After Foxtrot dramatically closed its coffee shops across Dallas in April 2024, with customers and employees being told to leave during business hours in a move so abrupt the company’s co-founder Mike Lavitola said: Dallas Morning News He plans to reopen at least two of his four North Texas locations.
Chicago-based Lavitola said he has “the vision” to reopen 12 to 16 of Foxtrot’s 33 stores nationwide, which closed on April 23, 2024.
LaVitra said stores in Chicago, Austin and Dallas could reopen as early as August 2024. newsIt did not say which Dallas-area stores would reopen or when.
For now, the area’s four Foxtrot locations remain open — on McKinney Avenue, Knox Street, Greenville Avenue and in Snyder Plaza in University Park — as landlords struggle to decide whether to do business again with a company they abruptly severed ties with with little explanation.
“It was definitely a shock,” Lavitola said.
“I found out about this at the same time as everyone else.”
How? Lavitola said he hasn’t been involved in Foxtrot’s day-to-day operations for the past 18 months. He founded the company with Taylor Bloom in 2014. Foxtrot then merged with Dom’s Market Kitchen & Market in late 2023 to form a new company called Outfox Hospitality. The company has reportedly raised more than $100 million to expand. Lavitola said he was around when the shutdown happened and has been an adviser ever since.
“It was really hard to imagine because it all happened so suddenly,” he said.
Employees, customers and small business owners who do business with Foxtrot agreed. Some complained they weren’t paid and food was spoiled at closed stores. They filed a class action lawsuit.
Following Foxtrot’s bankruptcy, the company sold its intellectual property and restaurant equipment for $2.2 million in an online foreclosure sale on May 10, 2024. The assets were purchased by investment firm Father Point Enterprises. Outfox filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on May 14, 2024.
Mr Lavitola has been named executive chairman of the new parent company, Father Point, the report said, and is returning to Foxtrot.
He said he’s “treating it like a new startup again.” Crain’s Chicago Business.
“I’m excited to reset a lot of relationships,” he said. news. He declined to say how much money Father Point Enterprises has raised to save the dozen or so foxtrots on its list.
On June 5, 2024, an Instagram post from @foxtrotmarket announced that a “new Foxtrot with some old friends” was “coming soon,” garnering attention from some consumers.
None of the four landowners in Dallas or University Park have commented publicly about their situation at Foxtrot.
From Lavitola’s perspective, Foxtrot’s biggest strength was selling food made by small, local businesses. For example, Austin-based Tacodeli sold its popular salsa doña on Foxtrot’s shelves. Besides coffee and breakfast tacos, Foxtrot also had a marketplace selling snacks like pints of Jeni’s Splendid ice cream, bouquets of flowers, or chips and desserts made by local business owners.
“We’ve literally brought hundreds of brands to market. They get sales data from Foxtrot and [their products] “Foxtrot is a lot bigger than a Central Market or a Whole Foods or a Target,” Lavitola said of the company’s early days. He saw Foxtrot as at the center of a “consumer ecosystem”: too small to compete with big box stores, but big enough to be a launch pad for up-and-coming food brands.
“I mean, the foxtrot was the only thing I thought about for 10 years,” he said. news.
“Running away from that and putting your hands up was not the right thing to do.”
We will update this story as more information becomes available.