Biggby Coffee Opens On Route 59: 'Shorewood's Been A Great Community'

SHOREWOOD, IL — For people in the Joliet area who enjoy getting a cup of coffee on their way to work, but are tired of seeing Starbucks and Dunkin' sprouting up at every major intersection, a new alternative has arrived. Biggby Coffee opens at 5 a.m. Tuesday, which is Sept. 13.

It's at Route 59 in the Shorewood Commons, close to the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. Biggby Coffee has an indoor café, and it features a drive-up window for motorists in a hurry.

Biggby will be open seven days a week. Its hours are: 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Zach Butkus and his wife, Carla, are the proud independent owners. Their Biggby Coffee becomes only the second one in all of Illinois. The first location is the western suburb of St. Charles.

"We live in Shorewood, and we loved the coffee in Michigan (when we) stopped at a Biggby one day. We thought it was an amazing experience and the quality of food and drink just blew us away," Carla Butkus told Joliet Patch's editor during last Friday's interview.

Butkus and her staff were busy gearing up for Tuesday's official opening.

Helping train the new Shorewood staff was Kody Lowe, who works at the corporate offices in East Lansing, Michigan. There are now more than 300 Biggby Coffee shops across the United States, he said.

"We want to expand all over," Lowe remarked. "We are looking to make more business."

Patch asked Carla Butkus if she was ready for a big turnout for Tuesday morning's official opening.

"I'm very excited, very excited, and we sell something for everyone in the family," she remarked. "And we do sell small food items. We can make any combination of a latte."

Lowe, the corporate official, told Patch that "the lattes can be made hot, iced or frozen. We also have new energy drinks called Biggby Blast.

The new Shorewood Biggby Coffee also offers a rewards program that allows customers who purchase 12 drinks to get one free.

Zach and Carla Butkus said they began renovating the property in the Shorewood Commons around April 1. Cups 'N Cakes Bakery vacated the space to move closer to the Portillo's restaurant.

"We did a total gut, and it turned out really nice," Carla Butkus said.

Zach Butkus said that Shorewood officials and people in the community have treated them great as they spent more than five months preparing for Tuesday's grand opening event.

"Shorewood's a great community," he said. "We moved here and could not ask for better. It's been nothing but good to us."

To learn more about the company's values and beliefs, visit the Biggby Coffee website.