Kafein

Located just two blocks from the Northwestern campus, Kaféin (pronounced like caffine, get it?) resides in an area of Evanston heavily saturated in cafés.  There seemingly exists one coffee house for every ten people on the street, making it my kind of neighborhood.  Yet Kaféin has carved out a loyal niche following thanks to its ambiance and attitude.

Some cafés strive to be light bright morning joints.  Others aim to be hip, smooth and trendy. Kaféin marches to a beat all its own.  The mood is dim but hardly subdued.  The store is a constant buzz of staff and customers and hip underground music.  This is not the café to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee and leaf through the morning paper. Kaféin embraces the philosophy of the third spot, a place other than home or work to meet and socialize.  Socialize or collaborate, there is never a shortage of backpacks, textbooks, and laptops out on the tables.  Rest assured, there is enough power outages and free WiFi for every one.

The menu offerings highlight the dichotomy that exists within Kaféin.  In one world, the café is a hangout perfect for meeting up with friends, snagging a comfy corner couch and enjoying an Evanston evening.  For this world the menu offers a variety of sweets, smoothies, milkshakes, pies, and cakes.  Perhaps the most popular items on the menu come from the list of various flavored mochas and chais too numerous to get into.  The menu even offers up a pot brownie, but under price the marijuana chocolate brick retails for “if only”.

The second world has serious business to accomplish; midterms, internship applications, GRE cramming.  For this world Kaféin offers it’s own version of privacy.  Order a drink and nab a corner table, a study lamp, and menu items such as the Dumb Ass, which is simply 4 shots of espresso. There is still going to be an assault of alt./funk/house/hipster music, but if you look busy and focused the wait staff will leave you alone until you’re ready to check out. Cheers and solidarity to the all-nighter crew.

The décor of Kaféin is meant to conjure up a natural vibe.  Wooden chairs and tables fill the dining area.  The heart of the store is centered around a converted church pew used as interior booths to further Kaféin’s untraditional appeal.  Thick red drapes and faux fire lamps adorn the widows and walls while paperback books on philosophy and poetry line the mantel of the decommissioned fireplace.

There is a humor in every aspect of the presentation of Kaféin.  Above the front window are posters depicting coffee in syringes and being cooked on spoons, a tongue-in-cheek homage to the addictive substance that we all adore.  Recreations of Italian masterpieces are painted on the wall, but there are little twists to each one.  For example, in Kaféin’s Mona Lisa, the lady in question is holding an espresso mug beneath her folded arms.  Perhaps that is what she is smiling about?  There are even decoy false restroom doors that lead nowhere, designed to embarrass the first timers, which admittedly I fell for my first time in the store.

The menu itself illustrates the playfully combative relationship Kaféin has with its customers.  In addition to the pot brownie and procrastination critical beverages, the menu also list such items as the Jack Ass which is described as “not ordering anything” as well as the Loud Ass which is the something only on a cell phone.  Those items retail at $2 and $4 respectively.

Prices at Kaféin are fair.  Food options range from $4 for a simple PB&J to $8 for a three meat melt.  Vegan options and salads are available.  Desserts are priced from a Big Ass Cookie at $1.45 to pies and cakes up to $4.  Coffee is bottomless for as long as you’re in the store.  It’s served to you diner style in a mug, with the wait staff making semi-frequent rounds to refill cups.  A cup of java isn’t the focus of the café, and it shows in the quality.  The price is right for the quantity/quality ratio, but the brew can be stale by the time it makes it your table.  Lattés and mochas run from $3.50-$4.65 and come in more flavors than you could ever hope to try.

Kaféin is unmistakably a college hangout.  The place doesn’t even open until 11am, but remains open until 1am weekdays and 2am on the weekends.  Catering and call ahead are both options.  And Monday nights are open-mic nights.

A single criticism of the café could easily be that it tries too hard to appear nonchalant and cool.  In doing so it takes on the form of a cliché 90’s style college café.  Yet, no one ever said that was a bad thing.  Kaféin is still fun, reasonably priced, and a great place to meet up and hang out with friends.

Author Extras
To find more articles by James Stoker, check out his page on the WilmettePatch.com that archives his weekly columns.

Website
None to be found. But for location: 1621 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL 60201-4504
(847) 491-1621

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