Dawn Fletcher was heartbroken when she heard Nature’s Best Cafe in Naperville planned to close. It has been a fixture in her family’s life since opening in 2016, a place where she took her kids for pizza and board games and where two of her daughters worked.
When she asked owner Simitrio Cruz why he was shutting his doors, she quickly learned it wasn’t because the work was too tough or he wanted to do something else.
“He just looked at me and he just said, ‘I love what I do,’” Fletcher said. “And so from that, I knew that it really wasn’t his choice to close. … Once I knew that he really would like to stay, then I just knew we needed to be all in.”
A handful of neighbors have joined forces to help the business will remain open, and Cruz has reversed his plan to close.
Instead, the restaurant will temporarily close for the Christmas season in late December and will reopen full time in January. It also will host a number of events in December to bring in more foot traffic.
“It’s hard to ask again for help or to even accept it,” Cruz said, referring to the support his cafe received during the COVID-19 pandemic. “But they were really, really encouraging and very supportive.”
Nature’s Best Cafe opened nearly 10 years ago, the first restaurant venture for Cruz, who had worked in the food industry for years prior to that. He had a clear vision for what he wanted to: serve healthy, gluten-free food to the customers. His wife and two of their three children have gluten allergies, which is what inspired him to open a gluten-free restaurant.
His business evolved to expand its customer base, with a menu that includes everything from hand-tossed pizzas to sandwiches and salads. Many of the items he serves are made from scratch.
“We make our own soups, our own dressings, roast our own meat, our vegetables, so that we know what’s in (it),” Cruz said. “That’s what we wanted, and to source locally too. Although in the wintertime it’s hard to get fresh vegetables and fruit so we have to get them farther south, but when it’s summertime we try to get as local as possible to source our products for our menu.”
But that commitment is also challenging.
“Simitrio was really gifted in the kitchen and so he likes to make all the sauces, he likes to make all the dressings,” said Evonne Cruz, Simitrio’s wife and co-owner of the cafe. “It’s not the cheaper method. The cheaper method is to get a big container of something and use that rather than natural ingredients.”
As a small business, Cruz said he does not have the buying power to contract out food pricing for supplies a year in advance, which means he has to buy his supplies on a week-to-week basis. As a result, the rising costs of items like eggs and chicken took a toll.
On top of that, sales were down almost 40% over the summer compared to the prior year, he said. With the business’ lease set to expire at the end of the year, the couple decided to close on Dec. 20.
“I feel like it’s our home away from home,” Cruz’s wife said. “We poured ourselves into it for 10 years.”
When word got out about the closure, dedicated neighbors sprung into action. One neighbor conducted a survey of the cafe’s customers and put the results into a presentation for the owners to better understand their clientele. Another neighbor plans to lend their marketing expertise to better reach people in other parts of Naperville.
Fletcher set up a GoFundMe to help the business meet their more immediate financial needs. She is also helping create magnets to share with Naperville residents to remind people that Nature’s Best Cafe is still open. The idea came to her after helping Cruz during the pandemic, when she and other neighbors put out yard signs for the restaurant.
Fletcher is hoping the magnets will be a more permanent fixture in people’s homes, reminding them to dine there more frequently.
“This is our small way of returning all the love and care that (Cruz) has given to us over the years,” she said. “He is so ridiculously generous. He is always the one to try to say, ‘Here’s your free cup of coffee.’ … I think he just gives from his heart every day and if we can turn that around, love him back in return and do what we can to keep his little family business afloat, that’s what we’re here to do.”
Cruz said his landlord has also been understanding of his situation, offering to let him stay in his spot on a shorter-term basis rather than asking for another long-term lease.
Nature’s Best Cafe plans to host a number of events in December to help bring in foot traffic, including a Christmas carol sing-along on Dec. 8 and a breakfast with Santa on Dec. 20. In January, Cruz hopes to start hosting regular trivia nights as a way to attract more customers on a regular basis.
cstein@chicagotribune.com