Greenline Coffee a new gathering place for Woodlawn neighborhood
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Most of the city's new coffee shops tend to be clustered on the North and Northwest Sides. But one of the latest options hails from the Woodlawn neighborhood on 61st Street.
Like any serious coffee shop, the beans are ground and the espresso is pulled to-order, while milk is steamed throughout the day. But Greenline Coffee isn't just any cafe, it's a partnership with Sunshine Gospel Ministries across the street, which helped convert an old abandoned grocery store into a new kind of gathering place.
"A community coffee shop is kind of what the old general store used to be," said co-owner Paula Hamernick. "People would come and connect and talk and hang out and visit. The residents all remember how it used to be."
Today, the remodeled space whips up smoothies and Belgian liege waffles studded with sugar pearls along with deli sandwiches. But the real impact is on the employees - mostly kids from the neighborhood, paid through a city grant, who are learning a lot more than just how to grind coffee.
"It's not just fun and games, no, this is a job, so we're gonna learn job skills; yes you have to be on time, yes you have to have a good attitude, yes you have to greet all the people who walk through the door," Hamernick said.
The teens learn plenty of skills, including some more intangible than others.
"They taught me the proper food safety; they taught me how to make frappes, how to make sandwiches, how to be a hard worker," said 17-year-old employee Alvin Willims.
"Having this coffee shop right here, on 61st and Eberhart, I think it's a very good thing because it gets people together, especially in this community," Willims said.
And one other benefit of the Greenline is a large room for private meetings, which can be used as kind of a mobile office.
Even though a lot of the students have gone back to school, Sunshine Ministries is still keeping several of them on staff this fall.
Greenline Coffee
501 East 61st St., Chicago
773-493-0656
