The Chicago Transit Board today approved two leases to Butterfield Kitchen for cafes at the Roosevelt station serving the Orange, Green and Red Lines and the Jefferson Park Blue Line station, giving CTA customers the ability to pick up made-to-order breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food will be cooked on site at the rail stations.
“CTA is pleased to expand its concession offerings at these highly traveled hub train stations to include fresh meals that can be prepared for commuters on the go,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. “As the CTA continues to invest in modernizing and upgrading its rail stations and infrastructure, we will continue to seek fresh, innovative concepts that will enhance our customers’ transit experience.”
Butterfield Kitchen, a Wilmette-based catering company, offers high quality, organic foods including homemade sausage, scones and muffins as well as a variety of paninis and wraps for lunch and dinner. For this venture, Butterfield Kitchen has also developed a local organic blend of Intelligentsia coffee that will be sold at both cafes.
The CTA will be Butterfield Kitchen’s first retail locations. Butterfield Kitchen culinary director Nathan Proffer says the locations were chosen carefully. In addition to serving CTA customers, the Roosevelt station will cater to businesses and residents of the South Loop and offer deliveries. Jefferson Park was chosen because it is a hub for bus and train riders. The food is made to order, yet he says customers won’t have to worry about missing their bus or train while waiting for their meals.
“We are excited to expand our business to CTA train stations and offer CTA customers exciting, fresh food choices,” said Proffer. “The foot traffic and locations of both locations are very attractive to us as we grow our business.”
The leases each have a term of 10 years with annual rent of $2,583 per month and $3,041 per month at Roosevelt and Jefferson Park, respectively. Both leases have annual escalations of 3 percent.
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