Even with a combined 40-plus years of experience in the hospitality industry, Mark Domitrovich and chef Brian Jupiter say that the past few months have been an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything they've ever experienced. Jupiter and Domitrovich co-own West Town restaurant Frontier and Ina Mae Tavern & Packaged Goods in Wicker Park, located less than a mile apart and connected by bustling Milwaukee Avenue.
In early June, the partners cautiously reopened their restaurants' outdoor patios in accordance with city safety guidelines, spacing out tables and equipping staff with personal protective equipment. Following a weekend of citywide protests against police brutality in response to the death of George Floyd, neither Domitrovich nor Jupiter knew exactly what to expect when they flung open their doors for the first time since closing to dine-in guests back in March. What they got was a deluge of business so overwhelming that the city issued them tickets for being too busy.
"The outpouring of support was unbelievable. It caught us off guard," Domitrovich says.
Business hasn't slowed since, but Domitrovich and Jupiter say they've learned how to manage the flow and roll with the city's moving targets while keeping staff and guests safe. As a result, they've been able to bring back furloughed staff and hire on new team members to accommodate their flourishing restaurants. And though both men are thrilled that Ina Mae Tavern and Frontier are being championed as Black-owned Chicago restaurants, they're eager to see long-term change in the industry.
"I hope that this new resurgence for wanting to support Black businesses stays and it's not just a short-live trend," Jupiter says. "One thing that this whole thing has done is woken up everybody to the fact that you have to do something different. What you've been doing hasn't been working and it's not going to be accepted anymore. Everyone's looking to change some things up, and that's a positive thing."
In the long term, Jupiter says that he wants people to stop singling out Black-owned restaurants and start leveling the playing field. "I just hope that we can start seeing eye to eye and not as much the race and the color having to be the reason," he explained. "All of this stuff that we're seeing right now is the low-hanging fruit, and it's not much of addressing the real root of these issues."
On Friday, June 26, as the city moves into Phase 4 of its reopening plan and allows indoor seating at restaurants and bars, Jupiter and Domitrovich will open a few more tables to dine-in guests at each restaurant, though the 25 percent capacity cap won't allow for too many new seats. The co-owners say they're staying open-minded about the city's phases so that they can make updates to service and staffing as needed.
All the while, Jupiter remains a steadfast advocate for the Black culinary community, a role that's become embedded in his identity.
"My responsibility doesn't change. This is a personal thing for me," Jupiter says. "I've always had the responsibility of employing Black people as well as educating Black people in the restaurant industry. That's something I've taken on for the last 10 years, if not more. It's good that it seems like now there will be more opportunities and more people willing to help the cause."
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