EDGEWATER — The owners of Luciana’s Kitchen closed their cafe inside Edge of Sweetness over the weekend as they prepare to open their own restaurant.
Luciana Alonso and her husband, Diego Cureses, opened Luciana’s Kitchen in 2020, using the shared kitchen at the Edgewater bakery Edge of Sweetness to serve up to-go homemade empanadas, pastries and sandwiches.
In January, the couple took over the retail space within Edge of Sweetness, 6034 N. Broadway, and opened a small cafe.
But Alonso and Cureses recently decided to close the front-of-house portion of their business and focus on filling online orders while they save money to move into their own storefront, they said.
As Luciana’s Kitchen has expanded, the business has outgrown the shared space, Alonso and Cureses said. They plan to open their own cafe next year, but it could take a while to find a storefront, build it out and go through the city’s permitting process.
For now, Alonso and Cureses are still using Edge of Sweetness’ kitchen, which is shared by seven small businesses. People can place orders online for delivery or pick them up inside Edge of Sweetness.
“We feel like it’s about time to get our own space for our business because it’s been growing,” Alonso said.
The closure of Luciana’s Kitchen cafe marks another evolution for that business and Edge of Sweetness, which opened in 2017 with homemade cakes, cinnamon rolls, bagels and pastries.
Over time, the bakery invited other small businesses to share its industrial kitchen. In August 2021, the bakery closed its retail space and started using it for events. The space was later offered to Luciana’s Kitchen, which opened a cafe.
The cafe portion of the business allowed Alonso and Cureses to interact more with customers, and that experience led them to want to expand further into their own storefront, they said.
“A lot of people don’t realize I’m Luciana,” Alonso said. “It’s like a secret I’ll keep just so that I can see their reaction when they find out. It was comforting for me to see people coming back or bringing their friends. It filled my heart to see people enjoy the same things I enjoy making with a lot of love.”
Alonso and Cureses hope to open their storefront near Edgewater, but they will continue offering free delivery to neighbors if they end up moving elsewhere in the city or out to the suburbs, they said.
In the meantime, they’ll keep filling online orders and will return to farmers markets in the summer.
“The people in Edgewater and the surrounding area have been super nice to us,” Cureses said. “They’ve been so supportive of our business, and we don’t want to cut that relationship even if we have to move farther.”
Since Alonso and Cureses announced the closure of their cafe last week, their regular customers have stopped by in droves to say goodbye, the owners said. One of their customers brought the couple a bottle of wine to “wish [them] the best,” Cureses said.
“We thought a lot about closing the front of the house, and we’re sad that we had to do it because people were so supportive,” Curses said. “The best part of it was the relationships we built with our regular customers. I want to say a big thanks to everybody who stopped by this year.”
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December 20, 2023 at 07:55PM
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Luciana's Kitchen Closes Edgewater Cafe As It Looks For New Storefront - Block Club Chicago
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