Inside Stax Cafe, Bringing River West a Brunch Patio Next Week

The second location of Stax Cafe, a Taylor Street breakfast favorite for eight years, opens on Tuesday at the intersection of Milwaukee, Grand, and Halsted with a pie-shaped patio that redefines the West Town block. It’ll serve pancakes, juices, and cocktails in the mornings and afternoons as owner Spiro Tsaldaris imagines weekend customers soaking up sunshine on the patio holding cocktails made by his wife, Heather.

Tuesday’s a try out, Tsaldaris warns. They’ll have regular hours on Wednesday when all systems will be go. They’ve brought back some design elements from Taylor Street including lots of orange and the overhead grid. There’s nothing to the color scheme, Tsaldaris said, it just worked out over the last eight years and they’ll keep it the same.

There’s room for 139 people inside with 43 on the patio. There’s also an eight-seat counter where customers can watch staff make fresh-squeezed juices, coffee drinks, and cocktails. Take a tour through the space below. Stax Cafe opens on Tuesday at 522 N. Milwaukee Avenue.