If you've been meaning to go over to Drew's Eatery on Montrose, you should do so in the next 48 hours: Owner Drew Baker has just announced he'll be shutting down the three-year-old vegan-friendly joint on Saturday. (Its doors closed on Tuesday but will be reopening on Saturday briefly.) And, well, his parting shot says a lot of other things.
Bear in mind he's likely coming from an emotional place, but take a look at why he says the place must be shut down:
Trying to keep up with our competitors we began working with the online deals (groupon, plum, kgb, living social, reward network, price bunch, and others) We soon realized that these deals are not what they seem but yet are silent killers and only build false hope. We accept full responsibility as nobody forced us into Groupon or any other deal. We stopped doing any future deals in October and had hoped we could recover, but it was too late.
"Silent killers" and "false hope" are awful strong words to throw around, but it isn't exactly the first time running a Groupon has hurt a small-business owner. (See: the cupcake incident.)
Baker also goes on to thank his customers for educating him about the potential for "eating vegan [to] taste great" and that his "only regret is that I was not able to financially make it work."
A bummer, through and through, no matter the cause. Anyway, Baker encourages his devotees to stop by on Saturday for the final meal service. He'll be taking donations to pay off debts and there will also be a silent auction for furniture, equipment, and also raffle tickets to win the Drew's Wienermobile. Better check the Blue Book value on that sausage-shaped conveyance -- we hear they drop in value considerably after leaving the poppy-seed bun, er... lot.
Inc. Well reached out multiple times for comment by Groupon but haven't heard back.
Hat tip to Everyblock Chicago for pointing out the story.
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a columnist for EGM. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
