One big trend in I noticed in Chicago, and a sure sign of a mature scene, was an overall attention to detail in cafe designs. In a city rife with roasting operations, and hometown beans showing up on guest hoppers across Chicago, Caffé Streets stands out for serving all out-of-town roasters: Heart, Verve and Sightglass on my visit. Caffé Streets wound up being an excellent place to start my tour because, excepting the noteworthy roaster difference, the cafe strongly reflected many of the trends I noticed in other cafes in the city. My first stop in Chicago was the design extravaganza that is Caffé Streets, a well-known multi-roaster shop in the Wicker Park neighborhood that opened in 2011. I can still hear the L rumbling as I type. Take them for what they are: the interesting, often pretty details that jumped out at one hyper-caffeinated barista from New York City, who took this trip as a Sprudge staff writer, but is publishing it today as the site’s Assistant Editor. So here, now, a few months after that visit, is a whirlwind two-part tour of four Chicago cafes: Caffé Streets, Gaslight Coffee Roasters, The Wormhole Coffee, and Bow Truss Coffee Roasters. I can’t claim to have a thorough understanding of the city after such a short time, and I was only able to visit each café once, so these aren’t reviews per se. Second, while the café culture and design tendencies here in Chicago clearly developed in relation to other major coffee cities, the robust Chicago scene definitely has its own distinct strengths, preferences, and aesthetic identity. First, while Chicago is a city where good coffee has been building momentum for a quite a while, the city seems to now be in the middle of its next phase of expansion, with many of the talented coffee people who came up in the city’s old-guard shops now striking out on their own and starting up new projects. I only had forty hours to spend in the city, which I admit is barely enough time to scratch the surface of the scene, but long enough to form a few first impressions. 9.Chicago is one of the major design, coffee, and culinary cities of America, and I finally had a chance to go see it for myself this past spring. I had come specifically because I was curious about how well Intelligentsia’s Logan Square concept actually worked-a subject I wrote about in-depth here-but I did manage to squeeze in visits to a few other local heavy-weights. New Wave is also a great place to get work done, with fast Wi-Fi, lots of plugs, healthy food to keep you going all day, and late hours for those who like getting work done later in the evening. New Wave is a place to sit and take your time, enjoying a good cup of coffee, a sandwich, and some time to yourself. If you’re not among them, then head to New Wave Coffee where a cluttered punk rock spirit exists in everything it does. Logan Square is full of super trendy coffee shops with that clean look that so many people love. Once you’ve eaten (and re-caffeinated), it also has a bar serving local beers and cocktails inspired by Vietnamese flavors. When you get hungry, it has excellent Vietnamese pastries, dishes, banh mi sandwiches, and some of the best chicken wings in the city. Get started with an exquisite Vietnamese coffee, served just like you’d find it on the street in Saigon. If you want a place you can hang out in literally all day, Cà Phê Dá in Pilsen is the place to go.
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