Cafe Aggravation
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For Murray and Zartman an entrepreneurial adventure in Lincoln Park wound up being an exasperating exercise in dealing with a bureaucracy that, rightly or wrongly, was more concerned with its own rules and regulations than with helping two eager young businesspeople build a successful restaurant on Park District property. When Zartman and Murray took over the cafe in 1992, a series of lackluster managements had failed to make much of an impact. Lacking the funds for major renovations, they spent several weeks scraping down, cleaning up, and painting everything at the cafe. Then they revised and expanded what had been a limited menu of hot dogs, hamburgers, and traditional concession-stand fare. “We added more healthful foods–salads, vegetarian dishes, and pastas,” says Zartman. They kept the place open seven days a week and introduced live music at Sunday brunch, as well as dinner service with a full wait staff. Neighborhood residents responded enthusiastically to the changes, and by the end of the 1994 summer season, Zartman says Park Place Cafe was serving as many as 900 customers a week.
When Reidy was unable to fill the position over the winter, she had no choice but to deal with Zartman and Murray’s request on her own. In April she offered them a one-year renewal with minimal capital improvements. Zartman and Murray balked, and she countered with a two-year offer, again with only minimal improvements to the building. She says she wasn’t able to offer them a five-year contract because Park District codes prevent any concessionaire from getting a five-year contract unless it’s first put out for public bid. Reidy, who was under the impression that Zartman and Murray wanted the Park District to invest $200,000 in improving the cafe, says a Park District contractor examined the Park Place Cafe and concluded that it didn’t need such extensive repairs.
By making the switch, the producers hoped to give the production extra time to build an audience based on positive reviews and word of mouth. According to coproducer David Stone, the switch has paid off. But what has most surprised Stone and his fellow producers is the number of those under 40 in the audience. This demographic group infrequently attends live theater, and producers here and elsewhere around the country are most anxious to turn its members into regular theatergoers.
