Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

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

See Full Page