Café con Leche is now BYOB

Café con Leche’s long-awaited expansion at 2714 N. Milwaukee Avenue is ready to be experienced, even over a bottle of wine or beer — that you bring with.

For now, you’ll still order at the counter and bring your food into the expanded space (photo above).  Perhaps you’ll have picked up a bottle of something across the street at Red Star Liquors.  Enjoy a cozy conversation near the warm and inviting fireplace, a more solo pursuit on your laptop with free Wi-Fi, or watch some T.V. near the future bar area.   The hours have expanded too — until 10:00 p.m. every night.

And/or allow a little extra time on your weekday mornings to take advantage of a dine-in breakfast special.

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Fall diversions in Logan Square:

Phantom Gallery Chicago’s ”Chicago Revisionists” opening reception Friday, October 16, from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. at 2827 N. Milwaukee Ave.; show continues Saturday and Sunday, October 17-18.

The Logan Square
ARTicipation Tour
continues with the family-friendly Victor M. Montañez/Know Art Gallery Open Studio Saturday, October 17, from 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. at 3036 N. Sawyer (dress to ARTicipate!); RSVP requested.

Converting pavement for people

This year’s PARK(ing) Day on September 18 prompted New York Times’ By Design blogger Allison Arieff to write a piece on “Pavement to Parks,” which further prompted me to write this piece in the context of Open space and Milwaukee Avenue.

In writing about San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks program, which was apparently spurred on by New York City’s Plaza Program, Arieff writes:

(The) program creates spaces for people by reclaiming excess roadway, through the use of simple and low-cost design interventions.  What’s innovative about these parks isn’t so much the design as the implementation.  As Andres Power, urban designer at the San Francisco Planning Department explains, because there is no structure in place to do something like this “it fundamentally changes the old impasse of years of planning and just lets the space evolve over time.”

That last part about letting the space evolve over time got me thinking about the idea of permanently closing down Milwaukee Avenue between east- and westbound Logan Boulevard and Woodard Street

Scene in Logan Square: House & Garden Walk

Logan Square Preservation House & Garden Walk takes place this Saturday, September 12, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., centered around the original Kimbell (as in the incorrectly spelled Kimball Avenue) farm.

This year’s House Walk features 3 churches and 10 homes — most of them on what I consider to be one of the “Best blocks in Logan Square.”

Logan Square neighbors have once again generously opened their doors and unlocked the garden gates to allow others to sneak a peak inside (see photo right).

Each year, of the hundreds of folks who participate, about half come from outside the neighborhood, from the suburbs, even from out of state.  It’s a perfect opportunity to better acquaint your friends and family with where you live.

And if you’re bringing friends and family to the House Walk — introducing them to the neighborhood for the first time or renewing their acquaintance with Logan Square — be sure to stop for lunch at a neighborhood spot like Café Bella at 3311 W. Fullerton Avenue or recap what you learned and liked over dinner and/or a margarita at the nearby Fonda del Mar at 3749 W. Fullerton Avenue, where the patio remains open for your relaxation.

Show your love for great places in Logan Square

No surprise, there are Great places in Logan Square.  Submissions are in; voting has begun.  Among the entries for the Metropolitan Planning Council’s What Makes Your Place Great? contest are two in Logan Square:

New Wave Coffee on Milwaukee Ave.

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