When Brandon Carlson and Onyx Bart’s Japan-centric hobby shop, Tanuki’s Trading Post, closed last year due to issues with its Michigan Avenue building, the husband-and-wife team knew their journey wasn’t over. Instead, they took a page from their namesake, the Japanese raccoon dog mythologized as a shapeshifter.
“I was too stubborn to let it go under,” Carlson said.
After a tumultuous few months, the couple’s real estate agent told them the building that then housed Blue Owl Coffee in Old Town would soon be on the market. They jumped at the opportunity…