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<\/p>\nSay \u201chipster\u201d\u2014code for anyone with a taste for the cool\u2014and most Chicagoans will immediately single out Logan Square. The North Side neighborhood is a jumble of bars, restaurants, and record shops on tree-lined residential streets. So, it\u2019s no surprise a craft coffee scene catering to young professionals and artists has blossomed here in the Windy City as well.<\/p>\n
These four caf\u00e9s, all of which source and roast their own coffee, have carved out a niche for themselves in a part of Chi-Town that\u2019s also home to indie chain Intelligentsia and several other coffee shops.<\/p>\n
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Passion House Cafe is the customer-facing side of Passion House Coffee Roasters. The caf\u00e9 opened in the heart of Logan Square last year, just steps away from the neighborhood\u2019s Chicago Transit Authority stop and the Centennial Monument.<\/p>\n
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Owner Joshua Millman got his start in coffee at Starbucks. After college, he delved into the world of specialty coffee, working with several companies. Some questioned whether he had the passion required for a career in coffee, leading him to strike out on his own and open Passion House, which he named as testament to his commitment to coffee.<\/p>\n
Michael Kearby (Kurtis), a former roasting department head for Intelligentsia, leads Passion House\u2019s sourcing and roasting program. Passion House has relationships in countries including Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Ecuador, where Kurtis judged the Taza Dorada competition. Coffee from the Finca Lugmapta farm in Ecuador won the competition, and Passion House\u2019s winning bid brought that coffee to Chicago this past April.<\/p>\n
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Passion House uses a 1957 German Probat cast-iron roaster that was refurbished in The Netherlands and shipped to Chicago. \u201cThat roaster is a workhorse. It is one of the things that sets us apart,\u201d Millman says. \u201cThe drum\u2019s seasoning, its thermal energy and heat transfer is unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Millman\u2019s goal is to make coffee accessible to everyone and appealing to Logan Square\u2019s diverse customer base. To make the Passion House brand easy to navigate, the caf\u00e9 splits its brews into three genres: Ambient, Mainstream, and Experimental. Ambient offers mindless, easy drinking for casual coffee drinkers. Mainstream brings more variety and complex flavors in the form of seasonal and single-origin brews, while the serious caffeine hound will want to explore the Experimental collection\u2019s micro-lots.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately what we want to do is connect the world through this beautiful little seed: coffee,\u201d Millman says.<\/p>\n
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Ipsento<\/strong>Ipsento started out in 2006 as a small, community-focused coffee shop. It closed then reopened under the stewardship of current owner Tim Taylor in 2009.<\/p>\n
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Previously, the company sourced its coffee from a roaster in Indiana. When Taylor took over, he shifted focus to high-quality, direct-trade coffee and took over the roasting process himself. Today, the Logan Square location is triple its original size, and Ipsento has a coffee lab just down the street, plus another location in nearby Bucktown.<\/p>\n
Ipsento sources coffee from all over the world. Taylor takes four trips to growing regions each year, and he has cultivated relationships with growers in countries including Guatemala, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe work with growers who have similar core values. They treat coffee like it is a craft, not a commodity,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cHow they treat their harvesters and the earth\u2014that almost always translates into what is in the cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ipsento extends its ethical approach to coffee sourcing to all other ingredients. Milk comes from a local farm and the flour used to make doughnuts in-house is milled right in the basement of the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
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The Logan Square location is the latest outpost of Caff\u00e8 Umbria, an Italian family business that started in Seattle, Washington, in 2002. The company has since grown to three locations in Seattle, two in Portland, Oregon, and two Chicago spots, one in River North, in addition to Logan Square.<\/p>\n
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The 9,000-square-foot space is split in two by a shipping container\u2014a nod to the coffee trade. The back is reserved for storage and distribution to serve its Midwest customer base, while the front features a retail caf\u00e9 and 30-kilo roaster made by a company in Bologna, Italy. The location also houses a training facility. Caff\u00e8 Umbria sources its coffee from about 15 different countries. \u201cWe work with a lot of co-ops, which tend to be more stable and have ties to the community, especially in places like Costa Rica and Peru,\u201d says co-founder and head roaster Emanuele Bizzarri.<\/p>\n
Bizzarri is an advocate of blends. His primary goal is to create high-quality coffee with a consistent taste. \u201cAt the end of the day, that is what the customer wants. If you like the product, you want the same thing every morning,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Bizzarri believes Caff\u00e8 Umbria fits into Logan Square because the coffee\u2019s flavor and location\u2019s setup give people something different to try. \u201cWe are giving people more choices, and the competition is great. It keeps people honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sister business to 1980s-themed coffee shop Wormhole in Wicker Park, Halfwit Coffee Roasters has been open in Logan Square for about six months.<\/p>\n
\u201cApproachable complexity\u201d is how Amanda Spirito, director of coffee, describes Halfwit\u2019s coffee style. Coffee is sourced from countries including Guatemala, Colombia, and El Salvador, with a goal of creating drinks everyone can enjoy without brewing anything boring \u2013 anything boring would hardly fit with Logan Square\u2019s alternative ambience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith specialty coffee, it is important to create a welcoming environment,\u201d Spirito says. \u201cWe work really hard to cultivate that type of experience for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n