Caffeine was never so convenient. Three mobile coffee vendors ply the area’s sidewalks, parks, parking spaces and block parties.
The 22 Coffee Buggy can be found at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and makes regular stops during the week at the main branch of the Oak Park Public Library and the Green Line stop at Ridgeland Avenue.
Owner Belinda Carucci had a shop in the city but shut it down during Covid. While visiting her son, who was studying abroad in Italy, inspiration struck. “Their coffee bars, I loved the way they were doing it. It’s a culture.” she said.
Back in town she started planning. First was to be sure that the village would license a cart like hers. Then she found the trailer she wanted, which was built overseas though she did the interior design herself. The business was ready to roll on Memorial Day 2023.
Stocked with Italian Lavazza brand coffee, Carucci serves a variety of espresso drinks, with decaf and milk options. A specialty is the Sweet Mary: condensed milk, steamed milk and espresso. For non-coffee drinkers there is cioccolato (hot chocolate) and a select variety of canned beverages.
Carucci says the nicest thing is when, “a whole group of people are drinking coffee and chatting. It’s just the best. Coffee and community go together.”
Spoke Cafe was a step up from the lemonade stands of Alec Olson’s youth. Four years ago, he noticed the popularity of nitro cold brew coffee at his dad’s office. His parents are his partners, but he does the brewing and selling. The OPRF high school junior often gets up at 4:30 a.m. to prep.
The beans for his exclusive Bicycle Blend Coffee are roasted at Whirlwind Coffee on Madison Street. And Olson sells bean subscriptions, donating 20% from each bag sold to Beyond Hunger.
The pedal-powered cart was crafted by the Oregon-based Icicle Tricycle company. It has two taps: one for coffee and the other for root beer. In the warmer months, Olson brings ice cream along to make coffee and root beer floats.
Olson will ride the bike up to 15 miles on weekends moving from block party to block party. He also stops at Dominican University’s Wednesday concert series. For booked events further away, Olson wheels the cart into his family’s van for quicker transit.
“I am not going to college on Spoke money,” Olson said, “As an employee I do pretty well. As an investor, we’re almost there. We should get the cart paid off this summer. But I am for sure having a lot of fun.”
Zemi Coffee Cart is owned and operated by Dominique Betancourt. In 2023 she started making coffee in her garage for neighbors. Her idea was to bring the culture and coffee of Puerto Rico to the area. With a generational connection to the island, Betancourt searched for her ideal coffee bean sourced on the island. She taste-tested 25 farms before she found the one she wanted.
Her next step was to invest in a cart that could move the coffee around. She sourced the electric assisted bike-cart combo from a company in California called Ferla.
Zemi’s specialty is, “a Latin cafe con leche. So, basically steamed milk and I put a little different spin on it with the skadoosh of vanilla,” Betancourt said. She also serves a range of drip and espresso drinks, as well as coco rico (hot chocolate) for the kids and kids-at-heart. A range of milk options and other cold drinks are on the cart as well.
Zemi Coffee Cart can be found Monday-Friday on East Avenue by Rehm Park and on the weekends at block parties and other events. The cart can be booked for events on her website.
More Info:
the22coffeebuggy.com
spoke.cafe
zemicoffeecart.com