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Foxtrot reopening Fulton Market location
Urban retailer’s fourth convenience store and café in Chicago to start serving customers again on Wednesday
Greg Lindenberg, Editor, CSP
November 12, 2024
2 Min Read
This is the fourth location that the urban convenience-store chain is reopening in Chicago after abruptly closing all of its stores in the spring.Foxtrot
Foxtrot Café & Market will reopen its Fulton Market store in Chicago on Wednesday.
At 171 N. Green St., this is the fourth location that the urban convenience-store chain is reopening in Chicago after abruptly closing all of its stores in the spring. The others are on the Gold Coast, in Old Town, and in Wicker Park.
The reopened stores offer a carefully curated selection of coffee, groceries and café products from local makers and beyond. Foxtrot offers its café experience with an expanded, all-day menu featuring a selection of breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks, available for digital ordering:
Seasonal coffee blends such as the Gingerbread Draft Latte and Iced Peppermint White Mocha.
Breakfast tacos featuring new ingredients like braised barbacoa, grilled poblano peppers and thick-cut peppered bacon.
Pressed paninis made fresh daily with house-crafted recipes and freshly baked La Boulangerie bread.
“Farm-to-bowl” salads such as Broccoli Caesar, Greek Farro, and Seeds & Greens salads, with both protein and vegetarian options.
Sweet treats such as gummies and a daily assortment of fresh-baked cookies.
Foxtrot’s app allows shoppers to skip the lines by ordering ahead for in-store pickup or one-hour delivery.
Foxtrot had 33 convenience stores in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas and Austin, Texas, as well as two Dom’s Kitchen & Market small-format grocery locations in Chicago. The company closed all of its stores on April 23 with no notice to its employees. The move came less than six months after the two brands merged and formed a new entity, Outfox Hospitality.
Foxtrot's assets were sold to holding company Further Point Enterprises at an online auction in May for approximately $2.2 million. Days later, Outfox Hospitality filed for bankruptcy.
Some laid-off employees had filed a lawsuit against Foxtrot in April following the store closures. Block Club Chicago reported Foxtrot’s vendors faced unpaid bills and stranded products after the stores shut down.
Further Point approached Mike LaVitola, the original Foxtrot founder, to return to help run a revival of Foxtrot.
The new Foxtrot has “simplified its operations,” LaVitola recently told CSP Daily News, going back to how it operated three or four years ago. The company ran with about 2,500 SKUs at first, which grew to about 5,000, he said.
“It was very unsustainable, and I think that led to a lot of the problems,” he said.
Now, the chain is focusing on small vendors as its first priority, he said. It currently has about 100 total vendors, and when it comes to individual brands, a couple hundred, he added. Foxtrot is also continuing its private label.
This story was originally featured on CSP Daily News, a sister publication of Supermarket News.
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