Dom’s Kitchen & Market, the upscale, downsized Chicago grocer, plans to open a store in a former River North Whole Foods next summer.
The store will be the third for Dom’s, which was launched by Mariano’s founder Bob Mariano and former Dominick’s affiliates in 2021. The small-format grocery store is planned for the ground floor of One Superior Place at 30 W. Huron St., a 25,000 square-foot space vacated by Whole Foods last year, which left for a larger retail location in the Near North neighborhood.
Dom’s opened its first store in Lincoln Park in 2021 and its second in Old Town last year. The company, which is known for specialty groceries and prepared food stations, said it will host a slate of local vendors including Eli’s Cheesecake, Brown Sugar Bakery, Hexe Coffee and Linz Meats at the River North store. Shoppers will have access to kitchen items similar to offerings at existing stores, such as Bonci pizza, burgers and sushi, as well as a bar, coffee shop and bakery, said CEO Don Fitzgerald.
Dom’s previously said it planned to open 15 stores by 2025; that remains the company’s working plan, Fitzgerald told the Tribune. The company will not open additional stores in 2023.
Dom’s scrapped plans to open a location in a former Marshall Field’s store in Oak Park by the end of this year; Fitzgerald said the company decided the Field’s building, which is two stories, would not work for a Dom’s format.
“When we looked at our operation, the flow of the guests, it just wasn’t going to work for us,” he said.
The company plans to expand into the suburbs and would like to serve Oak Park, Fitzgerald said, though the majority of Dom’s near-term growth will be in the city.
Jay Owen, who is the board co-chairman and great-grandson of Dominick’s founder Dominick DiMatteo, said in 2022 that Dom’s was scouting locations in the north and west suburbs. Owen cited pandemic disruptions and the impact the fear of city crime had on business as reasons the specialty grocer was looking toward the suburbs.
“We’re committed to the city of Chicago, the people of Chicago,” Fitzgerald said in an interview with the Tribune. “We’re born here, we want to grow here.”
Dom’s said it plans to hire about 150 full- and part-time employees for the River North store.
