Eleven months after announcing it was breaking ground in the Windy City, Colectivo opened its first location in Chicago today at 6 a.m., at 2530 N. Clark St. in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
The 1,800-square-foot cafe is located in a former Einstein’s Bagels, just a short walk from the park itself.
A parking lot has been converted to a patio, and there’s a firepit like the one at the 68th Street location in Tosa. Heaters have been installed to create a year-round outdoor area.
Much like the cafes here, the Lincoln Park location will serve coffee drinks, sandwiches, salads, Letterbox tea, Troubadour Bakery items, bulk coffees and beer.
The Colectivo opens daily at 6 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, then an hour later on Fridays and Saturdays.
Colectivo is also planning a Logan Square cafe, slated to open in October, with yet another location in the works. So stay tuned for announcement on that.
Chicago Eater has a good collection of photos taken just before the Colectivo cafe opening, and here’s what DNAinfo, Time Out Chicago and The Trib are saying about the Milwaukee coffee roaster's debut.
In March, Stone Creek announced it, too, will move into the Chicago market. The 2,000-square-foot location will be at 945 W. Belmont Ave., at Sheffield, in Lakeview, underneath the el and just around the corner from The Vic Theater.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
