Our Place

Avant, the rather avant-garde bicycle/coffee shop opened recently on Broad Street to rave reviews.
This follow up report is rosy, but maybe not as rosy as it might have been. It seems that the shop’s seemingly average sale price of a bicycle, at about seventeen hundred bucks each, is a bit high for the locals, although maybe coming in right-across-the-plate for people visiting up from Chicago. The coffee at Avant is okay, visitors say. Not as bitter as what is usually served at Starbucks, but not quite as smooth as the ‘pour overs’ laid down by Hal over at Geneva Java.

Where are the beans purchased from that serve as the foundational stuff rebranded as Avant coffee? Unknown. There is no Avant Coffee Bean Farm in any part of the accepted coffee farm world, but maybe there’s something new. Juan Valdez has been out of the business for awhile, and who knows, retirement with little more than a few old coffee sacks and a used up burro might have gotten to be a bit boring for the iconic old man. Does serving coffee mix well with the bicycle business? Avant is trying to prove that it definitely does. The Geneva Shore Report staff, having frequented the place on a pretty regular basis, is withholding judgment about that. Avant, outside of having a really expensive build-in and lease payment, has something to prove to the residents and visitors of Lake Geneva. The visitors are less important than the residents, when it comes to hoping people will show up on their bicycle for a cup of coffee in the middle of a cold February day. The summer is just ahead, however. The next newspaper review of the “real” Avant will appear in a February of 2018 issue, if Avant is still open for business in Lake Geneva at that time.

Incidentally, Avant refuses to carry the GSR, the Lake Geneva Regional News or the Beacon newspapers. Avant will only carry the Keefe real estate magazine, as its presentation of news. That might tell you something right there about the future of that place…..

Funky Kup just opened, as sort of an uplifting alternative to the ‘we serve coffee cold’ attitude over at Avant. The décor of this place is funky, the flow of the place outstanding, and then there’s Tony. His step-dad, his partner, is right in the background. This wonderful duo is primarily why you go into Funky Kup and enjoy their stuff. These two guys are personality, good humor and good will, all wrapped up in one big Funky Kup cup. Funky, and the guys, serve frozen yogurt with the freshest of fruit strewn all about their wild and wacky cups. If you want some terrific frozen yogurt and a load of great good cheer and fun, then Funky Kup is for you. There are some competitors serving yogurt around the local area but nobody is doing it like Funky Kup. Not even close.

Funky Kup

Funky Kup at 120 Broad Street is now open, and this place is as cool as it’s name. The owners, are Tony Besario and Jeff Boldt. The decor is inspired by California Funky Flare, with the customers able to create all kinds of crazy flavors of frozen yogurt in a Funky Kup. At just about half a buck an ounce be sure to stop in and see what kind of quirky combination you can come up with. Also, be sure to meet Tony and Jeff, as they are super people.

Arbor Day. A tree is going to be dedicated and then planted on behalf of the person found to be the most acceptable and having done the most to help Lake Geneva over the course of 2016. The person selected to have a tree planted in his honor is none other than Dan Winkler, the man who took the utility department and made it into the utility department that drove old Dixie down. The tree selected this year is an ash tree. At least that selection is appropriate to the man and the occasion.

Ash Trees Demise

Hoping the NEW ash tree in honor of Dan Winkler will survive the Emerald Ash Borer

Photo courtesy of Geneva Lake Front Property