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Poke Bros is opening in Schererville and Crown Point.
Poke Bros is going to bring “sushi in a bowl” to Schererville and Crown Point.
The chain that specializes in the Hawaiian dish of poke, or diced raw fish, plans to open soon at 813 W. Lincoln Highway in Schererville and 10543 Broadway in Crown Point.
The fast-casual restaurant has around 20 locations in Chicagoland, mostly in the suburbs. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 2016 and uses a Chipotle-like casual dining assembly line in which customers can build their own poke bowls.
Poke Bros expanded across the Midwest and East Coast as poke has gained in popularity in recent years.
Diners can order poke bowls like the Johnny Utah, which blends salmon with avocado, edamame, cucumber, masago, sriracha aioli and OG Sauce, or Da Kine, which mixes marinated tuna with sweet onion, seaweed salad, green onion, ponzu, masago and OG Sauce.
Protein options include shrimp, spicy salmon, spicy tuna, chicken and spicy chicken. It’s served on a base of mixed greens or white, brown or sushi rice.
Other ingredients include jalapenos, carrots, corn pineapple, tofu, crab sticks, soy sauce, crushed cashew nuts, tempura flakes, crispy onions, wonton chips, toasted coconut or sesame seeds.
It also has sides, kids' bowls and mochi ice cream in flavors like green tea, Belgian chocolate and Thai tea.
Poke Bros typically offers dine-in, takeout and delivery through third-party apps like Uber Eats or DoorDash, which vary by location.
For more information, visit eatpokebros.com.
The Simple Greek, a fast-casual Greek restaurant that allowed customers to customize pita or bowl orders, closed Wednesday after five years at the Centennial Village shopping center in Munster, giving out free fries to its last customers.
The restaurant at 9611 Calumet Ave. aimed to be the Chipotle of Greek food, offering a variety of customizable options. It served up gyros, chicken gyros and chicken or steak bowls that could be topped with hummus, feta, green beans, black olives, cucumbers and red onions. It also had lemon rice soup, Greek fries and baklava.
A Simple Greek will be replaced with Chick and Shake, a new concept from the same owners featuring chicken, fried chicken sandwiches and milkshakes.
It’s expected to open in the same space in October. The first-of-its-kind restaurant could end up becoming a chain if it does well.
The Twin Peaks-inspired Bean Me Up Roastery is coming to Munster’s Centennial Village.
The coffee roastery percolates hand-roasted coffee that’s made fresh to order and described as “damn fine.” It also serves pie “so good it’s a crime.”
Fans of David Lynch’s offbeat and often macabre murder mystery Twin Peaks may recall that Agent Dale Cooper loves the pairing of coffee and pie.
“Well, it all started when we were watching the amazing show 'Twin Peaks'. Agent Cooper had just had cup after cup of damn good coffee, which inspired us to go on our own quest for an equivalent damn fine cup of coffee,” the owners posted online. “After searching and searching to no avail, we decided to just give it a shot ourselves.”
Bean Me Up Roastery currently sells its coffee beans and pies online. The pies are named after planets and the coffee beans after pop culture references like Kopi’s Light, Savage Planet and Pillars of Midsommar.
It plans to open the coffee shop and dessert shop in the mixed-used Centennial Village next month. A grand opening is tentatively slated for Oct. 20 but the business cautions that date could change.
For more information, visit beanmeuproastery.com, call 708-669-3417 or email beanmeuproastery@gmail.com.
Naf Naf Grill is now serving up Middle Eastern cuisine in Schererville’s Shops on Main.
The fast-casual chain that has a heavy presence in the Chicago metropolitan area took over the former Q-BBQ space in the shopping center at Indianapolis Boulevard and Main Street, just south of the Highland border and just east of the Munster town limits.
The new restaurant at 79 U.S. 41 sells pitas and bowls. They can be customized with proteins like chicken shwarma, steak or falafel and ingredients like couscous, hummus, harissa sauce, tahini or Basmati rice. It has sides like fries and lentil soup.
Named after the Middle Eastern expression “fan the flame” that invites people to share a meal, Naf Naf Grill started in Naperville in 2009. It now has locations in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
It has several restaurants in the city of Chicago, typically in areas with high foot traffic.
It’s open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.
For more information, visit nafnafgrill.com or call 219-227-8153.
Domino’s continues its relentless march across Northwest Indiana, aiming to open its latest location in Munster.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based pizza chain, the largest in the world by sales volume, is building out a location on Main Street in Munster. It’s in the newer strip mall anchored by Anytime Fitness and Nutrition on Main.
Domino’s is now hiring at the site, where it already has a row of delivery vehicles ready to go in the parking lot.
JEM MedSpa Munster recently opened in Centennial Village.
The medical spa chain also has locations in Orland Park and Elmhurst.
It offers services like botox, facials, chemical peels, dermal filler, body sculpting, laser skin rejuvenation, hair removal hair restoration, microneedling, skin tightening and vampire facelifts.
JEM MedSpa is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
It will have a grand opening event from Sept. 26 through Oct. 1 with swag bags, special botox pricing and a raffle for two grand prizes. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place with the Munster Chamber of Commerce at 1 p.m. on Sept. 28.
For more information, call 219-249-0777, visit jemmedspa.com or find the business on Facebook or Instagram.
If you would like your business to be included in a future column, email joseph.pete@nwi.com.
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Joseph S. Pete is a Lisagor Award-winning business reporter who covers steel, industry, unions, the ports, retail, banking and more. The Indiana University grad has been with The Times since 2013 and blogs about craft beer, culture and the military.
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Poke Bros is opening in Schererville and Crown Point.
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