Earwax Cafe Closing: Wicker Park Staple Shutting Down After 21 Years

For more than 21 years, Earwax Cafe has been a Wicker Park staple. Their vegetarian-friendly menu, delicious milkshakes and art-filled walls survived the earliest stages of Wicker Park's rapid gentrification, but the cafe will close at the end of this week due to financial problems.

Earwax announced the February 28 closure via Facebook, and confirmed the news to the Wicker Park/Bucktown Insider's Guide. Financial reasons are to blame, but further details were not immediately available.

As news spread, Earwax supporters headed to the restaurant's Facebook wall.

"Best wishes to all at Earwax," one fan wrote. "Thank you for 21 years of awesome food, great conversations, and a truly unique atmosphere! There is no place like it! You will be missed!!!"

We at HuffPost Chicago will also miss Earwax, and hope to make it in for one more Messy Burger this week.

Comments

[Frank Brenner]

07:31 AM on 03/10/2011

http://thependulumimpossible.blogspot.com/2011/03/chicago-food.html........A requiem for Earwax.

[3ntr0py]

02:04 PM on 02/24/2011

Good riddance for this hipster shithole. Vegan? Nobody is vegan that's why it's closing.

[Cyke101]

04:03 PM on 02/24/2011

On the contrary, Chicago's vegan population seems to be growing. Chicago Diner, for example, has had steady business ever since it opened years and years ago, and it offers a considerable vegan menu. Likewise, there are more vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants, serving various kinds of food; Huffpo even did a Top 10 Vegetarian Restaurants list for Chicago last year. If nobody's eating, how could there be enough for a top 10 list?

Earwax's problem wasn't catering to vegans -- the restaurant still had plenty of meat on its menu -- it simply boils down to appeal, food, service, word-of-mouth, and oney.

[Cyke101]

04:05 PM on 02/24/2011

Edit: Chicago Diner opened in 1983 and it's still going strong to the point where it can publish cookbooks. For a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, it outlasted the vegan-friendly-but-still-serves-meat Earwax by about 10 years.

[jbrownil]

12:21 AM on 02/24/2011

Been going there for years and have never had been treated poorly. I love this reactionary "pretentious hipster" nonsense I hear all the time about anyone or place that has a unique look or dorky hipster servers. The owners were no such thing and very friendly people.

I wonder what happened. Maybe poor management of money or maybe rent was raised? It was as typically busy recently as it was years ago.

[pinkeyelemonade]

09:23 AM on 02/23/2011

Wish I could have seen it even once.
RIP Earwax, from a flower child who may not have visited, but misses you already.

[Jivan]

09:20 PM on 02/22/2011

Been there. The name was revolting me.

[Cyke101]

07:46 PM on 02/22/2011

I'm sad to see neighborhood staples go. Where am I gonna go now for mediocre eggs?

[DoUGetItYet]

06:46 PM on 02/22/2011

Overpriced food and a pretentious wait staff.

[ben616]

05:58 PM on 02/22/2011

I must have walked by that place a thousand times hungry when I lived in Chicago.
Every time I would say to myself. "I don't want that waitperson near my food."
Now "Wicker Park Dog" from back in the day was where I liked to get yelled at and a fish sandwich.

[Elwood Grobnik]

01:39 PM on 02/22/2011

Food was pretty good. Service was horrible every time I ever ate there. You can say they were being "hip" or whatever, but you can't expect to hold on to your customer in an era of penny pinching when you are rude and inattentive to them. I'm a good cook, when I go out to eat, it's not really for the food as it is for the privilege of having an attentive wait staff.

Now Filter, I miss. They didn't have financial problems, the landlord just kicked them and Swank Frank out to lease a larger combined space to Bank of America. Now there's a vacant bank building across the street.

[Cyke101]

07:48 PM on 02/22/2011

Filter is BACK! Thanks to planning, plotting, and biding by the original management, it re-opened last year a few blocks south from its original location. It's at 1373 N. Milwaukee.

[iamnotpretendin]

01:56 PM on 02/24/2011

Filter is a cool room or whatever but there are 10 better places to go get coffee that's actually drinkable.

[Hey Z]

11:13 AM on 02/22/2011

I didn't frequent the place, but I stopped in from time to time. 21 years is a long time to run a business, and there's nothing more unstable than a restaurant business. I'm not sad, just more apprehensive on what will replace it and when. There's so many vacant storefronts even in bustling Wicker Park, it makes you wonder how high the rent is on some of them that businesses can't move in or keep going.

[Alex Moschopoulos]

09:22 AM on 02/22/2011

I'm sure we'll see a Starbucks open up there or some fancy boutique restaurant.

It's a shame the artsy hip vibe of Wicker Park is extinguished. Even more a shame when more real cafes close and we end up with Starbucks' sub-par coffee.

Just my opinion.

[Todd Cucchiara]

06:59 AM on 02/23/2011

You are entitled to your opinion but don't underestimate the alternatives. The local ambiance would still be embodied in employees. Starbucks hires local talent with a focus on a positive customer experience each time. The teams seek to get to know you at a personal level so you feel welcome and glad you stopped by.

In terms of quality, sub-par is over-brewing store bought coffee grounds and calling it "bold." I have seen 4 independent roasters in my city and one of them supplies an international cafe chain. None were as particular or environmentally conscious as Starbucks in their selection process. One came close, but a doughnut franchise bought them out. Starbucks is renowned for being socially and environmentally sensitive to our global ecosystem.

Starbucks is a corporate chain (Yee gads! It's the man!) not a franchise, that is true. But their locations still have local employees that are paid a living wage plus benefits. Do you know of an independent cafe owner that has offered a 401k or health plan? Basically, pay the people to create that positive experience is the corporate focus.

This could turn into a good thing. The owners of Earwax have over 2 decades of cafe management experience. With 3 million in liquid capital and a healthy expansion plan, they can apply to open up a Panera where the food is creative; they have vegan menu selections, and the service is again, local and selected to be interactive and friendly.

[jbrownil]

12:16 AM on 02/24/2011

This absolutely has to be a joke. bahahaha

[Cyke101]

05:39 PM on 02/24/2011

Or the alternative could be that another independent and/or local diner opens up at the same location, the way grease spoons, bars, and higher-priced dining establishments have opened up over the past few years. The alternative doesn't have to be an automatic big brand corporation.

[Remy Arrr]

02:53 AM on 02/22/2011

dammit

[KevinOConnor]

02:30 AM on 02/22/2011

WHAT?! Even if its overpriced, or not up to your standards as far as etiquette is concerned (I'm commenting to though fakers out there who are fine with dirty "greasy spoons" but not establishments such as this), or even a hipster faux pas, its still a Chicago staple. It was part of a community before 2/3 of current Wicker Parkers were living there! It's a sign of the times. Regentrification is making way for something more stylish and chic for those with money.

I am not saying good riddance. I'm saying beware Wicker Park.

[Ben McKeown]

10:08 PM on 02/21/2011

Okay I'll say it... good riddance. I know it sucks to watch an icon drop. But have you ever been in there? Cleanliness certainly wasn't an issue and according to the Health Department, pest control wasn't either.

I am bummed to see it go, but I'll happily support the next place that keeps clean food.

[leon999]

09:55 PM on 02/21/2011

And the answer is:

The rat feces along the walls.

Jeopardy question:

What was even grosser than Earwax's name, Alex?