This family-owned coffee company does mostly wholesale business these days — its roastery is in Avondale — but the cafe where it all began is still in Edgewater, where it’s been for the past 18 years, and it’s still a friendly place to sit with a laptop or a book or a friend and sip coffee and maybe nibble a pastry (from Phlour) and watch the world go by.

This is a veritable United Nations for coffee. Baristas combine beans from Africa and South and Central America and flavors from India, Turkey, Cuba, and Japan to create some of Chicago’s most unique coffee drinks, some spiked with superfoods to make them even more powerful. The kitchen serves an assortment of sandwiches, pastries, and gluten-free treats. There’s also a Bucktown location.

Osmium Coffee Bar is the Lakeview sibling in the Dark Matter family, which is spread out all over the city. Enjoy some strong coffee in a funky space with neon lights and graffiti-style artwork. There’s also a patio for outdoor sipping. Dark Matter has locations in West Loop, West Town, and Avondale.

Ipsento 606, nestled between Milwaukee Avenue and the 606, is always busy. The enthusiastic energy makes a nice backdrop for enjoying a Nutella or Ipsento latte (the latter made with coconut milk, honey and a sprinkle of cayenne) or a fresh-made mini-doughnut.

Come for Marty McFly's Delorean, stay for the coffee in this cozy Wicker Park space. The Wormhole is a fan favorite, and, like many other fan favorites, it’s spawned a sequel, Wormhole 2 in Bucktown/Logan Square. The daily drink specials on the menu are what makes this coffee house stand out.

This Oakland, California, import is paradise for the sort of coffee nerd who cares about where their coffee comes from and how it’s roasted. Its sustainable practices are comforting to the sort of person who worries obsessively about what their daily coffee habit is doing to the planet. And the coffee itself is exceptionally delicious.

Metric Coffee opened its first cafe in 2016 at its West Town roastery, where it serves coffee brewed from freshly roasted beans and doughnuts from Brite. There are only a few seats indoors, but during warmer months customers can sit at sidewalk tables. The cafe gives baristas a chance to serve experimental drinks that other cafes don’t have. 

Sawada, the tiny spot tucked inside Green Street Smoked Meats, is evidence of Hogsalt Hospitality’s commitment to coffee: Hogsalt brought in famed latte artist Hiroshi Sawada, who runs a few coffee shops in Japan, and his unique military latte mixes green tea and vanilla syrup into a wonderful concoction that will leave patrons buzzed.

You won’t be able to grab a weekday morning cup of coffee at this cafe attached to HaiSous — it’s only open in the evening and for weekend brunch — but if you go, you will have the advantage of enjoying chef Thai Dang’s chicken wings, fries, and waffles. The coffee is also “Dang Good,” brewed Vietnamese-style and served with a truly decadent cap of egg custard.

A Pilsen standard for more than two decades, Cafe Jumping Bean has become a community hub and now has a second location a few blocks west on Damen Avenue. In addition to coffee, including the house special “Screaming Bean,” the cafe serves a limited menu of sandwiches and salads.

This neighborhood cafe grinds out some of the city's best coffee using beans procured from across the world, which it sells by the pound. There’s a second location in the Hyde Park Art Center.

This European-style cafe on the University of Chicago campus features a full assortment of coffee drinks and pastries, plus breakfast, lunch, and wine. It's a collaboration between Kevin Heisner (Heisler Hospitality) and former Little Branch partner Soo Choi. The patio affords nice views of the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House.

Build Coffee serves as an informal community center in Woodlawn and a gathering place for the journalists and nonprofit workers whose offices are nearby. It serves java from HalfWit and pies from Justice of the Pies, and hosts performances, gallery shows, local group meetings, and other projects. And, if all this weren’t enough, it’s also a used bookstore.

Located across the street from the South Shore Cultural Center and just a few blocks from Lake Michigan, South Shore Brew is a bright, sunny space that serves up a solid menu of coffee drinks, including the surprisingly good coffee lemonade, as well as oatmeal and panini sandwiches.

Afro Joe’s opened up last year in Auburn Gresham and sells its own special coffee blends, named for important Black Chicagoans like Harold Washington and Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. There’s also a full cafe menu, a rotating assortment of seasonal sandwiches (including the popular short rib grilled cheese), and special pastries called Afro Puffs.