Dayglow

Lighter Scandinavian roasting sets the tone at this Humboldt Park coffee bar, where Dayglow roasts under its own name and pours filter alongside espresso inside the Kimball Arts Center.

Scandinavian-style filter coffee

Filter is the draw, and it is roasted for clarity rather than weight: lighter profiles, aromatic definition, bean character in front of roast flavour. Because the café is also a roastery, the filter list is tied to its own production, with around fifteen coffees in circulation rather than a house blend and a decaf. That gives the bar enough range to repay repeat visits as origins and profiles rotate. Espresso stays central for anyone who wants milk texture and a familiar shape, cappuccino and latte included. Coffees from Tanat have also run through the bar, a name tied to single-origin lots and distinctive processing, which suits a room that pays this much attention to extraction.

A casual Chicago room with a serious bar

The Chicago café opened in 2020 and keeps its Humboldt Park role while belonging to a wider Dayglow group with rooms in Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Brooklyn. Sitting near the 606 trail helps: the café works inside a corridor of creative businesses and neighbourhood movement rather than on its own. The interior follows the same Scandinavian thread, minimal and unfussy, and holds up for people alone as much as for families with children. Counter service moves quickly, so the room handles a fast espresso and a slower filter equally well. Food broadens the day without taking it over, with pastries, breakfast plates and desserts, tea as a secondary option, and alcoholic drinks adding another register in the evening.

Start with filter, then look at the seasonal latte

Start with filter coffee, the most direct route into what Dayglow does. It foregrounds the lighter roasting, the clarity, and the rotating possibilities of a roastery keeping several coffees in play at once. If espresso with milk is the better fit, a cappuccino or latte draws on the same programme, and the seasonal lattes are where the bar lets a flavour idea run. From there, build the visit around the case: a pastry with morning coffee, a breakfast plate for a longer stop, dessert when the point is lingering. The subscription reflects the same dual role, moving the coffee poured at the Kimball Arts Center counter into home brewing.