Two years after its digital launch, Fat Miilk is preparing to put down roots. Vietnamese Coffee (@fatmiilk)
Service at the completed cafe will bear a stronger resemblance to a cocktail bar than a coffee shop, with a handful of baristas and staff approaching customers directly to discuss the menu, take orders, and complete purchases with handheld devices. Ho also promises a prominent phin brewing station visible through a large window so customers can watch the process unfold — an experience she likens to watching chefs make fresh pasta in a restaurant.
Though the space is 1,900 square feet in total, workers are sectioning off only 500 or 600 square feet for the storefront itself. There will also be a commissary space and test kitchen — features well-suited to the infrastructure left over from the previous tenant T’oui Macaron and Patisserie.
If the cafe is a hit, Ho envisions measured expansion in the vein of gourmet Italian food and restaurant emporium Eataly. “I see it existing in major markets with Uptown as the flagship for the Chicago market,” she says. “But who knows, we’ll open up this one and see what it looks like. Maybe there will be 10 in Chicago in the next few years!”
Fat Miilk Cafe, 5018 N. Broadway Street, Scheduled to open in October or November.