Foxtrot's second location could reopen next week, chairman says

Foxtrot’s Old Town store will be the next to reopen, as the company marches forward with its comeback plans.

The store could open in as soon as a week — "knock on wood," Mike LaVitola, co-founder and now-chairman of Foxtrot, said Thursday during a virtual event hosted by the Executives' Club of Chicago.

The location will join Foxtrot's Gold Coast store, which was the first to reopen on Sept. 5. Its opening day saw almost every table on the patio occupied as customers enjoyed expanded food and coffee options.

The timeline for reopening the Old Town store at 1562 N. Wells St. is dependent on Foxtrot obtaining the necessary licenses and having staff in place. LaVitola said each Foxtrot location needs about 25 to 30 “really, really great people” to operate, and the pace of reopening Foxtrot stores will be dependent on hiring.

Foxtrot abruptly closed its Chicago sites on April 23, surprising customers and most employees. The specialty grocer operated 33 stores across the country, including in Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Its closure coincided with those of Dom’s Kitchen & Market, which merged with Foxtrot in late 2023 to form parent company Outfox Hospitality. Shortly after the closures, Outfox filed for bankruptcy in March.

Foxtrot is making a comeback after Further Point Enterprises purchased Foxtrot’s assets for more than $2.2 million in an online auction. LaVitola said the firm approached him and other senior employees and asked if they’d like to give Foxtrot a second go.

“Despite kind of all the chaos, and maybe how the stores felt at the end, it always really, really resonated with customers,” LaVitola said. “The store was full as a place vendors wanted to be, and it kind of had that spark. And it felt like the right thing to do, to pick it back up.”

He said the the biggest roadblock will be staffing and licenses.

Foxtrot stores need new food and liquor licenses since they’re under a new company. They also need to pass health inspections again, LaVitola said.

“The stores are there,” he said. “It's a little bit more than flicking the lights on, but it's not much more.”

LaVitola said the company wants to focus on its existing fleet of stores as it moves forward. About seven to eight Chicago stores are being looked at right now, in addition to two in Dallas.

“It's a great fleet,” he said. “We know these stores and these neighborhoods intimately.”