Monday Coffee Co. serving up drinks among the greenery at Garfield Park Conservatory
CHICAGO (CBS) -- This Foodie Friday, we head to the Garfield Park Conservatory. Tucked away in the Horticulture Hall is local Black-owned coffee pop up Monday Coffee Co.
The owners started out serving cold brew only, but now customers can enjoy a wide range of espresso and coffee drinks.
Co-founders Amanda Christine Harth and Felton Kizer started Monday Coffee Co. in October 2020.
"It was about a year and a half of planning, and we ended up pressing pause due to the pandemic and shutting everything down, but then during the summer of 2020, during the protests and uprising, we decided that we needed to do something to bring people together," Harth said.
"We knew that we wanted to create something together, to help connect people, but also to figure out a way to collectively heal. So we figured, well, people need coffee. People need black coffee, right?" Kizer said.
"A lot of the times, the craft coffee space is super White, and not always the most comfortable for people of color, and that's been something that we've focused on as well. Being a Black-owned coffee company, we know how that feels to go into Starbucks or those super hipster coffee places. So one of our goals is to create a space where people can come in and it makes sense, and they're also not challenged in a way that they're feeling uncomfortable with trying this new type of coffee," Harth said.
"We're not your traditional coffee company. We didn't start off that way, and so far with the trajectory of our business, that's not how things are gonna go for us, and we're totally fine with that. We're an experiential coffee brand, and doing coffee the way that we see fit," Harth added.
"When they're trying to engage with Monday Coffee, they should just be ready for something fun, something exciting, something that no one else has probably done, something that we also might get wrong. A lot of what we're doing is learning as we go, growing as we go," Kizer said.
"We have a plan to open a coffee lab somewhere in the city. It'll operate partially as a café experience, but also as an educational experience for coffee lovers, and a space for barista training as well. So that's our plan long-term, in terms of a flagship," Harth said.
You can find Monday Coffee Co. at the Garfield Park Conservatory on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Their products can also be found at The Center of Order and Experimentation in West Town.