As one South Side coffee shop closes, another opens - a look inside Currency Exchange Cafe
Readers who started following me before the Ukrainian Crisis may remember a post I wrote in the summer of 2013 about the opening of Flecks Coffee in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood. The long-time middle-class African-American neighborhood has fallen on hard times in recent years, an the opening of a new business - especially an independent coffee shop - was a welcome news for the entire community.
When I came to the opening, I had every intention to come back. It seemed like a good place to write, especially something Chicago-centric. I got a few South Side based story ideas rolling around that I haven't jotted down. But geography is a harsh mistress. It would take over an hour for me to get to the shop by 'L' - if you don't count walking. There were so many writing spots that were so much closer. And work kept me busy. Than cancer happened. But I kept thinking - oh, I'll stop by again, I'll definitely stop by again.
For a while, it seemed like they would make it. Flecks celebrated its first anniversary. It hosted business breakfasts and cultural events. But, at the end of November, Flecks closed. There is some conflicting information about whether it closed for good, but...
Apparently, the owners just couldn't make enough money to stay open.
Not long before the closing was announced, I visited another South Side coffee shop, one that opened much more recently. The Currency Exchange Cafe is different from Flecks in several significant ways. It's located in Washington Park - a poor neighborhood those very name became a shorthand for crime, poverty and lack of commercial development that plague so much of the South Side. It isn't Chatham, which had vibrant business corridors until many long-running businesses closed and nothing came in to replace them. This is a neighborhood filled with vacant lots and commercial corridors have been empty for decades. The fact that it's fairly close to Hyde Park only made its problems more striking.
The neighborhood does have a beautiful park (the eponymous Washington Park), and it's home to well-respected DuSable Museum of African-American History. But its reputation, unfortunately, tends to overshadow that.
In Chatham, you could say that Flecks Coffee had a good client base, plenty of people who had the means to buy coffee regularly. You can't really say the same thing about Washington Park.
Like most Chicago North Siders (and, let's be honest - like most white people), I found out about the Currency Exchange Cafe from a Chicago Reader article. And I was intrigued. You see, another reason it's different from Flecks is that it wasn't exactly a business. Not quite. Currency Exchange Cafe was a brainchild of Theaster Gates, an African-American artist. A couple of years ago, he set out to transform a cluster of abandoned buildings in Grand Crossing (a neighborhood that is kind of like Washington Park with somewhat less crime, fewer parks and no museums) into an art hub. It's an ongoing work, but the cluster already has a library, a photographic slide archive, a small movie theater and housing for artists. More recently, Gates turned his attention to Washington Park, teaming up with the University of Chicago to create an art incubator in a building near Garfield 'L' station. And now, he turned one of the vacant spaces in the building that houses the incubator into a coffee shop.
I've seen what Gates did at Grand Crossing (something I swear I'll do a post about at some point), and I was curious enough to check it out.
As I said, Currency Exchange Cafe is located near Garfield Green Line 'L' station - one of the original stations of the South Side Elevated Line (the very first 'L' line in Chicago). Even now, the station serves an important purpose - it stops at Garfield Boulevard, one of South Side's busiest thoroughfares. It's the station where the Green Line splits into two stub branches - Ashland and King Drive branches. it's the closest 'L' station to Hyde Park (which doesn't really have an 'L' station of its own), and while the consensus is that Hyde Parkers avoid Garfield like a plague, I've actually seen more than a few UC students using it. It certainly has an interesting distinction of being the only Green Line station south of 35th Street where you are likely to see more than one white person at any given time.
The original South Side Elevated Line station house
Newspaper boxes by the current main entrance (on the other side of the street). The South Side Weekly box is a recent edition. The newspaper started out as Chicago Weekly, the second UC student newspaper and the less establishment counterpart to Chicago Maroon. Last year, the staff decided to revamp it into a newspaper that covers the entire South Side - and honestly, I think they're a better publication for it.
Once I crossed the boulevard, I had to walk less than a block before I reached the Currency Exchange Cafe.
The Currency Exchange Cafe got the name because the space it occupied used to actually be a currency exchange. Gates likes reusing materials, so you'll notice some bits of the currency exchange in the interior design. And a few other remnants of things that came before.
The coffee/tea brewing area
There are some tables in the front, and some tables a bit further back. The back area has power outlets and, surprisingly, coat hangers.
(The cafe has wi-fi, but it's password-protected, so you're going to have to ask one of the nice baristas for a password if you want to take advantage of it)
Here's what a typical table at Currency Exchange Cafe looks like. And yes, the chairs are supposed to look like this. Reused materials and all that.
Another thing you'll find in the back area - a fairly extensive "library."
You can read any of those books inside the cafe, but don't even try to leave with them.
Notice all the reused elements
There are also stairs going to a lower level. From what I understand, this is intended as performance/private party area. At the time I was there, it was closed to the public.
Unlike wit Flecks cafe, I actually stuck around a bit and took advantage for a while. I liked the tea - which, as the barista who served me pointed out several times, was cheaper than Starbucks' (and only slightly cheaper than my beloved Argo Tea). I liked the atmosphere and the interior furnishings.
I considered trying some of their food. Currency Exchange Cafe serves breakfast and lunch, and some of the options sound quite appetizing. But the price point scared me off. Unless you like tacos, there isn't anything below $5. Which might not be a big deal for places like the Revival Social Club, but I was under impression that the cafe was aiming for something a bit more affordable.
Maybe next time.
I felt the cafe shortly before closing time (around 4:00 PM). I was originally going to simply head home, but I figured that, so long as I was in Washington Park, I might as well take a look around.
This is what the Art Incubator portion of the building looks like
All along the building, there were signs asking passerbies what kind of "cultural activities" they like. One person decided to answer.
If you can't tell, the comment says "Black ones that are headed by Black people, without Zionist agenda."
Charming.
I kept walking west, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover some lovely murals
A restaurant (with I might have to check out later - a quick search suggests some delicious food on its menu)
And some active businesses
You have to understand - all the other times I've been to Washington Park, the shopping strips I passed trough were in much worse shape. It was nice to discover that the entire neighborhood isn't like this.
At this point, I decided to head back to the 'L' station.
The nearby apartment building
And here's what the building that houses the art incubator and the Currency Exchange Cafe from the other side of the street.
(BTW, phoenix_anew - if any of those photos look even vaguely familiar, it's because most outdoor scenes and exterior shots of the 2007 version of April Fools were filmed in Washington Park.)
Now, the question becomes - will I come back?
I like the cafe. But while it's closer to public transit than Flecks was, it's still considerable distance away from Edgewater. And it doesn't help that Currency Exchange Cafe is really more of a breakfast/lunch place. It closes at 4:00 PM. On weekdays, I would much rather hole up in a cafe that's open longer. Saturdays and Sundays are a different story. I could see myself going over there on Saturday afternoons - if I leave before noon.
I like to think that Currency Exchange Cafe would hang around longer than Flecks did. It's close to public transit. On weekdays, it opens at 7:00 AM - just in time for morning commuters to grab some coffee to go on the way to work. It isn't the most convenient place for that purpose (since it's on the other side of the boulevard from the entrance), but considering that until it opened, there was no way to get coffee anywhere near the station... People might be willing to go out of their way a bit.
One thing I couldn't help but notice while I was there is that the place seems to attract a decent number of young Hyde Parkers. There were some locals as well. Not as many, but some.
I hope that Currency Exchange will be able to attract both the Hyde Park crowd (or all races) and the Washington Parkers. I wouldn't want people who lived on this and other nearby blocks for years to avoid the place just because they feel it isn't for them. It's a good place to have a conversation, their book selection is decent and the coffee really is kind of cheap. Besides, according to the website
The cafe's mission is to provide the neighborhood with new, healthier food options and serve as a safe space and hang-out for the community.
Hyde Park has plenty of spaces that fit the bill already. Washington Park doesn't.
That said, I do find it encouraging that Hyde Parkers are willing to cross the invisible lines just to get some good coffee. Having their spending power on Currency Exchange's side definitely wouldn't hurt.
I hope the cafe will succeed. But I also remember the cheerful crowds at Flecks Coffee, how excited people ere to have it in the neighborhood, how many of them said they will come back again...
I guess all we can do is wait and see.
When I came to the opening, I had every intention to come back. It seemed like a good place to write, especially something Chicago-centric. I got a few South Side based story ideas rolling around that I haven't jotted down. But geography is a harsh mistress. It would take over an hour for me to get to the shop by 'L' - if you don't count walking. There were so many writing spots that were so much closer. And work kept me busy. Than cancer happened. But I kept thinking - oh, I'll stop by again, I'll definitely stop by again.
For a while, it seemed like they would make it. Flecks celebrated its first anniversary. It hosted business breakfasts and cultural events. But, at the end of November, Flecks closed. There is some conflicting information about whether it closed for good, but...
Apparently, the owners just couldn't make enough money to stay open.
Not long before the closing was announced, I visited another South Side coffee shop, one that opened much more recently. The Currency Exchange Cafe is different from Flecks in several significant ways. It's located in Washington Park - a poor neighborhood those very name became a shorthand for crime, poverty and lack of commercial development that plague so much of the South Side. It isn't Chatham, which had vibrant business corridors until many long-running businesses closed and nothing came in to replace them. This is a neighborhood filled with vacant lots and commercial corridors have been empty for decades. The fact that it's fairly close to Hyde Park only made its problems more striking.
The neighborhood does have a beautiful park (the eponymous Washington Park), and it's home to well-respected DuSable Museum of African-American History. But its reputation, unfortunately, tends to overshadow that.
In Chatham, you could say that Flecks Coffee had a good client base, plenty of people who had the means to buy coffee regularly. You can't really say the same thing about Washington Park.
Like most Chicago North Siders (and, let's be honest - like most white people), I found out about the Currency Exchange Cafe from a Chicago Reader article. And I was intrigued. You see, another reason it's different from Flecks is that it wasn't exactly a business. Not quite. Currency Exchange Cafe was a brainchild of Theaster Gates, an African-American artist. A couple of years ago, he set out to transform a cluster of abandoned buildings in Grand Crossing (a neighborhood that is kind of like Washington Park with somewhat less crime, fewer parks and no museums) into an art hub. It's an ongoing work, but the cluster already has a library, a photographic slide archive, a small movie theater and housing for artists. More recently, Gates turned his attention to Washington Park, teaming up with the University of Chicago to create an art incubator in a building near Garfield 'L' station. And now, he turned one of the vacant spaces in the building that houses the incubator into a coffee shop.
I've seen what Gates did at Grand Crossing (something I swear I'll do a post about at some point), and I was curious enough to check it out.
As I said, Currency Exchange Cafe is located near Garfield Green Line 'L' station - one of the original stations of the South Side Elevated Line (the very first 'L' line in Chicago). Even now, the station serves an important purpose - it stops at Garfield Boulevard, one of South Side's busiest thoroughfares. It's the station where the Green Line splits into two stub branches - Ashland and King Drive branches. it's the closest 'L' station to Hyde Park (which doesn't really have an 'L' station of its own), and while the consensus is that Hyde Parkers avoid Garfield like a plague, I've actually seen more than a few UC students using it. It certainly has an interesting distinction of being the only Green Line station south of 35th Street where you are likely to see more than one white person at any given time.
The original South Side Elevated Line station house
Newspaper boxes by the current main entrance (on the other side of the street). The South Side Weekly box is a recent edition. The newspaper started out as Chicago Weekly, the second UC student newspaper and the less establishment counterpart to Chicago Maroon. Last year, the staff decided to revamp it into a newspaper that covers the entire South Side - and honestly, I think they're a better publication for it.
Once I crossed the boulevard, I had to walk less than a block before I reached the Currency Exchange Cafe.
The Currency Exchange Cafe got the name because the space it occupied used to actually be a currency exchange. Gates likes reusing materials, so you'll notice some bits of the currency exchange in the interior design. And a few other remnants of things that came before.
The coffee/tea brewing area
There are some tables in the front, and some tables a bit further back. The back area has power outlets and, surprisingly, coat hangers.
(The cafe has wi-fi, but it's password-protected, so you're going to have to ask one of the nice baristas for a password if you want to take advantage of it)
Here's what a typical table at Currency Exchange Cafe looks like. And yes, the chairs are supposed to look like this. Reused materials and all that.
Another thing you'll find in the back area - a fairly extensive "library."
You can read any of those books inside the cafe, but don't even try to leave with them.
Notice all the reused elements
There are also stairs going to a lower level. From what I understand, this is intended as performance/private party area. At the time I was there, it was closed to the public.
Unlike wit Flecks cafe, I actually stuck around a bit and took advantage for a while. I liked the tea - which, as the barista who served me pointed out several times, was cheaper than Starbucks' (and only slightly cheaper than my beloved Argo Tea). I liked the atmosphere and the interior furnishings.
I considered trying some of their food. Currency Exchange Cafe serves breakfast and lunch, and some of the options sound quite appetizing. But the price point scared me off. Unless you like tacos, there isn't anything below $5. Which might not be a big deal for places like the Revival Social Club, but I was under impression that the cafe was aiming for something a bit more affordable.
Maybe next time.
I felt the cafe shortly before closing time (around 4:00 PM). I was originally going to simply head home, but I figured that, so long as I was in Washington Park, I might as well take a look around.
This is what the Art Incubator portion of the building looks like
All along the building, there were signs asking passerbies what kind of "cultural activities" they like. One person decided to answer.
If you can't tell, the comment says "Black ones that are headed by Black people, without Zionist agenda."
Charming.
I kept walking west, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover some lovely murals
A restaurant (with I might have to check out later - a quick search suggests some delicious food on its menu)
And some active businesses
You have to understand - all the other times I've been to Washington Park, the shopping strips I passed trough were in much worse shape. It was nice to discover that the entire neighborhood isn't like this.
At this point, I decided to head back to the 'L' station.
The nearby apartment building
And here's what the building that houses the art incubator and the Currency Exchange Cafe from the other side of the street.
(BTW, phoenix_anew - if any of those photos look even vaguely familiar, it's because most outdoor scenes and exterior shots of the 2007 version of April Fools were filmed in Washington Park.)
Now, the question becomes - will I come back?
I like the cafe. But while it's closer to public transit than Flecks was, it's still considerable distance away from Edgewater. And it doesn't help that Currency Exchange Cafe is really more of a breakfast/lunch place. It closes at 4:00 PM. On weekdays, I would much rather hole up in a cafe that's open longer. Saturdays and Sundays are a different story. I could see myself going over there on Saturday afternoons - if I leave before noon.
I like to think that Currency Exchange Cafe would hang around longer than Flecks did. It's close to public transit. On weekdays, it opens at 7:00 AM - just in time for morning commuters to grab some coffee to go on the way to work. It isn't the most convenient place for that purpose (since it's on the other side of the boulevard from the entrance), but considering that until it opened, there was no way to get coffee anywhere near the station... People might be willing to go out of their way a bit.
One thing I couldn't help but notice while I was there is that the place seems to attract a decent number of young Hyde Parkers. There were some locals as well. Not as many, but some.
I hope that Currency Exchange will be able to attract both the Hyde Park crowd (or all races) and the Washington Parkers. I wouldn't want people who lived on this and other nearby blocks for years to avoid the place just because they feel it isn't for them. It's a good place to have a conversation, their book selection is decent and the coffee really is kind of cheap. Besides, according to the website
The cafe's mission is to provide the neighborhood with new, healthier food options and serve as a safe space and hang-out for the community.
Hyde Park has plenty of spaces that fit the bill already. Washington Park doesn't.
That said, I do find it encouraging that Hyde Parkers are willing to cross the invisible lines just to get some good coffee. Having their spending power on Currency Exchange's side definitely wouldn't hurt.
I hope the cafe will succeed. But I also remember the cheerful crowds at Flecks Coffee, how excited people ere to have it in the neighborhood, how many of them said they will come back again...
I guess all we can do is wait and see.