Business & Tech
Park Ridge's Garden on the Run: Fresh, Organic Produce In Uptown
Park Ridge's Garden on the Run is a family-run fruit and vegetable retail store, opened about three weeks ago in what used to be Kelly's Meat Market.
When Park Ridge couple Jeff and SuSu Scialabba brought fruit plates and homemade cookies to parties, friends told them they should go into business for themselves.
Last month, the Scialabbas took their friends' advice and opened a retail store called Garden on the Run, 108 Main St., where patrons can buy fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, salads, sandwiches, cookies and smoothies.
Its specialties include chopped fruit salads, sliced fruit trays, berry trays and caesar salads. It also carries a line of pasta products.
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"They are unique in Park Ridge in that they are an old fashioned indoor farmers market," said Gail Haller, executive director of the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
The family-run business will hold its official ribbon cutting Thursday at 6 p.m. The celebration likely will include appetizers, fruit, soda and wine for anyone who'd like to stop by, SuSu Scialabba said.
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"We want to show what we have to offer and what we make," she said.
Jeff Scialabba, a Maine South High School graduate, began Garden on the Run about two years ago in a Cicero warehouse as a wholesale produce enterprise that sold to restaurants and businesses.
He'd spent 15 years in the produce business as a salesman, working with his father, who specialized in fruits and berries. Before that, he received a degree in the culinary arts from Kendall College in Chicago and has worked at various restaurants.
When Garden on the Run took off, the couple decided to open a retail store to complement the wholesale portion that still caters to local businesses and restaurants. The retail store diversifies the business, making the twin enterprises a good formula for success, Scialabba said.
Garden on the Run took over the space that was formerly Kelly's Meat Market, which operated there for about 50 years.
The location is conducive to what the pair hopes will be a neighborhood general store that's similar to what Kelly's used to be, he said.
"When people come in here to ask about picking out best cantaloupes for instance, we'll be right here to tell them," Jeff Scialabba.
It's open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It's closed Sundays.
