Tazza Coffee Opens On Essington Road: 'It Was Very, Very Busy'

JOLIET, IL — People in the Joliet area who are looking for something other than coffee from Dunkin' or Starbucks now have another option. Thursday marked the second day of business for Tazza. It replaced the Sprint store at 2296 Essington Road.

Tazza is owned by the same people who own the Cork Wine Bar in the same retail pizza as well as the FORNO Wood Fired Pizza on West Jefferson Street across from Inwood. Photos of Tazza's entire menu are at the bottom of this Joliet Patch article.

After one full day of business, Tazza already has two five-star Google Reviews. "I love having a coffee shop near the house. Nice place and good coffee," one of the reviewers noted.

Tazza features a bakery, hot teas, sandwiches, refreshers/fruity drinks, specialty lattes and more.

There's also health drinks.

For opening on a Wednesday, Tazza's manager Santana Wright was pleasantly surprised with how busy her first day of business went.

"It was very, very, busy," Wright told Joliet Patch's editor during Thursday's interview. On Wednesday, Tazza sold out of its roasted turkey sandwiches and on Thursday, it sold out of its English muffins.

Why did the owners select the name, Tazza?

Tazza is an Italian word for mug of coffee, Wright explained.

Wright wants Tazza to be known for its specialty lattes.

"We just really want to be creative," she said. "We make our syrups in house. We try to come up with flavors that you can't get anywhere else."

Tazza is directly across the street from the Joliet Fire Station on Essington Road, just up the road from D'Arcy Motors.

Joliet's new coffee shop is now open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tazza will be expending its hours in the coming weeks as it hires and trains more employees, Wright said.

Since opening Wednesday morning, the two most popular specialty lattes are "the Almond Dream and the Rosemary Raspberry," Wright said.

"It's based off the Almond Joy candy bar, but it's not as sweet," Wright explained.

Regarding the health drinks, the Brownie Batter Protein Latte has been super popular, the manager said.

In a few weeks, Tazza will be putting its used coffee grounds into brown paper bags to give away to customers who want to use the coffee grounds as garden fertilizer.