Moves on Main Street

Main Street between Third and Second streets in downtown Chico is getting a bit of a shakeup this month, with two retailers on the block closing up shop.

Syllabus is closing its doors, but the space will reopen as Harlow and Heart before the holidays. The women's retail store opened about a year ago at 221 Main St., with the goal of targeting a higher-end shopper. The shop carried Diane von Furstenberg, BB Dakota and Paper Crown among other designer brands.

Unfortunately, the clothes were a bit outside my budget, so I never was able to walk out of the store with a shopping bag in hand. About a month ago I noticed the 50 percent off sale signs in the window and wandered in. When I saw that the sale was still going on a few weeks later, I gave the store a call to see if anything was up. Store Manager Nique Debord let me know Syllabus was going into their last weekend of business and that it would close Nov. 8. She excitedly added that a new business would take over the location.

Plans are underway for Harlow and Heart to open in time for the Downtown Chico Business Association's Christmas Preview, which falls on Sunday, Nov. 22, this year. The shop will be a home and gift store, and an all-natural apothecary with lotions, bath bombs and other great smelling items.

Just a few doors down, Montana Blues also recently closed up their shop downtown. Thankfully, the business isn't leaving us entirely, though. The women's athletic wear store is moving its business exclusively online, something Lulu's, another former Main Street retailer, has had great success with. Their full inventory of yoga wear, fitness tops and bottoms, and jackets and hoodies are now available at www.MontanaBlues.com.

Speaking of that block I am getting anxious for the opening of Crepeville in the Grand View building. I mentioned back in July that the eatery would be coming to the location, but I hadn't heard anything about progress in a while.

Plans are still coming along, albeit a bit slower than my stomach prefers. The business had a booth at Taste of Chico in late September and served up an amazing Nutella- and strawberry-filled crepe. It gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe Crepeville's opening was just around the corner, but after checking in with the staff at Burgers and Brew (the restaurants share owners), it sounds like we'll have to wait until 2016 for the creperie to officially come to downtown Chico.