Michael Schultz believes a coffee shop model is antiquated, and he wants to do something about it — quickly. On Mar 29, he’ll open a initial plcae of Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea Bar in Bucktown, circuitously a Six Corners intersection. But that’s only a beginning.
Very shortly afterward, a Fairgrounds is set to open in a Chicago Athletic Association, followed a month after by an opening in downtown Los Angeles. Before a finish of 2017, Schultz hopes to have Fairgrounds locations in Minneapolis, Miami, Houston and Brooklyn.
What’s wrong with a normal coffee shop? Schultz thinks it all comes down to choice — in that many many cafes miss it. “I’d go out for coffee with friends to Starbucks, and we’d be sealed into one code of coffee,” he says. “Then we’d go to a bar, and there would be a hundred opposite beers. Why is it like this for drink and not coffee?”
At Fairgrounds, Schultz will offer a accumulation of coffee brands, permitting business to select from nationally acclaimed options like Stumptown Coffee Roasters (Portland, Ore.), Irving Farm Coffee Roasters (New York) and Verve (Los Angeles), along with a collection of internal favorites like Dark Matter Coffee and Metropolis.
While you’ll be means to dump in for a discerning crater of coffee, Fairgrounds will also offer 8 cold brews on draft, along with libation flights. Schultz is also unapproachable of a pour-over coffee routine that he says is many quicker than a common method.
Schultz also thinks many cafes provide tea “as a second fiddle” to coffee, though he says that during Fairgrounds, a beverages will be equals. That means there will be a vast tea program, including stimulating tea on tap, and a matcha bar that will specialize in immature tea. Fairgrounds will also offer what Schultz calls “elixirs,” that he describes as tea cocktails though alcohol. As an example, a rainforest pill elixir includes matcha, solidified pineapple, coconut H2O and coconut milk.
Fairgrounds will also offer a vast food menu, that Schultz hopes will serve set his plan detached from a cafeteria pack. “I’ve never woken adult and thought, ‘I have to go to Starbucks for a sandwiches,'” says Schultz. “It’s crazy that we go for coffee, though we don’t wish to eat there.” The final menu is still being finalized, though design a beef sandwich and a accumulation of salads and snacks, including many that have coffee and matcha integrated into them. A series of grab-and-go equipment will also be available.
Though this is Schultz’s initial coffee emporium for a ubiquitous public, he owns Coffee Tea Bar Hospitality, that runs corporate coffee cafes, including ones inside Yelp’s Chicago office, ConAgra and a Chicago Board of Options Exchange.
Schultz has a nauseating reason for his initial Fairgrounds location: “My mother was a CPS clergyman for many years during a circuitously A.N. Pritzker School. On a initial day, we’ll present 20 percent of sales to a Friends of Pritzker primogenitor organization. Giving behind to a village is really critical to me.”
Schultz also hopes to equivocate a pretentiousness of certain coffee bars, where you’re intimidated to try things. “While we are really knowledgable, it’s only coffee and tea,” says Schultz. “People should be means to come and relax.”
Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea Bar, 1620 N. Milwaukee Ave., is slated to open Mar 29.
nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @nickdk