Chicago Coffeehouses
Brewing Community and Connection in the Midwest
The long history and new iterations of the region’s third spaces
Cloth – $110
978-0-252-05982-7
Paper – $29.95
978-0-252-04929-3
eBook – $14.95
978-0-252-04931-6
Publication Date
Cloth: 01/19/2027
Series: Heartland Foodways
About the Book
Neighborhood anchor. Hotbed of art and creativity. Sanctuary for reading and conversation. The coffeehouse is an essential part of Chicago’s landscape. June Sawyers merges stories of the city’s vibrant coffeehouse scene with an in-depth history of the institution’s place in Chicago.Since the turn of the last century, immigrants have brought Chicago an abundance of varied café traditions from Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Sawyers delves into yesteryear’s Towertown bohemian enclave and midcentury venues that helped fuel the folk music revival. She also explores the coffeehouse’s ongoing evolution into a digitized workplace, and the creative ways today’s artists and entrepreneurs reimagine these spaces as patisseries, cafés, bake shops, tearooms, and performance settings. Throughout, Sawyers brings to light the Midwestern coffeehouse’s role in cultivating individual identity and neighborhood connection.
Entertaining and enlightening, Chicago Coffeehouses takes readers into iconic gathering places with art on the walls and the aroma of ground beans in the air, where steam rises from a chipped but bottomless cup of coffee.
* Publication was supported by a grant from the Howard D. and Marjorie L. Brooks Fund for Progressive Thought. Additional funding from the National Council on Public History made open access publication possible.
About the Author
June Sawyers is an editor and journalist, and teaches at the Newberry Library. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, NewCity, the Common Review, Third Coast Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review. Her books include Chicago Beer: A History of Brewing, Public Drinking and the Corner Bar and Chicago Portraits.Reviews
“June Sawyers' deep dive into the history of Chicago coffee shops is a loving and valuable chronicle of the cafés that have been the creative hubs of artists, musicians, writers and misfits for generations. She also weaves in this local emphasis with fascinating research into the global origins of the coffee phenomenon. Her words are as upbeat and energizing as a premium blend.”—Aaron Cohen, author of Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power
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