Jeff Dreyfuss, a linguist, and his son Tony bought a 12 kg roaster at the Coffee Fest trade show in 2002 with no location and no business plan. Their café opened in Edgewater, on the city’s far North Side, in December 2003 and became, in Tony’s words, “something like Edgewater’s living room”. In 2007 the pair entered Roast Magazine’s Micro Roaster of the Year competition on a whim and won, which took the company into wholesale across the country.

The roasting moved in 2008 to The Garage, a 10,000 square foot space in a 1920s Art Deco building in Andersonville, and in 2015 to a 19th-century manufacturing building on the North Branch of the Chicago River, where Metropolis now occupies about 18,000 square feet. Its roasters are vintage machines from the 1930s and 1940s with modern upgrades. By its own account Metropolis is the “largest roaster of certified Fair Trade coffee in Illinois”; it also roasts USDA certified organic coffee, and its mission is “Great Coffee for Everyone”. Wholesale is the heart of the business: more than 1,200 accounts in 38 states, Canada, Europe and the Middle East, from cafés and restaurants to hotels and universities, with barista training for its partners.

The Edgewater café is “a bustling, high-energy joint” with indoor and outdoor seating, local artwork on the walls for sale, and sweet and savoury snacks from local bakers. In May 2024 Metropolis opened a second café at O’Hare, in Terminal 5 by Gate M30, with its partners Sulaiman and Farhana Rahim of Midway Restaurant Development. It pours espresso and cold brew, serves pastries, smoothies, beer and wine, and sells beans and espresso capsules to take on the plane. The roastery takes online orders for local pickup.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Metropolis Coffee Company