Environs

I want unique handmade jewelry. I want delicious pancake mix fresh from a farm in Main. I want the best smelling candles in colorful and reusable glass jars. I want fun and inspired gifts for my family and friends from «whiskey rocks» for my dad to pretty eyeglass holders for my mom. I found this Environs.
I even found a gift for my boyfriend’s parents (gourmet jams and jellies to perk up Christmas morning toast). Now that’s a one stop shop!
Thank you Maria Lisa for supplying my wants – and my needs – and for making my holiday shopping fun.

I recently walked by Environs and thought hey… when did this place get here? It seemed to just appear one day!
I stopped in to take a quick peak and met the awesome (and Italian I might add :)) Maria Lisa, she was basically still bringing things out. I picked up an awesome chocolate ginger bar and a container of Stonewall Kitchen Pumpkin Pancake Mix. This looks like it will be a fabulous place for gifts, she has beautiful candles, soaps, scarves, handbags, gourmet food items and paper goods not only are they all mostly organic, they are also unique. For instance, she sells these amazing scarves that have three different sides to them, it’s hard to explain but believe me, they are gorgeous. Maria Lisa told me she would soon be carrying jewelry at Environs, I plan on heading back in to pick up some holiday gifts for friends and family soon.

Welcome, Maria Lisa, down-​to-​earth proprietress of Environs, a new and atypically unsnooty Southport corridor boutique with first class stuff and a lady with a first class smile and personality.
The gestalt of Environs is good taste, not conspicuous consumption like so many other Southport locales.
I stumbled upon Environs unexpectedly yesterday while heading elsewhere for a lame-​ass gift certificate. I needed sort of a reverse housewarming gift for a chef friend, and Maria Lisa assured me an affordable small jar of truffle flavored olive oil would be a big hit, and it certainly was.
Maria Lisa is engaging and new in Chicago via Pittsburgh and New Jersey, where she established and operated earlier iterations of Environs since 1994.
She’s brave, too. I remarked that she picked one a hell of a time to open a retail store, and asked if she knows what sort of sales per square foot she must achieve to prosper here in these Southport «environs,’ (sorry for the pun). She smiled, undaunted, and remarked essentially that the timing is as good as any, and she was happy to be here in Chicago.
I suspect Environs will prosper because the best seems good enough for Maria Lisa. Fabulous olive oil was just one of the first class items I saw here. Soaps, oils, and more abound. The inventory is just arriving.
My bet is Environs is a holiday gift smash, and more.
More to come, more to say. Maria Lisa opened Environs today.
Check her out.