beelove café serving up coffee with a side of community collaboration in North Lawndale
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A honey-themed café in North Lawndale has a passion for serving sweet treats, and serving the community, as a hub for all things good.
Do you ever find yourself in North Lawndale just dying for a cup of coffee, or maybe even just a breakfast sandwich, but you don't want to go to McDonald's and you don't want to go to Popeye's?
A community-run alternative offers food and drinks, and a mission you simply won't bee-lieve.
There's a lot going on at the beelove café, and not just due to the foot traffic, though that's definitely a part of it.
"People make this a part of their destination. They make it a part of their mornings. Sometimes they make it a part of their ending of their day," said Sergio Dukes, beelove's former manager.
Dukes said it's really a spot that belongs to the neighborhood.
"And they consider it our buzz. So it's for us, by us. So I really love that they've really made this café their own," he said.
The café is a venture of the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), a nonprofit that works to eradicate poverty in the neighborhood. It's the only handcrafted café in North Lawndale, but serving food and drinks only represents a fraction of what they're doing to serve the community, and all of it is rooted in collaboration.
"We want to show people that creating community, especially in North Lawndale, works," said Dukes.
Their free library is populated by donations from Open Books, another nonprofit in the community.
"We offer a wider range of different books for people in the community to come in here and leave with a book free of charge," Dukes said.
The baked goods in the café are delivered twice weekly by local vendor Tony's Tasty Pastries, and they are delectable.
"Tasty Pastries has got our beelove honey infused with the biscuit recipe, and then we got some beelove honey dripped on top. You see that golden biscuit; so delicious" Dukes said.
They have live music and celebrate local artists through showcases and exhibitions, selling their art off the walls.
"When you walk in, just know that the music, the artwork is all crafted by local," Dukes said.
Their honey, which is used in their café and to make their skincare line, is harvested from local apiaries run by Sweet Beginnings, yet another vendor of NLEN and a collaboration with institutions across the city.
"We have apiaries all over Chicago. We have one across the street. We have one on top of this very building. And then we have an O'Hare location as well. So, yeah, so we're getting our honey from different areas for sure," Dukes said.
And from local honey comes Sweet Beginnings.
"The way that we're creating these beginnings is that we're helping people who have been formerly incarcerated reintegrate back into the society. They've done their time. They're looking to get back into the workforce. We want to support that. We want to uplift that," Dukes said.
The café and their adjacent honey production space hire transitional workers and justice-impacted community members; training them in production, hospitality, and food service.
"They have a place to go once they leave our programs. We're all about giving people that second, third chance to employment," Dukes said.
beelove is expanding in partnership with Stone Temple Baptist Church, and that new location will also be in North Lawndale, featuring nutrients and snacks made with honey coming from their multiple apiaries, as well as food from local vendors all coming to their new venue soon.
