Like many of you, we suspect, we had gotten used to the roughly-monthly Dose Market as a place for promising new restaurants to preview their food, from Honey Butter Fried Chicken and Pecking Order to Flour and Bones, The Peasantry and Antique Taco. It was also a chance for artisanal food from around the midwest to make its way to Chicago, from Zingerman’s Creamery to Jeni’s Ice Cream. So why are we talking in the past tense about it when the next one is scheduled for July 29? Because Dose’s future, and certainly its direction, is in doubt after three of the four original founders left the market. Heather Sperling and Emily Fiffer, who coordinated the food side, and Jessica Herman, one of the two coordinators of the fashion side, have ended their involvement with the market, leaving it in the hands of the remaining founder, stylist April Francis.
We spoke with Sperling, who declined to offer specifics about the reasons behind the split. It appears that the three departing founders remain interested in working together in the future on something similar; as she put it, “Dose was a product of four people’s creative vision, and the three of us are excited to pour our creative energies into something new.” When asked if the preview aspect would be part of whatever they do, Sperling said “the preview element was always one of the things we were most excited to push. We’ve met so many people that we’re excited to work with in the future. We can’t wait to come up with something new and outside the box to do for Chicago.”
