The owners of Buzz Café confirmed they will cease operations at the restaurant on Oct. 18. Kribi Coffee Air Roastery purchased the decades-old eatery in 2023 but now they say they want to focus on their more coffee-forward business ventures.
Jacques Shalo opened Kribi six years ago with a location at 7324 Madison St. in Forest Park. They then expanded to a location at 1033 South Blvd. in Oak Park; purchased Buzz Café, 905 S. Lombard Ave.; and then opened another Oak Park location in the Albion building at 149 Forest Ave.
Under a separate business entity, Shalo also owns Sugar Fixe Pâtisserie at 119 N. Marion St. in Oak Park.
“Our business has become pretty diverse and complex,” said Jim Barker, chief operating officer of Kribi. “We are in the process of really focusing in on our coffee roaster and being a coffee company. Getting back to the growth of our wholesale business. We looked at Buzz Café being a little bit different than the other cafes. We thought it would be best to put [it] up for sale because it’s such a pillar of the arts district. And give other people the opportunity to come in and run a full-service restaurant, so we could get back to our coffee roots.”
Buzz Café had experienced some bumps in the road recently.
On Sept. 17, owner Shalo posted on his Facebook feed about Buzz Café and customer complaints, “Many of you have been brutally honest with your opinions. We welcome them. You said that the new Buzz Cafe feels sterile. Yikes! We heard you! Watch for several funky changes coming soon!”
“It’s very unfortunate that it’s the end of an era, but hopefully someone will be able to take it on and operate it,” said Jeremiah Shalo, who is the son of Jacques Shalo and president of Kribi. “This is the best move for us to help support the farmers back in Cameroon and narrowing in our business and, trying to be more successful in helping in ways that we believe are more momentous.”
Kribi has chosen to put the building up for sale, but not the actual Buzz Café business. That will close permanently.
The property is represented by Eatz & Associates, a national business brokerage firm, specializing in the restaurant industry.
“Maybe somebody will have some new and exciting thing that they want to do with it,” said Ted Aretos, partner at Eatz. “We’ve been working on quite a few leads. Tomorrow will be our first [showing]. A lot of people are used to going there for their coffee and sandwiches and stuff like that. And somebody else will hopefully be able to benefit off of that sort of built-in goodwill.”
The South Boulevard Kribi location closed approximately six months ago as well.
“The area was just too saturated,” said Beth Hrycaj, vice president of business development for Kribi. “We were so close to the other location that we were actually just competing with ourselves. So it didn’t make sense to have them both.”
Kribi’s is opening a new roastery and corporate headquarters.
“We’re going to be in the North Lawndale area,” Barker said. “Giving back to the community, helping provide for our neighbors with good paying jobs, not at a minimum wage, but the minimum living wage index. And giving training and development so we can further our mission of investing in the Chicagoland community.”