When Jack Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009, he narrowed in on a single goal, which was helping sellers make the sale. The Oakland-based company’s first product was a square-shaped smartphone attachment that allowed vendors of all sizes to accept payments by credit card.
But if Square had simply focused on hardware to process card payments, “we would’ve been a very small company and I would not be here talking to at all,” Dorsey said at an event in New York City on Wednesday in which the company introduced a slate of new features for Square.
Instead, the company persisted in asking why business owners wanted to take credit cards in the first place. They didn’t love the hassle and fees of credit cards, but customers were increasingly using cards for everything and no longer carrying cash. If vendors didn’t take cards, they’d miss out on sales.
The card readers were a start, but ultimately, Dorsey said his focus is on creating products that make it more affordable and frictionless to do business. Over the past 16 years, it has rolled out financial services, marketing tools, and business management software.
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Today, its parent company Block (NYSE: XYZ) has a market capitalization of $49 billion. With Dorsey as CEO, Block has grown to include the mobile payments company Cash App, streaming service Tidal, and buy now, pay later service Afterpay.
New Square services to save time and money
The marquee feature Square announced on Wednesday is a service called Neighborhoods, which lets businesses set up online ordering storefronts in Cash App and participate in a common loyalty program. It saves businesses the hassle of building dedicated apps, but allows them to offer some of the features that have made apps from Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Dunkin so popular, without the hassle of building a dedicated app. The processing fee for vendors using Neighborhoods is just 1 percent.
Square is also now integrated with popular delivery apps including DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub, so restaurants can see all of their incoming orders on a single platform, rather than juggling different tablets for each service. If restaurants also use Square’s banking services, they can access those payments right away, rather than waiting more than a week for the payments to clear with the delivery platforms.
The company also announced several upgrades to its AI services aimed at helping with planning and business insights. Early testers have been particularly impressed by the ordering guide, which allows restaurants to compare ingredient prices across vendors using standardized units and to track prices over time. Square head of product Willem Avé tells Inc. that the goal is that with five minutes of work in the tool, a business could reduce their food costs by 10 percent.
Bitcoin and streamlined pricing
Square now allows businesses to accept bitcoin payments, convert a percentage of incoming revenue into bitcoin, and store bitcoin in crypto wallets within Square. For the first year, Square will not charge transaction fees for bitcoin payments. Dorsey, a longtime crypto advocate, suggested that the audience in New York, which included many business owners that use Square, should consider using bitcoin as a way to diversify their finances and hedge against inflation.
Square also introduced a three-tiered subscription plan (free; a $49 service that includes web and marketing services; or $149 a month for 24/7 support and additional software upgrades), doing away with a complex system of add-ons. Avé says the change was intended to make it easier for users to add new products (a restaurant can now sell merch or tickets to events without adding new features) and that the features announced on Wednesday are available to all users.
Square’s goal: be boring
Like offerings from Clover, Shopify, and Toast, Square’s devices proliferated as contactless and mobile payments caught on, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Today Square’s mobile card readers, terminals, and other devices are used by more than 4 million sellers, from major retailers to mom-and-pop shops and craft fair vendors.
Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter and created the open-source social media platform Bluesky, said Square has always been giving time back to entrepreneurs, so they can focus on what they’re building.
He and co-founder Jim McKelvey chose the name Square because it was boring and faded into the background. “We didn’t want something that was in front of our customers. We wanted a name…that felt like it was something that a seller could put their whole business on,” Dorsey said. “I think it set the tone for the company.”
Peter Thiel, PayPal’s first CEO, turned his fintech fortune into a far-reaching empire of influence spanning venture capital, politics and power. Marco Bello/Getty Images
In 2007, Fortune magazine reimagined a classic mafia scene with a Silicon Valley twist: 13 male founders and early employees of PayPal, all long gone from the company, posed at a San Francisco café with slicked-back hair, poker chips and dozens of whiskey glasses. The crowd included some of the most recognizable names in today’s tech scene, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The magazine dubbed them the “PayPal mafia,” not for their time at the fintech company, but for their outsized impact on Silicon Valley through the companies they launched afterward.
PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion the same year. Most of its early employees left the company after the acquisition. They went on to found YouTube, SpaceX and LinkedIn, among other legendary names in Silicon Valley. However, like their cinematic namesake, the group hasn’t avoided controversy. These former colleagues have built billion-dollar businesses while also finding themselves in the crosshairs of public criticism.
For instance, Thiel has faced controversy over his political affiliations and, most notably, for funding Hulk Hogan’s 2012 lawsuit against Gawker Media with $10 million — a case that ultimately drove the online media company into bankruptcy. Musk has also faced criticism for his takeover of Twitter and his prior role in the Trump administration, where he led widespread federal employee firings.
Here’s what they are up to these days:
Peter Thiel: venture capitalist
Peter Thiel. Marco Bello/Getty Images
Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek founded PayPal in 1998, originally as a software security company. After merging with Elon Musk’s X.com (unrelated to the social media platform he owns today), PayPal shifted its focus to digital payments.
Thiel served as CEO from 1998 until 2002, leaving after the company was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Palantir Technologies, a major U.S. government contractor providing data analytics services. The company now has a market capitalization of $439 billion.
Thiel is also known as a prolific angel investor. He co-founded Clarium Capital, Founders Fund, Valar Ventures and Mithril Capital. In 2004, Thiel became Facebook’s first outside investor after acquiring a 10.2 percent stake in the company for $500,000.
Thiel is among the many former PayPal employees who have entered political and high-profile public arenas. An active donor to the Republican Party, Thiel supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign but withheld donations during the 2024 election. He is also credited with helping JD Vance reach the Vice Presidential ticket.
Elon Musk: entrepreneur, the world’s richest person
Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Elon Musk briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being ousted by the board in 2000. He went on to build one of the most influential portfolios in technology, spanning electric vehicles, space exploration, social media and A.I.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has led Tesla since 2008. He also founded Neuralink and The Boring Company, expanding his reach into brain-computer interfaces and infrastructure. In 2022, Musk gained global attention for acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, later rebranding it as X.
His ties to A.I. run deep: Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 but left in 2018 over strategic disagreements. In 2023, he returned to the field by launching xAI, a research venture focused on building A.I. that is more understandable for humans.
Today, Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $400 billion. He is also perhaps the only PayPal alumnus to ascend into direct political influence. During the Trump administration, he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a name shared with his cryptocurrency venture—before stepping down in May after clashing publicly with the President.
Max Levchin: computer scientist
Max Levchin. John Lamparski/Getty Images
Position at PayPal: co-founder, chief technology officer from 1998 to 2002
As PayPal’s chief technology officer, Max Levchin helped lead the company’s anti-fraud efforts by co-creating the Gausebeck-Levchin test—the foundation for the widely used CAPTCHA security tool. After leaving PayPal, he launched the media-sharing platform Slide in 2004, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Levchin briefly served as Google’s vice president of engineering until Slide was shut down the following year.
In 2012, he co-founded Affirm, a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) company, where he continues to serve as CEO. Today, Affirm has a market capitalization of $27.5 billion, with 21.9 million consumers and more than 350,000 merchant partners on its platform.
Levchin has also held board positions at Yahoo and Yelp. In 2015, he became the first Silicon Valley executive appointed to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between companies and regulators.
Reid Hoffman: entrepreneur, investor
Reid Hoffman. Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
Before joining PayPal, Hoffman worked as a senior user experience architect at Apple, contributing to the company’s online social network eWorld. He later became director of product management at Fujitsu. After his online dating startup, SocialNet, folded, Hoffman joined PayPal in 2000 as chief operating officer.
In 2003, he co-founded the career networking site LinkedIn. Following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2017, Hoffman joined Microsoft’s board, a move that greatly increased his wealth.
Over the years, Hoffman has served on the boards of Airbnb and OpenAI, where he was also an early investor. Through the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, he has backed dozens of A.I. startups. In 2022, he co-founded Inflection AI with Mustafa Suleyman, who now serves as CEO. Earlier this year, he teamed up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee to launch Manas AI, a startup focused on drug discovery.
David Sacks: investor, White House A.I. and Crypto Czar
David Sacks currently serves as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar. JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images
Position at PayPal: chief operating officer from 1999 to 2002
Since leaving PayPal, David Sacks has built a career spanning film, tech, investing and politics. In 2005, he produced and financed a political satire that earned two Golden Globe nominations. The following year, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy-focused social network that later spun off Yammer, one of the earliest enterprise social networking platforms. He went on to co-found Craft Ventures, the startup Glue, and the podcast platform Callin.
Jeremy Stoppelman joined Musk’s X.com in 1999 and became vice president of engineering after its transition to PayPal. In 2004, he co-founded Yelp, where he has served as CEO ever since. Under his leadership, the company turned down a 2010 acquisition offer from Google and went public two years later. Stoppelman’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 million.
Ken Howery: investor, U.S. ambassador
Position at PayPal: chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002
Ken Howery served as PayPal’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2002. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, he became eBay’s director of corporate development until 2003. He later joined Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital as vice president of private equity and went on to co-found Founders Fund as a partner. Beyond investing, he is a member of the Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to scientific exploration, and an advisor to Kiva, the micro-lending nonprofit founded by former PayPal colleague Premal Shah.
Howery is also among the former PayPal executives who have moved into politics. He has donated at least $1 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through Elon Musk’s political action committee. During Trump’s first term, Howery was appointed U.S. ambassador to Sweden and today serves as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Roeloth Botha: venture capitalist
Roelof Botha joined PayPal as director of corporate development shortly before graduating from Stanford University. He later became vice president of finance and went on to serve as chief financial officer until the company’s acquisition by eBay.
Position at PayPal: software architect from 1998 to 2003
Companies later founded: Yelp, Learnirvana
Russel Simmons helped design PayPal’s payment system as a software architect. After leaving the company, he and fellow PayPal alum Jeremy Stoppelman set out to build a platform for restaurant reviews. With a $1 million investment from Max Levchin, they launched Yelp in July 2004. Simmons served as chief technology officer until his departure in 2010. At the time, Yelp said he would remain a “significant” shareholder, though the size of his stake—and whether he still holds it—remains unclear.
In 2014, Simmons co-founded Learnirvana, an online learning platform.
Andrew McCormack: entrepreneur
Position at PayPal: assistant to Thiel from July 2001 to November 2002
Companies later founded: Valar Ventures
Andrew McCormack began his career as an assistant to Peter Thiel at PayPal and followed him into subsequent ventures. From November 2002 to April 2003, he oversaw operations at Thiel’s hedge fund, Clarium Capital.
In 2010, McCormack co-founded Valar Ventures with Thiel and James Fitzgerald, focusing on fintech investments. He remains a general partner at the firm.
Luke Nosek: investor
Position at PayPal: co-founder and vice president of marketing and strategy from 1998 to 2002
Companies later founded: Founders Fund, Gigafund
In 2005, Luke Nosek joined Peter Thiel and Ken Howery to launch Founders Fund, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm that has backed companies such as Airbnb, Lyft and SpaceX. While his exact net worth is unclear, Nosek has made substantial investments through his venture firms. At Founders Fund, he led one of the firm’s earliest major deals with a $20 million investment in SpaceX, later serving on its board.
In 2017, Nosek left to co-found Gigafund, which went on to invest $1 billion in SpaceX, according to the company. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.
Premal Shah: entrepreneur
Position at Paypal: product manager
Companies later founded: Kiva
Three years after leaving PayPal, Premal Shah co-founded Kiva, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities worldwide. He also serves on the boards of other nonprofits, including the Center for Humane Technology, the Change.org Foundation, Watsi and VolunteerMatch.
Keith Rabois: investor
Position at PayPal: executive vice president of business development
After leaving his executive role at PayPal, Keith Rabois became an active investor, backing companies including Slide, YouTube and Palantir. He also invested in LinkedIn, where he served as vice president of business and corporate development, and Square, where he was chief operating officer.
Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures from 2013 to 2019 and was a partner at Founders Fund from 2019 to 2024.
Revolution Brewing will close its Logan Square brewpub in December after nearly 15 years along Milwaukee Avenue. Revolution found Josh Deth says the restaurant, which opened in February 2010 will close on Saturday, December 14. Deth owns the building at 2323 N. Milwaukee Avenue and plans on selling.
“Hopefully someone else will come around and want to take over and do something new concept in this space, and then we’ll consolidate down to one location,” Deth says.
Revolution’s taproom, 3340 N. Kedzie Avenue, won’t be impacted. It opened in 2012 and was one of the first bars in the city to able to serve beer made on premises. Deth admits Revolution canibalized its clientele by forcing them to pick between the Avondale taproom and Logan Square brewpub: “We created that component of it,” Deth admits.
The brewery, the state’s largest independent craft brewery, is known for its Deth’s Tar barrel-aged beers, Anti-Hero IPA, and more. The Milwaukee Avenue brewpub was once a hotspot with long waits, as Revolution followed in the footsteps of Deth’s former employer, Goose Island Beer. Goose Island’s original location in Lincoln Park, along Clybourn, created a strong business model mingling a full-service restaurant under the same roof as a brewery. Brewery taprooms, which don’t have kitchens and only serve the beer produced on premises, had yet to catch on.
Yet Revolution amplified Goose Island’s blueprint, bringing more of a gourmet edge to the experience without alienating the customers who came for the company’s bread and butter — beer. Now, come December, Goose Island and Revolution’s original locations will have closed, while their taprooms will remain: “The brewpub was like a predecessor, in some ways, of today’s taproom model,” Deth says. “That is a better model for most breweries they find because it’s easier to manage, right to have to manage your brewery business, and have to manage all the complexity of a restaurant is it’s a lot.”
Deth notes that Revolution’s cocktail program — something that didn’t exist when the brewpub opened — has improved over the last year as the craft beer industry declines, something Deth says was starting to happen even before the pandemic started in 2020. More and more customers are looking for hard seltzers, cocktails, and THC-infused drinks.
“Our business is going to this simplification… it’s probably going to be good for our team long term, to be the more focused on the primary thing that we’re doing these days, which is wholesale production of beer,” says Deth.
The brewpub temporarily closed during the pandemic in October 2020 as state COVID protocols closed restaurant dining rooms. While most restaurants scrambled, trying to deal with delivery and to-go, sorting through third-party couriers and their fees, Revolution had a safety net with home alcohol consumption rising and packaged good sales at stores through the roof. When it opened, the terrain for restaurants was radically different, as the cost of running restaurants had skyrocketed with labor and inflation costs exploding. The brewpub had to find new footing in this world of restaurants that had radically changed since 2010, with Chicago’s culinary expectations also changed. Revolution was once of the only games in town along Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, but now they struggled with standing out in a crowd that includes many heavy hitters from Federales, Andros Taverna, Bixi Beer — another brewpub — and more.
Revolution attempted to recreate the magic, searching for a chef with a new voice. Earlier this year, they hired Rasheed Amedu, a native Chicagoan who they had high hopes to breathe new life into their menu. His run was cut short. The closure, coupled with places like Kuma’s Corner in Fulton Market, paints a dreary picture for restaurants that focus on craft beer. That’s something Three Floyds will attempt to navigate as the Munster, Indiana company preps to reopen its brewpub. Piece Pizza in Wicker Park might be the most stable of all brewpub thanks to its pizza which brings a robust carryout and delivery business. It’s also a regular winner at the Great American Beer Festival.
Deth sees some breweries have adopted kind of a food hall experience, with an outside vendor handling the food service — Pilot Project Brewing (also on Milwaukee Avenue) and District Brew Yards are two examples. District Brew Yards relies on Lillie’s Q barbecue in West Town and Paulie Gee’s pizza in Wheeling.
News of the closure began leaking out on Friday as Revolution told customers with private events that the brewpub could no longer host their event. Deth notes that customers often book their weddings and other functions two years in advance. They broke the news to workers earlier in the week, and hoped that workers and customers alike would hear about the news long before the annoucement made its way on the Internet.
Deth is open to hosting more food pop-ups and food trucks at the taproom to make up for the loss of the brewpub, but says he hasn’t had time to come up with concrete plan. They’re focused on closing up the brewpub and going out on positive. He has gratitude for all his customers and says the taproom is going strong. They just secured a city permit to put in solar panels to the building and hope to invest more in the venue.
While Goose Island moved its Lincoln Park operations to the Salt Shed, Revolution doesn’t have the backing of a multi-national corporation (Goose Island’s parent is the owner of Budweiser). Much like Taqueria Chingón’s Oliver Poilevey, who will closes his Bucktown restaurant later in November, Deth notes Revolution doesn’t have the deep pockets to compete.
“This is our only restaurant, right?” Deth says. “We’re not a big company — we’re not a restaurant group — we don’t have the depth that a larger company has to call upon.”
Chicagoans have hit the culinary jackpot with a dazzling array of regional Mexican dishes available at their fingertips including strong local representation from states like Guerrero, Jalisco, and Michoacán. Dive deeper, and you’ll find more specific offerings, hailing from narrow regions and even small towns.
Uptown’s Kie-Gol-Lanee has ignited interest in Oaxacan cuisine as siblings María and Reynel Mendoza and their spouses, Léonides Ramos and Sandra Sotz, have dished out flavors from Santa María Quiegolani since 2016. Meaning “old stone” in the Zapotec dialect, the restaurant’s name is a phonetic nod to the small village in Oaxaca’s southern Sierra where María, Reynel, and Léonides grew up. The menu is inspired by recipes passed down through generations and Michelin has listed it for four years as a Bib Gourmand, which recognizes quality and value.
More and more Oaxacan restaurants are opening in Chicago.
Tlacoyo with nopoles.
Tamales oaxaquenos.
Carne asada tlayuda.
Later this month, the family will open its second location in Logan Square at the former Mezcala Agave Bar and Kitchen at 2901 W. Diversey. The new location will continue to sell its celebrated Oaxacan-style tamales steamed in banana leaves, and garnachas (a corn patty resembling a sope topped with pork, radish, cilantro, cheese, and cabbage). María Mendoza began making the Oaxacan delicacy at home after an injury kept her from going to work. A friend sent a sample to chef Enrique Cortéz, who was impressed by her culinary skills and began serving the tamales at his restaurant. Soon after, Cortéz moved on and decided to sell his eatery to the family, helping them through the transition from restaurant workers to restaurant owners.
The Logan Square restaurant will offer the beloved plates that delight patrons at its Uptown location, featuring weekly specials and breakfast plates on weekends. The dinner menu features well-known regional staples including a fall-off-the-bone lamb shank, and the traditional tlayudas — a giant corn tostada-like base decked out with options that include thinly sliced, salt-cured cecina, steak, chorizo, or zucchini and mushrooms. Additionally, the menu offers interesting dishes that showcase ingredients from the Oaxacan Sierra, such as quail, rabbit, and grasshoppers.
Ahead of the opening, the team is working on new cocktails such as a tres leches martini, an old-fashioned Oaxacan style, and a drink featuring the fermented, sweet, and slightly tart, cider-like tepache with grasshoppers. Wishing to support their community back home, Kie-Go-Lanee has two mezcal brands on its beverage menu, Huésped and Clan 55. Both are produced in Santa María Quiegolani and aim to offer youth in their hometown an opportunity to flourish and a reason to stay.
When it comes to desserts, until very recently, Kie-Go-Lanee was one of the few, if not the only spot in the city that regularly offered Nicuatole, a corn-based dessert similar to gelatin but with a silkier texture and, depending on the fruit added, sometimes a bit of a gritty texture.
The new location will continue to capture the warmth of an Oaxacan home, says Fernanda Guardado, the restaurant’s designer and head of marketing. A mural depicting alebrijes, sculptures of creatures — amalgamations of different animals that burst with vibrant colors and cultural motifs — will also be found at the second location, showcasing the restaurant’s blue and bright pink. “They remind me of home,” says María Mendoza.
Check out the food photos below and stay tuned for updates on an opening date.
The summer season kicked off with a bang for chef Jason Hammel, who in June took home a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality at his iconic 25-year-old farm-to-table restaurant Lula Cafe in Logan Square. It was the sole medal awarded to a Chicago restaurant this year, but Chicagoans’ outpouring of joy over the win has taken Lula Cafe to new heights of popularity.
Rather than resting on his laurels, Hammel and his wife, singer and songwriter Amalea Tshilds, are preparing to unveil their hotly anticipated new project, Loulou. Located a short walk from Lula in the long and narrow former home of Mini Mott and Second Generation at 3057 W. Logan Boulevard, Loulou won’t be a traditional restaurant, Hammel says. The couple have long dreamed of a space that blends food with other art forms like literature and music, where they can host pop-ups, special meals, chef and vendor panels, and other gatherings.
Lula has been a linchpin in the community since ’90s and used to host similar events several nights a week. Hammel admits there was some fear when retail chains and others began arriving along Logan Boulevard, but the neighborhood has kept its spirit. “Logan Square remains fiercely independent. owner-operated, and new things are opening all the time,” Hammel said during a June interview with Eater.
Loulou marks a bit of a return to those roots with performers and visiting chefs holding court while the kitchen prepares food based on the event. “That’s why we’ve been thriving for 25 years, because we really care about the stories and the depth of experience,” he added. “We want to do that for the public [at Loulou].”
Now, as the opening approaches, Hammel and Tshilds are setting the stage for future collaborations with 25 for 25, a series of five pop-up dinners featuring some of the city’s most celebrated chefs to raise funds for local nonprofits. Slated to run over the five days leading up to Lula Cafe’s 25th anniversary – Monday, August 26, through Saturday, August 31 – the Resy-sponsored events will feature a distinct menu with a portion of proceeds from the $250 per person tickets going to a different charitable organization.
Check out the lineup below.
Monday, August 26
Chefs: Erick Williams (Virtue), Lee Wolen (Boka), Jonathan Zaragoza (Birrieria Zaragoza), Paul Virant (Gaijin), and Stephanie Izard (Girl & the Goat).
Menu items: Wolen’s bluefin tuna marinated in strawberry, black garlic, and tomato; and Zaragoza’s smoked potato taco with ceviche a la Mexicana, jocque, salsa roja, and peanut salsa matcha.
Menu items: Vincent’s eggplant lahmacun with phyllo, tomato, onion, parsley, and grated bresaola; David and Anna Posey’s cured tuna with smoked tomato, sunflower, and marigold.
Menu items: Bayless’ camote blanco tamal with Oaxacan green mole, confit fennel, and grilled chayote; Engel’s cucumber salad with melon, ramps, shmaltz, gribenes, and kaluga caviar.
SmallBar, a cherished neighborhood watering hole inside a 118-year-old tavern space in Logan Square, is back in business after a brief hiatus after new owners took over in February. After four months of interior upgrades, the team welcomed back the bar’s many thirsty adherents in late May.
A new Hamm’s sign is among several minor upgrades.
Fans of the cozy (read: 500 square feet) drinking spot buzzed with concern over potential changes in January when restaurateur Ty Fujimura (Arami), his brother Troy, and co-owner Jesse Roberts agreed to sell the business to Footman Hospitality, owners of Quality Time, Sparrow, and Bangers & Lace. Footman co-founder Jason Freiman, a longtime regular at SmallBar, sought to put concerned adherents at ease at the time with a pledge to keep “the soul of SmallBar intact and reestablish it for its next decade and beyond.”
As Freiman promised, the alterations at SmallBar are relatively minimal. A new Hamm’s sign hangs outside and workers fixed up the patio just in time for porch-pounder season in Chicago. Siren Betty selected new light fixtures and integrated vintage aesthetic touches into the decor. Beverage staples remain, like draft signature beers and ciders, joined by an expanded cocktail lineup and a broader selection of spirits. There’s a limited food menu of smash burgers, grilled cheese, fries, and cheese curds from the specialists at Patty Please, who plan to expand their offerings over the coming months.
The Chicago bar group behind Quality Time and Bangers & Lace bought SmallBar in February.
New cocktail options include blueberry lemonade (vodka, Manzanilla sherry, Sicilian lemonade).
Whether or not longtime regulars find the same unpretentious charm that made SmallBar a hit for 22 years in Logan Square remains to be seen. Take a look around the space in the photographs below.
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.”
Block appears to be squarely in the government’s sights. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York are reportedly probing extensive compliance lapses at the parent company of Square and Cash App. NBC Newssays a former Block employee has handed over documents to federal authorities, painting a picture of how the company failed to gather required risk-assessment information from customers and subsequently processed illegal transactions.
The documents allegedly show that Block greenlit multiple crypto transactions involving known terrorist organizations. Furthermore, Square reportedly processed thousands of transfers involving nations under economic sanctions. “From the ground up, everything in the compliance section was flawed,” the whistleblower allegedly told NBC News. “It is led by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program.”
Most transactions allegedly involved credit cards, dollar transfers or Bitcoin and weren’t reported to the government as mandated by law. In addition, Block reportedly refused to “correct company processes” when notified of the breaches.
The investigation follows a separate report from NBC News in February highlighting two different whistleblowers who flagged the same issues at Block. They cited “questionable Cash App transactions with entities under sanction by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, operations known to sell personal information and credit card data for illegal purposes, and offshore gambling sites barred to U.S. citizens.”
The practice allegedly spanned multiple years. NBC News says it reviewed around 100 pages of documents from the whistleblower involving people or organizations in countries under US sanctions, including Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Some of them were reportedly from as recent as 2023.
Block
The whistleblower claims Block’s management was aware of the alleged offenses. “It’s my understanding from the documents that compliance lapses were known to Block leadership and the board in recent years,” Edward Siedle, a former SEC attorney representing the whistleblower, told NBC News.
The whistleblower says that, besides senior management, Block’s board was told about the compliance issues. Coincidentally or not, several board members made unexpected exits recently, including former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who resigned in February, and Sharon Rothstein, who had been on the board since 2022. Block told NBC News that they were leaving to devote more time to other activities and that their exits weren’t “a result of any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.”
The team behind Common Decency knew they had big shoes to fill inside the former Lost Lake space. Their response? Focus on food and cocktails that everyone could enjoy. That includes making sure the bread used in their Cuban sandwich is gluten-free (which accommodates beverage director Kelsey Kasper’s allergy) and giving partner Jason Turley a top-flight vegetarian option with the mushroom French dip, made with roasted portabella and gruyere.
While Lost Lake focused on liquids and was often crowded with folks holding drinks garnished with umbrellas, Common Decency sports tables in the aisles where diners can enjoy small bites like skillet cornbread or thrice-cooked (baked, smoked, fried) chicken wings to more robust dishes like a hanger steak or dumpling cacio e pepe. Dumplings have been a signature dish for ex-Funkenhausen chef Mark Steuer since his days at Carriage House in Wicker Park. The difference in Logan Square is ensuring the gluten-free dumplings are airy.
They’ve added a disco ball.
The space feels wider and flashier thanks to the ’80s vibe which allows visitors to enact their Miami Vice dreams. But instead of fighting over who gets to play Crockett and who gets to play Tubbs, Steuer sees a welcoming atmosphere. There’s a disco ball and a photo booth, plus a new backroom for larger groups.
Don’t look for banana daiquiri on the drink menu. There are frozen drinks, like frozen Key lime pie with rum and Greek yogurt. The drinks from Kasper, a partner in the bar who formerly managed Spilt Milk, showcase her gift of balancing acid, says Steuer, her fiance. A drink called Barbershop Celebrity uses sticky rice, mango, and Thai basil mixed with coconut-washed vodka. The Coffee Date is their answer to the espresso martini using Hexe espresso, honey, dates, and cacao. Steuer says they’ll eventually make seltzer and vinegars using citrus peels and other waste from fruit.
Common Decency’s owners are offering workers profit sharing and health insurance co-pays after six months of employment as part of their way of raising the standards in the workplace for hospitality workers. Those benefits will be baked into the cost of food and drink. Steuer says QR codes and surcharges are pet peeves he’ll avoid.
Earlier this month, partner and co-chef Felipe Hernandez suddenly died in an accident. Hernandez’s loss is felt on several fronts, including lost recipes that weren’t written down. Steuer and company have attempted to reverse-engineer some. Later this summer, a companion restaurant, Fever Dream, will open next door inside the space where Thank You, the Chinese American takeout spot that was once operated by Lost Lake’s owners. Hernandez was to play a large role in Fever Dream. Steuer says they’re still figuring out how to properly honor their friend at the bar. There’s a bit of push that the best way to remember Hernandez is to make sure Common Decency is successful.
While Hernandez won’t be present for the next stop in their journey, he’ll remain in the staff’s hearts when Common Decency opens on Friday, April 26.
Common Decency, 3154 W. Diversey, opening Friday, April 26.
It took its sweet time in coming but the Filipino cuisine boom that had been predicted year after year in Chicago is finally here. And it’s not just savory food that’s finding its footing. Filipino American bakeries have also found a welcome home in the Windy City.
Adding to the growing list that includes Umaga Bakehouse, Jennivee’s, Crumbs.nd.Creams, and Michelin-starred Kasama, is Lincoln Square’s Del Sur Bakery.
Scheduled to open in the fall next to Damen’s Brown Line El stop, Del Sur is the brainchild of Justin Lerias, who previously had been selling — and more often than not selling out — his creative and beautiful Filipino American baked goods such as turon danishes, longanisa croissants, calamansi hojicha buns, and ube oatmeal cream pies at Ravenswood’s Side Practice Coffee (the coffee shop’s founder, Francis Almeda, is a co-owner of Del Sur, 4639 N. Damen Avenue).
While Lerias’ pastry chef experience includes stints at Lost Larson and Big Jones in Andersonville, it wasn’t until the pandemic when he began incorporating his Filipino roots into his baked goods. Lerias was born on the southern Philippine Island of Mindanao and grew up on Chicago’s North Side
“One day during 2020 I was like I have Filipino food at home and I’m going to fill these pastries with it,” he says. “I had adobo at the time, and I shredded that and folded it in some croissant dough and called it a day.”
Lerias adds: “I’ve always known that Filipino food has potential, especially with the region where I’m from.”
A turon danish.Del Sur
Those experiments turned into an eye-opening moment for Lerias, who has wanted to have his own bakery since he was 16 — he’s 23 now — but wasn’t sure of what the exact format would be.
“I thought to myself that maybe this could be the concept of my bakery,” he says. “I was very excited to be able to finally discover a voice through my baking. That was the lightning bolt for me and that’s when I started experimenting with other ingredients.”
For the next two years, lucky friends and family got to sample Lerias’ experiments, all while he took ceramic classes at the School of the Art Institute. “I was going through a phase of ‘I don’t want to be a chef,’” he says.
Filipino flavors go beyond ube, but ube is still great.Del Sur
Ube ice cream sandwichesDel Sur
After seeing a 2022 story in the Tribune about Almeda of Side Practice and the coffee shop’s concept of showcasing people’s side gigs, Lerias first thought he’d reach out about his ceramics as he wasn’t sure his baked goods were good enough. Fortunately, the recipients of his “Midwestern techniques with Filipino flavors” pastries convinced him otherwise.
At the first Side Practice pop-up, Lerias’ pastries sold out within 20 minutes, with a line out the door. Not too long after, Almeda asked Lerias to supply pastries for the coffee shop regularly, later adding in sister spot Drip Collective, a coffee shop that opened earlier in 2024 in Fulton Market.
In the beginning, Filipinos made up the majority of his customers, says Lerias. But while the popularity of his pastries hasn’t changed, the audience has grown. “It’s good to be part of this Filipino boom that is happening in Chicago right now,” says Lerias, who credits the growth to “the domino effect” of other Filipino restaurants opening.
There’s plenty to showcase. For example, the people of Mindanao, which has a large Muslim population, have a different heritage from the rest of the Filipino diaspora (there’s been a push on the island to create an autonomous government).
“It’s a very good glimpse of what the Philippines could have been if it didn’t have colonialism,” Lerias says. “There are so many traditions people don’t even know about and that’s something that I want to highlight at the bakery.”
On Wednesday, March 6, Lerias paused his pastry-making for Side Practice to focus on Del Sur. When it opens, the 1,200-square-foot bakery, formerly Brew Camp, will be set up like “a living room.”
“What I love about baking was having my friends come over and baking for them. I want that same exact feel for the bakery,” says Lerias. “I want it to feel like a warm hug when you walk in.”
Calamansi hojicha bunsDel Sur
Putting his year at the Art Institute to good use, Lerias will be creating plateware for the new bakery. He recently finished making matcha bowls and glassware. “A lot of pastry techniques translate really well to pottery so that works in my favor,” he says.
The pastries at Del Sur will be very similar to what he created for Side Practice, including the calamansi chamomile bun and turron danish, the latter of which is filled with caramelized banana jam and topped with vanilla flan. Gluten-free and vegan offerings will be available, too.
His popular longanisa croissant, which is topped with soy sauce caramel, bay leaves, and a cured egg yolk, will also be on the menu. And, yes, ube, the purple-hued yam, will appear at Del Sur in his oatmeal ube cream pie among other pastries. But it won’t be the highlight. “Filipino food is way more than ube,” says Lerias.
For Lerias, Del Sur is much more than a bakery. Top of mind is a four-day work week, employee discourse on the tipping system, and empowering his staff to use their voices, something he encourages the high school students who want to be chefs that he mentors. He sees James Beard Award nominee Lula Cafe in Logan Square as an example.
“I want to be able to introduce a lot of ethical work practices that are otherwise deemed impossible by a lot of other chefs.”
Del Sur, 4629 N. Damen Avenue, scheduled for a fall opening.
As Chicagoans prepare to say farewell to Cafe Selmarie, a cozy Lincoln Square favorite that’s preparing to close after more than four decades, news about its forthcoming replacement is beginning to surface.
Andrew Pillman, the owner of neighboring beer bar Lincoln Square Taproom, has applied for a liquor license under the business name Willow Cafe and Bistro at 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue. The restaurant is Pillman’s second takeover of a Lincoln Square institution, as in 2021 he opened the taproom in the former home of Huettenbar, one of the area’s last-remaining German taverns. In 2021, he opened a sister bar, Uptown Taproom. Pillman also runs Lakeview Taproom, which opened in July 2020. In November 2023, the space rebranded to add a coffee component.
In the case of Huttenbar, back in 2021, Pillman told Block Club that he intended to preserve the dive’s German charm. However, regulars say Pillman and his crews drastically changed the bar’s vibe including replacing a mural that helped define the space.
Cafe Selmarie owner Birgit Kobayashi announced her plans to retire and close Cafe Selmarie in September 2023 but has yet to share a closing date. The restaurant will remain open “through at least the end of April,” according to its website.
Pillman and Kobayashi did not respond to requests for comment.
A Lincoln Square pillar since Kobayashi and her late business partner Jean Uzdawanis founded it in 1983, Selmarie (a portmanteau of its founders’ middle names, Birgit Selma and Jeanne Marie) oversaw a transformation in the area from its perch on Giddings Plaza. It was home to the first espresso machine in the neighborhood and quickly garnered a following for its comfortable atmosphere, fresh baked goods made on-site, and an all-day lineup of soups, salads, sandwiches, and pasta. In 2017, Kobayashi became Selmarie’s sole proprietor following Uzdawanis’ death at age 63 after a battle with ovarian cancer.
While few additional details about Willow Cafe and Bistro are available as yet, Pillman seems primed for a busy year. He’s applied for a liquor license for another beer bar, Rogers Park Taproom & Coffee House, at 1615 W. Howard Street. The space previously housed indie coffeehouse Sol Cafe and in February, Pillman told Block Club Chicago that he aims to compensate for the cafe’s closure by serving Hexe Coffee alongside beer, cocktails, breakfast, and lunch.
Stay tuned for more on Cafe Selmarie’s closing date and more details on Willow Cafe and Bistro.
Willow Cafe and Bistro, 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue, Opening date is not yet available.
Two dives with more than two centuries of Chicago tavern history between them are making big moves in 2024. SmallBar in Logan Square has sold to new owners and is on track to close the deal on Friday night, February 2. Meanwhile, Skylark in Pilsen has sold to a group of employees who have already taken over operations.
At SmallBar, brothers Ty and Troy Fujimura, and co-owner Jesse Roberts agreed to sell the bar to Footman Hospitality, owners of Quality Time, Sparrow, and Bangers & Lace. Footman’s owners have pledged to keep “the soul of SmallBar intact and reestablish it for its next decade and beyond.”
Ty Fujimura says it’s time to downsize as his family grows older. He currently lives above the bar but plans to move soon. “We have a great opportunity to pass the torch to a really great group of guys who want to keep it SmallBar, to continue the legacy — that’s super important to me,” Fujimura says.
One of the bar’s regulars, Jason Freiman, is a Footman Hospitality founder. “I’ve known Ty for 15 years, I was also a longtime patron,” Freiman writes in an email. “More importantly, historic Chicago taverns are worth saving, I didn’t want to see the bar/property undergo redevelopment into condominiums.”
SmallBar, 2956 N. Albany, opened in 2002, but the space has been a tavern since 1906, says Ty Fujimura. (One of its incarnations was called Fanelli’s.) True to its name, it’s a tiny bar — just 500 square feet — that serves beers from craft breweries from around the country. Tucked away from major intersections, it’s a neighborhood dive with a 50-seat patio — double the size of the interior. Small Bar’s indoor footprint makes it one of the tiniest watering holes in Chicago. It’s got more girth compared to Matchbox, the tiny and narrow West Town tavern.
Ty Fujimura called SmallBar his “happy place” and has witnessed hundreds of first dates (and just as many break ups) at the bar, in addition to the various rapscallions who frequent it. Fujimura compares SmallBar to a first love. “You learn from them and you make some mistakes, and hopefully the next one you don’t make the same mistakes — that’s what SmallBar is to me,” he says.
SmallBar will close for six to eight weeks, according to Freiman. Footman Hospitality has hired Siren Betty Design to spruce up the space. Footman has a history of taking over bars, and in 2014 it purchased Bucktown Pub, a 92-year-old bar.
According to a news release, Footman partner Mike Van Meter is charged with creating a drink menu with “unpretentious riffs on classics.” The beer list will be local and “no-nonsense.” And they’ll still pour fun beer-and-shot combos. Siren Betty is bringing in new light fixtures with vintage elements like 1910s Tiffany-style glass, 1920s Art Deco geometry, and textured walls with patterned wallpaper.
SmallBar’s proximity to Quality Time doesn’t bother Freiman: “No worries at all — the more the merrier,” he tells Eater.
If any new SmallBars open, the Fujimuras won’t be involved as the name has been sold to Footman. At one point there was SmallBar located in Wicker Park and near DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus, though the latter two were operated by Fujimura’s former business partner who helped open the original in Logan Square.
Across town in Pilsen, the story is similar at Skylark, but it’s a group of employees who have rallied to purchase the bar at 2149 S. Halsted Street. The former owner, Bob McHale, placed the bar for sale with the hopes that a buyer would maintain the space rather than erect a new development on the site. Skylark opened in 2003.
Brian Page, a veteran Chicago bartender who’s worked at places including California Clipper in Humboldt Park, is one of the owners. He told Block Club Chicago that he “hates to see neighborhood bars close down and no longer be fostering community” and that he didn’t want to see the bar fall into the hands of inexperienced owners who would squander what workers have built.
Losing bars to new development is a fear for many lovers of tavern culture. Ty Fujimura says he’s been fortunate to watch Logan Square, and specifically his corner of the neighborhood, change through the years. He’s happy he found a worthy successor at SmallBar and confident he’s handing the keys to folks he trusts.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Photographer: Jakub Porzycki/Nur
Block began cutting jobs as part of the firm’s goal to cap its workforce at 12,000 employees.
Block, run by Jack Dorsey, announced the cap when it reported third-quarter earnings in November, and took steps to achieve the goal on Tuesday, according to the company. Block, which offers the Cash App and Square payments services, said the goal of 12,000 staffers will be achieved by the end of the year.
The company declined to give specific details on how many jobs were affected. It has sought to rein in costs amid efforts to boost earnings. Dorsey said in November that the workforce cap will be in place “until we feel the growth of the business has meaningfully outpaced the growth of the company.”
In December, Tidal, the music streaming service once owned by recording artist Jay-Z and now part of Block, cut more than 10% of staff as part of its parent company’s wider austerity moves. That affected about 40 staffers across various Tidal departments, including a portion of the curation team that builds playlists, people familiar with the cuts said at the time.
Business Insider first reported the Block job cuts earlier Tuesday.
For years, Darnell Reed has pondered the future of Luella’s Southern Kitchen, the ode to his grandmother which opened in 2015 in Lincoln Square. Should he expand? Maybe it’s time to leave Chicago? For Reed, the father of two girls, being a family man has helped him make his decision.
“My goal is to spend more time with the family,” Reed says.
His lease is up in October and Reed says he’ll close Luella’s sometime that month. He’s in the process of searching for a new location that will serve brunch daily. He’d rather spend his nights with his family rather than offer dinner service. While some items could be holiday specials at the new restaurant, say goodbye to classics like Luella’s gumbo and cornbread. Shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles should make it over to the new place.
So why can’t he stay in Lincoln Square? Reed doesn’t feel the neighborhood could sustain a full-time brunch restaurant with morning and afternoon hours. He’s considering neighborhoods including Bronzeville, Lincoln Park, Logan Square, and suburban Oak Park. Reed says his staff has known for about a year that a change was coming. When he shared the news with the local chamber, they reacted as if Reed could change his mind over the next 10 months. Might as well give workers ample notice, unlike some restaurant owners who don’t give their employees that luxury.
It’s been a journey since opening. Luella’s would open a second restaurant, one that focused on fried chicken, but it closed in 2020, part of the first wave of shutters during COVID. Reed would also open a stall at Time Out Market Chicago, the food hall in Fulton Market. But as rent and expenses increased, Luella’s would depart. Luella’s has also enjoyed success selling food to Bears fans and others at Soldier Field. Reed is hopeful to expand operations next season in the stadium.
After spending 18 years working for Hilton Hotels, Reed reserves a special place for breakfast and brunch with hotel restaurants needing to serve those meals to hotel guests, especially during holidays. The lifestyle is different. Reed also has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He feels hotel chefs get a bad rap, that they’re not considered as talented as restaurant chefs.
While he’s happy to prove that notion wrong, experience as a restaurant owner has mellowed him.
“It’s going to be a good brunch, and I’m content being with comparisons,” Reed says. “I’m going to give you great food, and if you think somebody else does it better? I think I’m good, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Luella’s 2.0 will be a bit of a departure, but he knows one thing: Grandma’s name will definitely be part of the new space’s name.
In the meantime, fans have a little less than 10 months to visit Reed in Lincoln Square.
Thousands of pro-Palestine protestors have gathered at Aotea Square in Auckland’s city centre this afternoon calling for a ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas war.
Dozens of Palestinian flags were seen among the congregation that included Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and MP Ricardo Menéndez March.
The rally began walking down Queen Street to the US Consulate General on Customs Street shortly before 3pm today.
A large police presence is also monitoring and chaperoning the march down Queen Street which has completly closed the street.
Hundreds of protesters take their march down Auckland’s Queen Street. Photo / Alex Burton
The crowd also chanted: “Casefire. When do we want it? Now.”
A stage has been set up near the Queen Street side of Aotea Square with a “Free Palestine” banner with both the Palestine flag and the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, also known as the national Māori flag.
Square and CashApp, two payment platforms used by many small businesses, have been experiencing outages since Thursday. Users are reporting they have been unable to access their accounts or perform transactions on both payment platforms.
Both companies are owned by Block Inc. (formerly Square Inc.), a San Francisco-based technology company,co-founded by Jack Dorsey in 2009, which launched CashApp in 2013.
The outages continued into Friday morning before being resolved, the company said. CashApp and Square shared updates on their websites about the outages that affected thousands of customers, wherein accessing accounts, making payments, and viewing one’s dashboard was unavailable. As of Friday afternoon, CashApp said the issue is mostly fixed, but it will continue to investigate the situation.
“We’ve resolved a majority of the issues, but you may experience some delays,” CashApp wrote on Friday. “Our team continues to monitor the situation.”
As for Square, it gave a status update that all systems were functioning back to normal on Friday.
However, during the outages, some small businesses struggled to carry on amid the glitches.
Aaron Bergh, owner of Calwise Spirits Co. in Paso Robles, CA, told The San Francisco Chronicle that he was unable to process credit card payments, and had resorted to jotting down credit card details for later processing or accepting cash, limiting customer spending.
He also added that, unlike previous Square outages where he could at least record credit card information, this time he wasn’t even able to access his account.
“We’re taking a huge risk by letting product walk out the door with the possibility that their card may be declined when we try to process them,” he told the outlet.
The total funding and number of deals in the fintech sector fell in the second quarter in the face of high-profile U.S. bank collapses in the spring. In Q2, global fintech funding slumped to $7.8 billion, down by 48% quarter over quarter, while number of deals dropped by 22% sequentially to 845, lowest since 2017, […]
The total funding and number of deals in the fintech sector fell in the second quarter in the face of high-profile U.S. bank collapses in the spring. In Q2, global fintech funding slumped to $7.8 billion, down by 48% quarter over quarter, while number of deals dropped by 22% sequentially to 845, lowest since 2017, […]
Square has teamed up with American Express to launch business credit cards to its customers. The launch is in beta phase with an unknown number of Square’s merchants using the card. The credit card takes additional data points into account, like a business sales processed through Square’s platforms or a business’s credit score, to determine credit […]
The We Are Open campaign launched a few weeks ago to support Napier businesses.
Napier City Business Inc (NBCI) is thinking outside the square with its latest campaign to encourage shoppers into the CBD.
We Are Open was launched this month with a video showing business owners from different cultures saying “We are open” in their own language.
“It was so cool. We wanted to send a very clear message, in a respectful and empathetic way. It was really easy to get everyone on board and we were so lucky it was a gorgeous blue-sky Hawke’s Bay day,” says NCBI general manager Pip Thompson.
She says the campaign launch aimed to promote the people behind the message.
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