Cafés in Pilsen

Café Jumping Bean, on 18th Street since 1994

Eleazar Delgado opened Café Jumping Bean at 1439 W. 18th Street in 1994, after nearly a decade working at Bloomingdale’s.³ The street was lined with taco shops, so he sold sandwiches and coffee instead; in 2013 local artists still rotated the work on its walls every five weeks, and the tops of its 10 tables had been painted by his brother Guillermo.² It opens at 06:00 Monday to Saturday and 06:30 on Sunday, and closes at 19:00.

In November 2016 Delgado opened a second café, L’ Cafecito Jumping Bean, in a space the Chicago Transit Authority owns under the Damen Pink Line platform, at Damen Avenue and Cullerton Street.³ That year its hot and cold coffee drinks cost US$1.50–4.25.³ Harrison Park is a few blocks away, and in it the National Museum of Mexican Art, founded in 1982 and opened in 1987 at 1852 W. 19th Street, charges no admission.³⁸

Nitecap and the 2015 Pilsen Coffee Tour

Aaron Marsh, who had worked at an insurance company, opened Nitecap Coffee Bar at 1738 W. 18th Street in March 2013, in the former Café Meztizo space.⁴ He poured Metropolis coffee, let customers bring their own alcohol to the bar, and in those first months kept it open until midnight on Saturdays.⁴

Two years later Nitecap was the starting point of the Pilsen Coffee Tour, a two-mile guided walk that cost US$20 in June 2015 and stopped at La Catrina Cafe, Panadería Nuevo León and Efebina’s.⁵ Efebina’s is at 1640 S. Blue Island Avenue, north of 18th Street.

Guatemalan farm coffee at Anticonquista

Anticonquista Café worked for five years from carts and pop-ups before opening its first shop, at 952 W. 18th Street, in spring 2025.⁶ Co-founder Elmer Fajardo Pacheco buys most of the green coffee from his family’s farm in Guatemala and from neighbors near the Honduran border, and the company’s original Arc 800 roaster now sits in the café for small-batch roasts and roasting workshops in English and Spanish.⁶

A mural of a quetzal, Guatemala’s national bird, by local artist Czr Prz covers the back wall, and local builders made oak window counters for remote workers.⁶ The café opens Tuesday to Friday 07:30–15:30 and 08:00–17:00 at weekends.

La Malinche on Halsted Street

Marlene Torres, who came to Chicago from Mexico as a teenager and spent 13 years as a Starbucks barista and manager, opened La Malinche Coffee House at 2110 S. Halsted Street in January 2021.⁷ At opening, 12-ounce drinks cost US$3.50 and 20-ounce drinks US$4.25, alongside pastries and paninis such as a US$8 Cuban sandwich.⁷ La Malinche now stays open until 20:30 on Mondays and closes at 17:00 the rest of the week.