Four Letter Word started in the summer of 2014 on Burgazada, one of the Princes’ Islands off Istanbul, when Eylem Ozkaya, Kevin Heisner and Ria Neri set out to make a cornerstone space for social life on the island. The Chicago shop followed in 2018, in Logan Square, and the company now roasts on a Giesen G6 in Istanbul and a Probat P12 in Chicago. It is “devoted to roasting beautiful coffees, selected for character, provenance, and meaningful sensory experiences”, roasting with precision and restraint so that each coffee shows clarity, balance and depth, and it commits to transparency and accountability in how it does business.

For Four Letter Word every great coffee begins long before it reaches the roastery, so it works closely with its producing partners and reinvests in their efforts. The coffees come from Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador and the Philippines, from producers such as Sookoo Coffee’s Suke drying station in Guji, the SIPRO cooperative in Amatenango de la Frontera, Chiapas, Leonardo Sales in Matas de Minas and Juan Peña’s Hacienda La Papaya in Ecuador, with a sugarcane-decaffeinated Ethiopia from Abdo Aba Mecha in Jimma. Every bag is roasted for both filter and espresso, and the roaster recommends resting its coffees for at least ten days after roasting. Instant versions of a Burundi and the decaf are made with Swift Cup Coffee.

The Logan Square shop serves seasonal coffees, teas and pastries in a room with a black-tiled bar, round mirrors, pendant lamps and a herringbone floor. The founders also run Four Letter Books, a bookstore. Over the years the company has appeared in Monocle, Brownbook, Vogue Türkiye and Food & Wine’s 2019 list of the best coffee shops in America, and in the 2026 book 150 Coffee Shops You Need to Visit Before You Die.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Four Letter Word Coffee