Noble Tree Shutters; Bow & Truss Roasting Coming

Noble Tree, the grandiose coffee house in a multistory walkup on Clark Street in Lincoln Park, closed earlier this week. Owner Phil Tadros, who also owns Dollop and Kickstand cafes interactive agency Doejo, said the closure was due to much-needed work to the building.

Tadros said the city required the building to install a fire escape, that major work was needed on a pipe in the basement, new air conditioning units needed to be installed and that the landlord wanted to "jack up" his rent so he was, essentially, forced to close. Tadros said the upgrades would have cost him upwards of $50,000 so he decided to close.

"Noble Tree strangely enough was the weakest link I had financially," Tadros said. "I would never have closed it because of that [reason], but when faced with having to put up a lot of money ? as a business it wasn't the best, but it was great."

But Tadros, who is a serial entrepreneur (he partnered with State Farm to open Next Door Cafe in Lakeview last year), is already on to his next project: a roasting works. Tadros partnered with Seth Kravitz, who owns incubator Technori, to open Bow & Truss roasting house.

Tadros said the roastery will open in about a month in the former Doejo headquarters at 2934 N. Broadway. They are awaiting delivery of a Probat roaster and have already established relationships with farmers in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and elsewhere. From this, they also plan to open a number of grab-and-go pour-over coffee shops called P.O.C. and are scouting locations around the city. "There's a lot to learn in regard to roasting," Tadros said, "but the trick is really to buy good quality coffee."

· Next Door Cafe Opening Thursday with Coaching Services [~EChi~]
Noble Tree [Photo: GetawayHostel]

CORRECTION: Eater learned that Tadros had sold Kickstand and Dollop cafes to Dan Weiss, a former equity partner. Weiss now owns and runs both shops while Tadros runs the cafe at Next Door as well as some at Columbia College.