Dom's Kitchen & Market opens 2nd Chicago store

Dom’s Kitchen & Market, an upscale grocer helmed by grocery titans Bob Mariano, Don Fitzgerald and Jay Owen opened its second location in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood on Tuesday amidst the backdrop of a large crowd of eager shoppers. Public officials, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot who joined Dom’s Kitchen & Market leaders in the ribbon cutting ceremony, were also on hand to celebrate the store’s grand opening.

Located at 1233 N. Wells St., the 27,000-square-foot store includes thousands of curated products, many of which are globally inspired, seasonally driven and locally sourced from Chicago and Midwest entrepreneurs and purveyors.

“This store is about 30% bigger than our Lincoln Park store,” Jay Owen, Dom’s Kitchen & Market co-founder and chairman, told WGB. “As a result, we have a lot more grocery items. In the other store, we had about 10,000 products, and in this store, we have 20,000."

Part of the reason for the increase in product offerings is a direct result from shopper feedback, he said. “Our customers say to us ‘we love what you do so much we want to be able to do our full shopping,’ and so we’ve added a lot of products to this store,” Owen said.

The store, which has two entrances, features seven checkout lanes on one side of the store and three more checkout areas near the retail foodservice sections—an area that continues to grow for Dom’s Kitchen & Market.

“We’re seeing that steadily increase,” Owen told WGB.

Aside from the expansive retail foodservice items, Dom’s Kitchen & Market offers an array of extended offerings not found in a grocery store. A wine library, a new in-house cake program, a wine and coffee bar and a living room setting that rivals Central Perk.  

“We’re trying to blend the lines between the kitchen and the market,” said Owen.

“The streams of retail and grocery continue to run together,” said Jimmy MacMillan, principal pastry chef consultant for Dom’s Kitchen & Market, at the grand opening. “Customers want high-end offerings and Dom’s Kitchen & Market has leveled up the attention to detail 100%.”

But what really sets Dom’s Kitchen & Market apart from other grocers is the space it has carved out of being a grocery-restaurant hybrid.

“I think it’s a space that we can really thrive in,” Don Fitzgerald, co-founder of Dom’s Kitchen & Market and an industry veteran in grocery, told WGB.

Grateful for the past experiences that have led up to this point, Fitzgerald also said he looks forward to assisting the next generation in the grocery industry.

“This industry has been good to me for a lot of years," Fitzgerald said. “If we can help younger folks get in the industry, have a career, be successful for them and their families—that’s paying it forward.”

As for what’s in store for Dom’s Kitchen & Market, Fitzgerald said there will be a couple more store openings next year.

“We’re still on our path to 15 stores by 2025,” he said.