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| Photo: https://www.fairgrounds.cafe |
By Aaron Lawlor
aaronlawlor@gmail.com
A great cup of coffee; an over-sauced, pedestrian breakfast sandwich; comfortable decor; and, a meandering playlist slightly too loud to focus on reading the paper - this is how I would describe my two hour drop into Fairgrounds near Bucktown’s vibrant Six Corner intersection.
aaronlawlor@gmail.com
A great cup of coffee; an over-sauced, pedestrian breakfast sandwich; comfortable decor; and, a meandering playlist slightly too loud to focus on reading the paper - this is how I would describe my two hour drop into Fairgrounds near Bucktown’s vibrant Six Corner intersection.
Walking up Milwaukee Avenue, the “Fairground” sign caught my eye. The shop’s double entendre name and use of an actual county fairgrounds sign wasn’t lost on this suburban-to-city transplant who has been to his share of county and state fairs across Illinois.
The coffee menu is an amalgamation of my favorites (Collectivo and Dark Matter among them). I had a pour over of the Gaslight, a Chicago-based coffee brand promising notes of apple and other flavors that my palette isn’t quite able to make out.
My tongue’s level of sophistication in sobriety is similar to its abilities when I was drinking. I used to be able to differentiate a good bottle of wine from mediocre or, heaven forbid, bottom of the barrel grapes. However, if you asked me to taste the difference between a $40 dollar bottle and $400...good luck.
So, this sober sommelier has set out to review Chicago’s best spots for a good, stiff cup of coffee and warm, engaging environments to visit with a friend, enjoy a good book, cram on my job search and...of course, expand my coffee bean-sized palette.
I ordered the Gaslight on the barista’s recommendation. He was super friendly, engaging and efficient; the kind of guy you would want to be friends with because he seemed super interesting. His recommendation didn’t disappoint. While I failed to ferret out the notes of apple et al from the Gaslight, it more than passed my test for a colorful cup of caffeination. And, the copper water cups with still and sparkling taps make this former Moscow Mule guzzler a happy camper.
However, my food selection missed the mark. I had the bacon and egg sandwich. The bacon was slightly underdone and the sauce was overdone - a seemingly unnecessary add to a breakfast sammy that shouldn’t need to get dressed up to go to work.
The decor is warm and welcoming with earth-toned leather couches, rope-weaved chairs divided by a wall of plants and finished off with a stove pipe fireplace that I would have been glued to this winter had I come by sooner.
My favorite MBA instructor always said “you don’t go to a restaurant for the clean bathrooms, its expected”. I disagree. Nature inevitably calls during an extended productivity sesh and Fairgrounds’ washrooms don’t give me any reason to hold it with their well-maintained all-gender individual washrooms with paper towels instead of germy hand blowers...ick.
The ability to plug in is equally important and Fairgrounds offers plenty of spots to charge your devices while you caffeinate your bod and percolate your thoughts.
In all, I give Fairgrounds a “Sober Sommelier B”. The ambiance is solid, the coffee selection is awesome and the vibe is magnetic...but the music is too loud for this well-caffeinated cowboy to focus on getting through an entire Chicago Tribune.
Aaron Lawlor is a freelance writer, talented public speaker and public relations expert. Aaron is in recovery from addiction and shares his reviews of Chicago's best spots for coffee.
Aaron Lawlor is a freelance writer, talented public speaker and public relations expert. Aaron is in recovery from addiction and shares his reviews of Chicago's best spots for coffee.