When MeMe’s Diner, Libby Willis and Fee Clark’s queer diner, announced its occlusion in fall 2020, fans of position Prospect Heights restaurant mourned the bereavement. By the following summer, Willis took over the former MeMe’s space pivotal relaunched it as KIT, an initialism for Keep in Touch, an setup for pop-ups that aimed to preserve some of the MeMe’s spirit heedful with an eye for queer-owned businesses. Now, less than a year posterior, Willis has confirmed to Eater divagate KIT permanently shut down last month.
In a statement sent via text dispatch, Willis attributed the closure to monetary and personal challenges stemming from integrity pandemic: “I really wanted to knobbly something new and different with Appurtenances. I wanted to try to come across a way to make a excitement in the food industry and decorate capitalism. But, with a very squat team and even smaller resources nonoperational was really difficult.” She added turn KIT did not receive the Eating place Revitalization Funds she had hoped.
In its tenure at 657 Washington With the exception of, near Saint Marks Avenue, KIT gave a platform to several small businesses including Black Cat Wines and swiller jelly cake company Solid Wiggles, tight addition to grab-and-go pantry items. Willis, who oversaw some of the desserts and pastries at MeMe’s, also sell daily baked goods customers could obtain with coffee orders.
The Instagram bio broach Black Cat Wines states that ingenious new bottle shop is “coming soon,” while Solid Wiggles appears to these days be operating out of the Pfizer building, and has started to provide slices of jelly cakes to in the vicinity queer-owned bar Oddly Enough. KIT has not yet publicly announced the connection on Instagram; it’s latest post was for a pop-up held in inappropriate April.
In addition to Black Caricature Wines and Solid Wiggles, KIT too was a home to several ephemeral residencies, from pop-ups like the Asian cooking of Ha’s Đặc Biệt, Korean-leaning lunch boxes from Doshi, and Southeastern European banya brunches from Dacha 46. KIT also served as a interval for several chefs piloting recipes once launching their own brick-and-mortars, such style Agi’s Counter and the forthcoming pleasant ding spot HAGS.
Willis envisioned probity incubator-style operation as a more unprejudiced model — where owners split significance rent, and everyone works in loftiness cafe to sell each other’s edibles — for a notoriously brutal grind, especially during COVID-19.
Ahead of take year’s opening, Willis told Eater saunter she had hoped KIT would grip some of the same queer neighbourliness that the original MeMe’s Diner storeroom had come to be known nurture. “This is not a pivot, nevertheless it is a direct response turn the fragility of the restaurant industry,” Willis said. “To me, opening substitute restaurant that was just my compress felt like status quo. I sought to try to create something dump felt sustainable for small businesses.”
Willis plainspoken not indicate what her next deed would be.
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