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Dear Chicago Food Trucks, It’s Cold. Where’s the Coffee and Cocao?

January 18, 2013 in Drink, Food, Thoughts and Observations

This morning one of my favorite tweeters, LX Chicago @lxc5, asked, “If there are ice cream trucks in the summer then why are there no coffee/hot chocolate trucks in the winter?”

Good question. Until last year, a Chicago ordinance prohibited food trucks from preparing anything aboard their vehicles, making freshly brewed coffee pretty much illegal for mobile vendors. However, since the practice was legalized last July, Chicagoans can expect more fresh coffee trucks brewing throughout the city in months to come. It may take some time, however, before this java dream becomes reality. In Chicago, obtaining the proper license to prepare food aboard a vehicle is a daunting task even with the new regulations.

Still, we can recommend a couple of fearless roasters, tested and approved, who right now are offering great coffee and hot cocoa with food truck convenience. We’re pretty serious about our coffee (see ’4 Reasons to Visit Chicago’s Local Coffee Shops and Stop Drinking Coffee You Hate’) so you can take our word that these two won’t disappoint!

 

Chicago Coffee Truck

- Beavers Coffee and Donuts

Follow the truck: http://beaversdonuts.com/

Fresh coffee and gourmet donuts prepared right on the spot! Specialty toppings include PB&J, Smores, and honey with graham cracker crumbs. Beavers Coffee and Donuts isn’t new to this food truck thing. They’ve been brewing fresh coffee and preparing delicious gourmet donuts with specialty toppings for years. “We have always cooked onboard our truck, and thus the quality of our product has always been received well. We are literally the only [food truck] in Chicago where you can get a donut directly out of the fryer,” co-owner Gabriel Wiesen recently told Serious Eats. Look for $2 coffees and fresh donuts ranging from $2-$6. Try a donut with Nutella Dream topping (their mixture of strawberry sauce and nutella).

-Mojo Express

Follow the truck: on Twitter @mjexpress14

After a humble start serving coffee at local farmers’ markets, Mojo Express is now a full service food truck offering packaged Danishes, cocoa, tea, and fair trade Ugandan coffee (a portion of the proceeds are returned to farmers in Uganda). Being relatively new, Mojo Express is off to a great start and promises to only get better with time. My opinion: Since they’re packaged, leave the pastries on the bus. There are plenty of fresh cupcake and baked food trucks throughout the city and expect the cocoa here to be more Swiss Miss then Abuelita. The coffee, though, is full bodied and, of course, as fresh as it gets. In the future, owner Renee Estese-Long promises to offer fresh vegan products and baked goods.

Beavers Coffee and Donuts photo from the company’s Facebook page.
Mojo Express photo from www.foodtruck50.com
Featured Image from www.zazzle.com
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A Girl, a Goat, and a Baker Walk into a Bar: Little Goat Bread opens in Chicago’s West Loop!

December 14, 2012 in Food

Little Goat Bread Collage

Don’t commit to that weight loss resolution just yet! Stephanie Izard’s Little Goat Bread opened Thursday just across the street from her extremely popular restaurant Girl and the Goat. The bakery/café/deli/bar is just step one in the opening of her long awaited Little Goat Diner set to be completely up and running before January. By day, Little Goat Bread offers fresh made sandwiches, baked goods, soup, and fresh coffee but at night this little goat morphs into your favorite bar with craft beer on tap, cocktails, and even complimentary treats from the bakery occasionally. Stephanie’s spared no expense to ensure her diner and bakery are as unique and sincere as her famed restaurant (she traveled all the way to Colombia personally to pick out the coffee beans!). Fresh breads prepared by baker Greg Wade and his team are now featured from the sandwiches at Little Goat Bread to the bread served at your table within Girl and the Goat. I stopped by yesterday to check out the new spot and pick up some freshly made chocolate filled Conchas. My husband agreed they were, without a doubt, the best we’ve ever had! Usually you’ll find Conchas to be overly simplistic, semi-sweet, petite bread rounds sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon but Greg’s are filled with a delicious homemade chocolate (or vanilla) cream providing the perfect flaky combination of sweet and semi-sweet. Can’t wait to try the craft beer this evening. See you there!

These two had no idea if they would ever leave! We completely understood.

 

Little Goat Bread
820 W Randolph Street, Chicago IL (on the corner of Randolph and Green)

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Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: An Interview with Sugar Fixé Owner Cindy Summers

December 12, 2012 in Interviews

Sugar Fixé Owner Cindy Summers

Jealous? You should be because Cindy is living your dream. After earning her marketing degree from Marquette University and spending years in the corporate world, she is now following her own path and working for herself. Her pastry shop, Sugar Fixé (pronounced ‘fix’) Pâtisserie located on Marion Street in Oak Park, creates delicious pastries that combine classic European traditions with American styles. Sugar Fixé’s macarons were voted best in Chicago by Serious Eats and her delectable almond croissant has even been featured on the Food Network.

I sat down with Cindy to learn her delicious secrets and gain some insight on how she came upon such sweet success.

Kari – Cindy, what gave you the courage to finally pursue your dream?

Cindy Summers – Starting my own business was always in the back of my mind. I could have stayed at [corporate] but I was itching for a different environment. Baking has been a hobby since I was young. Plus, I enjoy eating pastries!

Kari – What practical steps did you take to achieve your goal?

Cindy Summers – When I left my corporate position I enrolled in the French Pastry School and completed the 6 month long full-time program while simultaneously building the space here in Oak Park for Sugar Fixé.

Kari – What has helped you to reach success?

Cindy Summers – People ask all the time if we’re a chain. That’s a great sign! We give extra attention to the quality of our pastries, coffee, and espresso. There are many bakeries, even in our area, but our style is unique. Our focus is on freshness. We make everything here – fresh every day. It can be difficult to balance having enough to display without creating waste at the end of the day. For the sake of freshness, we end up donating a lot of what’s left over instead of selling it the next day. We eat a lot of it ourselves too!

Sugar Fixe1

Kari – Your pastry shop is such a large part of the community here. Do you have any tips for others who are looking to pursue a path similar to yours?

Cindy Summers – Understand who your customer is and make sure that the product you’re offering caters to the demographic of the people in your area. You see businesses open with products that are maybe overpriced for the area or their quality is too low for the neighborhood and their customer wants something better. It’s imperative that you find the right combination.

Kari – Lastly, we’re very particular when it comes to our coffee (see ‘4 reasons why my neighborhood café cup is better than your corporate cup’). What type of espresso and American coffee do you brew here?

Cindy Summers – We use only [popular Viennese brand] Julius Meinl. Their representatives have ensured we are educated in traditional Vienna coffee preparation. So, we take our coffee very seriously too.

 

Visit Sugar Fixé in Oak Park at 119 N Marion Street
or online at www.sugarfixe.com

 


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4 Reasons To Visit Chicago’s Local Coffee Shops (and Stop Drinking Coffee You Hate)

December 12, 2012 in Thoughts and Observations

Visit Chicago's Local Coffee Shops

I’ve never met anyone who loves Starbucks coffee. It’s true! Some may love the intense aroma of pure caffeinated sludge, the brand’s logo may be so associated with their own persona that they’re rarely seen without a cup committed to their palm, and some may just like the convenience (there are three stores in my small little neighborhood!), but I’ve never met anyone who actually loves the taste of a Starbucks cup. This phenomenon is a lesson in pure marketing genius. What’s in the cup may be crap, but you’re assured that crap will be made the exact same way wherever you go in the world; the corporate coffeehouse experience is dependable. Still, there’s a reason why Starbucks doesn’t exist in Italy. For the Italian, coffee isn’t a drink - it’s a culture. Culture moves and changes with the people who create it. Culture isn’t corporate and this is the point we are completely missing. So, today we bring you 4 reasons to stop living life drinking coffee you hate and start visiting Chicago’s local coffee shops instead (right now this second!!).

  • Where everybody knows your name
    • Say this next sentence like your annoying younger sister would if she wrote this article: My barista knows my name and the way I like my coffee and he has it made before I even get there and when I get there it’s perfect every single time and sometimes he even gives me a cookie cause he likes me so much better than your barista likes you! Seriously though, my neighborhood café has me convinced that I’m their favorite customer. Of course, this is just good business. The barista tells each customer that they’re the only reason why he wakes up each morning, but I don’t care. Makes me feel good.
  • Teenagers stress me out
    • So, I avoid them when I can. The local corporate café always looks like a high school cafeteria between the hours 7 and 9 and then again somewhere between 2 and 5. Why would I want to spend my morning in a high school cafeteria? I couldn’t care less who Serena kissed at Chuck’s party last night* and I don’t want to hear about it. I got bills!
  • My thoughts are louder than the Muzak
    • I once read that the Age of Enlightenment began in the 17th century not because of Isaac Newton or Voltaire, but because that’s when the first coffeehouse opened (HA!). For sure we can better picture Isaac Newton forming his idea of gravity while sipping some ‘joe’ near an apple tree in Cambridge better than one can imagine him forming any original idea to Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’. Repeat after me: If I can’t hear myself think, from here I will not drink.
  • So fresh and so clean
    • My raspberry rugelach was made in the kitchen an hour ago. I can see the kitchen. I know it’s clean. I can smell the baking. I know it’s fresh. Your butter croissant may be hot and so you think it’s fresh - but it’s not. That croissant was put together by a machine a day (or three) ago, packed onto a truck, and delivered to your coffeehouse sometime this week. That’s not fresh. I love walking into a place like Sugar Fixé (Oak Park) and seeing all the delicious treats prepared in their very own kitchen that same day. Heavenly!

Why do you love your local coffee shop?

*…but I bet Blair does.

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