The opening of a coffee shop is hardly news. There are about 1,000 coffee shops in the city, it is estimated by various organizations that keep track of such things, with Starbucks dominating with its 175-some Chicago spots, including the one at 646 N. Michigan Ave., a gargantuan five-story outlet.
And as of this month, there will be a new Michigan Avenue coffee shop, tucked into the ground floor of the venerable (hallowed even) Fine Arts Building (410 S. Michigan Ave.). It is named Groundswell Coffee Roasters, the latest in a growing coffee clan and the first to be situated in such a prominent and busy building.
And what a building. Built in 1885 as a carriage assembly and showroom for the Studebaker company, the building was, in a few years after Studebaker moved into larger quarters, transformed, with major renovations and the addition of two floors atop its eight stories. This created and remains a beehive-like gathering of galleries, theaters, lofts, dance and recording studios, musical instrument makers and music teachers, a bookstore and other arts-related businesses.
Keir Graff, one of the city’s most talented writers, has written a book about this building, “Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder.” He also is one of its tenants and tells me, “Working here every day, I’ve been making my own coffee with an electric kettle. I couldn’t be happier that I’ll be able to ride the elevator to street level and order a tasty espresso drink. I love this building, so I’m thrilled to see a new business welcoming people inside, so they can learn more about the building’s tenants and history. I know the management team has worked mightily to find the right businesses for the street-facing storefronts, and I think they’ve found a winner here.”
Last week, I met with Groundswell’s owner, an affable former baseball pitcher named Jason Foster. “Would you like a coffee?” he said, smiling.
It was morning and the shop was filled with some of Foster’s new neighbors, those who work and play on the floors above. “I thought it would be a good idea to meet some of my new neighbors before our formal public opening,” said Foster. “The hope, of course, is that they will become steady customers.”
He came to Chicago from his native Minnesota in the early years of this century to enroll in and play baseball at the University of Illinois Chicago. He was a pitcher and a pretty good one (imposing too, at 6 feet, 6 inches), and he’ll tell you, but without the necessary tools to progress in the sport.
“I was aware that I wasn’t going to make it as a professional, so I was studying business,” he said. “I really enjoyed the Xs and Os of that, the profit and loss.”
Upon graduating, he worked in the food service industry and, while managing a Starbucks here realized “I had a real thing for coffee.” He and his then-wife, who he had met at college, began making business plans and immersing themselves in the independent local coffee scene. “I had always had an entrepreneurial spirit, a real desire to work for myself,” he says. “And every coffee has a story.”
With a business partner who had been a baseball teammate, they opened the first Groundswell in Ravenswood in 2015. The next year came another in the West Loop. This latest outpost has been in the works for nearly a year. “It was always our intention to expand and this building, with its history and location, architecture and design, was irresistible,” he said.
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It’s a handsome space, about 1,000 square feet, and Foster will happily tell you about its architect, who is Brian Hammersley, of Hammersley Architecture, and that the interior design was by Gooch Design Studio, both operations based in the building. He will also explain what was involved in covering an open elevator shaft that was in the middle of the space.
This new store, set to open any day, after the city’s permit process concludes, will operate daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In addition to coffee, it will have a limited food menu, consisting of “breakfast burritos and all-day sandwiches,” as well as pastries from the acclaimed Good Ambler in the West Loop.
Foster plans to be at the new store often. He’s divorced, lives in Palatine, still plays baseball in an “old guys’ league,” and is the primary caretaker for a 10-year-old son named Atlas. “He plays shortstop and pitches,” says his father proudly.
Many of the new store’s customers will certainly recall and have pleasant memories of the now-empty ground-level space to the south. That was once the Artists Cafe, which for nearly six decades was what I called “the culinary epicenter of Chicago’s cultural community,” since being opened by an entrepreneurial Greek immigrant named George Mitchell.
Before it closed, I had a long talk with Mitchell’s sister-in-law, Irene Makris, who had worked there for decades. She told me of the many stars who had eaten there, such as Bette Midler, Ron Wood and Mick Jagger, Harold Washington and Nelson Rockefeller, Carole King, Tony Bennett, Joe Mantegna, Telly Savalas … the list was almost endless. There were many photos on the walls.
The place also served thousands of kids who took music lessons in this building; thousands of others who attended performances at nearby theatrical stages, ogled masterpieces at the Art Institute, lounged or listened to music in Grant Park; or attended Roosevelt University, Columbia College or the other schools in the area
Makris told me, “I do feel like we are an important part of this neighborhood.”
She lives in the neighborhood and she and I are planning a visit once the new coffee shop is opened, for coffee, of course, and also some memories.