Retail-restaurant hybrid Foxtrot intends to reopen several locations in Chicago in the Gold Coast and Old Town neighborhoods, a spokesperson from the upscale, urban convenience-store chain told CSP, with more locations slated to reopen in the future. The news comes after Foxtrot and sister chain Dom's Kitchen & Market closed on April 23 with no notice to employees.
More new locations in Chicago, Dallas and Austin will be announced in the coming weeks, but the Washington, D.C., locations will not be reopening, the spokesperson said Wednesday.
Mike LaVitola, Foxtrot’s original founder, started a new company after Outfox Hospitality, the chain's parent company, declared bankruptcy and sold its assets for approximately $2.2 million to New York-based Further Point Enterprises. The new company is the root of the Foxtrot resurrection. It is unclear whether LaVitola’s new company is working in partnership with Further Point Enterprises.
“A new Foxtrot with some old friends. Coming soon,” the convenience-store chain said in an Instagram post Wednesday morning.
The post comes after Foxtrot deleted all of its existing social media content following the abrupt closures.
More on Further Point
Further Point Enterprises has entered into six new leases with landlords for shuttered Chicago-based Foxtrot stores, according to court documents filed Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
The six locations, all in Chicago, are in Fulton Market, Gold Coast, Old Town, River North and two in Wicker Park, according to court documents.
Court records also show that the bankruptcy trustee for Foxtrot is recommending terminating all of Foxtrot’s unexpired leases “to maximize the value of the estates and eliminate unnecessary burdens.”
“The trustee has assessed the leases and contracts, and determined that they have no economic value, and are not in any way helpful to the administration of the estates,” according to court records.
Of the 35 total shuttered locations, two locations operated as Dom’s Markets and the remaining markets operated under the Foxtrot brand. In addition, court records show, Foxtrot “leased storage spaces, parking lots and operated commissaries where grab-and-go food items were prepared for sale in the markets.”
The closures of Foxtrot and Dom’s came less than six months after the companies announced a merger that formed Outfox Hospitality. Foxtrot was founded in 2014 as a delivery company selling snacks, beer and wine, and it grew into a corner store-restaurant hybrid that featured high-end package goods, prepared foods, coffee bars and wine bars. The chain raised more than $160 million to fuel its growth over its lifetime.
This story originally appeared in sister publication CSP Daily News.
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