Drive-through coffee restaurant planned for Cicero-Berteau lot

by BRIAN NADIG

A coffee-focused restaurant with a drive-through facility has been proposed for the site of a parking lot at the northeast corner of Cicero and Berteau avenues.

Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh said that project officials have requested that the name of the restaurant not be released until a community meeting on the proposal which Arena is holding at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 26, in the club room at the Kilpatrick Renaissance, 4655 W. Berteau Ave.

Currently the site is used as an auxiliary parking lot for the Family Fruit grocery store, 4118 N. Cicero Ave. Plans call for the parking lot, whose address is 4151 N. Cicero Ave., to be rezoned from RS-3, which is intended primarily for the construction of single-family homes and two-flats, to B1-1, which allows a variety of retail uses.

In the late 2000s Starbucks Coffee announced plans to open a restaurant on Cicero in the area, but project officials withdrew the proposal at a public hearing on the plan. At the time Starbucks reportedly was scaling back the company’s expansion plans.