Cultivate Is Leaving the Trolley Barn, But the Story Isn’t Over. Here’s What’s Next.

If you saw Cultivate close its doors inside the Trolley Barn and assumed that was the end of the restaurant, that does not appear to be the case.

After more than six years in downtown Frankfort, Cultivate Community Table served its final day at the Trolley Barn on September 18.

But based on Cultivate's own public updates, this looks much more like a transition than a goodbye.

Why Cultivate Left the Trolley Barn

What makes this transition particularly interesting is how candid Cultivate has been about why the Trolley Barn location was no longer working as well as it once did.

In a July 24 Facebook post, Cultivate said the restaurant originally benefited from nearby activity including the Children's Museum and the Farmers Market.

As those attractions moved and additional hospitality businesses opened in more visible downtown locations, Cultivate said operating from the back of the Trolley Barn became increasingly challenging.

The restaurant specifically cited limited signage, rising rent, deteriorating facilities, shrinking market share, declining alcohol sales, and inconsistent dine-in traffic among the reasons it decided to make a change.

At the same time, other parts of the business were showing more promise.

Cultivate said carryout, delivery, and catering had continued to grow and were helping point the business toward what comes next.

Rather than continue trying to make the original model work in the same location, Cultivate described the move as an opportunity to reset and make changes it had wanted to pursue for some time.

Some of Cultivate Is Moving Across the Street

Cultivate initially announced that a streamlined version of its menu would become available for pickup and delivery from inside The Wine Thief following the Trolley Barn closure.

A more recent update provided additional details.

Cultivate said a handful of familiar dishes, along with some familiar faces, will be making their way across the street to The Wine Thief as part of what it described as a larger rebranding and expansion of its restaurant group.

Beginning September 29, The Wine Thief is expected to open daily for brunch starting at 10 AM, with an overhauled menu and additional changes still to come.

Cultivate Says It Is Not Going Away

This is probably the most important part of the story.

Cultivate has not said that the restaurant itself is simply becoming The Wine Thief.

Based on the public announcements so far, pieces of Cultivate are being incorporated into an expanded Wine Thief operation while Cultivate continues working on its own future.

In its July announcement, Cultivate said it was finalizing plans for a new permanent location better suited to the direction the concept is taking.

Its more recent post again said the business looks forward to sharing where Cultivate is headed when the time is right.

That still leaves some pretty obvious questions.

Where will Cultivate eventually land? What will the next version of the restaurant look like? Will it remain primarily a sit-down restaurant, or will carryout, delivery, and catering play a larger role?

Right now, we simply do not know.

Until Cultivate announces more, I do not want to guess.

Why I Want to Keep Following This One

One of the reasons I spend so much time covering local businesses around Frankfort and the southwest suburbs is that these places become part of the community.

Local restaurants employ our neighbors, sponsor local events, become meeting places, and give each town a little bit of its own identity.

And local businesses do not always move in a straight line.

Sometimes customer habits change. Sometimes a location stops fitting the business. Sometimes the part of the company that is growing looks different from the original idea.

Based on what Cultivate has publicly shared, this appears to be a business trying to adapt rather than simply disappear.

I hope they find a version of Cultivate that works, because locally owned businesses matter around here. I would much rather be writing another update down the road about where Cultivate is opening next than simply adding another local restaurant to the list of places that used to be here.

That does not mean the next chapter is guaranteed, and it does not mean we know where this ends up.

It just means the story is not over yet.

So What Is Happening to the Old Cultivate Space?

The Trolley Barn space itself is already headed toward another restaurant concept.

Avocado Theory is planning a Frankfort location in Unit 111, the space previously occupied by Cultivate Community Table. The health-focused restaurant plans to bring its avocado-based bowls, salads, sandwiches, juices, and smoothies to downtown Frankfort.

If you want to see what has been proposed for the former Cultivate location, I broke that project down separately.

Read more about Avocado Theory coming to the former Cultivate space in Frankfort.