SOUTH SHORE — A new café and neighborhood gathering spot with plans to give back to the community through giveaways and scholarships is set to open on 79th Street in the coming weeks.
Urban Luxe Café, 2911 E. 79th St. in South Shore, will feature coffee and “heavy bites” like breaded oysters, egg rolls and personal pizzas that start at $10.99. Sandwiches also start at $10.99 and include the “grown folk PB&J” and a plant-based chicken patty.
There will also be about 20 coffee drinks available starting at $2.99, as well as a lineup of premium ice cream flavors chosen by supporters through a social media “battle” and freshly made seasoned popcorn, said cafe owner Dwan “Dee” Martin. For a full menu, click here.
The café can help “create something good and new — something a little bit different” on the Nine, said Martin, a Woodlawn resident.
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club ChicagoThe lounge area at Urban Luxe Café, which features portraits of famed Chicagoans like Bernie Mac, Common, Chance the Rapper and Donny Hathaway.
Urban Luxe Café features a stage in the main dining area for open mics, performances and other events for local artists to show off their skills.
There’s also a community space in the back for “curated café” events, where an exhibit with displays, demonstrations and discussions on the rich history of Black tea culture will be among the initial draws, Martin said.
Gallery exhibitions, neighborhood meetings and intimate performances could also take place in the curated café area. The space is already booked every week from the shop’s opening through December, Martin said.
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club ChicagoDwan “Dee” Martin poses next to the Urban Luxe Café sign in the shop’s lounge.
Martin, who also runs the Urban Luxe Salon at 6848 S. Ashland Ave. in Englewood, plans to recreate the salon’s community initiatives in South Shore.
“With my salons, I have what’s called the Urban Luxe Cares Initiative,” Martin said. “Quarterly, we usually do something for the community over there in Englewood [with giveaways and music and] I’ll be bringing those same practices over here.”
Unique to the café will be an annual scholarship fund, awarded to two high school seniors each year who are pursuing a business major at a four-year university. Recipients must show they’ve “gone above and beyond” in serving their community, Martin said.
The café is still navigating the city’s licensing process, but hopes to have all approvals in hand and open by Sept. 1, Martin said. A private ribbon cutting takes place next month, and a public grand opening will be held once she gets a license to open, she said.
The café will neighbor the Thrive Exchange development, a $100 million Invest South/West project that’s set to bring 76 apartments and 24 condos to 79th Street and Exchange Avenue.
Credit: Dwan "Dee" MartinThe exterior of Urban Luxe Café, 2911 E. 79th St. in South Shore.
Martin “knew nothing” about the development when she bought the property in 2020, but is excited for the “influx of new neighbors” it’s likely to draw to the quiet stretch of 79th Street.
She also wants to continue connecting with existing businesses and residents, like she has with Dionis Harvey at Chicago BodyShop down the street at 2049 E. 79th St.
“I’m not necessarily trying to completely change South Shore, but I want to bring something else to the neighborhood,” Martin said.
Urban Luxe Café received a $154,200 Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grant from the city in 2021. With construction complete aside from air-conditioning installation, Martin is on the “tail end” of the grant process, as she’s received all but a third and final reimbursement, she said.
A city inspector assigned Martin, who had never seen “Barbershop” before, to watch it as “homework” before opening the café, she said. She will consider naming a sandwich after the movie or finding some other small way to honor it, she said.
The property includes vacant apartments on the upper floors. There’s no timeline for renovating the apartments, as opening the café is Martin’s priority, she said.
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The days are numbered for The Yard at Wilton Manors, home to The Alchemist Cafe and other eateries, at least as it lingers in your memory: the welcoming ramshacklery and coffee-scented authenticity that has defined many a languorous weekend morning that became afternoon.
Sequestered off Northeast 13th Avenue, an unremarkable side street near busy Five Points, The Alchemist and its neighbors at The Yard are not just a hidden gem, but perhapsthehidden gem in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Now is not the time for a eulogy for The Yard, but a call to enjoy this distinctive space while we may.
Within 10 months, a developer expects to demolish the property to make way for a six-story residential project that will include 190 apartments and a parking garage for more than 300 vehicles, as well as a dog park, about 8,500 square feet of retail-restaurant space and a public terrace.
Called Generation Wilton Manors, the 3.5-acre development by Bal Harbour-based Kaplan Residential will cover The Yard, an adjacent former lumber yard and several properties just south of The Yard on Northeast 24 Street. The project is in the last stages of approval, with a final vote by the city commission likely on Aug. 22.
Kaplan Residential president Morris Kaplan calls the project a “labor of love” and has pledged to try to recreate the atmosphere of The Yard at Generation Wilton Manors. He has invited The Yard’s three restaurants — The Alchemist, La Mexicana Taco Bar and Voo La Voo Café — to reopen in the new buildings.
Kaplan said he first visited The Yard while scouting locations for the project in Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale about five years ago.
“I was very impressed. It was very bohemian, an eclectic, cool place, the way people are just hanging out. It’s something, that vibe, you really don’t see anyplace else,” he said.
Kaplan said he has more recently toured the property with project consultants and told them: “When we rebuild, let’s try our best to replicate this as best we can.”
Fans of The Yard are not convinced it is possible to revive such an organic environment — The Yard literally began as a plant nursery — within the steel-and-glass bubble of a modern residential development.
“We’ll see, but you’d have to be pretty skeptical,” said Jane Darrow, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, seated outside The Alchemist recently. “This is such a special place, warts and all.”
Kaitlyn Berry, a 19-year-old college student from Fort Lauderdale, said she discovered The Alchemist on Pinterest and Instagram in middle school and encouraged her mom to take a gang of her friends there.
“It’s so sad. It’s a condo buying what’s a Fort Lauderdale staple, you know?” Berry said, seated in front of a Nutella Slicer, one of The Alchemist’s signature, open-faced sandwiches. It’s the same thing she’s ordered since seventh grade.
‘It’s magical’
Carlos Cruz, a managing partner at The Alchemist, said he and business partner Bruce Brill are planning to make the move to the new building. But he does have deep affection for the quirky space the restaurant has occupied for more than a decade, its former life as a brick and paver shop illustrated on the uneven, mismatched floor.
The magic is in the imperfections, Cruz said.
“Everybody has the same reaction. First timers, they come in here and they say, ‘Oh, my god, this is beautiful.’ Maybe they are expecting glass and steel, like Starbucks. They say, ‘This reminds me of Montana. This reminds me of Switzerland.’ Everywhere there is a corner in here that will remind these people of places they came from. It’s amazing. It’s magical,” Cruz said.
Carlos Cruz, a managing partner at The Alchemist in Wilton Manors, says the beloved restaurant will reopen in a new residential development planned for the site. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Cruz fell under its spell six years ago, when he visited while on hiatus from his job as a TV producer for Telemundo. He soon was asking Brill if he wanted a partner.
“It reminds me a lot of Puerto Rico. I grew up in places like this, all broken down. It was Puerto Rico for me,” Cruz said.
With an eye for set design, Cruz is planning to salvage many of the elements that give The Alchemist its signature warmth, especially the sections of old wood that line the walls, to decorate the new restaurant.
The Alchemist Café is beloved for its coffee and a relaxing vibe. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Cruz is hoping to keep The Alchemist open, even during construction, by temporarily moving the operation to a small house on the southeast corner of the property, augmented by a food truck. Kaplan acknowledged that option is under discussion.
Conversations with customers about the changes coming to The Alchemist are emotional, Cruz admitted.
“They get mad. They get frustrated,” he said. “But they are so happy when they know that we are not going anywhere.”
La Mexicana Taco Bar owner Diva Namé acknowledges that her customers are “extremely sad” about changes coming to The Yard at Wilton Manors. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The owner of La Mexicana Taco Bar, Diva Namé, is sanguine about leaving the building. The property was in need of frequent repair — Kaplan recently reroofed the building and repaired the sign out front that was damaged by storms — so she’s looking forward to being in a new space.
Namé was one of the first retail tenants at The Yard, running a juice bar before expanding into an adjoining space and opening a restaurant dedicated to the Mexican cuisine she loved while working in the industry in New York. (Namé was raised in Colombia by a Jewish father and Lebanese mother.)
She is hopeful that La Mexicana will have a home in Generation Wilton Manors, but also is working to create a second location nearby that would be open before she has to vacate The Yard. Namé shares her customers’ regrets about losing “the experience” of The Yard as it exists today.
“Definitely they are extremely sad. There is people that have been coming here for years,” she said. “We’ve been trying to explain to people that … the project is going to be good. That they can come back when the project is done. But at the end, of course, it’s going to be different.”
The influence of Frida Kahlo can be found both inside and out at La Mexicana Taco Bar in The Yard at Wilton Manors. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
‘We like to explore’
The Yard was created in 2012, then known as Eucalyptus Gardens, with remnants of that history seen as an umbrella-lined asphalt walkway, undulating over tree roots, gives way to a gravel path where overhead garden lights become more sparse.
Many visitors to The Yard do not venture to the back of the property, which is a shame. Along the path is a rustic enclosure for Doris the tortoise and Lola’s Market, a weekends-only indoor shopping maze of nostalgic home goods, fashion items and thoughtfully curated kitsch.
The path ends at an abandoned, roofless concrete structure covered in murals, including one depicting the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims. Other prominent murals honor the LGBT community and Deputy Shannon Bennett, a gay deputy in the Broward County Sheriff’s Office who died in the early days of COVID.
A path leads to the back of The Yard, where an abandoned building is decorated with murals. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Calling the works “important to the community,” Kaplan has pledged to preserve them for display at Generation Wilton Manors. The most likely scenario, he said, includes creating large digital images of the murals that would be transferred onto new walls on the site.
Taking selfies toward the back of the property, Tanha Fiza, 19, of Coral Springs, said she and best friend Manar Elsayed came to The Alchemist after seeing pictures in friends’ Instagram stories.
“We like to explore. We liked the aesthetic of it as well, how they decorated it and everything. I thought it was really cool,” Fiza said. “The food is good, too. I really liked the coffee.”
Fiza was disappointed to learn The Yard would be torn down and plans to return before that happens.
“People who enjoy coming to The Alchemist, the food, the vibe, the happiness they get coming here, it’s all gonna be gone,” she said. “You just see buildings everywhere [in South Florida], so it’s nice to be able to come to a place, cute places like this, that you want to come and explore. There’s not many like that.”
A few steps away, a mural that Namé painted on the side of La Mexicana a few years ago displays words from artist Frida Kahlo: “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”
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A 45-seat all-day restaurant that morphs from a morning cafe to an evening dining spot with a five-seat chef’s counter is coming this fall to West Town. Nettare will channel Italian and Mediterranean influences through a Midwestern perspective. This ode to Great Lakes farming should open in late September or early October in West Town.
Conner O’Byrne is a first-time restaurant owner and a veteran bartender who’s worked at Cassati’s in Lincoln Park, Publican, and La Josie in West Loop. He and executive chef John Dahlstrom will work in tandem to feature and cross-utilize the most local, of-the-season ingredients from game birds and stone fruit to whiskeys and liqueurs. The restaurant’s name, also the Italian word for nectar is meant to invoke “ambrosia, a wholesome and positive feeling,” O’Byrne says. “We’re not doing health food by any standard, but [rather], whole foods done fresh and well.”
Italian and Mediterranean cuisine work well in the Midwest as restaurants like Rose Mary and Daisies have proved in recent years. However, O’Byrne believes the restaurant world’s fixation on seasonality and regionality never quite took root in the bar industry (excluding the beer world) which is understandable given that many bar products are shelf-stable. But that means that customers don’t necessarily know regionally grown spirits, even as independent producers like Chicago’s Judson & Moore Distillery and Minnesota’s Far North Spirits are embracing the wine-associated notion of terroir. Both drink and food menus are not yet finalized, but Nettare’s Midwestern ethos could manifest in options like Corn & Whiskey, made with a tea of steeped corn husks, and A Dirty Martini with potato vodka and pickle brine.
Dahlstrom, previously of BLVD Steakhouse and Table, Donkey, and Stick, met O’Byrne “the old-fashioned way” — that is to say, through an online job posting. Dahlstrom recently returned from a stint as chef de cuisine at Brush Creek Ranch resort in Wyoming, and the pair hit it off immediately over their shared interest in local agriculture. “I’m a Midwestern guy, so one of the things [O’Byrne] originally liked were the relationships I have with a lot of farmers,” Dahlstrom says. “I’ve been fortunate to cultivate those connections throughout my time [in Chicago] with the wonderful people I’ve worked under, and to spread the wealth of their knowledge.”
Design to accompany cocktails rather than follow them, the dinner menu will include a selection of composed dishes starring Midwestern fruits, vegetables, game meats, and fish alongside a lineup of snacks and charcuterie — think fried giardiniera sticks and local smelts that Dahlstrom brines and marinates like boquerones to be served with focaccia. O’Byrne had originally floated the idea of Spanish anchovies and lit the spark that would become Dahlstrom’s regional smelt twist. “That exemplifies what we’re shooting for,” says Dahlstrom. “There’s a lot of collaboration and conversation around food and drink.”
A Florida native, O’Byrne and his family first conceived the business during the early pandemic in 2020, evolving it over time from a retail-focused spot to a restaurant and adjoining market. Workers entirely gutted the space, previously home to 8-year-old Italian restaurant Trattoria Ultimo, 1953 W. Chicago Avenue, to create a sunny dining room designed by Project Interiors (also behind the design at Billy Dec’s Underground Cocktail Club in River North).
Inspired by a courtyard, the space includes three large skylights embedded in 12-foot ceilings, as well as an open kitchen and a five-seat chef’s counter where patrons can score special off-the-menu dishes. Wood paneling and lime-washed brick walls, along with an abundance of greenery, unite the dining room with the adjacent 400-square-foot market with a handful of seats and daytime grab-and-go counter service for pastries, cups of coffee, and tea from Rare Tea Cellar.
Stay tuned for more details as the project progresses.
Nettare, 1953 W. Chicago Avenue, Scheduled to open in late September or early October.
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The Tate Modern cafe has been given a makeover courtesy of London architecture studio Holland Harvey. The much loved gallery always had a hospitality space on its ground level, yet changing needs and several years in operation, meant the popular northwest corner interior was in need of a refresh. Enter the practice led by Richard Holland and Jonathan Harvey, and now the reimagined cafe has just opened its doors looking better than ever, filled with minimalist touches and sustainable architecture elements.
(Image credit: Jack Hobhouse)
The Tate Modern cafe reimagined
Fittingly named 'Corner', the new Tate Modern cafe (commissioned by Tate Enterprises) is a bustling all day cafe and bar area, used by staff and visitors during the day, as well as special events and late-nights as part of the gallery's busy programme. As a result, this needed to be an interior with some inherent multi-taking, able to shapeshift and transform from a day to an evening venue, catering for anything from meetings, eating, coffee, bar and bigger parties.
(Image credit: Jack Hobhouse)
The answer was in the creation of a series of bespoke elements and 'zones' or 'neighbourhoods', as Holland Harvey stripped back the space and fitted it with a variety of furniture - some loose and some built in, to ensure different needs are covered. Specially made pieces by Goldfinger meet tabletops created by Spared reusing Tate Coffee grounds, and lighting design by There’s Light. There is even a loosely circular bench area whose seats can be lifted using a mechanical system to transform it into a DJ booth.
(Image credit: Jack Hobhouse)
'Tate Eats and Holland Harvey worked closely over the past 18 months to deliver Corner. Conceived as an extension of the public realm, the design seeks to be inclusive, functional, and beautiful – welcoming and accessible to all,' says Jonathan Harvey.
An all-day cafe from the folks behind Moonshot Coffee, Burien Press, and local online-only beverage shop Plants & Animals is hosting its grand opening this weekend in Beacon Hill. Fable has taken over the space formerly home to natural wine nook Petite Soif, and owner Matthew Wendland says they intend for Fable to be something of a spiritual successor to the shop and wine bar. “We kept a lot of elements from Petite Soif,” including a focus on natural wines and a “light and bright” food menu.
Petite Soif, which was from the same folks behind former Fremont wine shop and cafe Vif, closed in May of 2022, and since then the neighborhood has eagerly anticipated Fable’s arrival.
The menu at the cafe will include focaccia sandwiches, Puget Sound oysters, salmon tartine, and a shrimp cocktail, along with classic breakfast items like waffles and a frittata. The food is a reflection of his kitchen team, says Wendland, and the heavy seafood influence was contributed by a team member who spent his childhood shucking oysters on the East Coast with his dad. Likewise, a house-made banana ketchup made its way into the shrimp cocktail thanks to a Filipino chef who grew up in Beacon Hill eating the condiment.
Fable will serve Olympia coffee, along with other caffeinated options like a regionally produced chai tea blend, and will have somewhere around 120 bottles available for purchase in addition to glass pours. The wines all fall under the slightly amorphous category of natural, which Wendland says means to him, “at a minimum,” organically farmed.
The spotlight won’t only be on the wine, however, and Wendland is also excited about the beer selection, which will emphasize sours, saisons, and farmhouse ales from brewers like Ravenna and Fair Isle.
Fable is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and Wendland says they eventually plan to expand to limited hours on Sunday and Monday.
Located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Café House takes inspiration from the red earth and twisted trees of the surrounding landscape. Designed by Carlos Maia, Débora Mendes and Igor Macedo of Tetro Architects, this new private home makes an explicit connection between the social role of coffee and how the drink can be ‘an invitation to a long conversation.’
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
Café House: an interpretation of its context
The architects describe the single-storey house as an interpetation of its context. Set into a sloping site, the house comprises of two pavilion structures separated by an internal courtyard and surrounded by thick pigmented concrete walls. ‘We asked ourselves how we could make a project that represents in its concepts, subjectively, the characteristics of coffee,’ Tetro writes, pointing out that the quality of the drink is hugely dependent on the location and quality of the soil, as well as the impact of coffee’s scent.
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
‘In this sense, earth and air were the great inspirations,’ say the architects, who have translated these elements into an exploration of weight and lightness. The contrast is evident in the thick, earth-coloured concrete walls that flank the structure, uniting the interior and exterior spaces and drawing a direct connection to the land.
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
These are paired with the structural lightness of the roofs, shallow curved slabs of white concrete that oversail the two pavilion structures. ‘They are like two sheets of paper resting on the walls that seem to sprout from the ground,’ says Tetro.
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
Inside, each pavilion is defined by its use, one social, one intimate. The latter is at the upper end of the site and contains three modest bedrooms alongside the carport. The entrance takes you past the bedrooms, before turning through 90 degrees down a flight of stairs and through an ‘earthern corridor’ that leads through to the ‘social’ space and a distinct change of atmosphere.
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
The open-plan social space contains kitchen, dining and living areas and a glazed wall opening out onto a south-facing terrace. The house’s elevation creates an unbroken view across the landscape. Between the pavilions is an internal courtyard, a stepped garden containing one of several existing trees that have been preserved and incorporated into the scheme.
(Image credit: Luisa Lage)
‘The Café House project sought to understand how architecture can, through poetic language, make connections between residents and the house and create symbols that refer to the culture of the place or the people who will inhabit the space,’ Maia, Mendes and Macedo conclude.
Betty’s Beach Café. PC: Hawaiʻi Department of Health
A red “Closed” placard was issued to a café in Lahaina following a complaint and routine follow-up inspection conducted on July 27, 2023 for a cockroach infestation.
The restaurant, Betty’s Beach Café, located at 505 Front Street, #120, Lahaina, is operated by J. Group Corp.
The placard was issued by the Hawai‘i Department of Health’s Maui Food Safety Branch on Thursday, and the restaurant was immediately shut down.
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The branch received an anonymous complaint and an initial inspection was conducted on July 25, 2023. During the inspection, cockroach activity was observed within the front bar; however, some areas behind the kitchen equipment could not be accessed. Several other critical violations were observed; therefore, a yellow “Conditional Pass” placard was posted at that time.
During a follow-up inspection on July 27, 2023, an active cockroach infestation along with several active harborage areas was observed. Department officials say both juvenile and adult cockroach activity was observed within refrigeration units and on and around various food contact surfaces. It was determined to close the restaurant to protect public health.
DOH is requiring the food establishment to take the following corrective actions before it will be allowed to reopen:
Contact a professional pest control company and discuss an aggressive cockroach treatment and monitoring plan to eradicate the active roach population.
Seal all cracks and openings in the walls to prevent future pest entryways.
Clean and remove all grease and food debris throughout the kitchen and bar areas.
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A follow-up inspection is scheduled for July 31, 2023.
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago
Credit: Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago
Credit: Dwan "Dee" Martin
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