Jefferson Park’s Fearless Cooking Shop Closing After 3 Years
JEFFERSON PARK — A kitchenware store that also provided cooking lessons is closing at the conclusion of the month right after three many years in the neighborhood.
Fearless Cooking, 4410 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Jefferson Park, is closing July 27, owner Catherine Siebel announced in a newsletter to subscribers and on social media Tuesday.
Economical strains are to blame, Siebel wrote.
The business enterprise opened in July 2019, four yrs just after the owner and mom of two experienced the idea to curate cooking courses for rookies. She secured the locale in 2018 but had to wait around additional than a calendar year to open up because of to metropolis inspections, spending lease on the house throughout the hold off.
Then the pandemic strike, and Siebel pivoted to presenting digital classes, deliveries, appointments and concierge present expert services although the store was shut. She experienced to lay off her employees and harmony homeschooling two little ones all through the quarantine, she wrote in the newsletter.
Credit score: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club ChicagoFearless Cooking reopened for in-retail store courses and procuring in late 2020. The store has because made available summertime cooking lessons for young ones, profits and cooking demonstrations styles of cooking lessons and methods, but they were being not ample to make up for misplaced income, she wrote.
The load of the pandemic “has put us in pretty dire financial straits, and we have not been equipped to get well,” Siebel wrote.
Siebel did not promptly return requests for even more remark.
“Here is the truth of the matter: I did the ideal I could. I did not hit each mark, by a long shot,” Siebel wrote. “Here is the other fact – Fearless plainly is not the retail outlet that the neighborhood desires. In April, I had far more requests for donations than I had buyers.
“In 2022, I’ve canceled 6 classes for the reason that no one has registered. Through final week’s 20 % storewide sale, only 8 shoppers came in for the entire 7 days,” she wrote.
The determination was a complicated 1 to make but “it’s time to transfer on,” Siebel ongoing. In a video clip to consumers posted on social media, the owner reported she hopes the neighborhood will come say goodbye and check out out the store’s 20 p.c off sale, which is lively right until Fearless Cooking closes.
The shop is also hosting a closing social gathering 6 p.m. July 27.
“I hope you can obtain strategies to see us, join us in the future number of months,” Siebel reported. “It’s been rather a journey obtaining Fearless and remaining a portion of this local community … I actually take pleasure in all people who supported us.”
Pay attention to “It’s All Fantastic: A Block Club Chicago Podcast”:
