Neighborhood anchor. Hotbed of art and creativity. Sanctuary for reading and conversation. The coffeehouse is an essential part of Chicago’s landscape. June Sawyers merges stories of the city’s vibrant coffeehouse scene with an in-depth history of the institution’s place in Chicago.

Since the turn of the last century, immigrants have brought Chicago an abundance of varied café traditions from Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Sawyers delves into yesteryear’s Towertown bohemian enclave and midcentury venues that helped fuel the folk music revival. She also explores the coffeehouse’s ongoing evolution into a digitized workplace, and the creative ways today’s artists and entrepreneurs reimagine these spaces as patisseries, cafés, bake shops, tearooms, and performance settings. Throughout, Sawyers brings to light the Midwestern coffeehouse’s role in cultivating individual identity and neighborhood connection.

Entertaining and enlightening, Chicago Coffeehouses takes readers into iconic gathering places with art on the walls and the aroma of ground beans in the air, where steam rises from a chipped but bottomless cup of coffee.