Eastside Café Coffee and Wine Bar opened a few years ago in downtown East Dundee, but owner Kate Micheletto never thought about moving until she had a chance to double her business’ space.
She packed up in September and opened in a new location one block away at 311 Barrington Ave. She plans to celebrate with a ribbon-cutting event at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, being held by the Northern Kane County Chamber of Commerce.
“The only reason I took this opportunity was because it was in East Dundee. I would never dream about moving anywhere else,” Micheletto said.
She has spent the last couple of months settling into the new space, which has about 1,000 more square feet larger than her previous River Street location, she said.
“We have more tables inside. We have a bigger wine selection. We have a bigger retail selection,” Micheletto said. It even has a patio, she said.
She also had a little fun when decorating the café’s interior.
“I was able to make very cozy little seating areas my friends designed,” Micheletto said. “We have a ‘Friends’ section with a big orange couch,” she said, referring to the iconic sofa featured in the television show’s fictional Central Perk coffee shop.
That said, the café’s menu remains mostly the same. It features a variety of breakfast items, baked goodd, sandwiches and toasts, including favorites like the Southwest Avocado Toast, topped with scrambled eggs, avocado and salsa, and the Nutter Butter, which comes with peanut butter, banana and locally-produced honey.
Micheletto strives to come up with creative ideas.
“I did one with hummus and Mediterranean toppings. I ate it every day, but it didn’t sell,” she said. “It’s a lot of trial and error.”
A new item being introduced this weekend is a breakfast pizza. She and her employees created the dish using a flatbread crust, sausage gravy and scrambled eggs covered with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. For the toppings, “you can put bacon, sausage, ham, or all of them,” Micheletto said.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s so good,” she said.
Since the Barrington Avenue storefront is larger, the café can hold bigger events. She’s doing more wine tastings and larger monthly Bunco nights. The November Bunco game night sold out, and the one planned for Dec. 13 will have a Taylor Swift theme tied to the singer’s birthday.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Micheletto said. “It’s like the book club of dice games. You drink wine, talk and have a good time.”
She admits that while the expanded space has allowed her new opportunities, the initial thought of moving scared her, she said. Her first retail venture in downtown East Dundee was temporarily shut down five days before it even opened because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We literally had nothing,” she said. “It was a rough couple of years. We were just trying to keep things going like everyone else.”
When her café’s equipment needed repairs, she had to rely on a crowd-sharing account to raise the money needed, Micheletto said.
“It’s very scary. Every day is scary,” she said. “You have to be able to put in your heart and your soul.”
What has helped is the support of friends, family, employees and the community, she said. She counts on her staff to keep things going when she returned to a full-time job to help pay the bills.
The community and her customers are amazing too, Micheletto said.
“They kept me alive through COVID. They’ve helped me along the way. I’m going to start crying. I can’t honestly even explain it. They become your family,” she said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
