Coffee, Free WIFI: Wicker Park, Chicago

When I’m not manning the kitchen, I’m looking for an edgy Chicago spot that’d be good for working, drinking coffee, and grabbing a bite. If I wanted real, honest-to-god edginess, I’d head for Logan Square, West Town, or Uptown. But if what I wanted were a Disneyland representation of edginess that attempted to present all the “-ness” with none of the “edgi,” I’d head for Wicker Park.

"Wicker Park," from Georama, via Make It Like a Man! Coffee and Wi-Fi in Wicker Park

Featured Image: Georama

In its Log On series, miLam will tell you where to find trendy coffee and post-edginess, with open WIFI, in Wicker Park. No one logs on like a man in flannel!

Coffee and WIFI in Wicker Park, and the Book of Revelation


Log On, Chicago. Edition XI/i

Places to Work: Filter, La Colombe, Wormhole Places to Eat: Filter, Stan’s, Glazed & Infused

Wicker Park is a revelation.

"Revelations," from Josh Pease, via Make It Like a Man!  Coffee and Free Wi-Fi in Wicker Park

“… and that’s how you make cold press.”

Most thought the very idea of non-homosexual gentrification was an abomination. Yet Wicker Park defied the natural order and gentrified without the assistance of the gays, relying instead on artists and musicians. Sure, prior to the 70’s, artists, poets, and musicians gentrified countless neighborhoods going back practically to the middle ages, but everyone knows that by using words like “artist,” “poet,” and “musician” prior to the 70’s, what everyone meant was “gay.” But in the 80’s, the gays were busy gentrifying Boystown, and Wicker residents were impatient. There was also a fear that the gays, when they got around to it, might re-do the intersection of Damon, North, and Milwaukee in actual wicker, and this was way before the time when you could get that really cool metal wicker from Restoration Hardware. Plus, there was a widely held belief that the gays would never approve of things like “Smashing Pumpkins.” I mean, it just sounds so violent. And do you know how much work goes into carving them? Wicker Park decided to prematurely gentrify itself relying solely on the efforts of “artists” and “musicians” in a literal sense and, well, to everyone’s surprise, the neighborhood blossomed. For a while. And then it went nuclear.

The four horsemen of the gentrification apocalypse eventually rode through Wicker Park, displacing actual bohemians and leaving an upscale, bohemian-styled theme park in their wake. Can you imagine a starving artist finding a decent apartment in Wicker Fucking Park today? No way, José. In the utter yuppification of Wicker Park, trendiness has triumphed over edginess, and if this has brought about an era of impassive weekend gridlock and guys named Jaron, it has also produced some cafés and doughnut shops that I truly dig.

La Colombe:[1] behold, a white horse with the power to conquer

Colombe does not have WiFi.
3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5) 1552 N. Damen Ave.

"La Colombe," from Erin Kestnbaum, via Make It Like a Man!  Coffee and Free Wi-Fi in Wicker Park

I discovered La Colombe quite by accident, while I was looking for a doughnut. Colombe isn’t independent. It’s part of a small chain. Although there are two (soon to be three: a new one will open recently opened in Andersonville) in Chicago, I’ve only been to this one, right under the Blue Line tracks, on the west side of Damen, and I can say that it crushes every other coffeehouse I’ve reviewed. It’s interior design is wood and brick, yet it’s sleek and clean. Its small square footage is outwitted by it’s smart design, which maximizes the space while leaving it feeling open and uncrowded. It’s ordered and neat, with lots of simple, straight lines. That is exactly what I need to succeed before 9 AM! This place is about coffee, lovely coffee served in the most civilized way. They serve their coffee in the most beautiful mugs I’ve ever seen. They have some absofuckinglutely gorgeous-looking, old-world pastries that they keep subjugated to a glass case under the coffee counter. I highly recommend the cinnamon roll: quite refined. The morning barista is also worth checking out.[2]

Coffee: artisanal.

Can you work or study here? Yes. The Motown they’re playing is at exactly the right decibel level to be in the background! Thank you! I don’t have to struggle to hear the voices in my head! Plugs? Yes, but not many. The bench along the back corner has one at either end and I think there may be one near the front door. BYOWiFi: Colombe doesn’t have WiFi. I had to knock its rating down two full pegs for that. But I fully recommend this place to anyone who loves an uncluttered, quiet space to enjoy great coffee and read some Steinbeck. Bathrooms? Yes.

6/20/2014, 8:29 AM
6/30/2014, 11:50 AM

Notes:

[1] La Colombe is actually called “La Colombe Torrefaction,” but it seems that in much of their public-facing materials, including the sign on the door, they leave off the “Torrefaction.” In French, La Colombe Torrefaction translates to something like “Dove Rostery.”
[2] The Barista : one part quirky, one part nerd, one part handsome. He’s an excellent example of what Wicker Park is: it’s like someone took a hipster and a guy who does nothing but go to circuit parties, and whipped him in a blender. And what came out was hipsterism, reimagined in the milieu of Ascension.

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

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