On Easter Sunday the weather warmed, the sun came out, and the golfers returned. So did the joggers, tennis players, dog walkers, bicyclists, sunbathers, and roller skaters. The Waveland Avenue section of Lincoln Park came alive after almost six months of winter hibernation, except for Brett’s Waveland Cafe. The ivy-covered one-room restaurant remained shuttered. It finally opened on April 21–three weeks late–but only after a protracted three-month struggle that was petty and bizarre even by Chicago standards.
So Knobel began offering a varied menu that included omelets, bagels, baked goods, fresh-squeezed juice, and fresh fruit. By and by, word spread, and the restaurant began drawing people to the park, particularly on nice summer days.
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“It’s not the kind of place you can get rich running,” says Knobel. “On bad weather days, we hardly get any customers, because there are not many people in the park. But it’s very gratifying to see the lines of people on beautiful days. I feel real good about Brett’s because it’s making the parks more enjoyable.”
“What they fail to consider is overhead,” says Knobel. “A guy who sells beer in Soldier Field has no overhead. But my food costs are higher. Plus, I want to pay my employees a decent wage. I don’t want to exploit them.”
Fiore’s menu was almost the same as Knobel’s, plus he promised to keep longer hours and to spend roughly $30,000 rehabbing the restaurant. With the Open Kitchen bid in hand, the district’s concession committee–which makes recommendations to the board–asked Knobel to increase her rent.
“They used my bid to negotiate a higher bid from her,” says Fiore. “That’s not right; that’s not fair. The concession should go to the higher bidder.”
Then about 20 of Knobel’s customers stepped forward to speak on her behalf, arguing that her restaurant was too good to be lost. They pointed out that Open Kitchen’s concession in Oak Forest does not offer the same diversity as Brett’s.
