Ah, the good old days. Back when you could kick back on a beat up old threadbare sofa and rest your feet on a coffee table purchased for $15 and read a good book by a table lamp that was in style when Neil Armstrong planted the flag on the moon, all while sipping your Intelligentsia Coffee and shoveling in some ham and eggs while smoking a cigarette and remarking on the weather to a stranger sitting across from you reading the Sun Times. That was a typical morning at the late lamented Filter, Wicker Park’s boho version of Central Perk, the relentlessly patronized coffee shop on TV’s popular sitcom Friends.
Very few neighborhoods have a coffee shop like Central Perk, an homage to a 70’s suburban family room where you can meet friends, enjoy a cup of coffee and spend a couple of hours reading a book or tapping away on a laptop. In Filter, Wicker Park had such a place, and now it’s gone. But the truly remarkable thing is nothing has emerged to replace it.
In a neighborhood that’s all about artists and trendsetters sitting around talking, there’s plenty of places to do so over a drink, but virtually no place to do so comfortably over a cup of coffee. I find this astounding.
Sure, there are plenty of coffee shops in Wicker Park/Bucktown, and some even have furniture arrangements that encourage slacking, a few even give you coffee in something with a handle on it, but none do it on as large a scale or with such a clear message of welcome as Filter did. The trend seems to be in the opposite direction. Get ‘em in, get ‘em out. As if everybody who lives here is a commuter rushing to make a train.
When Milk n’ Honey opened their Damen Avenue location last year, I remarked to the counterman that their timing was perfect. Filter had just closed its doors and all those devotees of coffee and slacking had to go somewhere, and Milk n’ Honey was in a prime position to catch 'em. To my shock, the counterman had never even heard of Filter. Worse yet, Milk n’ Honey had no interest in catering to that crowd. With its four small tables and diabolically uncomfortable seating, it was all about pushing people out the door. Not surprisingly, it lasted barely a year before closing and reopening in the form of an Italian deli.
On the other hand, Caffé De Luca (1721 N. Damen) has graciousness in spades, serving coffee in actual cups with saucers and offering a nice selection of breakfast dishes, but Caffé DeLuca is primarily a restaurant, not a place to hang out. A sign on the door asks you to keep your table use to one hour or less. When you find yourself over staying your welcome, you sheepishly unplug your laptop and make your exit. No wifi. No furniture arrangements. This is not our Central Perk.
Ditto Earwax Café (1561 N. Milwaukee). Restaurants are not coffee lounges, although the best coffee lounges always offer breakfast. Perhaps the distinction is that coffee lounges focus on morning meals whereas restaurants morph to service the lunchtime crowd, a different animal altogether and one that imposes an inferred time limit on your presence. I was desperate. I didn’t want a club sandwich at noon. Was there no place I could just hang out and sip coffee and work late into the day?
Next I took my search to the Gallery Café (1760 W. North). The friendly people behind the counter noticed that I was looking for an outlet and helped me find it. I connected to the free wifi no problem. Of the ten patrons in the place nine were tapping away on their laptops. No one was getting rushed out. This was good.
At the Gallery Café they offer an interesting selection of egg sandwiches and provide a full complement of coffees, teas and smoothies. But there is something vaguely drab and institutional about the place. Maybe it’s the gray tile floors. Maybe it’s the lack of drapes or anything to soften the hard edges. Maybe it’s the paper cups or the drone of the industrial grinder that runs incessantly and drowns out the music. In the back is a single leather sofa with a coffee table, although instead of a pair of end tables strewn with funky magazines an ATM machine is shoved up against one end and a drink refrigerator against the other. Not exactly a suburban family room setting, more like a waiting room at a car dealership. This is not our Central Perk.
The Starbucks at six points (1588 N. Milwaukee) is too small, kept deliberately so, I am told, by the person who owns the building. Rumor has it they would like to expand but can’t because the owner fears the Starbucks brand would hurt the other neighborhood coffee shops. Whatever. I am not against Starbucks. The Starbucks in Andersonville is a terrific place to hang out, a genuine Central Perk for that neighborhood. So when a new Starbucks opened at Armitage & Hoyne (2101 W. Armitage) I thought my problems were solved. Sure enough, there were the comfy furniture arrangements, the soothing music, the neighborhoody vibe. But egads! Where’s the wifi! I have no idea what the bigwigs in Seattle are thinking but I have seen this before. When a new Starbucks opens, for some reason, it takes them nearly a year to install the wifi. Worse than that, they have been making noises about discontinuing their excellent breakfast sandwiches and forcing you to subsist on their rather uninspired baked goods. No thanks. This is not our Central Perk.
Letizia’s Natural Bakery (2144 W. Division) held out promise. They share a spacious back patio with their sister establishment Enoteca Roma and have added big comfy outdoor sofas and coffee tables arranged in pleasant settings. Climbing vines and a burbling fountain give the whole thing a wonderful English Garden feel. But on the morning I went to have coffee it was raining, so I had to settle for inside, which is not nearly as comfortable. A total of 12 tables are all they can manage in the narrow space and the brutally hard bench seats deter lounging. The breakfast menu is Spartan, offering only baked goods. There is a heavy emphasis on paninis for lunch, yet not a single one with eggs that could pass muster as a breakfast sandwich. I have gotten a stomach ache at Letizias in the past from eating too much sugar in the morning because they offer few other choices, except for bagels. The wifi is not free and there is a dearth of outlets. Sadly, this is not our Central Perk.
Bucktown Beanery (2158 N. Damen) has a bright, clean, new feel ala Starbucks, free wifi, a fine selection of breakfast dishes, good music and a cheerful, friendly staff. However, their lounge area is small, just a couple of arm chairs and a small coffee table. If the place were bigger, it would fit the bill, but as it is, it’s a little cramped. Also, it’s too many blocks away from six points, nearly off the Wicker Park/Bucktown grid, hardly in the heart of things as Filter was.
Alliance Bakery (1736 W. Division) has a grungy side room for lounging and lap topping, but the place has all the appeal of a mildewy basement and is the haunt of super intense college students, making it uncomfortable to talk above a whisper. Like the other bake shops, the food is limited to whatever can be made with a heaping cup of sugar and four sticks of butter. The overall vibe is one of utter indifference, as if they are offering this space only because they have to. They would rather have you in and out, preferably with a wedding cake. This is not our Central Perk.
Someone is missing a bet. The lingering boho vibe of Wicker Park cries out for a coffee lounge like Filter was: a large space with sofa arrangements, full breakfast, plenty of outlets, wifi, a place to work or hang out, a ground zero for hipsters and Art Institute students and old farts who want to read the Sun Times. A place that serves coffee in mugs.
I’m sure if such a place existed, it would have all the business it could handle. But where is it?
Where's our Central Perk?
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