15th Street.

It's about to get mighty quiet on the east side of the 200 block of South 15th Street.

Then it's going to get mighty noisy, what with the bulldozers and cranes and such.

A new four-story building is planned for the southeast corner of 15th and Walnut Streets, and the current tenants are dropping out one by one.

Talk on the street is that Cheesecake Factory and the clothier Uniqlo will each take at least one floor in the new building; corporate execs will neither confirm nor deny.

Last week saw the departure of Miga, the Korean restaurant that occupied a space at 211 S. 15th St. for three years; owner Sam Cho, who took the property owners to court in an unsuccessful bid to stave off the end of his lease, told me that he was looking in Center City for a new location. Cho had another issue. As he opened, the city told him that he could not do tabletop cooking with gas, so he was forced to buy electric burners. (No matter that every Korean restaurant in Olney allows customers to cook with gas. But I digress.)

Next door, Evan Inatome at Elixr Coffee is planning to move out in the next several weeks to a new location a half-block away; it's behind the Chipotle on Sydenham Street just south of 15th Street. He'll pick up more seating and a sweet lounge area.

Panache Hair Design is expected to leave at the end of August.