Toast is closing its restaurants in Bucktown and Lincoln Park.
Chicago’s culinary scene has suffered yet another devastating loss. In a heartfelt post on Facebook, Toast owner, Jeanne Roeser, announced that the restaurants will be closing their doors permanently.
Roeser first opened Toast in the spring of 1996 with locations in Bucktown and Lincoln Park. In its 24-year run, Toast served was a mainstay in its communities.
“I am saddened to tell you that after 24 years, Toast will be closed forever. I am so grateful to be a part of the community for these many years,” Roeser wrote.
“Toast was a unique place made up by special people who have become my family. I can’t adequately express how much I will miss working with my staff and serving customers who have shared so much of their lives with me.”
The restaurants offered a hodgepodge of sweet and savory breakfast and lunch dishes. Their menu featured classic meals such as granola, cobb salads, and BLTs, as well some more brow-raising dishes like their “french toast orgy”.
Roeser recounted the trials and tribulations of balancing the operations of her restaurants while raising her children and going through a divorce. In was in this time that she cherished her businesses and felt wholly grateful for their customers, of whom became her treasured friends.
She also effusively praised her staff, highlighting the small things that they did at the restaurants, as well as speaking in the detail on how their personalities made her business and life so special.
“Thank you everyone for being a beautiful part of my life. I loved my job and my restaurant and I am grief stricken. However nothing lasts forever in this world and it is time to move forward and see what this next phase will bring,” she wrote.
If you’d like to contribute to the staff of Toast, you can make a donation on their Go Fund Me page.
[Featured image: @toast_chicago]