With new location, Northfield business will ‘meat’ customers at Winnetka train station

A longtime community favorite in Northfield is now on track to pull into station with its second location. 

Winnetka trustees during their Tuesday, Nov. 19 meeting unanimously approved a lease agreement with Hofherr Meat Co. that will allow the celebrated local butcher to operate a deli and specialty shop out of a portion of the town’s Metra station at 754 Elm St. 

Hofherr Meat owners Sean and Arielle Hofherr are planning to purchase Café Fleurette, the existing business that operates out of the 120-square foot space inside the Metra station. The husband-and-wife duo intends to incorporate some of Café Fleurette’s offerings into the new venture titled Hofherr Meat Depot. 

The new location will offer a curated selection of grab-and-go items, including many of the butcher shop’s staples such as bratwursts, steaks, ground beef and more. 

Additionally, Hofherr Meat Depot will also feature several prepared offerings, including breakfast pastries, sandwich specials, coffee and beverages, charcuterie boards, a “soup of the moment” and more.

The Winnetka location will also serve as a pick-up hub. Customers can place orders at Hofherr Meat Depot in the morning, and, after they are prepared in Northfield’s location and delivered to Winnetka, grab them when they return from their evening commute. 

Liz Dechant, Winnetka’s economic development coordinator, told the council that she’s been working to “more fully activate” the space inside the train station since commuters have returned to nearly pre-pandemic levels for a majority of the work week. She added that village staffers have been in touch with the Hofherrs since 2022 to “find the right space in town for them to expand.”

“When thoughts have come up to expand, it’s always been looking at who our core customer is and really that starts with the 60093,” Northfield native Sean Hofherr told trustees, referring to Winnetka’s zip code.

“This was the perfect opportunity for us to expand our footprint and get closer to where a lot of our customers are,” Sean later added. 

As the usage of Café Fleurette shifted in a post-pandemic environment, the opportunity for a second Hofherr Meat location presented a win-win opportunity for all. 

Café Fleurette has operated in the Metra station space since 2012 when Winnetka’s Village Council selected it to run a coffee and pastry shop in response to a request for proposal, Dechant said. 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Café Fleurette was open six days a week. In 2021, previous owner Rachel Beaudry sold the business to Winnetka resident John McGrath. 

In its most recent iteration, Cafe Fleurette is open one day a week for pre-order pickups. The business also runs a booth at the Winnetka Farmers Market for 22 weeks a year between June and October, Dechant said, noting that the business has still maintained popularity in the community but that McGrath was looking to sell it. 

The approved agreement with Hofherr Meat Depot is a one-year lease term with two options to renew and to continue the current lease of $300 per month, per Dechant. The village of Winnetka has a standing agreement with the Union Pacific Railroad to manage the Elm Street Metra station.

Sean and Arielle Hofherr told trustees that they’re going to be “very organic” in how they run the new location and that they’ll be taking a lot of feedback from the community early on to gauge how it’s going. 

“We’re really looking at this as more or less a blank canvas from which to offer what we do well and offer it to commuters and people in Winnetka to not even have to drive across the Edens,” Sean said. 

Hofherr Meat opened in Northfield at 300 Happ Road more than a decade ago. The idea of a second location has been on the company’s mind for several years and the chance to open in nearby Winnetka is something the local business will cherish.

“We’re very excited for this opportunity and we see it just kind of like dipping your toes in the pool with the eventuality of maybe being able to swim in the shallow end and then all the way into the deep end — dividing board and everything,” Sean said. 

The current plan is for Hofherr Meat Depot to open in early 2025, potentially Feb. 1 if all goes as planned, and operate six days a week.

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