This place has closed. Too bad, because they served the best coffee in Chicago.

When I’m not manning the kitchen, I’m looking for a spot to drink coffee, grab a bite, and write. In its Log On series, miLam will tell you where to find such places, with free WIFI, in Chicago.

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Coffee, Eats, and WIFI in Ravenswood

Log On, Chicago. Edition IV/i

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Co-Work: Ch’ava, Dolce Casa CaféEat: Ch’ava, M & A Bakery

Ch’ava Cafe

Pros

1. Ch’ava has the absolute best coffee in Chicago, hands down.
2. They have these heavy wooden chairs along the wall, near the back door. If you’re sitting in one, and you decide to push yourself away from the table without lifting your chair off the floor, it will make an incredible sound so alarmingly loud, that you will think 2nd shift at the Chevy plant just got out. I think of that as a huge plus.
3. Clean, sleek
4. It’s well-lit on the inside and there are massive windows across the entire space, so you might think you’re having coffee in an aquarium designed for the amusement of drivers on Clark. However, the windows are tinted. Drivers can’t see you nearly as well as you can see them. You’ll be especially thankful for the tint when the sun pokes it’s incandescent head over the buildings on the east side of Clark.
5. If you’re driving and you want a cup to go, you can park on the south side of the building. If you’re driving to the café and you want free parking, I think this lot is for you, too. There’s also usually easy, free street parking a half-block east of Clark.

Cons

1. Chris Cab “Where I Belong” (which is what’s on the sound system as I’m writing this) isn’t my favorite kind of cheesy reggae-infused pop music, but I realize I’m not badassical. OK, so he was discovered by Happy Pharrell. That’s no excuse. They play the music too loud in here. I’m guessing that it’s because this place is so live, acoustically, that they have to overcome the … electrical hum in the room … the mantra of the walls and wiring. The best vanilla latte I’ve ever had just about makes up for this, though.

The decor’s a bit stark, which suggests a short say, but once you’ve settled in, your mind seems to vibrate with clarity and focus in sympathy with that starkness, and next thing you know, hours have passed. OK, that could be the caffeine, but I’m pretty sure it’s the decor.

Did I say that Ch’ava has the best coffee in Chicago? I’m serious. I drink a lot of coffee at a lot of cafés, and Ch’ava is the best. I’m talking pour overs such as Colombia Tres Santos: acidic but not dark. I’m talking baristas who make beautiful designs in your vanilla latte foam, and the taste/texture: smooth, light, mild … much more refined than the Starbucks version. Ch’ava’s vanilla latte qualifies as a comfort food.  On top of that, I’m talking really good sandwiches. Roasted Oyster Mushroom Sandwich: the vegan lemon–basil aioli has a pleasant sharpness. The sandwich is quite small, but delicious.

Other Ravenswood cafés worthy of exploration: The Perfect Cup, Dolce Casa Café.

3/19/2014, 10:30 A9/2/2014, 7:45 A

Hungry?

You certainly won’t go hungry in Ravenswood, that’s for sure, not with Julius Meinl, Lutz Cafe & Pastry, Angel Food Bakery, and Amy’s Candy Bar nearby. Uh, yeah … I consider what you do at bakeries and candy stores to be “eating,” technically.

M & A Bakery

This is how their sign used to look

😐 As you can in many bakeries, you can buy bread here. Last time I was at M & A, I brought home a loaf of bread that tasted Italian, but had the dry airiness of a French-bread ghost. I mean that to be a good-ish or neutral thing. It was unusual and enjoyable. 🙂 Fuck the bread, though. It’s worth checking out this odd little nondescript hole in the wall whose sign simply says “M Bakery” just because it’s so cryptic. I mean, why does the sign just have that enigmatic “M”? Was the “A” rubbed out? Stolen? I consider a little intrigue to be a plus in a bakery, and so hard to come by. On the inside, M & A is thick with a titillating Bosnian ethnicity. Wade through the mysterious home crowd that gathers in the front, and in the back, you’ll find the pastries. They’re quite good. 😀 I had an individual-sized pineapple upside-down cake that was fucking awesome. The cake wasn’t quite “cake.” It was halfway in between cake and flan. Not your typical French-pastry-school knock-off. I couldn’t get enough of it. 😆 The most important thing about this bakery, though, is that its prices are inexpensive to the point that you’ll do a double-take.

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Ch’ava is not easily accessible via the ‘L’. That’s part of what makes it so fucking cool. You have to Divvy there, motherfucker. There’s a station right next to it, man, like it was by design or something. If you can’t be bothered to Divvy, you can, in ascending order of asshattedness, walk, drive, or take a goddamned bus.

Other places to log on: Archer Heights, Boystown, Edgewater Beach, Fulton River District, Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Pilsen, Rogers Park, West Loop, Wicker Park, West Town, Uptown

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Coffee, Free WIFI: Ravenswood, Chicago

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