Next Door Cafe

Cheers to the weekend from Next Door Cafe!

All week long I skated around committing to plans hoping I would be able to relax and casually go with the flow all weekend. We had friends down last weekend for a boozy brunch and I hate to admit that my liver is still feeling all the mimosas.

Naturally between my boyfriends schedule and my own there is no such thing as a calm relaxing weekend, as much as the two of us want one something inevitably comes up. So the last minute plans that popped onto our schedule were: training for the Turkey Trot, Cubs game and Chicago Architectural Open House. 

You will hear a lot more about the Turkey Trot in my upcoming posts, I thought it would be a fun tradition! The run is super close to our apartment and it’s only a 5k so without Danny knowing I signed us both up this year! When I broke the news to him I think he wanted to push me off the couch, he is not much of a distance runner and now I hate bringing up the fact that we need to train and run during the week to prepare. Let’s just say running after work, during the week, is probably his least favorite thing to do.

But this week for our training it worked out perfectly! We were able to run north and loop through some of the park along the lakefront and on the way back, grab coffee 🙂 and check out a few places on the Chicago Architectural Open House! It was a win win for both of us.

We’ll call it le tour de Lincoln Park! So after our 1.5 mile run we walked a few blocks to cool off and to hit our first stop on our mini tour, The Brewster Building, which is a historic Chicago apartment building that was nicknamed the palace back in the early 1900s. 

After pit-stop one we walked across the street to Next Door Cafe for of course coffee and a quick bite to tide us over. Next Door Cafe is a completely different and unique coffee experience, best short description I can think of is it’s a rent-able community office space/serves coffee, cause what else would someone need if they are renting out office space or hosting a group gathering? I realize now, that’s not even a short or good description for this place. 

Basically when we walked in my mind was blown away, first we weren’t even sure if it was open to the public or if you could only enter if you rented the space. Well, nothing stands between me and coffee so I didn’t care I planned to walk in and if I completely embarrassed myself then so be it. This didn’t happen, the cafe is open to everyone! The cafe is HUGE and very open, high ceilings and lots of tables, chairs, stools and couches for gathering around. 

There are a bunch of cubes on wheels that are like mini private cubicles, you’re able to rent these out and take calls, work or have meetings in them, there are curtains that close off the cube to make it more private if you desire. Also, computers can be rented out in the back portion of the room for doing presentations on or walking through computer classes! This place is amazing and a sweet find!

The massive calendar on that wall shows some of the upcoming classes they are offering to the public, all you need to do is sign up beforehand! 

Onto the main reason for my visit, COFFEE, they roast and serve Bow Truss coffee. I finally took the opportunity here to order a cortado, so exciting, but when I read the description for their Neako Cortado – Fig, vanilla and orange zest, I was sold! Such and interested selection of ingredients, I also have never had a coffee with orange zest so I knew this had to be refreshing. Danny went with a latte and also ordered a breakfast egg muffin for us to share. 

The baristas were both gems, super sweet, helpful and personable. While preparing my cortado the on barista shared with me all the components in assembling the flavors and how much people seemed to enjoy the drink as well, besides all the odd ingredients. He also explained that the main difference between a  cortado vs. latte is the amount of steamed milk used. Cortado’s are mostly espresso with a small amount of steamed milk while a latte is mostly steamed milk with a shot of espresso. 

Both the latte and cortado were absolutely delicious! The cortado was the most amazing drink, though I probably could have gone for two of them, it was a sweet treat. The fig and vanilla blended nicely into the espresso and steamed milk while the flakes of orange zest on top added a light a refreshing flavor when sipped. I loved it and would take a shot of that every morning if I could. (my heart might hate me if I did that).

I highly highly recommend everyone coming and sampling this delicious cortado, bring a book and just find a seat on one of the couches and stay a while or even check out the calendar of event/classes and see what might interest you most. I will be back, probably for a few of their classes that all sounded interesting, more cortados and to try their Chicago neighborhood inspired smoothies!

Yum this place has so much to offer the local community I love it and can’t wait to share with my friends and family. 

Oh and to finish our tour de Lincoln Park we walked to the Elk Veterans National Memorial. This is a massive museum looking building in our neighborhood that is literally ALWAYS locked, we were not going to miss the chance to walk through it. Oh. My. Goodness am I so glad we walk through it, it’s jaw dropping astounding inside! An absolute beautiful work of art.

Has anyone taken any of the classes they offer at Next Door? Would love to hear your experience!