Not often would we call a local business iconic. But Brown Cow is just that. The Review reports this week that Connie Brown, who launched the ice cream parlor more than 20 years ago, is looking to sell both the business and the Madison Street building that houses it.
She is candid in saying that the business has become more complex and has outgrown her ability to grow it.
Certainly, though, she has achieved her original goal of creating a community-centered destination on Madison. Brown Cow is every bit of that. From the hundreds of young people who have worked a season or more in the shop, to the families that have grown up with celebrations big and small in the shop, to a bold transition from being an ice cream buyer to becoming an ice cream maker, Brown has made a positive mark on Forest Park.
All that is true. But our lasting memory of Brown Cow is the role of both Brown and her space as the starting place for the reform movement in the Proviso high schools. Seems remarkable and a bit magical, but the ice cream shop was home base for the conversations that began around how the dismal and politically corrupt District 209 high schools could be reborn.
It became home to the so-called Brown Cow 20, an enthused, naïve and thoroughly decent group of citizens. It is where they coalesced, planned and mounted a campaign that brought these critical schools back from the precipice. They wound up electing a narrow board majority who steadily changed the trajectory of the district.
Sure, it has been a bumpy road since, even with a recently renewed board sweep and a new superintendent with an actual vision.
But it started in Forest Park. It started on Madison Street. It started at Brown Cow.
Altogether remarkable.
We hope Brown Cow has a next chapter with a new owner, more capital and fresh energy. But in this moment, it is enough to say thanks to Connie Brown for all she has done.