Adam Seger: How LUSH Wine & Spirits Became LUSH Food & Drink Amid the Pandemic

Adam Seger, LUSH Wine & Spirits operating partner, explains how the establishment was transformed into LUSH Food & Drink during the COVID pandemic. Read on to learn more.

Chicago’s LUSH Wine & Spirits is now being rebranded to LUSH Food & Drink after having overcome the COVID pandemic unscathed—a nearly impossible feat, according to Adam Seger, LUSH’s operating partner.

The wine shop and bistro, founded back in 2004, currently boasts three locations: Roscoe Village, West Town, and the newest location of Evanston, which opened in Fall 2019. The LUSH brand successfully weathered the pandemic storm thanks to Seger’s robust operational leadership.

The company did not eliminate any shifts or lay off any employees during the pandemic. Instead, Seger transformed LUSH into a farm market that sold produce from the bar when they could not seat guests. The brand also wooed guests to its establishment by offering toilet paper for a dollar with a wine bottle purchase when Target’s shelves were tissue–less. In addition, the company created innovative meal kits to feed customers on quarantine-ridden nights and holidays during the winter season.

Whenever very few customers entered the establishment on a given shift, servers and bartenders used their extra time to bottle and batch cocktails, hand-label bottles, and package onion soup kits for customers to take home easily. According to Seger, because LUSH continued to exude a culture of gracious and warm hospitality, even take-home and curbside customers blessed the staff with tips and helped LUSH and its workers to keep going.

The LUSH team is now 100% vaccinated, with the brand’s vaccination rate ranking among the highest across establishments nationwide. Due to its high vaccination rate, the brand is now embracing its rebranding to LUSH Food & Drink—a phase called LUSH 3.0. This phase has involved doubling the Evanston and Roscoe Village locations’ square footage via recent renovation projects and property acquisitions.

Adam Seger said the rebranding would ultimately show guests that the company is both a restaurant and a boutique retail shop. Visit www.LUSHfoodanddrink.com to learn more.

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