Foxtrot co-founder Mike LaVitola promised a comeback in Dallas for the coffee shop that dramatically shuttered in April 2024 across the United States, then filed for bankruptcy. The Dallas Morning News has confirmed that two of the four former shops will reopen in North Texas.
Foxtrot in University Park’s Snider Plaza, across the street from Southern Methodist University, has a signed lease, landlord Jim Strode confirmed this week. The Foxtrot team is already paying rent and has paid the back rent, Strode said.
The shops on McKinney Avenue in Uptown Dallas and on Greenville Avenue in East Dallas will not reopen as Foxtrots, their agents confirmed to The News.
The space on Greenville Avenue has already signed another tenant.
We don’t have a confirmation on the status of the fourth and final Foxtrot in Dallas, which is located on Knox Street.
LaVitola’s spokesman wouldn’t provide details, except to say that two leases in Dallas are signed.
Given the confirmations University Park will reopen and Greenville and McKinney will not, it is certainly possible, though not confirmed, that Knox Street could be the second Dallas lease.
LaVitola said in an email sent to The News that Dallas is a focus for the reestablished company.
“Dallas has always been a second home for Foxtrot,” LaVitola said in an emailed statement. .
Foxtrot co-founder Taylor Bloom grew up in Dallas, and he and LaVitola met in Austin.
“We’ve both spent so much time exploring the city’s incredible food and beverage scene,” LaVitola said.
While some of the Dallas landlords were upset by Foxtrot’s epic fall, University Park landlord Strode seemed interested in a reconciliation for months.
“The neighborhood loves Foxtrot,” he said, pointing to the many SMU students who walk past it every day. Customers missed Foxtrot when it closed, Strode said.
He and others confirmed they had interest from other coffee and convenience stores with models similar to Foxtrot.
“I probably had 25 calls in less than a week,” Strode said of the space at 6565 Hillcrest Ave.
“We could have done a lot of things, but the most efficient for us was to let [Foxtrot] reopen,” he said.
What happened to Foxtrot?
Chicago-born Foxtrot was a stylish coffee shop that sold gifts like flowers and wine, healthy breakfast and lunch items, and grab-and-go goods like White Claw, pints of ice cream and snacks from small businessowners. Part of its business model was a quick delivery system with an easy-to-use app.
It expanded from Chicago into Dallas in 2019, gaining a following as a place to study or work in Uptown. By 2024, it had expanded to four locations in Dallas and more than 30 nationwide.
Mid-morning on April 23, 2024, every Foxtrot closed with little explanation. Workers and customers were sent away in the middle of the day, doors locked. A memo from one Dallas shop said managers “had no clue about anything before this morning.” Customers seemed perplexed, too.
Parent company Outfox Hospitality admitted it had exhausted its resources and was sorry for the inconvenience. It was one of the wildest restaurant closures in years: abrupt, dramatic and strange.
News reports said the company grew too quickly and took its focus away from small purveyors selling unique goods and focused instead on national companies that could help the business explode. Rounds of layoffs and outsourcing delivery were two other problems noted in a deep-dive story by ModernRetail.
The company had a foreclosure sale in early May 2024. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection filing came soon after, on May 14, 2024.
Then co-founder LaVitola returned. He hadn’t been involved in the day-to-day business for more than a year and assumed the role of executive chairman at a newly formed parent company called Further Point Enterprises.
Bolstered by a new set of investors — the group that paid $2.2 million to buy the foreclosed-upon assets, in fact — LaVitola vowed in June 2024 to reopen some Foxtrots. He told The News he wanted to bring back the focus on locally-made and small business convenience store items, as was the vision when he started the company a decade ago. His plan was to reopen about a dozen Foxtrots.
The focus seems to be on Chicago and Dallas, not on Austin or Washington, D.C., where Foxtrot also operated upscale corner stores.
“I’m excited to get to reset a lot of these relationships,” LaVitola told The News in June 2024.
The first revived store opened Sept. 5, 2024, in Chicago.
Dallas is next. Dates for reopened shops haven’t been set yet.
Foxtrots in North Texas were at 2822 McKinney Ave., Dallas; 3130 Knox St., Dallas; 3606 Greenville Ave., Dallas; and 6565 Hillcrest Ave., University Park. All closed April 23, 2024.
Foxtrot at 6565 Hillcrest Ave., Dallas, is expected to reopen at an unknown date. We are awaiting details on whether 3130 Knox St., Dallas, will also open. The other two will not.
