EAST SIDE \u2014 A native Southeast Sider is opening a caf\u00e9 in the area and plans to offer arts seminars, monthly dinners and game nights out of the shop. Colibr\u00ed Coffee, 3639 E. 106th St. in East Side, will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting noon Saturday. The caf\u00e9 aims to fill a gap in available gathering spaces in the neighborhood, said owner Anais Robles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many creatives in the area, and people that just are tired of going to the North Side or Pilsen to go and be in a third space,\u201d Robles said. \u201cOur goal is to link ourselves to the community as tightly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colibr\u00ed offers turkey basil, spicy ham and breakfast sandwiches ($6.25-$7.80), lattes in flavors like cajeta and caf\u00e9 de olla ($5.15-$5.50), and other coffeehouse staples like espresso ($3.50), cappuccino ($4) and drip coffee ($3.20-$3.50). The beans brewed at Colibr\u00ed are from Ixxa Coffee in nearby Hammond, Indiana, as \u201cwe wanted to support a local and minority-owned roaster,\u201d Robles said. All syrups and flavorings are made in-house, said chef and owner Juarez Monegain.<\/p>\n
Monegain, a former sous chef at Theater on the Lake in Lincoln Park, will rotate pastries made on-site from week to week, including croissants, cinnamon rolls, hand pies, cookies, brownies and cakes. \u201cThe first business I ever had a concept of opening was a confectionery shop, so brittles and other types of candies are things that will probably make an appearance at some point in the year,\u201d Monegain said.<\/p>\n
A representative from Calumet Fisheries also visited the caf\u00e9 this week, Robles said. The famed seafood shack at the 95th Street bridge is dropping off a sample of smoked salmon Wednesday for Monegain to use that day, and he expects to continue buying from the shop, he said. \u201cThey came in and were like, \u2018Hey, we have smoked salmon; we would love to supply for you guys and be of service,’\u201d Monegain said. \u201cThe community has been super supportive and welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spicy ham (left) and turkey basil sandwiches from Colibr\u00ed Coffee. Credit:<\/span> Provided\/Facebook<\/span><\/p>\n Colibr\u00ed \u2014 Spanish for \u201chummingbird,\u201d the representation of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli \u2014 is a family affair. Robles\u2019 mother Maria, father Jaime, brother Jaime Jr. and sister Idaima all co-own the shop alongside Monegain.<\/p>\n Maria Robles has \u201calways wanted a coffeeshop in this area\u201d and has thrown around the idea of opening one for the past five or six years, Anais Robles said. That idea became reality after leasing the 106th Street location in March 2024 and spending the past year fixing up the shop, she said. The empty storefront needed a \u201ccomplete renovation,\u201d and the owners \u201cwanted to mix [their] two cultures together\u201d with the d\u00e9cor \u2014 most of which comes from Mexico or Africa, Robles said. The Robleses are Mexican, while Monegain is Black.<\/p>\n <img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-768×1024.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a>" alt="" class="wp-image-856502" srcset="https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=225%2C300&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=1152%2C1536&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=900%2C1200&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=450%2C600&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C400&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=150%2C200&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1600&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=1568%2C2091&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 1568w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_7540-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2667&quality=89&ssl=1<\/a> 2000w, https:\/\/i<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction to Colibr\u00ed Coffee EAST SIDE \u2014 A native Southeast Sider is opening a caf\u00e9 in the area and plans to offer arts seminars, monthly dinners and game nights out of the shop. Colibr\u00ed Coffee, 3639 E. 106th St. in East Side, will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting noon Saturday. The caf\u00e9 aims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/colibri.png?w=1800&resize=1800,1200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17453,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17451\/revisions\/17453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Family Affair<\/h2>\n
Renovation and Decor<\/h2>\n