Each month we work with a different coffee roaster to make sure that the first coffee of your weekend brunch is the best coffee you’ve had all week. In fact, we go to great lengths to choose a bean to be served exclusively at brunch, where we brew the coffee two ways: with a v60 pour-over — a slow and precise method of brewing that extracts the flavors and aromas of the beans like no other — and a Yama Cold Brew Drip Tower.
Then, we have the kitchen invent a delicious pastry that perfectly suits the brew, and even the bar offers an homage: a coffee cocktail with that month’s bean as base spirit. To top it all off, we gave this elaborate tribute to one lil’ ol’ bean a long, fancy name: Trenchermen Roaster’s Series! It’s a surround-sound coffee experience that’s impossible to find at any other brunch in town.
For December, we’re featuring another Chicago operation in our Roaster Series: Dark Matter Coffee. We count ourselves lucky to live in a city of culinary innovation and appreciation, and Chicagoans are doing excellent things to elevate coffee. Back in 2008, DMC started a fledgling roasting operation above their flagship coffee shop, Star Lounge. In six years they've made a name as one of best roasters in the city and have expanded to a full-fledged roasting operation at their "Mothership" on Western Avenue and a second coffee shop, Osmium, in Lakeview.
Dark Matter have set themselves apart from other small roasters with their direct sourcing of green coffee from some of the best Central American coffee farms. They've developed a comprehensive portfolio of single origin coffees, alongside their remarkable blends. They've been included in a Food & Wine roundup of best coffee bars in the country, and Tasting Table calls attention to founder Jesse Diaz’s “encyclopedic knowledge and meticulous oversight of the entire process--from bean sourcing to roasting to choosing the right brewing method,” calling Dark Matter Coffee “some of the city’s geekiest.”
While some think it's geeky, we just think Jesse and the DMC crew are straight shooters, who tell it like it is and roast damn fine coffee. Come enjoy a cup of DMC's December blend, Old Dank Nic, black as a moonless night, brewed to order as a pourover.
