New stuff in the neighborhood

On April 1, I wrote about Urban Epicure closing. I walked past there yesterday and found that the space is now occupied by Ranalli's, one of a small chain of pizza restaurants based in Chicago. This location is barely a mile north of Ranalli's "Up North" location, so I guess this would be Ranalli's Up Norther? Until a few years ago, there was one in the northern suburb of Riverwoods, which should have been named Ranalli's Way the Heck Up North.

I also noticed that just south of Foster, on Clark, there's a new day spa for men -- I think called Sir Spa? A day spa for men. Huh. Wonders never cease.

Last year I wrote about the fire in the building next door to the Tree House cat shelter in Uptown. I walked past there and found a brand spanking new building where the old one had burned down. If memory serves correctly, the old building was one of the traditional multi-unit types, perhaps a six-flat, so I was really disappointed to see what they replaced it with. The new building is made entirely of oversized red brick and is devoid of any ornamentation, which makes it jarringly plain looking. But that's the least of its problems. Inexplicably, the building was turned sideways to face the adjacent playlot instead of the street. The "front" features porches that look out onto said playlot, which to me seems to force public and private spaces to intrude on one another excessively. As for the side that faces the street, it is just plain ugly and is more characteristic of what would ordinarily face the alley. The statement this makes is one of extreme inconsiderateness, whether or not that reflects the attitudes of the building's residents.