Waft this Way

By Lisa Arnett
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Embrace fragrance-making at Spark Scent Collective

The one-story building at 128 N. Addison Ave. in downtown Elmhurst has housed a number of businesses in its lifetime: a glass shop in the 1930s, a sewing machine repair shop in the ’50s and ’60s, and, most recently, a dry cleaner. Over the last year, Lauren Giacalone has been hard at work restoring and remodeling the building to open Spark Scent Collective.

Giacalone calls Spark, which opened in May, a “bespoke fragrance blending and gathering house.” It’s not squarely a store, restaurant, or bar, but rather a bit of all of the above. Customers can blend their own home fragrance (either a candle, diffuser, or room spray); shop ready-made fragrances; or linger over cocktails, mocktails, and snacks. 

The fragrance-making side of the business was inspired by a 2022 trip to Lake Geneva, where Giacalone visited The Candle Mercantile. “They do fragrance blending, and I thought: This is so fun, we could use more things in downtown Elmhurst that are something besides eating and drinking. We have Pinot’s Palette and the York Theatre, and that’s it. It was incepted in my brain at that point in time.” 

Customers start the process by choosing a vessel—from simple glass jars or bottles to one-of-a-kind vintage finds—and then select what fragrance oils to blend into a custom scent. Prices start at $35. You can consult a laminated fragrance-building guide—“Like a potions student at Hogwarts,” Giacalone says—or play it more fast and loose. “We like to ask: When you’re cooking, do you like to follow a recipe or do you like to follow your heart?” 

The food and beverage aspects of Spark evolved out of the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. While working in human resources consulting for the federal government, Giacalone visited her stepmom in Florida for spring break with her two children and ended up quarantining there during the pandemic lockdown. “My kids were doing e-learning while both my stepmom and I were working out of her house,” Giacalone says. “The days were really crazy, so to come back together and decompress, we started doing a daily happy hour where we’d make a grazing board and a fun cocktail. My little ones would call it ‘happy day.’ ” 

Giacalone’s grazing boards became more and more elaborate, and, once back in Elmhurst, she started a catering biz. “I have raging ADHD, and I’m an Aquarius so if I have an idea, I roll with it,” she says. “I recruited a few girlfriends whose work had slowed down during COVID, and we called it Hive House, because beehives are run by women.” Now visitors to Spark can customize a grazing board for $26 per person. “It’s about 16 ounces of food per person—very substantial,” she says. 

As for Spark’s “gathering house” moniker, that was inspired by Giacalone’s annual visits to Europe. “I love the pubs and outdoor courtyards where people just hang out, and I wanted to create something like that,” she says. She turned the alleyway next to the building into a courtyard hideaway worthy of lingering, with topiaries, string lights, and tiny mosaic-top tables. A patio out back features umbrella-topped tables and yard games. 

Spark is available to rent for private events like bridal showers or birthday parties, and Giacalone is hosting events for the public in partnership with other local business owners—think mahjong lessons, floral arranging, wine tasting, and tarot card reading. 

Giacalone hopes that the community will embrace Spark for its many facets. “Everyone thinks you have to come in and do fragrance, but that’s not the case,” she says. “You can just come in and browse our retail area and have a drink, or come in and have a bite to eat and hang out. We really want to act as a third space.” 

Photos: Amara Andrew/Maven