Marie's Cafe & Catering To Close For Good

CHICAGO, IL -- Marie's Cafe and Catering, a popular stop for brunch in Mount Greenwood, will close for good at the end of the day on Sunday (Aug. 13) after more than five years of serving the neighborhood on 111th Street. Owner Dean Kochert says a rising rent cost and an increase in the minimum wage contributed to his family's decision to close.

"The rent is very high in this particular space, and then you combine that with the required minimum wage increases and the burden it has on payroll," Kochert, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Allison Kochert, told Beverly-Mt. Greenwood Patch on Wednesday.

"You already pay more, and then you have the payroll tax on top of that," he said. "Now you have the state instituting it and making it impossible for small businesses to survive."

Declining sales over the past year-and-a-half also led the the decision to close Marie's, named in honor of the late grandmother of Allison Kochert.

"You need to have the full support of the community, and we weren't able to keep that," Kochert said.

Ald. Matt O'Shea said he was sad to see Marie's close and leave the Mt. Greenwood community.

"Dean is one of the most hard-working business owners I know," O'Shea said. "He was in the business every day trying to make a go of it. I often saw both him and his wife at the register, greeting and thanking customers."

Marie's offered "high quality food and service," the 19th Ward alderman added. "There's nothing more you could ask for from a local business."

Kochert and his wife, Allison had a mostly strong five-year run as a neighborhood cafe specializing in paninis, sandwiches, soups and wraps. They were highlighted on the popular Chicago's Best TV and host Brittney Payton and maintained at least a four-star Yelp rating during their time in Mount Greenwood.

But some guests were not always supportive of the business on social media, Kochert says.

"The whole idea was to create a place where people would come in the front door and see friends eating, meet them and make time to sit and eat with each other," Kochert said. "We even made a kids menu and made a ton of meals off the kids menu, but unfortunately you get younger kids coming in here with no money, making a mess and then go home and tell their parents they got kicked out."

"You have to draw the line somewhere between that and offering a place to sit, relax use the free WiFi, read the paper and look out at the park."

Some comments made online about the price of the food at Marie's and random threats to "boycott" the restaurant didn't help its cause. Although Kochert pointed out that the restaurant did not raise its prices at all over the past two years while "most restaurants do it every year."

"Unfortunately, one of the downfalls of social media is that people are so attached to it," Kochert said. "They listen to things on their and react, making their own decision based on someone else boycotting it. But we did have thousands of happy customers."

The prices did not rise even as Marie's "absorbed all the cost increases from suppliers," according to Kochert.

O'Shea agrees with Kochert's assessment regarding the minimum wage, and noted he was "very outspoken" in fighting against the requirements enacted recently by the city of Chicago.

"The minimum wage at 3700 W. 111th St. is significantly higher than it is three blocks away at Reilly's Daughter (in Oak Lawn)," O'Shea said. "It is a heavy burden for small businesses that border suburbs who don't have that."

"It is crushing to small businesses, and this is yet another example."

In its stronger years, Marie's was the ideal spot to embrace the "Mount Greenwood philosophy of family, friends and a place to gather," said Kochert, a resident of nearby Oak Lawn.

"My wife and I embraced Mount Greenwood the best we could," he said. "We participated in fundraisers, block parties and offered gift certificates when we could."

Anyone with Marie's gift cards is urged to use the remaining balance before they close on Sunday.

Photo via Google Maps screenshot