St. Charles couple opening Moveable Feast in downtown Wheaton
The husband-and-wife owners of Geneva's Moveable Feast & Co. are opening a new Wheaton dining spot inspired by the flagship.
Nearly four years after they bought the cafe, carryout and catering business, Matt and Ashley Marquez have signed a lease for the Front Street Cantina space in downtown Wheaton. In mid-February, Front Street's retiring owners plan to close the Mexican restaurant they opened almost 25 years ago.
The second Moveable Feast represents a kind of homecoming for the St. Charles couple who have strong ties to Wheaton. Matt Marquez grew up in town and graduated from Wheaton North High School, while Ashley went to Wheaton Academy.
"We've always we had our eye on a space in Wheaton," Matt Marquez said Friday.
The couple is building upon the popular concept in Geneva, where Moveable Feast serves seasonal salads, sandwiches and meals-to-go with ingredients sourced from local farmers. Moveable Feast Brownies also have the distinction as one of Oprah's Favorite Things.
In Wheaton, the owners will recreate a European-style deli and offer a sit-down menu of small bites for breakfast, lunch and dinner - a first for Moveable Feast.
"We're confident that people in Wheaton will really enjoy the different and fresh approach to coming to get a meal," Matt Marquez said. "We really don't see that anyone does what we do. We feel that we're pretty unique, and it's exciting to bring that to Wheaton."
Executive Chef Chris Ayukawa will focus solely on the Wheaton location after developing the menus at Moveable Feast in Geneva and Co. 251, a wedding and special events venue the couple opened in September in a historic building in downtown Aurora.
"We have a really, really talented chef," said Marquez, who cited Ayukawa's creativity in using ingredients from such producers as UP Farms, an organic vertical farm outside of Chicago, and Rustic Road Farm in Elburn.
In Aurora, Marquez and his wife designed and restored two floors, or about 20,000 square feet of space, in the four-story building that dates to 1908 and originally housed the International Harvester Manufacturing Co., a company that made tractors.
They worked with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to retain historic elements of the original structure in the new events space that already has almost 30 weddings booked for 2018.
"We were our own general contractors," Marquez said.
They will apply that same attention to detail in Wheaton, he said. The couple will take over occupancy of the Front Street space March 1. They expect a two-month renovation before opening the second Moveable Feast by June.
"We're excited about the market in Wheaton," he said.