North Shore Artisan Market

We launched our flagship indoor Chicago Artisan Market in Fulton Market in 2018 – and quickly expanded to Oak Brook (outdoors) in 2019, Ravenswood (indoors) in 2021, and Naperville (outdoors) in 2022. Since that first market, we’ve produced over 70 successful markets serving well over 1,000 talented Chicago/Midwest artisans and small businesses annually.

In expanding to the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, we were inspired by the former “North Shore Line” of the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad (1916-1963). In its heyday, the two primary North Shore Lines were known for their “high operating speeds” and “innovative services” — two ideals we continue to strive to deliver today.

When COVID hit in March 2020 and remote “work-from-home” became the norm, train ridership in the Chicago area plunged to roughly 16% of historic highs. Even in 2024 — when the pandemic was well behind us —  train ridership in the greater Chicago area was still at dangerously low levels from a fiscal sustainability level. 

So we thought — what if  our markets on the North Shore were readily accessible by train — to encourage folks to “ride the rails” again? So we started with Village Green Park in downtown Northbrook, IL (1 block from Northbrook Station) in 2024 and “Wilmette Station” in downtown Wilmette, IL in 2025.  (Our Ravenswood market is near both the “Montrose” stop of the CTA Brown Line, and  the “Ravenswood” stop of METRA’s Union Pacific-North. Our flagship indoor market in Fulton Market is near the CTA’s Green, Pink & Blue elevated lines.)

By the Numbers. Annual METRA ridership reached a peak of nearly 87 million in 2008 (start of the Great Recession) before declining to 74 million in 2019 (pre-Covid). During the Pandemic, METRA ridership plunged to an annual low of 14 million riders in 2021, and only partially recovered to 24 million in 2022 and 32 million in 2023 – still just 35% to 40% of historic highs.