Chicago Suburb Coffee Hang (Plainfield)

Talk about your favorite cafes, local barista events, or plan your own get-together.
TapeDeck
Posts: 12
Joined: 10 years ago

#1: Post by TapeDeck »

Would there be any interest in a recurring coffee group hang thing out here in the suburbs?
We have sort of an ideal place for it out here... We have all of the toys on hand (well, we need to up our grinder game IMO)...

We also have a brewery and a distillery next door.

Just sort of pinging the H-B universe.

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dominico
Team HB
Posts: 2006
Joined: 9 years ago

#2: Post by dominico »

How frequently were your thinking? I'm a little too far away to make it a regular thing for me but I do enjoy every chance I get to drink coffee with fellow coffee enthusiasts, especially espresso.

There is a fairly active group of HBers in the Chicago / Milwaukee area and we have get-togethers a few times a year, so I'm sure there is interest if you wanted to share a bit more about what you are thinking.
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Il caffè è un piacere, se non è buono che piacere è?

dunn
Posts: 2
Joined: 8 years ago

#3: Post by dunn »

I would potentially be interested in this. Live in Milwaukee

TapeDeck (original poster)
Posts: 12
Joined: 10 years ago

#4: Post by TapeDeck (original poster) »

Wow, Milwaukee. :) It'd be worth it once or twice from Milwaukee, if we set up tours and tastings with our neighbors (they do stuff like that for free) but otherwise, I would never recommend anyone drive from Milwaukee to Plainfield, which Chicago is an option. Then again, as someone with family all over Wisconsin, Milwaukee has surprisingly excellent coffee option, in my opinion.

How frequently? Well, that's too easy for me--I could do it any day. But I'd like to try to offer something like this quarterly or maybe variations monthly. I wouldn't be expecting big turnouts either way.

The reason I was thinking about setting something up:

A). We have spent the money on a tiny little place, decked out as a pretty nice roasting lab. So it's already equipped. We are a commercial roaster, but I'm not looking to do anything for money in this regard. We'd donate coffee, or we could sell folks green (or BYO, if you want) if they want to get a chance to roast or something. I just remember about 3 years ago when I wanted to get serious about doing this, since I don't live in a major metro area, there was basically no way to get a chance to play with decent roasting tools, decent commercial espresso, etc. I could get a friendly barista to give me tips, and occasionally a roaster would be up for discussing stuff, but people always sort of cast the Larry David eye at you, wondering what you're trying to get out of it. We have an ideal location with the gear, with parking, and with an exceptional homebrew store, brewery, and rum/agave distillery in the same building. It's just too cool to NOT do anything.

B). "What do you get out of it?" I know most HB members are not commercial baristas, but I have met a few who are as good at what they do as a commercial barista. Surely better than me. I for sure know that there are experienced palates here. I could get a chance to find out what other like minded folks, who don't feel any obligation to sugar coat opinions think about some of this stuff. I feel like we get soft-balled from locals, who are just thrilled that there's finally real coffee in the neighborhood. Maybe we all end up picking up some technical ideas. Maybe we end up digging out new flavors. Hopefully folks would be interested in bringing local favorite coffees, and we'd all get to try a bunch of new stuff. To me, that would be worth the time and micro-expense of doing this.

C). I would be mega interested in comparing things like grinders, (home and commercial,) blind tasting various extraction differences (i.e. 2 different pourover methods etc) Data, procedure, expanding horizons. Only way I know to grow!

I think that if I had all these toys in my house, I'd offer people to come play with them. I still want to do that. We cover our expenses by selling drinks, so I'm not really worried about any sort of conflict of interest. After hours, the place is where my partners and I play with coffee. I think it would be cool to open that up to enthusiasts.

Sideshow
Posts: 380
Joined: 8 years ago

#5: Post by Sideshow »

I'm in the area (in the city) and would most certainly be interested in having a place to tinker around with techniques, coffees, and various equipment. Probably would have to be on weekends though.

Ron_L
Posts: 156
Joined: 18 years ago

#6: Post by Ron_L »

OK,,, I know that I am resurrecting an old thread, but I just saw it :D

Christopher, do you have a storefront or is it just the roastery? I am in Batavia, which is not too awful far. I am a home roaster, but I am always being asked for recommendations on local shops/roaster.
...ron

LMWDP #356

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BrianDedalus
Posts: 18
Joined: 11 years ago

#7: Post by BrianDedalus »

Hey, guys. I'm in Naperville--if you'd like to try to put something together I'd be up for it.