Popcorn Owner Maintains Hectic Schedule, Traditions

Jonathan Kaufman is a busy man.

The 34-year-old Lincoln Park resident who recently opened Wells Street Popcorn downtown on Main Street—the third Wells Street location—maintains a nearly inhuman schedule. Shuffling between his Chicago, Oak Park and Downers Grove locations every day, Kaufman gets started around 6 a.m. and doesn't stop until 2 a.m. the following morning. He sleeps—briefly—and does it all again the next day.

It's an incredible amount of dedication considering Kaufman's introduction to popcorn as business came after his cousin offered him a job for a couple of days a week back in 2008 while she was opening the first Wells Street location in Oak Park. Kaufman, who at the time had just gotten out of the mortgage industry after running his own company for four years, didn't know what he wanted to do with his life and the offer from his cousin was as good as any other.

“She said to me 'You want to come make some popcorn with me this summer and help me out a couple of days a week?' And I said 'sure',” Kaufman said. A month later he was manager and he took over ownership of the company in January of 2011.

Wells Street Popcorn gets its name from family recipes dating back to the 30s. A family member created the recipes and ran a popcorn cart on Wells Street in Chicago, but the business never grew beyond the cart, and after the 30s, the recipes went unused in any commercial sense until Kaufman's cousin dusted them off in 2008.

Sign up for the Downers Grove Patch Newsletter!

The original family recipes were for the caramel, cheese and butter flavors sold at Wells Street. Kaufman created his own kettle corn recipe and every recipe is made from scratch daily with real ingredients. And so far, Downers Grove residents have shown an affinity for Wells Street.

“Business has been better than expected,” Kaufman said. “I knew it was a great location and it had potential, but I didn't expect the response to be as great as it's been. It's been awesome.”

Despite the success, Kaufman is unsure if he's going to expand any time soon. The option is there, Kaufman said, but he doesn't want to grow too big too fast, and he's concerned about maintaining the integrity of the product and keeping the recipes as closely guarded as he can. The recipes, which predate Chicago staple Garrett, require precision, and expansion can make maintaining standards difficult.

“I don't know if you'd say [making popcorn] is hard, but maintaing the the recipe's consistency is difficult,” Kaufman said. “The recipes are sensitive and can very easily be messed up.”

So, for now, Kaufman is content with where he's at, which is everywhere, every day.