The lines form about an hour before the 9 a.m. opening time, with customers waiting outside Fat Peach Bakery hoping to grab a treat like a strawberry milk croissant. Owners David Castillo and Kerrie Breuer opened their small bakery on August 31 at 2907 S. Archer Avenue, replacing the former Bridgeport Bakery, a neighborhood icon for nearly five decades.
The lines start early at Fat Peach.
Judging by the long weekend lines, the neighborhood has embraced the change. Fat Peach specializes in laminated pastries, and they’ve quickly sold out of croissants and Danishes while open three days a week — Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Breuer’s strawberry milk-filled croissants, a play on Strawberry Quik, has been one of the stars. Another highlight is a mushroom Danish which uses a paste made of sous vide mushrooms and English cheddar mornay sauce. It’s then twice-baked with an enoki mushroom conserva.
“It takes me forever to make all of that — I don’t know of any place that does that,” Castillo says.
Mushroom Danish
Kerrie Breuer and David Castillo are Bridgeport residents.
There’s no online ordering option, for now. Castillo and Breuer have thought about opening on more days, but they want to ease into any expansion plans. Castillo’s resume includes working for Sodexo at the Shedd Aquarium and with Hogsalt, working at Restoration Hardware in Gold Coast. He worked for Rich Labriola and at White Oak Tavern in Lincoln Park. Breuer moved to Chicago in June 2019 from North Dakota. Her background is in cake decorating and she appeared on Amazon Studios’Dr. Seuss Baking Challenge. The two met while working together at a Chicago bakery. Castillo, a Mexican American, grew up in suburban Blue Island. Breuer grew up in North Dakota after being adopted from South Korea.
Castillo visited Mexico City as a child, and the bakeries there — using simple ingredients and techniques — left an impression. He wondered why he couldn’t find similar pastries in Chicago. He credits White Oak’s opening chef, John Asbaty, with sharing a similar philosophy in using the best ingredients in his dishes. That showed Castillo that bringing those memories of Mexico City to Chicago was possible. But not everything is hyperlocal and they’ll source from all over. Sourcing tropical fruits, for example, is a challenge during midwestern winters.
Fat Peach replaces Bridgeport Bakery, which was open for nearly 50 years.
Most of the business is to-go, but there is seating.
Fat Peach specializes in laminated pastries.
Fat Peach was inspired by Mexican bakery culture.
“This place is kind of a mishmash of the best flour, local flour, butter we can get,” Castillo says. “But we also we also like to use fruit in our pastry — because who doesn’t want that? It’s a nice reminder of, you know, how sweet life can be.”
They’re using Four Letter Word Coffee, and for Fat Peach’s mocha, they’re mixing chocolate and cinnamon from Mexico in their syrups. They’re looking for ways to incorporate more Mexican flavors into their pastries, waiting to see what their customers toward.
Breuer left Korea when she was 6 and grew up with a white military family in America. As a teen, she spent a year in South Korea, familiarizing herself with the culture (she jokes that she sometimes considers herself a banana). Flavors like red bean, sesame, and matcha could be incorporated into future pastries. There have been tasty experiments like a kimchi-pimento Danish with English cheddar, and roasted potatoes with rosemary. Breuer wants balanced flavors that work versus gimmickery.
The couple looked at spaces for six months and had targeted a location in suburban La Grange, but that deal fell through. The two are Bridgeport residents and pounded after Castillo noticed a “for lease” sign. It wasn’t exactly a turnkey operation. Beyond cleanup, the couple needed to purchase some new equipment which they found via Facebook Marketplace.
Kerrie Breuer fills pastries.
Let there be quiche.
As Chicago’s demographics change and tastes continue to evolve, Fat Peach has a different bent compared to its European-focused predecessor. Customers won’t find Bridgeport Bakery’s sausage and bacon buns (the bakery officially closed in October 2021). They might not find paczkis either. Castillo says he doesn’t want to lean on the Polish doughnuts to sustain business. He’d rather Fat Peach be busy with unique offerings regularly.
As far as the name? Yes, it’s no longer stonefruit season, but nothing on the menu ever contained peaches. The couple just loves puns.
“I feel like everyone, like, wants to have a fat peach nowadays — especially the ladies,” Breuer says with a laugh.
Fat Peach Bakery, 2907 S. Archer Avenue, open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
In hindsight, Tuesday morning’s news that Milk Bar would finally arrive in Chicago shouldn’t be a surprise. A release blasted the news nationwide, an announcement befitting of Tosi’s stature. Milk Bar will take over the corner cafe in the Hoxton Chicago lobby at 200 N. Green Street sometime this winter.
For years, superstar baker Christina Tosi has teased Chicagoans as her crew at Milk Bar searched for a space. Milk Bar held pop-ups featuring the confection formerly known as Crack Pie — renamed in 2019 to the more pleasant Milk Bar Pie. As the furor over expansion cooled during the pandemic with the restaurant industry battling for survival, Milk Bar quietly set up a ghost bakery in Chicago where locals could order baked goods for delivery.
In a competitive market, Milk Bar protected its brand. They sued the owners of a River North venue in 2019, JoJo’s Milk Bar arguing the name confused customers into thinking the two were associated. JoJo’s ultimately rebranded to JoJo’s Shake Bar to avoid trademark infringement.
Milk Bar’s official arrival comes in the form of a partnership with Boka Restaurant Group, which manages Hoxton’s food and beverage operations. Boka has two restaurants in the hotel, Chris Pandel’s Cira on the first floor and Stephanie Izard’s Cabra on the rooftop, with a basement bar, Lazy Bird.
Cookies, cakes, pies, and truffles are some of Milk Bar’s offerings.Milk Bar
Milk Bar’s soft-serve ice cream is also available.Milk Bar
The Milk Bar menu will include cookies in flavors like cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow, confetti, and blueberry and cream. Look for cake truffles, and whole cakes and pies also available in slices. Soft-serve ice cream, like the popular cereal milk, milkshakes, and Milk Bar breads are also planned.
Founded in 2008, the chain counts 12 locations in Boston, LA, Las Vegas, New York, and Washington, D.C. Tosi is from Cleveland, and Chicago marks Milk Bar’s first shop in the Midwest. They’ve opened in hotels before including at the Ace in New York.
Milk Bar will also pander to locals; the release teases a Chicago-style hot dog iteration of their stuffed bagel specialty, called a Bagel Bomb. There’s also an upcoming cookie collaboration with a mysterious Chicago institution.
Boka and Tosi make for a powerful duo, one capable of opening opportunities not available to most. Chicago has no shortage of bakeries. Good Ambler, the bakery cafe run by the owners of Thalia Hall, is a few doors north of the Hoxton. Another national favorite, Levain — a New York-based chain known for its chunky cookies — debuted in Chicago in 2022 around the corner on Randolph Restaurant Row. Meanwhile, the space that once housed another bakery, Sugargoat, the sweet emporium from Boka partner Izard, remains vacant. At the Hoxton, Milk Bar will take advantage of hotel guests, which might limit competition and the surrounding impact. Milk Bar will also team with third-party delivery services.
The expansion is reminiscent of another national brand, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams — which has a nearby location on Randolph. Like Tosi, Jeni Britton Bauer is from Ohio (Columbus). Both Jeni’s and Milk Bar routinely draw long lines outside their stores. The two are also James Beard Award winners. Tosi has a pair of medallions, winning Rising Chef of The Year in 2012 and Oustanding Pastry Chef in 2015 while working for Momofuku in New York.
Milk Bar at the Hoxton, 200 N. Green Street, planned for a winter opening.
Four and half months after suddenly closing stores in Chicago, Texas, and Washington, D.C., Foxtrot will attempt a comeback by opening its first store this week. Outfox Hospitality, the company that ran those 33 stores filed for bankruptcy in May, leaving a wake of angry vendors, workers scrambling to find new jobs, and accusations of breaking federal labor law. Since then, a new entity has been formed by the chain’s co-founder who says he’ll return the company to its roots by showcasing cool snacks made by local artisans and avoid the pitfalls that lead to the chain’s failure.
The first store is scheduled to open on Thursday, September 5 at 23 W. Maple Street in Gold Coast, according to a news release. An Old Town location at the corner of North Avenue and Wells Street will follow, though an opening date hasn’t been announced. A few vendors Eater spoke with last week said one of the reasons they joined the comeback effort is Foxtrot isn’t rushing to reopen all the stores they closed. Mike LaVitola, who founded Foxtrot in 2013, and is now chairman of the newly named Foxtrot Cafe & Market. He was part of an effort that bought Foxtrot’s assets in an auction for $2.5 million. LaVitola told Eater he wanted to focus on “getting it right” at individual locations rather than opening multiple stores at once. The initial plan announced was to open about 15 stores scattered in Chicago and Texas, with the majority in Chicago. There are two new details from the company’s latest release: They’re not specifying the number of stores anymore (last week, LaVitola said they were negotiating leases in unannounced locations including Wicker Park and Willis Tower.) The other details might be bitter for those in Austin, Texas, as it appears Foxtrot is focusing on reopening in Dallas, at least in the interim. Austin was home to four locations.
The closures caused a nationwide commotion in April, with a combination of anger (a class-action lawsuit alleging Outfox violated federal law by failing to provide proper notice for a mass layoff is pending; October 1 is the next court date), sadness (customers who lived nearby grew attached, one famously bemoaned moving to their residence to be near a Foxtrot), and resentment (some South Siders who had never been to a Foxtrot wondered why folks were being so dramatic). Foxtrot had found a niche in North Side Chicago neighborhoods as a corner store with trendy snacks, a coffee bar, and a cafe space to get work done or to sip wine or beer. It was a kind of third place for former office workers who had transitioned into a hybrid work-from-home schedule during the pandemic. Foxtrot saw an opportunity to scale, and after merging with local Chicago grocer Dom’s Kitchen & Market — which also had its own ambitious expansion plans — in 2022, Foxtrot announced intentions to open as many as 100 locations by 2024. By that point, LaVitola was no longer chief executive officer. He says he was pushed out to an advisory role. Foxtrot began opening in neighborhoods with pricey real estate like Fulton Market and at Wrigley Field. They were spending in the hope of getting noticed.
That detail is important as vendors have been gunshy about joining Foxtrot 2.0 and worried the chain would repeat mistakes. LaVitola told them he wasn’t involved in a leadership role at Outfox. Some have accepted LaVitola’s reassurances, saying they need Foxtrot’s customer base. Others have picked other retail routes.
But, as LaVitola points out, Foxtrot is about more than gourmet gummies or hot dog-flavored potato chips. The coffee bar was “the biggest revenue driver” — it was so much that nearby coffee shops were losing business to Foxtrot. The previous interaction of Foxtrot made a big deal of partnering with Philadelphia’s La Colombe. That relationship will continue, but the new Foxtrot will also stock items from local roasters Metric and Kyoto Black. They’re also adding new food items to complement its morning breakfast tacos, which will remain. Look for new panini sandwiches, salads, lunch bowls, and cookies.
Expect to see growing pains. As of last week, LaVitola wasn’t sure if customers would need to create new profiles on the store’s app, which was vital to the chain’s business. Before it was a brick-and-mortar, Foxtrot used its app for liquor and beer delivery. Still, LaVitola says he’s committed to “delivering an awesome experience in the stores.” One way is making sure customers better connect with the stories behind the people who make their products. He feels the previous iteration of Foxtrot relied too much on its website to do that.
“There’s just going to be a lot more of that content — for lack of a better word — and storytelling happening in the store versus online,” LaVitola says. “Online is still really important, and it’s still there, but I think that gap is going to be bridged.”
When Foxtrot relaunches in September and reopens its Gold Coast store, the chain of shoppy shops will stock items from many local brands familiar to fans.
Foxtrot co-founder Mike LaVitola is back leading the newly formed company, separate from Outfox Hospitality, the entity that filed for bankruptcy in May. . It’s supported by New York-based private holding company Further Point Enterprises. The new Foxtrot has gathered 45 former vendors to be part of the relaunch. The list is packed with Chicago brands like Metric Coffee, Marz Community Brewing, All Together Now, Big Fat Cookie, Do-Rite Donuts, Tempesta Market, and Freeman House Chai.
But not all brands will return. Some refused, frustrated by the sudden closures, saying they’re focusing on other retail opportunities. Others, for example, Tortello, the Wicker Park pasta restaurant, weren’t asked to return. Foxtrot does have an agreement with Gemma Foods, a West Town pasta maker. While LaVitola praised the product, he says the new version of Foxtrot will be more curated.
“While it sounds good that you have all this choice, you actually kind of lose your point of view,” LaVitola says. “And it just becomes, you know, it becomes too hard to manage.”
LaVitola adds he’s seen a lot of brands he’s wanted to add over the last year or two: “Now I get the chance to do that, which is just exciting.”
While the initial plan was to open eight Foxtrots in Chicago, with Old Town following Gold Coast, more locations are on their way including “a couple in Texas.” In June, LaVitola floated the comeback would include around 15 stores total. There are no plans to reopen in D.C. LaVitola, who founded Foxtrot in 2013, teased the unannounced reopenings of locations on Wicker Park’s Six Corners and inside the Willis Tower: “We’re looking to open new stores once we feel like we’ve got our operations, just totally, totally nailed down in the stores that we have,” LaVitola says. He adds there will also be changes to the coffee and hot food options with details upcoming.
Many brands have benefited from selling items at Foxtrot, which gives them a chance to grow their customer base and draw attention from bigger national retailers. However, much of that goodwill evaporated on April 23 when the chain, the 33 locations scattered in Chicago, Texas, and Washington, D.C., closed without warning. For the past four months, vendors have been licking their wounds trying to figure out how to make up for lost sales and inventory. After LaVitola regained control of Foxtrot, part of a group that made a $2.2 million winning auction bid in May, Foxtrot 2.0 began making its pitches to vendors, attempting to convince them they had learned from past mistakes, that the new venture would return Foxtrot to its roots in aiding small businesses by showcasing their trendy snacks to diners who frequent chic restaurants with disposable income to spend on items made by well-known chefs.
LaVitola says it’s been a whirlwind few months as he “gets the band back together” in talking with the old company’s former workers, landlords, and vendors, using them to knit the new entity. His role changed at the original Foxtrot in April 2023 after the company named Liz Williams as chief executive officer. Lavitola says he was no longer in control of the company, even though listed as a non-executive chairman: “Probably advisor is the best title,” he says.
In November 2023, Foxtrot would later morph into Outfox Hospitality after merging with Dom’s Kitchen & Market, a two-location grocery chain that also had designs on expansion.
Vendors who spoke with Eater shared trust issues and worried that Foxtrot needed accountability for putting hundreds of workers out of jobs without warning. Many weren’t paid for their food delivered, which remained at stores, visible through windows. Some received court notices as Foxtrot’s original company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. They were free to fill out paperwork to pursue payments, but vendors had little hope that they would recover any money.
LaVitola and company were involved in several email exchanges and meetings to convince vendors to return. Justin Doggett of cold brew coffee maker Kyoto Black is part of the relaunch and was assured that the mistakes of the old Foxtrot wouldn’t be repeated as LaVitola wasn’t involved in that version of the company. He saw it as a positive when he saw former Foxtrot workers were back with the company. After Foxtrot closed, Kyoto Black was left scrambling looking for ways to sell its coffee to make up for lost sales.
Doggett acknowledges there’s a narrative of LaVitola capitalizing on a devalued company, snatching it up, and restarting it without accountability. He says that’s not true.
“The guy who founded it was not involved when this happened,” Doggett says. “…He saw an opportunity to kind of take this company that he started and buy it back and kind of like, uh, revitalize the image and the mission of it.”
Foxtrot has begun offering cash on delivery to more vendors. That’s not a change for wine and beer makers but for other vendors — especially ones who make their items fresh, items that aren’t shelf stable — payment up front provides peace of mind. LaVitola mentions improving vendor communication about the number and frequency of deliveries and marketing support. Vendors also mentioned they don’t have long-term agreements in place. They can leave if the situation goes sideways.
One vendor that wasn’t listed on the Foxtrot’s news release was Pretty Cool Ice Cream, the dessert company founded by former Publican pastry chef Dana Salls Cree. LaVitola says the provided list was preliminary. Customers will still be able to buy Pretty Cool bars at Foxtrot. Salls Cree confirms Foxtrot has ordered an assortment of her ice cream shop’s classic flavors. Pretty Cool wants to take advantage of Foxtrot customers who use the chain to connect with local products, Salls Cree says. However, there won’t be any special flavor collaborations in the near future. As Foxtrot remained in limbo, Salls Cree began partnering with other parties; Foxtrot lost its place on the collaboration schedule. Given the abrupt shutdown of the original venture and given how the company left so many high and dry, Salls Cree took her time weighing the pros and cons of returning to Foxtrot.
“It’s such a sliver of our business,” she says. “But the question that keeps coming in — ’why is this taking up so much emotional bandwidth?’”
James Beard Award winner Mindy Segal says she hasn’t been doing business with Foxtrot since Mindy’s Bakery opened in Bucktown. Foxtrot has sold Mindy’s branded hot chocolate mixes and other items. Segal says they have plenty of other business but would consider working with Foxtrot in the future.
Meanwhile, Marz Community Brewing will once again sell beer and other beverages at Foxtrot. As the craft beer market has imploded, it’s important for Marz to be available in as many stores as possible, says Ed Marszewski. He’s hopeful the new ownership can clean up the “garbage fire” left by the previous regime.
“They are going back to doing right to small guys, indies, etc. a platform,” Marszewski says. “We need places like this. Pre-merger, they really helped small manufacturers get traction. I think they want to do right again. Plus, they didn’t screw us over — our invoices were always paid.”
Two key North Side Foxtrot locations will not be part of the comeback plan led by the chain’s founder. CoStar reports that Hotel Chocolat, a company founded in the U.K. — and recently purchased by Mars — has leased the spaces at 900 W. Armitage Avenue in Lincoln Park and 3334 N. Southport Avenue in Lakeview.
Mars, which manufactures Twix and M&Ms from its Goose Island campus, paid about $662 million for the premium chocolate maker with 126 locations in the U.K., Japan, Ireland, St. Lucia, and Gibraltar. According to its website, the company began in 1994 and opened its first shop in 2004. They sell drinking chocolates, gift boxes, and more while “challenging the status quo for cacao farming.” A New York location opened in 2018 but has since closed.
The Lincoln Park Foxtrot shared space with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Coincidentally, a Jeni’s remains open a few doors from the Southport location in Lakeview. Foxtrot was an upscale corner store that sold trendy snacks and stocked some items made by those within Chicago’s restaurant community. That includes Pretty Cool Ice Cream, the brand created by Dana Salls Cree, the former pastry chef at the Publican.
Foxtrot founder Mike LaVitola has been busy reestablishing vendor relationships since the chain suddenly closed in April. LaVitola was not in charge of Outfox Hospitality when it ceased operations, and the newly formed venture is separate from Foxtrot’s former parent which also included the two Dom’s Kitchen & Market stores in Old Town and Lincoln Park. LaVitola has attempted to distance himself from Outfox’s failures in convincing former vendors to work with his new company.
The sudden closure extinguished goodwill with vendors who haven’t been paid for their orders. Workers have filed lawsuits alleging the company didn’t properly inform them of the closures while demanding backpay.
Last week, liquor applications began to pop up in city records showing plans to reopen stores in Old Town, Fulton Market, Wicker Park, and Gold Coast. Earlier this summer, LaVitola said he planned on reopening 15 stores in Chicago and Austin, Texas. The majority would be in Chicago. LaVitola founded Foxtrot in 2015 and is chairman of the new entity set to revive the chain. It’s backed by Further Point Enterprises, an investment fund. At a May auction, it paid $2.2 million for Foxtrot’s assets.
It’s official: the co-founder of Foxtrot on Wednesday, June 5 announced plans to reopen select stores in Chicago, Dallas, and Austin, Texas, this summer. Rumors have swirled for weeks that Mike LaVitola was plotting a comeback. Some former Foxtrot workers, the same employees who weren’t given any warning when parent company Outfox Hospitality suddenly ceased operations on April 23, have been asked by managers about their interest in coming back.
When Foxtrot’s assets went up for auction on May 10, speculation mounted that the $2.2 million winning bid was from a firm connected with LaVitola. Observers who attended the online auction pointed out that only one party, Further Point Enterprises, made a bid. Little is known about Further Point. Since the auction, the firm’s website has since gone private. But before that, it had already listed Foxtrot as part of its portfolio. Likewise, an email account linked to the site didn’t respond to a message requesting a comment.
After weeks without comment, other than a statement posted to social media and Foxtrot’s website, a news release sent Wednesday morning confirmed the speculation: “Reopened stores will maintain the same layout and merchandising, focusing on small and local makers.” LaVitola tells Crain’s that the venture is a totally new company, as they’ve secured the original intellectual property and new/renewed several leases.
But conspicuously absent from the statement was any mention of the Washington, D.C. area, where Foxtrot had seven stores scattered across the District proper, Virginia, and Maryland. There were 33 Foxtrot stores in Chicago and eight in Texas. A list of which stores would reopen wasn’t immediately available. Additionally, last month’s auction didn’t include the properties’ leases with inventory still on the shelves.
But this doesn’t mean there’s a cohesive plan for all of the former locations. A Foxtrot in Lincoln Park along Armitage Avenue, which shared space with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, is a special case. Jeni’s has vacated, and there have been rumblings about angry former employees who may have taken a few souvenirs as parting gifts after losing their jobs.
LaVitola, a University of Chicago graduate, co-founded Foxtrot in 2014 with a focus on delivering snacks to customers via an app; the properties the company owned were more or less mini-warehouses. The company evolved toward a shoppy-shop corner-store model, carrying upscale goods from local vendors. It built a chic brand and drew the attention of customers who regularly spent money at trendy restaurants — Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits, Tortello, and Mindy’s Bakery were among the vendors who sold products at Foxtrot. Eventually, the brand opened locations in prestigious spaces like Fulton Market, Wrigley Field, and inside Willis Tower. Just before the closure, they inked a deal with La Colombe Coffee Roasters for its cafes.
The company combined with Dom’s Kitchen & Market in late 2023 and formed Outfox Hospitality. Previously the two companies weren’t direct competitors, but they shared space in the retail world. Dom’s, with locations in Lincoln Park and Old Town, positioned itself as a challenger to shops like Whole Foods, an upscale traditional grocery store with a modest food court and a cafe. No bids were placed on Dom’s assets during the May 10 auction. That leaves the two existing locations, plus a planned River North entry, in limbo. Dom’s, like Foxtrot, sought to continue extending reach and influence. Foxtrot pushed aggressive expansion, with LaVitola and company securing nearly $194 million in funding.
Though the new Foxtrot aims to supply customers with what seems to be largely the same coffees, ice creams, chips, and condiments from local vendors, it may take time to rebuild trust. Eater spoke with several former Foxtrot vendors; none of those interviewed were contacted by the company at the time of publication. They saw the reopening news through a post on Foxtrot’s Instagram shared Wednesday morning, which reads, “a new Foxtrot with some old friends. Coming soon.”
The account disabled comments on the post, likely to avoid becoming a soapbox for frustrated workers and vendors, as formerly employed workers had on previous social media announcements. Foxtrot remains the defendant in several lawsuits alleging the company violated the state WARN Act, which mandates companies to notify workers if they plan mass layoffs.
There are still unanswered questions about the future of the company’s product inventory and unpaid invoices. There are also ethical questions about Foxtrot, a company that offered no severance to workers and took away their jobs without warning. Some vendors worry that working with the new Foxtrot will damage their brands.
This post will be updated later Wednesday with more information.
On the first official weekend of farmers market season in Logan Square, a report about food and produce vendors being shunned in favor of non-food vendors has many questioning the direction organizers are taking the massively popular event which returns Sunday, May 12 at a new site.
In years past, many non-licensed non-food vendors, or vintage sellers, have set up shop outside the boundaries of the market, capitalizing on the crowds without paying the Logan Square chamber vendor fees. Police fielded complaints about these unsanctioned vendors, as neighbors cited traffic and safety concerns. Quietly, many farmers market vendors questioned if it was fair for them to pay fees while the vintage vendors — selling goods like clothes and art — took advantage.
Block Club Chicago’s story from earlier in the week shared publicly what many Logan Square vendors had thought for years, that market organizers cared more about creating a summer festival vibe. This distorts the focus of a traditional farmers market. For example, Green City, the not-for-profit organization that holds markets in Lincoln Park, West Loop, and Avondale (in the winter), has a mission statement in which they pledge to secure “the future of food by deepening support for sustainable farmers, educating our community, and expanding access to locally-grown food.”
But not every shopping mall is upscale with a Coach store. The neighborhood often defines a shopping center or farmers market. That philosophy is consistent with responses from the Logan Square chamber. Eater sent questions to Nilda Esparza, executive director of the chamber — she also organizes the market. Esparza, with the aid of the chamber’s board, emailed responses.
“We love our farmers, and we serve more and more farmers every year,” a portion of the chamber’s emails reads. “While there may be a broad-based understanding of what farmers markets are supposed to do in general, the Logan Square Farmers Markets specifically is organized by the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce.”
The chamber also argues that having more non-food stalls better serves the community.
“The Chamber supports farmers by connecting them to the city dwellers in Logan Square — and many other Chicago neighborhoods — because it believes that this in turn supports businesses and residents in our community,” the chamber’s email continues. “The inclusion of non-food vendors serves the dual purpose of bringing more business to farmers and exposing more people to all that Logan Square and Avondale have to offer.”
While acknowledging the effort to put on the market, vendors feel Logan Square could still be better organized. Vendors tell Eater they feared retaliation for criticizing Esparza’s decisions, including seemingly being arbitrarily moved around the market to give up prime space to non-food stalls. Hunting around for a stall is hard in a crowd, which impacts sales: “It’s hard to scramble last minute,” one food vendor says.
Several vendors shared frustration with Esparza about erratic scheduling and said she should take cues from what other markets do. A vendor mentioned they’d like to trade dates with other vendors, but felt they couldn’t even propose the idea thanks to Esparza’s demeanor. Vendors echoed Block Club’s report, that vendors were told not to speak with the media with any concerns. They weren’t threatened with retaliation, but say it was implied.
The loss of the nearby Discount Megamall, razed in 2016 to make room for a building that includes Andros Taverna and Target along Milwaukee Avenue, may have impacted the farmers market. “Vintage sellers,” or as the chamber calls them, “bazaar vendors,” lost space to sell their wares. Some who might have found a home at the Megamall set up shop in the park next to the market.
The chamber found itself in a tricky position with safety and traffic concerns mounting. The market was already congested enough. The city’s licensing departments, often criticized in the restaurant world for being slow in recognizing a problem, aren’t helping.
“We believe that the safest and most productive way to operate the farmers market in the neighborhood, in which we all live and work, is by including non-food vendors under the Logan Square Farmers Market umbrella,” the chamber board responds. “We intend to do this at least until the city provides a licensing rubric for these informal economies.”
Chef Sarah Stegner is a co-founder of Green City and recalls the story of Judy Schad, who founded Capriole Goat Cheese. Schad sold goat cheese at Green City Lincoln Park about seven years ago but found a home at Dom’s — customers can also find the cheese at Whole Foods and other retailers. The farmers market served as an incubator for Capriole.
The role of incubator is one that Logan Square’s farmers market wants to play, but not just for food vendors. One vendor disparagingly compared the market to a “glorified food hall.”
Back in 2008, legendary chef and writer Alice Waters visited Chicago and heaped praise on Green City’s mission. Chef Art Smith remembers Waters’ words, particularly her mention of Paris, and the impact the moving of its massive outdoor market, Les Helles, had on the city and its food culture. American dynamics are different, but he sees a similar transformation taking place in Fulton Market, where development has long displaced the meatpacking industry. There’s danger in rupturing connections with foodways in favor of so-called neighborhood revitalization.
The Logan Square chamber, in a news release, said it’s thankful for Block Club’s report and tried to save face with the public.
“We can’t comment on the accuracy of peoples’ feelings,’’ a portion of the chamber board’s emailed response to Eater reads. “We trust that they feel and believe that the market is fundamentally unfair. While this saddens us, we remain optimistic. We do know that while we strive constantly for both fairness and transparency in pursuit of our mission to support the business and community of Logan Square and Avondale, we will inevitably disappoint some people along the way.”
In April, when Outfox Hospitality suddenly closed all 33 of its Foxtrot locations in Chicago, Texas, and the D.C. area, plus a pair of Dom’s Kitchen & Market locations on Chicago’s North Side, about a 1,000 workers lost their jobs without warning and its store vendors scrambled for solutions. Outfox has made little public comment and offered little communication with their ex-employees.
In particular, Foxtrot had built a big brand fixated on the North Side of Chicago. It was a hybrid corner store, cafe, bar, and Instacart competitor. The chain traits were similar to af 7-Eleven, but instead of Slurpees, Foxtrot sold natural wine, craft beer, and gourmet items made by well-known chefs. Weeks after the closure, the stores have been left in various conditions. Some have been papered up. Others look ready for the start of business with fully stocked shelves. As of early May, the site of a proposed Dom’s in River North still has “coming soon” signage.
Outfox was powered by venture capital. When Dom’s and Foxtrot merged in November 2023, Foxtrot had already reportedly raised $194 million in total funding. Under the Outfox umbrella, both brands had designs on expansion, and Foxtrot was planning to debut in New York. Now, Foxtrot’s assets are about to be sold via auction. No bankruptcy filing has been made.
Read through Eater Chicago’s coverage of Foxtrot and Dom’s for a clearer picture of what the shutters mean, and bookmark this page for future updates.
The debris continues to fall in Chicago where earlier this week, the city saw all 15 Foxtrot convenience stores and two Dom’s Kitchen & Market locations suddenly close. Ex-employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against Outfox Hospitality, claiming they weren’t given proper notice of mass layoffs.
Protestors assembled Friday morning outside of Foxtrot’s commissary in Pilsen, but legal experts remain divided on whether Outfox will be held legally accountable. Earlier this year, unionized ex-workers at the Signature Room won their lawsuit that accused restaurant management of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, a safe measure requiring companies to file a notice of mass layoff with the government. Eater reviewed an email sent to some ex-Foxtrot workers dated 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, and signed by Outfox CEO Rob Twyman notifying employees that their jobs would be immediately eliminated and stating the message was following state law. The letter does not mention the 60-day notice the law stipulates and came after the stores closed.
Outfox formed after Chicago-based Dom’s and Foxtrot combined last year. Foxtrot debuted as a delivery-only app in 2016 that expanded into the convenience store space opening locations in Texas, and the D.C. area. Dom’s debuted in 2021 in Lincoln Park. Both entities had major designs on scaling. In the aftermath of the closures, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing — which former employees told Eater to look out for — has yet to pop up, clouding the picture of what went wrong. Outfox hasn’t responded to media inquiries and former vendors tell Eater they haven’t heard anything from them either. They now join the graveyard of Chicago grocery brands like White Hen Pantry, Dominick’s Finer Foods, and Moo & Oink.
Grabbed and gone.John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
But as the legal theater begins to play out, workers are setting up online fundraisers and scrambling for jobs. In Chicago, the 17 potential real estate vacancies (liquidation could slow things down), are creating a feeding frenzy. Independent grocers, liquor shop owners, and would-be restaurant owners are contacting their real estate agents, hoping to cut deals with landlords on some prime retail spaces on the North Side.
Fresh Market Place in Bucktown is an independent grocer that’s become a champion of local vendors, where many chefs from Chicago’s top restaurants shop.
“I would, at the very least, I would listen to an offer,” Fresh Market GM Kostas Drosos says. “I definitely will inquire — or maybe I have inquired already.”
The demand for the Foxtrot and Dom’s locations contrasts with what’s happening on the West and South sides, where residents have clamored for more investment. The city has struggled to find a tenant in Englewood to replace Whole Foods. Locals seeking an upscale retailer with a similar cachet were rendered disappointed by the pending arrival of Yellow Banana, a division of Ohio-based Save A Lot. Some Chicagoans aren’t missing Foxtrot or Dom’s. You can’t miss what you never had.
Meanwhile, Fancy Plants Cafe owner Kevin Schuder spent much of the week trying to reach Dom’s and Foxtrot, hoping to connect them with the Great Chicago Food Depository. He’s had no luck, and his frustrations spiked after a Sun-Times report saying workers were instructed to throw away food. Drosos compares that to when Stanley’s, a tiny independent market on the corner of North and Elston Avenue, was razed in anticipation of the Lincoln Yards development. He remembers handing out business cards and hiring a few Stanley’s workers in the two weeks before its closure in 2019.
“Stanley’s put in notice two weeks out and said ‘Come on in, guys!’” Drosos recalls. “They were giving away the food — come in, we’re going to be closing and we’re giving discounts.”
Foxtrot and Dom’s shared some similarities, but it wasn’t a precise fit. Both wanted to attract upscale restaurant customers. They recruited chefs for cooking demonstrations and sold gourmet items with the chefs’ names. The latter was ripped from Trader Joe’s playbook. The concerns were detailed nicely earlier this month in an article by Adam Reiner in Taste.
But as Foxtrot raced for scale, with locations in high-rent areas like Fulton Market, execs may have skipped a step in establishing community roots, something Drosos says is integral to Fresh Market’s success. In Andersonville, Foxtrot attempted to open near Andale Market, a small independent shop that stocked specialty items from the kind of vendors Foxtrot desired. Locals pushed back.
That disconnect with Foxtrot and its community might be why Palita Sriratana says her sales at Fresh Market and Here Here Market exceeded her brand’s sales at Foxtrot. In November, her company Pink Salt was selected through Foxtrot’s Up and Comer competition, recognizing vendors selling new snacks, dips, and coffees — stuff Foxtrot wanted to scale and sell nationwide. Sriratana makes a Thai chili jam, which belongs in the same genre as chile crunch, David Chang be damned.
Sriratana describes the terms of winning as restrictive. They sounded like the stringent restrictions reality TV show contestants face; to be considered, candidates couldn’t already be in “major retailers.” There were “unrealistic” deadlines as Pink Salt geared up for the holiday gift-giving season — Foxtrot wanted enough jars of jam to stock at 54 stores versus the eight stores initially ordered. Sriratana says “she held her breath” and carried on with production. She says the system feels “predatory to a very vulnerable group of small makers.” Pink Salt is currently free from any restrictions.
“I feel sad for the brands that opened [production orders] and took out loans to meet their scale,” Sriratana says.
Here Here, founded in 2021, aimed to give vendors like Sriratana more control. Disha Gulati founded the startup in 2021 to give chefs including Rick Bayless and Stephanie Izard a digital marketplace for sauces, pasta, and spices, It allowed lesser-known names a chance to establish their brands nationally. Over the past few days, Gulati and Drosos have been inundated with requests from former Foxtrot vendors wanting shelf space. Both say they’ll expedite the process to help. Gulati says she spends much of her time connecting vendors so they could better share their experiences and succeed. She feels that’s why they feel a “strong sense of community on our platform.”
Foxtrot had an eye toward upscale customers.Garrett Sweet/Eater Chicago
Gulati was careful not to villainize Outfox, saying she doesn’t know what pressures they faced: “Them going under might have been inevitable,” she says.
But when discussing how Outfox closed without warning without informing vendors, Gulati says: “One hundred percent they should have done it differently.”
Justin Doggett has sold his Kyoto Black bottled cold brew coffees at Foxtrot since 2021 when the store reps approached him saying they wanted to stock his coffee. He never worried about Foxtrot reverse engineering his Kyoto-style cold brews: “It’s fairly unique, it’s a very niche product,” he says.
Foxtrot represented his biggest wholesale customer — all 15 Chicago Foxtrots stocked Kyoto Black. The sudden loss of the marketplace has forced Doggett to launch a campaign to grow his monthly subscription base, where customers would buy coffee directly from him. He says he’s had zero contact with Foxtrot since the announcement and feels blindsided.
“Their closure represents a loss of thousands of dollars of sales per month,” Doggett wrote in a Facebook post from Tuesday, April 23. “It also devastates my brand presence. People would order from me directly all the time because they first had my coffee at Foxtrot.”
Doggett says he made $120 in coffee deliveries on Monday. If this was in June, prime cold brew season, that delivery could have been larger. He’s looking for 800 new monthly customers; basically converting his Foxtrot customers to direct customers.
Some independent coffee shops, the same ones that Foxtrot sought to compete with, are helping out. Side Practice Coffee and Drip Collective have offered to sell Kyoto Black while Doggett adjusts. He knows that he won’t make up for the loss immediately. He also stressed that the workers he interacted with treated him well and shouldn’t be conflated with the corporate business.
History has repeated itself for Sriratana who has experience with start-ups suddenly closing; Pink Salt was also the name for her Thai food stall inside Fulton Galley, a food hall in Fulton Market. It closed in 2019, without warning, after being open for five months. The space — located less than a half mile west from Outfox’s headquarters — is now a Patagonia store.
“My experience with Fulton Galley made me not trust the partnership with Foxtrot and pushed me to really value independent businesses — I cannot stress that enough,” she says.
After more than eight decades, Blommer Chocolate is closing its factory at the end of May. The factory opened in 1939, and while chocolate connoisseurs can’t find Blommer by its name on store shelves, the factory makes confections for some of the country’s more popular brands. But for most Chicagoans, especially ones close to downtown Chicago and neighborhoods like West Loop, River West, and West Town near the factory, locals remained enamored due to the random aroma of chocolate wafting from the building into surrounding neighborhoods.
The Sun-Times reports the closure at 600 W. Kinzie Street will cost 250 jobs. The headquarters will remain in Chicago at the Merchandise Mart. In a news release, Blommer mentions a shift in operations. They’re opening a research and development center this fall at the Mart. A Blommer rep didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Chocolate making can be a thorny subject, where foreign farmers are often exploited. Despite its place as a civic institution, Blommer hasn’t escaped controversy over the years. In 2005, the EPA cited the factory for alleged clean-air violations due to smells coming out of the building. The federal agency responded to an anonymous complaint and argued the cocoa dust wafting from the factory was pollution.
One of the city’s best Korean restaurants, Perilla Korean American Fare, stands across the street from the factory. Co-owner Thomas Oh tells Eater that he often uses Blommer as a landmark. Customers might not be familiar with the intersection of Kinzie and Milwaukee, but they instantly know the factory. Before Blommer closed its store in 2020, staff would often stop in to purchase chocolate-covered almonds and other treats.
Oh did recall a quirky episode immediately after Perilla opened in 2019 when a customer complained on Yelp about the chocolate smell on their way to the restaurant: “How does that have to do with anything we are providing you?” Oh says with a laugh.
There’s no word on what will happen to the 5.5-acre site. Oh says he hopes for a new development that will bring more potential customers to the area.
Chicago, where a baseball stadium is named after the founder of a chewing gum company, is often called “the candy capital of the universe.” The National Confectioners Association was founded 140 years ago in Chicago. But that title might be in jeopardy after Blommer’s shutter. As is the custom, Chicagoans often will add an extra “s” at the end of the company’s name. It’s “Blommers” in the same tradition of “The Jewels” and “Soldiers Field.”
A worker at Mars’ Goose Island campus hard at work.Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago
Earlier this year, Mars opened a new global research and development hub on its Goose Island campus. This is where experimental M&M’s flavors and Snickers test bars are made. The $42 million wing will allow for more experiments, and hopefully more variety on store shelves.
Blommer says it’s investing $100 million in other production facilities in Pennsylvania, California; and Ontario, Canada. Fuji Oil Holdings, a Japanese company, bought Blommers in 2018 and they closed down the factory store in 2020. They’re the No. 1 cocoa processor in North America, according to Crain’s, which broke the story.
The $24.6 billion deal between Albertsons, the parent company of Jewel; and Kroger, the parent company of Mariano’s now faces an objection from the federal government. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to block Kroger’s proposed acquisition of Albertsons, claiming grocery workers would make lower wages while customers would pay higher prices.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul was among seven state chief legal officers (and Washington, D.C.’s) who signed the FTC’s lawsuit. The deal, called the largest in American grocery store history, would create a company of 5,000 stores. Kroger, which operates stores in 36 states, claims it needs scale to compete with non-unionized stores like Amazon and Walmart.
“The proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger would greatly reduce competition in the grocery market while leading to fewer choices for consumers and increased grocery prices at a time many families are struggling to keep up,” Raoul said in a news release. “Corporate profits and shareholder payouts should not come at the expense of consumers.”
A month after the deal was announced in November 2022, Raoul teamed up with attorneys general from California and D.C. on a lawsuit to halt a $4 million payout to Albertsons stakeholders before the FTC could complete its review. As reported by the Associated Press, the deal would create a new entity that would control about 13 percent of America’s grocery market while Walmart controls 22 percent, according to J.P. Morgan.
For Chicagoans, the future of Jewel and Mariano’s remains at stake. As Kroger would be buying Albertsons, the smart money is that Jewel, a retailer that’s been around since 1899, with 183 stores in the area, would be converted with the stock looking more like Mariano’s, a brand that’s been around since 2010 with 44 stores in Illinois. However, there’s no indication if the newly formed company would retain either the 125-year-old brand or the 14-year-old brand.
Kroger and Albertsons have offered to divest “select other assets to C&S Wholesale Grocers, which today operates just 23 supermarkets and a single retail pharmacy,” according to the FTC. That’s 413 stores, but that won’t satisfy the FTC: “The proposal completely ignores many affected regional and local markets where Kroger and Albertsons compete today,” the commission responded.
The FTC’s lawsuit isn’t surprising as the feds followed lawsuits filed in January on the state levels in Oregon and Colorado. New York private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management holds a 26 percent stake in Albertsons.
“Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons would lead to additional grocery price hikes for everyday goods, further exacerbating the financial strain consumers across the country face today,” Henry Liu, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition said in a news release. “Essential grocery store workers would also suffer under this deal, facing the threat of their wages dwindling, benefits diminishing, and their working conditions deteriorating.”
On the afternoon of Tuesday, February 28, an Albertsons rep reached out with this statement:
Albertsons Cos. merging with Kroger will expand competition, lower prices, increase associate wages, protect union jobs, and enhance customers’ shopping experience. If the Federal Trade Commission is successful in blocking this merger, it would be hurting customers and helping strengthen larger, multi-channel retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Costco – the very companies the FTC claims to be reining in – by allowing them to continue increasing their growing dominance of the grocery industry. In contrast, Albertsons Cos.’ merger with Kroger will ensure our neighborhood supermarkets can better compete with these mega retailers, all while benefitting our customers, associates, and communities. We are disappointed that the FTC continues to use the same outdated view of the U.S. grocery industry it used 20 years ago, and we look forward to presenting our arguments in Court.
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