Big Shoulders Coffee focused on giving customers great drinks and a unique experience
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's National Coffee Month, so for this week's Foodie Friday, digital journalist Jamaica Ponder stopped by for a pick-me-up in a cup from Chicago classic Big Shoulders Coffee.
They're serving up caffeinated classics all August long, and the owner, former dining chef Tim Coonan, talked about how they've spent the past decade perfecting the art of both roasting and hosting.
"I was doing this all out of my garage over a propane burner, with a homemade jerry-rigged roasting pan made from a cast iron popcorn popper that my mom donated. So that's where it started," he said.
The magic now happens at a warehouse in Pilsen, where Coonan and his wife roast around 2,000 pounds of coffee a day, which goes out to their five Chicago cafés, local restaurants, and can be shipped around the country.
"My love affair with coffee began many, many years ago as a teenager," Coonan said.
That love affair carried on into when he was working as a chef.
"I would show up at Spiaggia, for instance, and I would roast coffee in a Sautee pan,"
He eventually left fine dining, but remained curious "about anything that's manufactured, or that we eat … that we make."
"I'd have all kinds of weird projects going on in the kitchen. I'd have fresh pasta hanging to dry. I'd have pickling going on," he said.
Naturally, the one project that stuck was roasted coffee. Coonan roasted from the garage, then he'd deliver it by bicycle.
"With my 2-year-old daughter in the back in a brewery trailer," he said.
Within six months, he had about 80 customers, and the coffee poured over from just being a side hustle.
"It really grew into this really organic sort of thing, where it just consumed a great deal of time," he said. "So that was really the genesis Big Shoulders Coffee."
Ten years later, and there are five Big Shoulders Coffee cafés sown throughout the city.
"Coffee is this great catalyst for community," Coonan said. "It's also one of those places that creates a meeting spot for the community, where neighbors come to meet; friends and lovers come together, and really connect."
To maintain that community, they've set their main focus on how their shops make patrons feel; leading with care for the customer and the beans, from the roaster to your cup.
"Our North Star has always been hospitality," he said. "We want people to walk away thinking that was a great experience, but we don't want them to really be able to quite put their finger on what made it great."
