ALTAR Home & Café

Metric coffee in a furniture room

The espresso at ALTAR Home & Café is Metric Coffee, a Chicago roaster long associated with the city’s specialty scene, and the drinks that get the most attention are the specialty lattes built on house-made syrups. The menu is selective rather than complete: classic café drinks are in the frame, though not everything is on it, and a flat white is not part of the lineup. Coffee here is one half of a hybrid. The same room is a home-goods shop, and the business gives furniture and café equal billing.

Slow living, and a room arranged to be looked at

ALTAR describes what it is doing as slow living and soulful design, in soft forms, natural tones and quiet beauty, and the space delivers that literally: seating, tables, sofas, consoles, beds and nightstands share the floor with vases, bowls, pots and jars, lighting, mirrors, books, blankets and throws, plus outdoor pieces and a design service. Café use and browsing flow into each other, which is both the appeal and the constraint. Seating is not abundant, and the white sofa is not available for food or drinks, a reminder that the furniture is merchandise before it is furniture. The result is approachable but curated, and it works best when the coffee starts the visit rather than being all of it.

A design service runs alongside the retail floor, so the room doubles as a working showroom for people planning a space of their own. That explains the balance: the café is real, but it is not the reason the doors are open, and it also explains the tone, which is quiet, unhurried and arranged for looking.

Order the specialty latte

Order the specialty latte. It is the drink most clearly identified with the place, and the house-made syrups are the part of the programme people come back for, so it says more about the café than a plain espresso would. Do not come for food. There are a few packaged snacks and nothing resembling a kitchen, which puts the weight firmly on the beverage and the room. The better use of an hour is a latte in a light-filled space, then a slow lap of the sofas, tables, objects, lighting, books and throws gathered under ALTAR’s own aesthetic.