As farmers markets opened and demand shifted, Hortiport evolved by focusing on supporting artisan food businesses. With unique food product offerings came requests for recipes, and then for Lolita—a plant-based chef—to cook for customers. Before they knew it, the couple had a catering business. During this time, Cian acquired a small urban farm and café space in the Green Exchange Building, rebranded as Trogo Kitchen and Market, from the Greek word that means “to eat or chew”, and opened the café with much help from friends and family.
Armed with a vision to both cook and provide a space to other aspiring cooks, inspiration from heritage foods of Greece and Ireland and a love of travel, the Trogo Kitchen and Market concept is based on celebrating global foods with both vibrant flavors and colors. Managing the kitchen is Chef Brandon Thornhill, who met Lolita in 2019 as her Lyft driver when she was on her way to a meeting with Rick Bayless and the team that launched the Impact Culinary Training
Program. The two instantly started talking food and about Brandon’s dream of operating a restaurant which was inspired by spending much time at his grandmother’s restaurant called Flowers Pot in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. It was there he saw his future as a cook with the desire to feed others. Lolita referred Brandon to the program where he graduated in the inaugural cohort with flying colors and has been cooking in celebrated Chicago restaurants
ever since. Brandon brings his Caribbean roots and a flair for complex flavors and spice to the menu.
Trogo is located at 2645 W Diversey in Chicago, IL and can be found online at www.trogo.co and on Instagram and Facebook @trogo.co