Doma Cafe

Ćevapi is the order

Start with the ćevapi. Small grilled sausages arrive wrapped in soft flatbread with clotted cream and roasted pepper spread, and that plate is what makes Doma Cafe Croatian rather than another Chicago breakfast room. It is the dish to order on a first visit and the one regulars come back for.

Around it sits a familiar café menu with a Balkan accent: breakfast sandwiches, hash browns, soups, pastries and breakfast bowls. The spicy breakfast sandwich is the other repeat order, and lighter plates run to yogurt with granola and cherry compote or a chicken Caesar salad. The kitchen leans breakfast and lunch rather than drinks, and the Balkan side of the menu is what makes it worth crossing town for.

A quiet room with chairs for sale

The room is part of the appeal. Doma is calm and unrushed, with strong wifi, a side patio and an interior that looks more like a Scandinavian furniture showroom than a café, down to the vintage chairs sitting around with price tags on them. The name means home, and the setting follows the idea closely enough that people treat the place as one.

That makes it a neighbourhood work spot as much as a restaurant. People settle in with laptops through the morning, then the River North lunch crowd arrives, and the patio takes over whenever the weather allows. It is a daytime café rather than an evening one, and the pace stays steady rather than frantic. Come early if you want a table to yourself for an hour or two.

Breakfast, drinks and the rest

Build a first order around the ćevapi, then add hash browns if you are eating breakfast or the spicy sandwich if you want something with heat. Soups and pastries fill the gaps, and the breakfast bowls are the lighter route through the same menu if you want to eat and keep working.

Drinks matter more than at most cafés of this kind. Coffee and specialty teas cover the usual ground, but the fresh side is where Doma separates itself: Orange Fizz, blueberry fizz, fresh watermelon juice and carrot ginger juice are all worth ordering instead of a second coffee. Take one with the ćevapi and the meal balances better than it would with espresso, especially in summer when the patio is open.