Another Foxtrot store will reopen in Old Town this Thursday.
The specialty grocery store once had locations throughout Chicago but closed suddenly in April after merging with Dom's Kitchen & Market less than half a year earlier. At its peak, Foxtrot had as many as 33 locations across Chicago; Dallas; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C.
The Old Town store, located at the intersection of North Avenue and Wells Street, will be the second location to open since Foxtrot's original co-founder Mike LaVitola announced plans to reopen several locations in Chicago and Texas.
LaVitola said rebuilding the chain will depend on which licenses and leases he can retain since Outfox Hospitality, the merged company of Foxtrot and Dom's, let all the leases expire before declaring for bankruptcy earlier this year.
"The new company had no leases, and to get them back, it was a one-on-one negotiation with every single landlord ... and we weren't able to get some of them back," he said in a conversation at a Executives' Club of Chicago event last week.
As the new Foxtrot is an entirely new company, LaVitola must also reapply for food and liquor licenses and get reinspected at every store before reopening.
LaVitola said one thing that will change with the new Foxtrot is inventory. Toward the end of its run, Foxtrot had increased from around 2,500 SKUs (stock-keeping units) to closer to 5,000 SKUs, he said. The new business will revert to the earlier strategy.
"We actually cut 40% of SKUs, which seems counterintuitive to what you do if you want to increase sales, but what that allowed us to do was get more shopability in the store and more room on the shelves to actually story-tell," he said.
LaVitola added that Foxtrot's new layout will be "simpler" for customers and employees alike, and that his team "gutted" everything they were doing in the café.
The reopened store will feature an expanded café and "reimagined food offering" that comes with a new menu, including items such as panini sandwiches, salads and bowls, and a selection of coffee, groceries and café products. Foxtrot will also offer "rebuilt" breakfast tacos — their No. 1 seller — with new and improved ingredients.
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