Long-Awaited Clarendon Hills Cafe Opening In Days

CLARENDON HILLS, IL – A long-awaited Clarendon Hills coffee shop is launching Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Sparrow Coffee announced on Instagram that it will hold a "soft opening."

The restaurant will be open from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every day.

"Limited hours at first," the restaurant said. "We're taking the time to get every detail just right, and we can't wait to welcome you in."

Under Sparrow's original subsidy agreement with the village, the restaurant was scheduled to be ready by last Halloween.

Since then, it has received a couple of extensions, with the latest deadline this Halloween. With the planned opening, Sparrow will beat that by 10 days.

Sparrow is taking the place of the old Starbucks at 100 Park Ave., combining three units into one.

During last month's Village Board meeting, Sparrow owner Chris Chacko said the restaurant will be where "great architecture meets craft coffee." And he said the project was well worth the wait "because we did it correctly."

Sparrow now has a cafe in Naperville and a roastery in Chicago.

Sparrow's $622,000 subsidy is coming from a village tax increment financing district, or TIF, where growth in property tax income is reinvested in the district.

The idea is that the increased tax income would reimburse the district for the subsidy.