Proposed coffee cafe, creamery at Milwaukee & Menard avenues gets thumbs up from Gladstone Park community

by BRIAN NADIG

The Kind Brew Cafe and Creamery at 5462 N. Milwaukee Ave. was well received at a July 23 community meeting hosted by Alderman James Gardiner (45th).

“I want it,” Gladstone Park resident Peggy Perfect said as she voiced support for the proposal. She said that she’s tired of looking at the vacant bank building on the parcel.

At the end of the hourlong meeting, Gardiner asked if any of the 30 audience members objected to the proposal, and the room was silent. The meeting was held at Gala Banquets, 5639 N. Milwaukee Ave.

“I’m really excited to revamp this property. … It needs a facelift,” said Brandon Grosz, who will be owning and managing the cafe.

“It’s been a dream of mine for a long time (to open a restaurant).”

Plans call for the former bank to be retrofitted into a restaurant.

The project is contingent on the Zoning Board of Appeals issuing a special use for the drive-through. The board acts independent of the City Council.

Even though the bank had a drive-through facility, a special use is required because its intended purpose is changing from a financial institution to an eatery.

The former one-story bank has been unoccupied for about 10 years. At one-time LaSalle Bank had a branch there, prior to being acquired by Bank of America.

Separate plans for a cigar shop and a marijuana dispensary on the site never materialized.

Menard Avenue runs along one side of the triangular-shaped parcel.

Under the proposal, all vehicles would enter the site from Milwaukee Avenue, with those in the parking area exiting onto Menard and those leaving the drive-through exiting back onto Milwaukee. About nine or 10 parking spaces are planned, and there would be room for about eight cars to wait in the drive-through lane.

The brown brick building would be painted white, with murals installed in some areas, and several trees and ornamental fencing would be added to the property, according to project attorney Sara Barnes and project architect Belinda O’Kelly.

A resident raised a concern about the difficulty some customers would have crossing the wide Milwaukee roadway to access the site.

Currently motorists drive “40 mph around us (when trying to walk across Milwaukee) … and give us the finger,” he said.

Barnes said that as part of the special use approval process, the city Department of Transportation must review the proposal, and safety issues will be taken into consideration. On the site itself, there would be several traffic safety enhancements, including raised crosswalks and one-way traffic flow, she said.

Grosz said that the cafe would open at 6 a.m. and close around 10 p.m. in the summer, with 11 p.m. possible on the weekends if the demand is here. It would probably close around 7 or 8 p.m. in the winter, he added.

Employees, expected to be up to six or seven on a shift, would be instructed not to park on Menard, Grosz said in response to a question at the meeting.

When the bank was open, residents struggled to park near their home because bank employees parked on Menard, a resident said.
The cafe plans to serve a variety of baked goods and fresh sandwiches and salads, “no frozen, microwaved breakfast” sandwiches, he said.

There also would be dessert items. “It’s always been a dream of mine to serve frozen custard,” Grosz said.

Both indoor and outdoor seating would be available for patrons, and a bike rack would be installed on the site.

Grosz said that he “loves” to cook and has 17 years experience in the restaurant industry, working for a company that does a variety of financial, accounting and research work for eateries.

Grosz added that he is very familiar with the neighborhood, as his father-in-law lived in Jefferson Park and he lives in adjacent Niles.

The construction phase is expected to take about four months, Grosz said. However, the special use from the zoning board must be issued first, and that hopefully would happen in the early fall, Barnes said.

Also in the area, a construction permit recently was issued for the building of an Andy’s Frozen Custard at 5869 N. Milwaukee Ave., and a permit is pending for a Sprouts grocery store at 6200 W. Higgins Ave.

Grosz did say he’s aware of the planned Andy’s, but that doesn’t alter his plans to feature frozen custard in the evening.

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