A meat and seafood shop in downtown Lake Forest closed last month following a period of financial struggle tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, one of the co-owners is hoping she can start over.
The owners of the Daily Grind of Lake Forest, a butcher shop and catering service that had operated in Market Square for more than six years, shut down operations at the end of September.
“I don’t think we have ever been treated fairly in Market Square. I don’t think the property management has ever realized how lucky a town is to have a butcher shop,” said Carrie Harness, 29, who co-owned and operated the Daily Grind with her father, Rick.
Harness spoke of an establishment where the owners made their own sausages, soaked salmon, cured bacon, did some catering and prepared items for customers in a small space in Market Square.
Operating in Lake Forest represented a second opportunity for the family, as Rick Harness ran a similar store under the same name in Lake Bluff but had to shut down in 2015.
“He lost everything that he ever worked for,” Harness said of her father. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have that second chance to do it.”
After opening in Market Square, Harness said there was a steady customer base.
“Things were going well and improving, and it was our time to shine,” she recalled.
However, that all changed in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic started, and people were no longer going out.
“It was rough,” she said. “It was comparable to torture.”
Harness said applications for federal government loans offered in light of the pandemic were not approved, and she and her father started a GoFundMe page requesting financial help.
They managed to keep the doors open over the next two years, but customer traffic remained slow. Harness acknowledged falling behind in their rent and she was told in June the property manager would be showing off the space to potential new clients.
Harness said she and her father were able to come up with the $14,300 in rent to get them back even, and there were discussions of a lease renewal. But on the day Harness said the two sides had agreed for her to come over and present the check to the property manager, she said she instead found a locked door at the property manager’s office.
Harness said she slipped the check under the door, but it was returned and soon there was an order to vacate.
An initial eviction summons was served Sept. 29, according to Lake County sheriff’s office spokesman Christopher Covelli.
“I am in disbelief,” she said.
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The building is owned by an Ohio-based LLC, according to official records. Attempts to reach Mid-America Group, the property manager, were unsuccessful.
On Sept. 30, Harness was cleaning out what remained of the store, disappointed in how she believes she was treated.
“There are a ton of tenants that are behind on rent,” she said. “The pandemic was brutal on everyone.”
As a friend has started a new GoFundMe campaign to get a new business started including getting new equipment, Harness, who lives in McHenry, is determined to open at a new location.
“We want to stay in this area,” she said. “We just have to find a place that has been built out as a restaurant.”
Harness said her emotions have run the gamut as she looks back on everything that has happened.
“I have moments where I break down, and then I have moments where I am positive and want this an opportunity of growth,” she said. “I know this is what I am meant to do, and I can’t see myself doing anything else, so I just to have to find a way to make it happen.”