Ann Marie Scheidler

Eternal Eden

Paloma Contreras PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAX BURKHALTER

Award-winning interior designer, lifestyle blogger, and author Paloma Contreras is proof that we have the power to choose our own paths—no matter where they begin.

When Contreras graduated from college with a degree in Spanish and Italian studies, she took a job teaching high school Spanish.

“I taught for four years and it wasn’t a good fit,” Contreras shares. “I remember crying to my husband about how miserable I was because I felt creatively stifled.”

To channel her creative energies, Contreras—who is based in Houston, Texas—used a summer vacation from school in 2007 to begin writing a blog about decorating projects she was tackling around her first home.

“There were so few people blogging at the time, and even fewer doing so in the design space,” Contreras remembers. “I couldn’t find any that spoke to my style or about things that caught my eye.”

It wasn’t long before Contreras’ design blog, “La Dolce Vita,” started gaining momentum and securing a loyal fanbase, including the nearly 150,000 Instagram followers she has today. “People were messaging me for advice about their decorating projects and from there my interior design business organically evolved,” she says.

Contreras’ design sensibility is a modern take on traditional style—gravitating toward classic silhouettes and timeless pieces paired with a touch of glamour and an infusion of color. She’s been named to Elle Decor’s prestigious “A-List” of the top designers in the world. She has also been recognized as a “Next Wave” interior designer by House Beautiful, is a member of LUXE magazine’s “Gold List,” and was named No. 4 on Forbes’ list of the “Top 10 Social Media Influencers” in the home category.

Contreras believes that the most beautiful interiors are also the most personal and her first book, Dream Design Live, published in 2018, is a tome to this. And she recently launched Paloma & Co, a highly curated retail concept for the home.

“I feel like I landed exactly where I was meant to be,” she says. “I trusted my journey and I feel so blessed with this life and this work.”

2020 Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens PHOTO PROVIDED BY JS ECKERT PHOTOGRAPHY

Contreras was a natural choice for the planning committee behind the 2020 Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens benefitting the Infant Welfare Society (IWS) of Chicago. Founded in 1911 with a mission to provide fresh milk in response to high infant mortality rates, IWS now provides an array of services to men, women, and children of Chicago’s working poor through its Logan Square clinic. The Showhouse & Gardens is a biennial event and is widely considered one of the top showhouses in the country.

“I’ve long been very aware of how special Lake Forest is,” Contreras says. “Lake Forest is a city with a true reverence for its architectural past. It also happens to be where one of my favorite architects, David Adler and his interior decorator sister, Frances Elkins, completed a lot of their iconic design work.”

Kip’s Bay interior PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY NICKOLAS SARGENT

Contreras is one of more than 30 interior and landscape designers who has taken on a space in the historic Lake Forest estate that will be open to the public from April 25 through May 17. Designed in 1906 by Frost and Granger, the home sits on 3 acres and includes a large house and a smaller adjoining house.

In 1928, the William A. P. Pullmans purchased the property and engaged architect Stanley Anderson to make extensive changes. The 23-room, 11,000-square-foot house has a timeless elegance including a large living room, sun room and parlor, and a fireplace-warmed family room. The master suite has two dressing rooms, a bath, a sitting room, and the bedroom, which has a fireplace and a balcony overlooking magnificent gardens. Contreras chose the home’s dining room as her showroom. At press time, a pink lacquered ceiling was underway in this special space.

Study at Kip’s Bay PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY NICKOLAS SARGENT

“I love this house because in spite of its large size, it’s not overly grand. It’s elegant, but not formal,” she says. “My goal is to honor the original architecture and spirit of the house. It has such great bones and the original millwork is gorgeous. I truly believe that a home tells you what it wants and needs, so my design features a mix of classic design elements including a beautiful wallpaper by Iksel and custom tole lighting fixtures by Coleen and Company. I’m pairing these with fresh, modern elements such as abstract art by Jane Timberlake Cooper and some striking fabrics by Schumacher.”

It’s this mindful tension between design elements that is Contreras’ signature in any room she touches.

“I think people appreciate my modern take on traditional pieces,” she explains. “Just about everything I do is rooted in the classics. I wanted to pay homage to Mrs. Elkins [David Adler’s sister], so I’m incorporating a pair of her loop chairs into the dining room. Even though the dining room will feel fresh and current, these loop chairs have a place there, too.”

Perhaps Contreras’ favorite part of the dining room is its wonderful views of the beautiful gardens. “My hope is to bring the outdoors in and have the room feel like a garden,” she says. “That’s why I’m calling this room ‘Eternal Eden.’’’

“Based on the rapidly evolving situation with COVID-19, the Lake Forest Chapter of the Infant Welfare Socierty of Chicago has made the decision to postpone the opening of the Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens 2020. We will continue to monitor everything closely and follow the guidelines and recommendations of the CDC and State of Illinois before we establish a new opening date. The health and safety of those working on the home and that of our guests is our primary concern. We will continue to communicate and share updates on our website www.lakeforestshowhouse.com.”

An Affair to Remember

Rebecca Makkai, Rosemary O’Connell, Sue Shattock PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

Eleven years ago, Sue Shattock and her family had just moved to Lake Forest from England. One day, she found herself flipping through a recent issue of Forest & Bluff and came across a story about Ragdale’s signature fundraising event Novel Affair.

“That year, Ragdale hosted Elizabeth Stroud as one of its guest authors,” Shattock remembers. “I had literally just finished her newest Pulitzer-winning novel Olive Kitteridge and here Elizabeth Stroud was coming to speak at Ragdale. I couldn’t believe that there was an organization in Lake Forest that drew writers like her.”

Ragdale is a nonprofit artist residency program, located in the Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw’s Lake Forest country estate. It is one of the oldest and largest artists’ communities in the country. Built in 1897, the Ragdale House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976, Shaw’s granddaughter Alice Judson Hayes transformed the family’s summer house into an artists-in-residence program. Today, Ragdale hosts more than 200 creative practitioners from around the world and serves students and teachers from more than 60 regional schools.

It wasn’t long before Shattock found herself at a number of Ragdale events, including Novel Affair. Novel Affair brings a curated group of authors together over the course of a weekend to raise money in support of Ragdale.

After Shattock attended Novel Affair’s cocktail parties and intimate dinners for more than a decade, Jeanna Park—Ragdale’s Board of Trustees president and fellow book club member—suggested that Shattock and her husband host a Novel Affair dinner at their home last year.

“We were paired with authors Laura Lippman and Jamel Brinkley,” Shattock says. “Before dinner, we placed two chairs in front of the fire and they each spoke about their craft and what they were working on. The conversation flowed freely. It was just so extraordinary. And then to have them each at our dinner table and hear what they had to say about their writing—and the world in general—was just fascinating. After hosting once, we had to do it again.”

This year, Shattock is among five North Shore families hosting a dinner for this year’s lineup of authors and artists. This year’s Novel Affair class includes:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Friday Black
Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had
Mira Jacob, Good Talk, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing
Bill Goldstein, The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature
Peter Orne, Maggie Brown & Others, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge
Pamela Houston, Cowboys Are My Weakness
Angie Kim, Miracle Creek
Jean Hanff Korelitz, You Should have Known, The Devil and Webster
Hector Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries, Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine
Chloe Benjamin, The Immortalists, The Anatomy of Dreams
Roger Reeves, King Me
Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Bangkok Wakes to Rain

“Writer Rebecca Makkai has worked for the past three years with authors Jean Kwok and Charles Finch to engage our participating authors,” explains Park. “Their professional relationships, and Ragdale’s reputation among writers, allow us to secure such prestigious participants for Novel Affair. These authors not only donate their time to attend the cocktail party and an intimate dinner, but they also participate in classroom presentations for Novel Affair School Day.”

Novel Affair School Day is where each of the guest authors visits an area school as part of Ragdale’s outreach to the community. They visit schools from Chicago to Zion to help foster healthy self-expression and creative career opportunities. Novel Affair Day is supported by more than 30 sponsor families and their contributions allow all programs to be free for schools and for local teachers to attend Novel Affair’s Saturday cocktail reception and book signing at Shoreacres with all of the featured authors.

“The comedian Stephen Wright was once asked if he was ship wrecked and could only have one book, what would it be?” says Rosemary O’Connell, chair of Novel Affair for the fourth year in a row. “His response was a book on how to build a boat! I was raised in a family of voracious readers; however, Ragdale was the book that showed me how to build the boat that opened my mind to the inner world of the artists. It is one thing to read a book; it is another to truly get to know the author and the meaning behind the words. My mission is to bring our surrounding community into that inner circle that I have been so fortunate to be in over the past several years.”

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, this event has been postponed until October 2020. To learn more about Ragdale, visit ragdale.org.

House of Dreams

Britt Carter PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

“I’m excited every day to get out of bed and come to work,” says Britt Carter, founder of and senior interior designer at Britt Carter & Company. “No two clients, no two projects are ever the same. This is one of the many reasons I love what I do.”

Carter grew up in the “mom and pop” furniture business. His stepfather owned a number of “Happy Days-era” stores in the northern suburbs that sold everything from sofas to air conditioning units.

“As a teenager, I used to help out at the stores a lot,” he remembers. “And I’ll never forget the first time someone actually asked my opinion about a design question they had for some furniture they were buying. I was encouraged that they wanted my opinion and really trusted it.”

Manhattan sectional series designed by Britt Carter. Created for comfortable family living and entertaining and is available in any size or configuration as a sofa or a chair. The 10 inch wide track arm offers a seating option when entertaining large crowds. The weltless details promote an understated sophistication.

Fast forward into Carter’s adulthood when he was early into his 40-plus year marriage to Vicki and decided to open his own store.

“We had to borrow $50,000 from Vicki’s parents to open our small shop in Libertyville,” explains Carter. “When I worked with my stepfather, I realized there was a need for high-end furniture offerings that wasn’t being met. This would be—and always has been—our focus.”

In 1987, Carter moved his showroom to Vernon Hills, tripling the size of his retail space. One day, a young contractor walked into Carter’s showroom and asked him what he was paying in rent. He then told Carter he could build him his own stand-alone retail space for the cost of his rent.

“I believe people come into your life at certain times for specific reasons, and that day this guy came into the store and gave me the nudge I needed to build the showroom I had dreamed of.”

Designed by Britt Carter for a client who couldn’t find a decent “chesterfield style” swivel chair. Incredibly comfortable, looks fabulous in leather or velvet.

That was 1994. Today, the 24,000 square-foot Britt Carter & Company showroom still stands in Lake Forest.

“I sketched out every inch and I’m still in awe how it all came together,” Carter explains of his retail space located right off of Route 41 that now showcases more than 30 vignettes of high-end pieces. “New customers and clients often come in here and say they’ve driven past our storefront a thousand times never realizing how distinctive the showroom is. Furniture industry leaders that I’ve met in High Point, North Carolina who have visited us have said there’s nothing else quite like it. We’re really blessed to have what we have here.”

When asked the secret to his long-term success, Carter confidently espouses that he and his family love meeting and helping new people and creating interiors they love coming home to.

“I started this company because I knew if I spent time investing in our customers and clients’ desires, there would be a ‘win’ for everyone,” Carter says. “Our years of experience merchandising, laying out the showroom, and keeping up with every aspect of the home furnishings industry has honed our passion for interior design. Our clients appreciate the fact that they can experience the home furnishings first-hand instead of ordering product sight unseen as if the case for many design firms.”

In addition to offering furniture, décor, and accessories—Britt Carter & Company offers full interior design services. They’re the only leading interior design firm in Chicago with a large showroom. “If someone wants to come in and buy a sofa, we can help you. Or if you come in looking for lamps for your bedroom, we can help you with those, too,” he says. “But if you come into our showroom with the desire to create an enduring design change, we can offer professional interior design services that will inspire. Custom window treatments, wallcoverings, and area and broadloom carpeting have always been part of the services we offer. I can be a client’s eyes and ears and also their hearts. The relationships we build with our clients is truly at the core of what we do. My heart is in every project as if I were designing it for my family.”

To that end, Carter launched the Britt Carter Signature line of furniture that he has developed in response to client needs.

“There are times when I can’t find the perfect piece of furniture for a particular need, so I dream of what it should be, then draw it, then have it made to the highest standard,” Carter says. “My clients love it. This is the kind of thing you can do when you’ve been in the business for as long as I have and know as many people in the industry that I do.”

Carter also adds that he and his team love collaborating with other designers. “I hope they know they can send their clients here to review products, just as if they would send them down to the Merchandise Mart. We never step on the toes of another designer,” Carter says. “We’re here to help them do what’s best for their clients. And we’re a lot closer than downtown Chicago.”

One of Carter’s greatest sources of pride is having two of his five children working with him in the family business. His son Shaun is his right-hand in the showroom, while his son Jeremy oversees the “business side” of things.

“Shaun was our son who would come down on Sunday for church dressed to impress,” he says with a smile. “We should have known back then that he would be a natural in our business.”

Being in the furniture business for more than 40 years has taught Carter and his team the importance of creating a rewarding experience for clients and customers. “That said, we can always improve,” says Carter. “We really don’t know what tomorrow brings—but we believe it will be exciting because it’s another day to work with someone new.”

Britt Carter & Company is located at 1350 S. Skokie Highway, Route 41, in Lake Forest, 847-735-1180, brittcarter.net.

Is There A Doctor In The House?

Brothers and local orthopedists David and Mark Hamming PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

If you’re lucky enough to be invited to a family gathering at the Lake Forest home of Ed and Nancy Hamming and are in need of some medical attention, you’re in the right place. Ed, David, and Mark Hamming are orthopedic surgeons, Nancy is an ophthalmologist, and David’s wife, Katherine, is a pediatric otolaryngologist.

“To be honest, I don’t think I thought much about being a doctor when I was young even though both my parents were,” says Dr. Mark Hamming. “My parents didn’t talk much about work and both did such an incredible job balancing their demanding jobs with my brother, sister, and me.”

It wasn’t until Mark was a freshman in high school that he got to see his dad in action. “We were on spring break in Snowmass skiing and I broke my leg,” he says. “My dad took me down the mountain in a toboggan and then casted my leg right there at the mountain’s base. It healed perfectly.”

Today Mark and his brother Dr. David Hamming, who is three years older, work together in a practice dedicated to orthopedic medicine founded by their father Dr. Ed Hamming and their uncle, Dr. Bruce Hamming. The elder Hammings blended their practice with another surgical group that is today called Illinois Bone and Joint Institute (IBJI).

“When we were in high school, we used to work up in the hospital’s OR [operating room] in the summers,” David recalls. “That early exposure to medicine and the inner workings of the hospital definitely made an impression on us.”

Both David and Mark were accomplished high school athletes, receiving a number of commendations and state honors during their years at Lake Forest High School.

“The nature of orthopedics tends to draw those with an interest in sports,” Mark says. And depending on where they practice, being an athlete comes in handy for orthopedic doctors.

Following medical school and residency, both David and Mark had medical fellowships at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic that provided the official team doctors for the Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies, as well as athletes training for the Olympics.

Mark was one of the team doctors that traveled with the Olympic ski team training for Sochi in 2014. He spent time with the team in Chili, New Zealand, and Slovakia, as well as training courses throughout the U. S.

“I was very comfortable skiing and that was pretty much a job requirement when working with the team,” Mark says. “We’d travel up these runs with the athletes and at the end of the day we’d have to ski down these mountains that were like ice rinks with 60-pound packs on our back. The athletes lived right on the edge and they used to like to see what the doctors could do. One German doctor accepted the challenge when we were in Chili and he ended up breaking his femur. I did double time that trip.”

But the life of a team doctor, with all of its excitement and in-the-field lessons, isn’t easy. So, both David and Mark, who today have growing families, made the decision to come back to their hometown of Lake Forest and join their father’s practice.

“It was interesting to become colleagues with men I’d known since I was a teenager,” explains David. “That probably made my transition into the group easier than most since there we already had such a good rapport with each other.”

Although both Dr. Ed and Dr. Bruce Hamming have since retired, David and Mark did get to work for several years with them before their careers with IBJI came to an end.

“There was actually a surgery where David, my dad, and I were all in the operating room together,” Mark remembers. “They didn’t really need all of us, but it was a chance for us to scrub in together so we did.”

But more than their father’s surgical techniques, it’s how their father treated patients and co-workers that is the legacy his sons want to continue.

“My dad had this way of making his patients feel like he had all day to talk with them. He really cared,” David says. “Surgeons also have a bad rap for not always treating the hospital staff with the respect they deserve. My dad wouldn’t tolerate that and we won’t either.”

Both brothers now enjoy being team doctors at a number of area high schools, while seeing patients from the community. “It’s pretty neat how this has all come full circle,” adds David. “When I see kids from Deer Path Middle School, I like to tell them how I went there. It’s great to be able
to see these kids in the office and then follow their care.”

While the brothers claim they chose their specialties independent of one another—never considering their mother’s ophthalmology path because of their “fear of operating on eyeballs”—they find great comfort practicing together.

“I think both David and I feel so lucky to have the colleagues that we do,” Mark explains. “They all are truly amazing. But to be able to run things by my brother is on a whole different level. Last week, I found the X-ray from when I broke my leg. Without telling him it was mine, I asked David how he would handle this broken leg of a 15-year-old kid. He said he would “cast it’,” Mark says with a laugh. “He gave the right answer. Dad would be proud.”

This Old House

A young family breathes new life into one of Wilmette’s oldest homes with the help of Scott Simpson Design + Build—modernizing it for how families live today with a nod to the home’s rich history. PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE VAN INWEGEN

With one small son and another on the way, Jeremy Hollis and his wife Amanda knew that their days of living in the city were numbered.

“We loved our life in Chicago, but once we had kids, we wanted things to be simpler,” says Hollis. “My wife’s sister lived in Evanston so we were familiar with Evanston and the surrounding area.”

Deciding to focus their new home search on East Wilmette, the couple found a house online that they had to see. “It was the only house we ever walked through,” Hollis says of the home they bought. “We knew it was what we were looking for.”

Surprising themselves, the Hollis family chose a grand, neoclassical home that was originally built in 1893. It is one of the oldest homes still standing in the neighborhood from this era. “We’re definitely not ‘old home’ people,” Hollis says. “We lived in a brand new condo in the city. But there was something about this house.”

The formal dining room welcomes guests as they enter the home’s gracious foyer and provides views to the living room and porch

Having undergone several renovations over the years, with some of its largest transformations taking place in the last decade, the homeowners previous to the Hollis family engaged Northbrook-based Scott Simpson Design + Build to help them with a two-story addition on the north side of the home.

“We researched information on the original home using resources at the Wilmette Historical Society,” says Scott Simpson, a founding partner of Scott Simpson Design + Build. “From old plans, pictures, and on-site research, we were able to find the story in what remained of the original home to make plans that would respect the vision of the home’s first architect.”

Simpson and his team were mindful of the Greek Revival details inherent to the home when they added dormer windows at the roofline and commissioned hand-carved ionic-style capitals to top the deteriorated exterior columns. Though now supported by the modern conveniences of radiant heat and a top-of-the-line furnace, original features like a wood-burning fireplace in a second- floor bedroom continue to convey the charm of the 1800s. In 2008, this home received a Wilmette Historic Preservation Award because of the work that had been done to preserve this piece of the community’s history.

The original stairwell windows were preserved throughout the loving restoration of the home

Now working with the Hollis family, Simpson, alongside his principal architect Amy Mangold and partner Thomas “TK” Kenny, has overseen the remodeling of the Hollis’ kitchen, a new mudroom, family room, master bedroom and bath, and a SoulCycle-inspired lower level gym that required significant digging under the Hollis’ home. The Simpson team also rebuilt the exterior entertainment porch, created the first fire pit in Wilmette, and laid a fresh bluestone and iron-gated front walkway. Additionally, the team replaced every window in the house—while preserving the original stairwell windows, and an oval window on the second level that was uncovered during construction.

“The oval window is a really cool story,” says Hollis, whose enthusiasm for his home is contagious. “We had to replace the siding on the exterior of the house. In some old pictures of the original home, we could see that there was an oval window on the southside of our home. Because we couldn’t see it any more, we just assumed it had been removed. But when Scott’s team took down the siding and drywall, they found this window from 1893, completely preserved—just covered up. We decided to restore it and today it looks great, just how the original architect had sketched it.”

Natural light now floods the updated kitchen which boasts handsome dark cabinetry and a sleek, yet functional, island

In addition to looking great, replacing and restoring the exterior of the home has helped the Hollis’ improve their house’s heating and cooling efficiency. “I’m a carpenter at heart—that’s how I started in this business—and if we can make the structure of a home better, I feel like I’ve done my job. It does cost a lot to tear off siding but if we can get in there and add more insulation, it is money well spent,” explains Simpson.

Today, the Hollis family has a new 3-car garage and an outdoor kitchen in the works with Simpson Design + Build.

South facade showing original 1893 oval window above the porch

“We couldn’t be happier working with Scott and Amy,” Hollis says. “I don’t want to say that we’re demanding, but we might be a little demanding,” Hollis adds with a laugh. “They’ve been great partners allowing us to have input. I think we’ve always ended up with a product better than we could have predicted.”

“Jeremy and his wife are just the kind of couple we need to have buying these older homes,” Simpson adds. “They appreciate what it means to own a piece of history and they’re willing to do what it takes to make it work for their family. Jeremy’s passion for these projects has been exceptional. Amy said it best when she told Jeremy that his home is lucky to have such incredible stewards because that is exactly what his family is.”

For more information about Scott Simpson Design + Build, visit scottsimpsondesignbuild.com.

Say Cheese!

As Caputo’s Cheese Market was on the brink of shutting its doors, Frank Visconti—a lifelong friend of the Caputos—agreed to take the helm. An artfully arranged antipasti platter made with Visconti’s meats and cheeses. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN SUBAR

“Thank you so much for buying Caputo’s and keeping this great staff,” says a regular to Frank Visconti. “Lake Forest needs this place.”

This is a sentiment that Visconti hears regularly at the Lake Forest institution he’s renamed Visconti Cheese & Deli, after the Caputo family decided to step away from its downtown Lake Forest store and focus more on the production side of their business that’s based in Melrose Park.

“I’m so glad that Nat came to me and we were able to strike a deal,” Visconti says of his friend he’s known all his life. “We’ve been talking about this on and off for a couple of years and people kept saying to me, ‘Frank, you have to buy Caputos.’”

The stars aligned in such a way to make made this all happen. Visconti ran a deli and importing business from a building he owned in west Lake Forest. Late last summer, someone approached him about buying the building and it was too good of a deal to pass up.

“I was just kind of sitting back and relaxing,” says Visconti. “My nephews took over my import business—we have more than 30,000 products in stores around the country—and I was enjoying the break. But then a couple of new opportunities came my way.”

A vast imported cheese selection makes this an unparalleled local destination for food lovers.

First up, the Altounians who own commercial real estate in the area reached out to Visconti to see if he might be interested in opening a restaurant in the retail strip near CVS like his father had once owned in Highwood called Little Italy.

“It’s in my blood,” he says, “and I couldn’t say no. We’re in the process of building out a 75-seat place with an all-open kitchen—Visconti’s Little Italy Ristorante—that will hopefully open at the end of April.”

An Italian panini, part of Visconti’s expanded menu of sandwiches.

While plans for this new eatery were under way, the Caputo family announced they were looking for someone to purchase their store. “I knew I had to do it, even with us opening the restaurant. Having the restaurant will actually be an asset to the deli.”

Visconti promises that all of the products the Caputos sold will continue to be offered. He just plans to add more.

“We’re going to have more pre-made dinners, sandwiches, and larger salads. We’re going to increase the catering we offer and add a delivery service,” he says.

Deli regulars will also notice that items they once saw occasionally will now be available every day.

“We’re going to have Italian beef, meatball subs, and sausage and pepper sandwiches made fresh daily in the kitchen of our nearby restaurant. We’re also going to add a second register to our counter so that people can get in and out of our store quickly. We’re really wanting to increase our lunch traffic so we want customers to be able to come by and pick something up and not have to wait in a long line for us to ring them up.” And by shuffling around the placement of where the to-go items will be placed, Visconti will have his cases filled with Italian desserts.

Having grown up in Lake Forest and graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1984, Visconti knows how important small businesses are to the vibrancy of our community.

“I’m really looking forward to summer,” he says. “I have a woodburning oven on the way here from Sicily that I can’t wait to set up on our patio outside of the store. I can see it now. A beautiful afternoon, a glass of wine, and the best pizza you’ll ever eat.”

Visconti Cheese & Deli is located at 231 East Wisconsin Avenue in Lake Forest, 847-482-0100.