Fairgrounds Craft Coffee and Tea — Restaurant in Chicago

Female barista took 10 min taking a simple coffee order for the couple in front of us. She’s chatting away completely ignoring our presence. I‘m so confused by the nonchalant attitude of the barista that I even check whether I’m standing in a spot that indicates I’m a customer waiting to place an order. Because the wait is getting ridiculous, I ask the male barista in charge of making drinks if it’s at all possible to start preparing my coffee while I wait to order. He agrees. When the couple in front walk away along with the barista at the register, I advance to the now empty register. The iPad order screen is facing me like self service machines typically do, and so I select my drink (with the number of options appearing on the screen) and prepare to pay. Dismayed barista screams: “what are you doing? What are you doing?” as she turns the screen towards her. I answer that I’m ordering my drink as I come to the realization based on her body language that it’s not self-service, but a regular iPad register (no wonder it didn’t look user-friendly). When barista realizes the transaction has been placed accurately and speedily in the amount of time it took her to walk back over (15 seconds), surprised says: “uh... you did it correctly...” There was no “I’m sorry for the wait” or any sort of explanation. She ignored me, screamed at me for doing something that appeared common sense (after all, when she walked away she didn’t say “I’ll be right back to take your order”) and didn’t even apologize? Terrible service! Also coffee was meh, especially for its price. I visit the CAA often but I’m never...

I've gone to fairgrounds twice. I had 2 of their specialty hand pours, their power flower milk tea, vosges cocoa, military latte and imperial matcha. Of all the drinks i had, the power flower and vosges stood out the most. The milk tea was a change for me, because it felt like I was drinking a healthy milk tea. I make milk tea myself and this was similar to what I make. Not great, but refreshing even though it's hot. Overall an interesting flavor. The vosges cocoa was very good. I don't know how they made it, but this was the best hot cocoa I've had. Their hand pours are also excellent and prepared on demand, so the grind is fresh and brewed correctly. The lattes were average for a good coffee shop. The military is not as good as sawada coffee, but better than other attempts. What I like is that none of their drinks are sweet! The only one that I didn't like was the imperial matcha. I believe it wasn't a fresh powder, but I can't say for sure. The best matcha I had so far was unfortunately at a whole foods when some lady was doing samples of a matcha they were carrying. That was back in 2010. It's hard to explain what I am tasting in the rishi that fairdgrounds offers.. almost dirty? Based on the color of matcha, I am expecting more of a fresh flavor similar to a good gyokuro tea. Matcha aside, fairgrounds is definitely better than Starbucks and most other coffee shops. The staff has also been friendly and answered questions that I had. It's almost a 5* coffee shop, just their drinks didnt wow me like say Ipsento. I will definitely visit there again, to try more of their...

We were in the area visiting family, and we decided to stay in the city to experience some Chicago things. Took the kids to go ice skating at the rink in Millennium Park and were exhausted… Just wanted coffee after that whole ordeal. Fortunately, we came across Fairgrounds on our walk back. Was pretty busy the day after Christmas. Waited in line, which seemed to go fast, but still gave me time to look at the menu and the coffee beans on the shelf. Girl at the register had a great attitude and the coffee was good! I got an iced latte. Smooth finish. Decently priced for locally roasted coffee. Accidentally entered my sister’s latte as hot, but the barista made the latte so nice that we couldn’t waste it, so I took a picture of it and we were on our way. I came back a couple days later to grab a bag of beans to bring back to CA, and they happened to be running a special - free drink with a purchase of coffee beans. The guy at the register, despite the day he said he was having, was sweet and added some positive to my day. Visiting this coffee shop was such a pleasant highlight to our trip! Will definitely come back and recommend to...