Big Shoulders Coffee

Roasted in Pilsen, poured across seven rooms

Everything Big Shoulders serves is roasted by Big Shoulders, at a Pilsen production space that supplies all seven of its Chicago cafes. The split at the bar is simple: a house espresso blend built to hold up in milk, and filter service that rotates single origins from Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala and Brazil. Pour-over stations handle the slower brewing, and cold brew covers the chilled order. The company was started in 2015 by two brothers and named for Carl Sandburg's line about the city of the big shoulders, a heavier idea than most coffee brands take on, meant to point at industry, work and neighbourhood rather than at coffee fashion. Food and Wine has named it the best coffee in Illinois.

Seven rooms, seven crowds

The flagship opened in the Loop in 2016, and the branches that followed were shaped around whoever actually walks in. Office workers in the Loop and on Wacker, traders in the Board of Trade building, families in Lincoln Park, Gold Coast regulars, West Town locals and travellers at Midway all get a different room. The West Town cafe takes a triangular corner with big panes of glass and white subway tile, compact and sharp. The Wacker branch adds a patio for people on a break from an office. That variation matters, because the alternative would be one room copied seven times, and the point of a local roaster in a city with this much chain coffee is that it does not have to be.

Latte first, then a single origin

Start with a latte. The espresso blend is roasted with milk drinks in mind, so it is the drink the roast was designed for and it gives a clean read on the house style. From there, move to filter and ask what single origin is running, since that is where the roastery's sourcing shows: Ethiopia for florals and acidity, Colombia and Guatemala for balance, Brazil for the heavier, nuttier end. Cold brew is the standing cold order, and pour-over is worth the wait when the bar is not deep in a rush. Food stays deliberately small, with pastries and cake as company for the coffee rather than a menu of their own. Bags of the same coffee are sold at the counter.