The Quintessential American Drink
What does the word “coffee” bring to mind?
Some may envision a sweet aromatic caffeinated beverage imprinted with intricate latte art designs and poured into a giant colorful mug: a strong, chocolate bronze liquid with hints of white swirls. For many, coffee serves as the key morning energy boost, for others an afternoon pick-me-up.
In today’s market, we have several choices when it comes to coffee: ranging from lattes and cappuccinos to cortados and mochas. Sometimes the variety can be dizzying! Coffee has become the quintessential American drink which is consumed by millions daily.
Coffee may be the mainstream today, but how did it come to dominate our beverage industry?
A Community Gathering Space
Coffee has become one of the most popular drinks, partly due to the historical significance of coffeehouses in our society. Coffeeshops have always functioned as a gathering spot for intellectuals, artists and creatives. Just think about the last time you visited a coffeeshop: was it for a date? Perhaps a work meeting? Maybe it was the meeting place for your weekly board game meetup. The typical neighborhood coffee joint is often host to numerous events, including poetry readings, art exhibitions, jazz concerts and spoken word contests. It is no wonder that we are drawn to coffee, as it has become a kind of social melting pot, a place where people can meet and mingle with others, particularly of the artistic personality type!
Within the windy city, coffeeshops have served a particularly important role. In ethnic communities, they were often the meeting point for artists, businessmen, musicians and politicians, among other influential figures: places where communities could gather, fostering a strong cultural identity. For example, the Knickerbocker Coffee Shop became the heart of the German neighborhood in early 20th century Chicago. Italian opera singers and politicians frequented Amato’s Cafe in Little Italy. Meanwhile, the central spot for the southern African Americans who brought jazz culture to Chicago, was a row of cafes known as the Stroll. Ultimately, coffeehouses have come to signify this sense of cultural and artistic community and are an institution here to stay.
My Top 5 Coffeeshop Picks
Today, the attraction to coffee persists, as it continues to inspire conversations and creation. Chicagoans are lucky to have several options when it comes to places to enjoy both good company & good coffee. In fact, the city is home to a diverse menu of unique independent cafes, each with their own distinctive flavor, culture and vibe. I often gravitate toward independent coffeehouses due to their focus on quality, single-origin coffee beans, distinctive identity and connection to the arts.
The last time I visited Chicago, during Memorial Day Weekend, I spent a good chunk of time on the hunt for the coolest and most distinctive places to grab a cup o’ Joe. I focused my search in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, and found a number of unique joints, which I believe would each appeal to a different personality type.
In this post, you will find my curated list of the top 5 unique coffee shops, rated based on ambience, menu variety, coffee taste and pricing. Each has a very different feel and would appeal to a person based on what they are looking for: from a place to quickly grab a delicious latte to a space to spend a little extra time and savor a traditional coffee while catching up with a friend. Please enjoy reviewing my picks, and let me know which would be your favorite in the comments below!
#1: Printer’s Row Coffee: Best Coffee Shop for a Grab-n-Go Drink
Address: 2482 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 l Hours: M-Sun 7 AM- 1 PM l Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Nestled in the pretty & picturesque Lincoln Park neighborhood, is Printer’s Row Coffee: a small café with a huge personality! Despite being named for a different neighborhood, Printer’s Row Coffee is, indeed, located in Lincoln Park. It has only been around for five years, but in that time, it has certainly made a name for itself in Chi-Town’s intensely competitive coffee market. In addition to brewing their own coffee, Printer’s Row also sells seasonal bakery items and single origin coffee sourced from Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Columbia, in addition to unique merch!
Ambience: 2/5: Although the indoor space is nice and neat, it is quite small and there is no indoor seating. Even outdoor seating is limited to two tiny wooden tables. There is a large coffee machine within the shop, which is roped off on one side. The ambience certainly caters to commuters and those who are looking for a quick morning or afternoon pick-me-up, as there is a very small space. Located near a metro station , it is the perfect stop for those who are just looking to grab and go.
Coffee Taste: 5/5: I was blown away by the taste and texture of the drink I tried. During my visit, I enjoyed a smooth, creamy chilled latte with almond syrup and a cardamom bun (sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar). My brother ordered a cold brew which was, according to him, one of the best ones he has had. I also appreciated the variety of flavored add-ins available to sweeten my drink.
Menu Variety: 3/5: There is a good range of drinks and foods available for purchase. The drink menu includes popular picks, including espresso, macchiato, cortado, americano, cappuccino, latte, mocha, chai, tea, and hot cocoa. Food options are also a-plenty, with seasonal varieties of muffins, croissants and breads. Overall, there is a variegated menu to appeal to several different palettes.
Pricing: 4/5: With prices on the rise everywhere, I found the costs to be average (although not cheap)! I paid $5.50 for a 16 oz. cold brew latte and $2 for cardamom bun.
#2 Botanical Café: Best Coffee Shop for Plant Lovers
Address: 3740 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60613 l Hours: M; W-F 7 AM-5 PM; Closed Tuesdays; Odd Hours Saturdays; Sunday 8 AM- 5 PM l Neighborhood: Lincoln Park (Near the Depaul University Art Museum)
Stepping into Botanical Café, you will find yourself whisked to an enchanting green garden-scape. This unique coffeeshop is part-café, part-arboretum, and in their own words, “Chicago’s first plant shop and café hybrid”. Established in 2019, Botanical Café is a very unique concept, and would be heaven for anyone with a green thumb. The café is situated just a few blocks from the metro station in quaint Lincoln Park, and has a beautiful and spacious indoor space to read, savor a drink, or even pick up a new house plant for your personal collection: just in case you need another! Another unique aspect of this café is how they support independent artists and crafters: I found several flyers of pottery classes and exhibitions posted within!
Ambience: 5/5: Botanical Café boasts a spectacular ambience, with large, sweeping windows that let in tons of light, a bright indoor space with walls painted sage green, and bohemian décor. There is a wall full of several plant varieties for sale here, including succulents, cacti, crotons, and other tropical types.
Coffee Taste: 3/5: The coffee’s taste wasn’t as good as I had built it up to be in my mind, but it still was not too bad. The smores latte I ordered was a sweet treat, but perhaps a little too sugary for my own liking.
Menu Variety: 5/5: If you are looking for both food and drink options, you are in luck! Botanical Café offers a diverse selection of house drinks and “bites”, and even includes a “specials” section with seasonal drinks. Some examples of drinks offered here include: drip coffee, cold brew, cortado and the popular matcha latte. Drinks come in 12, 16 or 20 oz. , and you can add in extras such as a flavor shot, oat-soy-almond-coconut or an extra espresso double shot for an additional cost. Food options include salads, sandwiches and snacks such as granola parfait, quiche or the classic bagel with cream cheese.
Pricing: 4/5: With rising costs everywhere, the pricing of drinks and food options at Botanical Café was average. I paid $5 for a 16 oz. smores latte and $5 for my 1000th small house plant, a gift for my mom. It is worth noting that there is a 10% student discount for you lucky students.
#3 The Bourgeois Pig Cafe: Best Coffee Shop for Antiquaries
Address: 738 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 l Hours: M-Su 8 AM- 8 PM (CLOSED: Wednesdays) l Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
The Bourgeois Pig Cafe is one of the most unique coffeeshops I have visited, and most certainly my new favorite! It is a spot for antiquaries to relish (read: an antiquary is someone who collects or buys antiques). Plus, it boasts very cozy vintage vibes! The old-fashioned coffee & tea café is sandwiched in-between two historical Lincoln Park row houses. After passing through the brightly lit patio, you will climb a few steps through the large doors. The moment you enter, you will see a giant bronze vintage calculator before you. As you stroll through the interior, you will see black-and-white family portraits dressed in golden frames splashed against the brick walls, portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, a bookshelf overflowing with 1970s-era board games, a cozy fireplace and a small boiler. Along the back wall, several bookcases contain an old dictionary and old hardcover novels. The café is also furnished with heavy antique wooden furniture. The outdoor patio offers a very different feel: a constellation of shining globe lights and hanging plants arch over several small European-style patio tables.
The Bourgeois Pig Café also has quite an attractive backstory as to how it came to be. As shared in this online magazine, it was founded in 1993 by a young digital nomad- Mason Green – who had just returned from a backpacking trip in Europe. The café was created to reflect the European coffeeshops Green encountered during his travels, and is certainly reminiscent of old world charm. When you visit this iconic coffeeshop, try the Great Gatsby Panini, and wash it down with a mug of the Jamaican Latte, a popular pick, according to one barista.
Ambience: 5/5: The interior of this coffeeshop is out of this world gorgeous, very “vintage-y” and extremely cozy. It would be a great place to catch up with friends, curl up with a good read by the fireplace, or settle in for a board game with a rainy view of the Lincoln Park street below. Jazz music is often playing in the background, and there are large rustic wooden tables, perfect for large groups. It is certainly deserving of a high rating in this category!
Coffee Taste: 4/5: I ordered a 16 oz. nitro cold brew on tap and 8 oz. coffee miel. Both drinks were spectacularly delicious. I also enjoyed a slice of the heavenly carrot cake. I will be back to try more of their desserts! Just a note that when we visited, it was quite crowded, and there was an unnaturally long wait for food, so be sure to visit early in the day, or on an off weekend for quicker service (I was there memorial day weekend).
Menu Variety: 4/5: This coffeeshop offers a rich variety of food and drink menu options, with particularly unique and fun historic names (named after historically relevant big wigs). Some drink options include the Jamaican latte, Grasshopper or a spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate. There are also cold caffeine options and smoothies, which may be the drink-of-choice on a sweltering summer day! Food options include yummy bakery items (carrot cake was incredible!), salads, sandwiches, wraps and more! Check out the menu here.
Pricing: 3/5: Compared with the other cafes on this list, the Bourgeois Pig Café is average. Food is on the pricier side: You can have your very own Great Gatsby Panini for $14 and Walt Whitman Wrap for $13. However, drinks range from a mere $1.75 for drip coffee to $3.75 for the Earl Gray Matcha Tea Latte.
#4 Good Ambler Coffee: Best Coffee Shop for Those with a Sweet Tooth
Address: 216 N Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607 l Hours: M-F 7 AM-5 PM (Sa/Su- 8 AM- 5 PM) l Neighborhood: Fulton Market
Located in Fulton Market, this coffeeshop is more famous for its pastries (try the standout chocolate croissant!) than its coffee, but it honestly has amazing options within both the food and drink categories. Good Ambler Coffee is located in the Fulton Market District, which is a west Chicago neighborhood with a storied history as a warehouse district. The Fulton Market District of yester-year has traded its blue collar meat packers for professional technologically-savvy engineers and professionals. In fact, the district is hardly recognizable, with all the new changes over the past few decades! Google’s stunning glass headquarters is also here! It should not come as a surprise, then, that many who frequent Good Ambler Coffee are “techhies”.
Ambience: 4/5: The coffeeshop has a very industrial feel to it, marked by exposed ceilings, pillars and murals of the historical warehouses splashed across the walls. It is a very unique setting, indeed. Inside, there is plenty of space to sit and work, and I can easily imagine someone spending the day working here, although I assume it can get quite busy!
Coffee Taste: 4/5: I chose to enjoy a lavendar latte, which was beautiful and delicious: the perfect combination. Another popular pick here is the london fog. However, the lavender latte was certainly more visually appealing. The roasted veggie sandwich was another good pick. Featuring eggplant on focaccia bread, it made for a delectable little lunch!
Menu Variety: 5/5: The menu here is organized into three neat categories: pastry & dessert, savory and coffee. Each section offers a vast selection of pastries and drinks, and would appeal to anyone with a sweet tooth or who enjoys sampling unique fusion desserts and drinks. A few eye-catching examples on the pastry menu include the dulce de leche with toasted pecans, coconut ginger cake and chocolate bon-bons, complete with notes of caramelized banana, cinnamon, ginger, chipotle, lemon crunch, espresso truffle, chai, strawberry and cognac (Is your mouth watering yet?)! Turning to the drink menu, you can find all of the typical coffee and tea classics, including lattes, cortados, cold brew and drip coffee, among others, but their london fog is a favorite among regulars. Finally, the savory menu includes several choices, from the market veggie quiche to the bistro salad, with carrot, fennel, radish, arugula, shallot thyme vinaigrette, gremolata and pecorino. Overall, this cafe provides more than enough delicious options to sample, even for the pickiest food critic or foodie!
Pricing: 4/5: Drink and food prices are on the expensive side. For example, a croissant would run $4.50, a slice of ginger cake would be $6.00 and a roasted veggie sandwich $12. Not cheap, but I can guarantee that you won’t regret it (and your taste buds will thank you)!
#5 Colectivo Coffee: Best Coffee Shop for a Summer Party
Address: 2530 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614 l Hours: M-Su 6:30 AM- 6 PM l Neighborhood: Lincoln Park (Also have locations in Logan Square and Wicker Park)
Looking for a beautiful, brightly lit patio space where you can enjoy chatting with friends, enjoying a cup of iced coffee or partying with your pals? You will find this and more at Colectivo Coffee. This coffeeshop is located in the heart of Lincoln Park just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. Colectivo has certainly grown from its humble roots in 1993, to now having a footprint across the city of Chicago. There are 5 locations within Greater Chicago, and others in Madison, WI and Milwaukee, WI. The graphic below, from their website, paints a portrait of their very unique story and how they came to be:
Colectivo Coffee has a very urban boho vibe, and offers the perfect backdrop for parties of large groups of friends, casual get togethers or professional meetings. It has an amazing plant-infused patio that is open during the summers and has plenty of open space to host large groups.
Coffee and bakery items are also well worth the hype (there’s a reason they have sprouted so many locations across Chi-Town!). Colectivo uniquely carries single-origin coffee which is of prime quality.
Ambience: 5/5: Colectivo Coffee (Lincoln Park Location) offers a party-like atmosphere and spacious lighted outdoor patio with several tables to seat your next coffee meetup group. There is even a firepit to gather ’round on cool summer evenings. Part of the patio is covered by a rooftop and lighted, which is an additional cool feature that just adds class and character to the space. The Lincoln Park location is also in a very walkable part of town (A quick 5 minutes from Del Seoul (Korean BBQ) on Clark St) and a few blocks from the lake, so it is very possible to grab a drink and enjoy it water-side!
Coffee Taste: 3/5: I greatly enjoyed my cold brew, and felt it was just the perfect pick-me-up on the warm May afternoon on which I visited.
Menu Variety: 4/5: With several single origin coffees, nitro cold brew on tap, espresso, coffee and tea, plus bakery items, Colectivo Coffee has a pretty diverse selection of drinks and food options.
Pricing: 4/5: Like the other cafes on this list, the costs are average to high. But hey, everything good in Chicago is expensive, people!
And That’s It, Folks!
And that’s it, folks! My top 5 picks for the most unique coffee joints in the windy city! Of course, this is in no way an exhaustive list. Chicago is just filled with some of the very best independent coffee shops in the nation, the cream of the crop, and Chicagoans are very lucky to be able to enjoy this eclectic coffee scene.
I hope this post was useful to you in some way, and that you enjoyed reading! Now you know which place to try the next time you are in Chicago and need a caffeine fix (which, let’s be honest, is every day!) Anyway, thanks for reading, and keep exploring your world! 🙂 xoxo