Foxtrot mourners, rejoice! The upscale convenience chain will be reopening this summer.
Owner Mike LaVitola has announced that several locations in Chicago, Dallas and Austin will be making a comeback. The stores will maintain the same layout and merchandising, with a focus on small and local makers.
Crain’s Chicago Business reports that about a dozen stores—all of which are in existing Foxtrot spaces—are slated to reopen, and the first two are likely to be the Gold Coast and Old Town outposts.
“It’s a totally new company starting from scratch, but (we) have the Foxtrot name and the (intellectual property) and a bunch of our locations,” LaVitola told Crain’s. “We’re like a new startup again.”
A post on Foxtrot’s Instagram account simply reads, “A new Foxtrot with some old friends. Coming soon.”
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Foxtrot, along with Dom’s Kitchen and Market, abruptly and controversially closed this past April. Outfox Hospitality, the parent company of both brands, operated over 30 Foxtrot locations around the country, including 15 in Chicago. The news came as a shock to customers and workers alike, with no advance warning given. Some fans had even moved to certain neighborhoods because of the proximity to Foxtrot.
The chain was founded in Chicago in 2014 by LaVitola and Taylor Bloom as an online delivery service offering high-quality snacks, wine, beer and other typical convenience items. It expanded to a brick-and-mortar store in Fulton Market the following year, adding amenities like a coffee bar, and rapidly grew from there.
LaVitola told Crain’s he hopes to repair relationships with former vendors and employees, who were caught flat-footed by Foxtrot’s closing. And while the plan is for most of the offerings—including the company’s private-label products—to stay the same, LaVitola says the food experience will be “revamped.”
Here’s to hoping it's still the same Foxtrot we all know and love.