Life in the Burbs

A new interview series, where to get mocktails, new restaurants, and upcoming events

Author

Joe Arendt
January 09, 2025

Morning, it’s Burbs Explored, your trusted guide for exploring and living well in the Chicago suburbs. We hope everyone is settling back in to their normal routine and staying warm during this bitter cold stretch of January.

Heads up, we have two updates to the newsletter this week. Weekend Routine will transition to the Weekly Spotlight (details below) and we are launching a new interview series, Life in the Burbs, which will rotate in with our featured guides. As always, please share any feedback and local recommendations!

Weekly Spotlight: Mocktails

Each week we pick a theme and highlight three places (one from each suburbs region; North Shore, Northwest Suburbs, Western Suburbs) that we think are great.

Hampton Social’s The Boathouse Spice

As more and more people start the year with Dry January (or at least attempt it), we are highlighting a few spots to get tasty mocktails across the suburbs. Check out the places below and let us know your favorites!

  • Spirit Elephant (Winnetka): The award-winning plant based restaurant and bar is known for their delicious vegan food, but also makes fantastic zero proof cocktails like the Lemon Ginger Boost and Pom-Cran Spritz.

  • The Hampton Social (South Barrington, Skokie, Burr Ridge): The popular coastal-themed restaurant with locations across Chicagoland is a great place to escape the winter weather and enjoy a tasty mocktail, including several options made with Ritual’s zero proof spirits.

  • Barrel + Rye (Geneva): One of our favorite places to grab a cocktail also happens to make well-crafted mocktails. Their current spirit free menu includes Some Like It Hot (cardamom, hot chocolate, smoked chipotle peppers, toasted marshmallows), Herb Today, Tarragon Tomorrow (tarragon shrub, pom juice, jalapeno, elderflower tonic, lemon, honey powder rim) and a non-alcoholic Sangria (cranberry compote, cinnamon syrup, lemon, vanilla, orange juice, sangria señorial soda).

News & Updates

  • Ballyhoo Hospitality will be opening two new restaurants in Glenview - Jackman & Co., a European Gastropub and Zenzi Den, a Japanese restaurant (link)

  • Tangled Roots Craft Beer & Kitchen will open their South Barrington location on January 22nd (link)

  • Common Good Cocktails is giving their staff a well deserved break to start the year, but while off their beverage director and co-owner Chad Hauge will be hanging around to offer a unique omakase-style experience on Jan 10-11 (link)

  • The popular Venezuelan spot, La Cocinita, is getting close to opening their new and bigger space in Evanston (link)

  • Chicago Restaurant Week is will run from January 24th through February 9th and several of our favorite spots in the burbs will be participating. Stay tuned for our recommendations next week (link)

  • A good reminder why we all love the suburbs - Chicago has been named the 3rd most congested city in the world (2nd most in the country) and home to 5 of the top 10 most congested roads in the country according to INRIX 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard (link)

Life in the Burbs: Tala Coffee Co-Founder

Life in the Burbs is an ongoing interview series where we profile local entrepreneurs and tastemakers from the Chicago suburbs, having them share their favorite places to eat, drink, shop, and play. Want to be featured or know someone we should chat with? Reply to this email or contact us here.

Tala Coffee’s Libertyville Location

Tell us about yourself:

I'm Joanna Tong, one of the co-owners at Tala Coffee Roasters. I grew up in Minnesota, and came to the Chicago area for school. I fully intended to move back home, but my husband and I were invited to start a coffee company, and well, here we are eight years later. We launched Tala with two of our friends as just a roastery, and opened our first cafe in Highwood a year later. Last year, we opened two more cafes: one in Libertyville (adjoined to our roastery), and one in Winnetka.

What town do you live in?

Grayslake

What are your favorite restaurants in the suburbs?

With pretty severe dietary restrictions, I don't end up eating out often, but my husband and I have the usuals we love to hit up. For a quick dinner or lunch our go-to is always The Other Door in Lake Bluff (you have to try their crispy tacos). For a date night or nicer occasion we have loved The Spirit Elephant in Winnetka--a fully plant-based restaurant, with plenty of GF options that make it extremely easy for anyone to dine there. Our favorite place to meet up with friends is Milwalky Taco in Libertyville, which has incredible tacos and a killer drink menu.

My go-to breakfast place has always been Egg Harbor Cafe (which is plenty delicious), but with the new opening of the Elawa Farm Cafe, that's about to change! Their beautiful cafe serves locally grown food, and (bonus!) serves our coffee.

Any favorite events you like to attend?

Since our first cafe was opened in Highwood, we have been most plugged in there over the years. Highwood celebrates what feels like every weekend across the year with festivals and markets and exciting things all the time, so we find ourselves stopping in to share in the fun often. Summer concerts at Independence Grove are always an amazing way to enjoy the great weather and connect with friends. We always try to hit up the various events over the year at The Chicago Botanic Garden, like the holiday lights show and the spring orchard show.

What is your favorite place to grab a drink?

Milwalky Trace has, hands down, the best cocktails around. I always go for their Old Fashioned or Whiskey Sour.

Any favorite bakeries, donuts or sweet treats?

Although I sadly cannot partake in gluten, our cafes serve Gurnee Donuts (close to six flags), whose award-winning donuts are apparently to die for (just the smell of them makes me think all the hype is well-deserved). All of my staff is also obsessed with Hewn Bakery, which has--I'm told--the best bread in the Chicago area. We also serve Holcomb Hollow Bakery's muffins at our cafes which are GF and vegan, so I enjoy those often and can honestly say they have the best muffins and scones I've ever had.

Where do you go to stay active?

I often run all along the North Shore Bike Path, or spend the day hanging out in forest preserves. The best preserves around are Ryerson Conservation Area, Daniel Wright Woods, Middlefork Savanah, and McDonalds Woods (especially if you take the woodchip trail!).

Any favorite weekend getaways?

If given some time away, we will almost certainly end up using it to hike or camp (or both). We end up doing a day trip to Starved Rock once or twice a year at least, and love it for its canyons and sprawling forest. Skip the actual Starved Rock trail and just go as far toward Illinois Canyons as you can get before the sun starts setting. We enjoy it in the winter and summer.

If we're taking a weekend, we have loved heading over to Turkey Run area. Our tactic is always to snag a hike-in campsite at the nearby Shades State Park, and then spend a full day hiking at each park. Don't forget to bring a cheap inner tube to float down the river at Turkey Run for an hour or so after you hike.

Why do you think the suburbs are great?

I never thought of myself as a suburb person (I grew up in the city in Minneapolis). Initially, when I came to college here, I assumed I would find the same thing that exists in the suburbs back home: chain restaurants, no sidewalks, cookie-cutter houses, and no diversity. It wasn't long before I realized the Chicago Suburbs are different. Living here is like having the benefits of a small town (running in to people you know all the time, getting to know the history of the places you frequent, being a regular at your favorite places, etc.), but the amenities of the city (local restaurants, small businesses, fun events, access to some public transportation, etc.), and without all the ridiculous parking and traffic fiascos. Not to mention, the trail system and forest preserves in the area make being outside so accessible to everyone. It really is the best.

Where can readers connect with you?

See what we're up to at Tala at www.talacoffeeroasters.com, where you can learn more about us and check out our current coffees, our subscription offers, and learn more about coffee in general. We have frequent blogs that range from coffee nerdiness to fun local events as well as recipes and more!

Upcoming Events

FEATURED EVENT: Farm Dinner at Elawa Farm (Lake Forest)

NORTH SHORE

NORTHWEST SUBURBS

WESTERN SUBURBS

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