When Rediscover Records was in it's planning stages, the main requirement for the storefront was to be in downtown Elgin. If it wasn't to be in downtown Elgin, it wasn't to be at all.

With the gentrification of the U.S. for several years, downtown businesses gradually dwindled, drifted, wept, and became tumbleweeds while the malls and big box stores were striving as they were strewn all over the country. Downtown Elgin is nothing like that. The tumbleweeds are leaving. Color me impressed with all things Elgin.

Downtown Elgin is historic as it is "cool". It has an urban feel, even though in the suburbs. It very much feels like a city without the suburban sprawl. Sure there are pockets along Randall Road in Elgin that look like "Any Suburb USA" but downtown has a very "Ma & Pa" feel to it. It is the best kept secret in the area.

There are wonderful book shops such as Elgin Books, several great restaurants like Villa Verone, Elgin Public House, Al's Cafe (Pictured at the top. It's an old bank building), El Faro Mexican Restaurant, Ravenheard Coffee, Domani Coffee, Top Notch Tattoos, Hill Top Skate Shop, Toom Toom Thai, Bangkok House, and so much more. I guess "so much more" acts as a qualifier for any businesses I may have overlooked or didn't link.

Also pictured is a image by loco artist Barb Broeske. This is of Medusa's Night Club with Elgin Books in the lower right. In case you were wondering, Rediscover Records is next to the book store.

This isn't your father's downtown Elgin. Sure, it may not be from the hey day of the 1940's and 1950's when it was a thriving downtown but it certainly is not the blighted monstrosity that it was in late 1970's to the early 1990's. To paraphrase an old Elgin slogan, "Elgin, It's Happening Here"

That's the PSA from Rediscover Records for the day. Now, let's go play some records!