Tinley's 'Raddest' Coffee Shop: Electric Drip Brings Eclectic Look, A Whole Vibe To Oak Park Avenue

TINLEY PARK, IL — Three family members have melded minds to bring their vision of a "dark and spooky" coffee spot with a retro feel to Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park.

Spouses Brad and Skyler LaHood, with Brad's sister Britt Johnson, recently quietly debuted their Electric Drip Coffee—but realized this week that the word had already gotten out. Each day, they've watched as customers found their way to 17028 Oak Park Ave., seemingly organically.

"It's like overnight," Johnson said. "Suddenly, we're a coffee shop."

And some customers may have inevitably noticed the space looks a bit different from their predecessor.

Electric Drip has moved in where tea room and coffee bar Pekoe and Bean once was, transforming the space from "rustic" to "rad"—an eclectic display of Skyler LaHood's Facebook Marketplace finds and items handpicked from the Journey Through Time Antique Emporium next door.

Dark, rich colors. A framed tapestry of dogs playing pool. Retro stools pulled up to the coffee bar. A mural of the Grim Reaper holding a steaming hot cup of their coffee.

"Inspired by 70s basements, vintage rock-and-roll culture, velvet paintings, wood paneling, and laid-back hangs, Electric Drip is designed to feel nostalgic, creative, and just a little rebellious," their website reads.

It's a whole vibe inside the strip mall spot—one they hope people will find maybe a smidge "weird," and "undeniably cool."

"The 'grandma's basement,' as we call it," joked Johnson. "It's comfy, you feel like you want to socialize. It's a little weird."

"It's got a little weirdness to it,'" LaHood said. "A smell, but the smell is just coffee."

"But at least now you know what the smell is," Johnson retorted.

It's a stark shift from the aesthetic of Pekoe and Bean—one Brad and Skyler LaHood knew well because they were regulars. The spouses own three Tinley Park businesses between them: Skyler, Electric Hair Lounge and Electric Studios salon suites and Brad, Accurate Irrigation and Plumbing.

"Pekoe and Bean, before we bought it, was our coffee shop," LaHood told Patch. "Just because we're not really big Starbucks, Dunkin' people. We really want to support small, because we are small."

They became friends with Pekoe and Bean owner Audrey Maher, who listed the business for sale in May 2025. Her hope was that it would carry on as a coffee shop, allowing her to get back to her own artistic pursuits full-time, she told Patch previously.

"... My goal was always to hand it over—to make it what it is, for someone else," Maher told Patch in May 2025.

Skyler and Brad mulled the idea of buying it, but realized maybe their hands were a bit full with their other endeavors. They looped in Johnson, who was living in Colorado at the time and working in the tech industry.

"I was excited to hear about the coffee shop opportunity because when I moved to Denver I knew not a single person there," Johnson said, "and so I would go to the local coffee shop every day, and I'd sit in the same chair every day, and I'd work remotely from there. Eventually over time I befriended the baristas, then the regulars. And that's just kinda how I built my community, and realized that coffee shops are a pretty natural, perfect place to find your people. Which I think is really important to a lot of us."

Lockport-born Johnson moved back, and the trio decided to embrace the opportunity. In February, the space became theirs—and they got to work. Late nights and elbow grease to bring their vision to fruition.

"We never shut down," said LaHood, of keeping the business running even as they were making over the space.

"Painting, doing trim, doing the paneling, doing the menus, anything. Everything you see, we've put insane amount of after-hours into it."

"We wanted to make sure people were going to get their coffee, and that the employees were going to get paid," Johnson said.

"We wanted to really make sure that the wheel didn't stop turning," LaHood said.

The interior updates might feel like a big change, but they're hoping customers won't be scared off.

"We want everyone to come with us, but we also realize that what we're doing is a very special thing that is not for everybody," Johnson said. "But we want to give them the option to opt out, and just kind of give them a little bit of what we're trying to do without being too ourselves just yet, but we will get there."

They've revamped the food menu, but kept Pekoe and Bean favorites like scones and cucumber sandwiches.

"Again, we want to make sure everyone still feels like this is their coffee spot," Johnson said.

"... Food has always been my thing," LaHood said. "My husband and I, we love food and we feel very passionate about food. So it was very important to me to build a menu that fit the coffee bar aesthetic, but also was just really high quality and kind of good to go with, you know, where you're having a cup of coffee and you're having a nice cup of soup with it."

They've added some more "grab-and-go" options, LaHood said, along with fresh salads and sandwiches, and fun desserts.

"... We wanted to make it a little bit easier and a little more accessible to have a good cup of coffee, grab something to go to work, and then head out," LaHood said.

They also offer an "Ode to Pekoe," afternoon tea service, with a tiered tray of handhelds and desserts.

"It's not necessarily something that we align with, but we do understand that a lot of people love that, and it's kind of hard to find that in the suburbs," she said.

Their coffee is from Lavazza, a decision they reached through an in-depth tasting experience at the brand's Chicago location.

"We were seeing sounds and hearing colors," LaHood said. "So we were highly caffeinated by the time we left, but we got to taste a bunch of different coffees."

They fluctuate between Lavazza and Dark Matter Coffee. Brad is the most devout coffee drinker among them, LaHood said.

"We have a full coffee bar at home," she explained. "Multiple espresso machines, multiple coffee makers, multiple ways of making coffee. Grinders. We have scales everywhere. It's a whole thing.

"So he really kind of spearheaded all of the coffee that we ended up landing on, and made sure that we got the best quality. And also taught us and taught himself and taught the staff how to really dial in everything to really get the best top-tier coffee experience that you can get."

LaHood and Johnson have their favorites on the drink menu currently.

"I'm a toasted coconut girl," LaHood said. "There's two drinks with coconut in them, which is why it's my favorite. The Toasted Coconut Affogato is probably my number one."

But the day Patch sat down with her, she chose otherwise.

"I'm actually drinking a Banana Bread Latte," she said.

Johnson appreciates a little something different.

"I'm a 'I like to taste my coffee' person, so I typically don't do milks and lattes as much," she said. "Shaken espresso has been a new thing we discovered that I've really enjoyed. Brown sugar, ice, and just espresso, and you do it in a martini shaker. And it agitates the espresso, and it gets all frothy at the top. It looks like a porter (beer), if you pour it in a clear glass. ... The sweetness is still there with the brown sugar, so it's pretty nice."

With their other businesses running, why a coffee shop?

"We had to keep all of the other businesses caffeinated," LaHood said. "That's really why we did it."

"Number one, our coffee is amazing," LaHood said. "That is my biggest thing. That is probably Brad's biggest thing, too, is that we really put a lot of heart and soul into handpicking the best coffee and espresso blends possible. ... every single coffee drink we have here is incredible. And I think our community, probably, is our biggest."

"I would say the coffee will get you in here, but what will keep you will be the community," Johnson said. "And we're obviously going to need to build that. I think we're already seeing a lot of that happen organically already, which is incredible."

A customer seated nearby overheard the interview and interjected. Sarah Praski has been in Tinley Park for 48 years, but lived in Chicago for 15 years prior.

"I started coming here right in the beginning when it was Pekoe and Bean started during COVID, so it was a little crazy," Praski said. "But the biggest and most welcome difference for me is that there's more community. I'm here working now, where I really didn't do that before.

"It just kind of feels more open. It's a very urban coffee shop vibe, which I think is what we need in Tinley Park.

Feedback like Praski's is proof that their venture is working, Johnson said.

"Those are honestly the moments I think that are keeping me going," she said. "It's obviously chaotic at the beginning. But then you have those real small moments of proof points where you're like, 'oh, we made Sarah stay.'"

The early days of their ownership proved a bit jarring, LaHood said.

"The transition was definitely a little bumpy at the beginning where you always get a little pushback," she said, "especially, we understand Pekoe and Bean was a big part of the community for a long time. That's why we bought it.That's why we loved it. We wanted to keep it going.

"There are people who didn't want anything to change ever. And, you're not evolving, you're dying. So we wanted to evolve it a little bit. And like I said, the pushback at the beginning was definitely a little disheartening. And then as we started to roll into it and started to really find our people, we were like, 'oh, this is why we're doing this.'"

A packed first "plant bingo" event gave LaHood a first sense of success at the shop. The event featured the classic game of Bingo, with plants for prizes, courtesy of Aster Gardens in Lemont.

"'No one's gonna show up,'" LaHood remembers thinking before the event. "'It's just gonna be the four of us sitting around playing Bingo.'"

Well, she was wrong.

"This place was filled," she said.

"We had to bring in outside furniture, inside to seat people," Johnson said. "There was a line before the event outside."

"There was a moment I literally looked at Britt and Brad and I had a tear rolling down my face," LaHood said. "And I was like, you guys, we did it. They like it. We made a space for people to enjoy. ... That was probably the peak of this so far for me, and it just keeps getting higher."

They hope to host a monthly plant Bingo, DJ nights featuring mocktails, and more.

They also host an Artist Alley—featuring a curated collection of work by local artists, up for sale. The work of local artist Dev Parker, who lives just blocks from the coffee shop, is on full display in the mural in the front of the shop. He and LaHood had been connected on Instagram for some time, and his style aligned with what their vision.

"We really wanted something super rad," LaHood said. "So we commissioned him and told him we wanted 'dark and spooky, but make it 70s', and he just kind of ran with it, and it fits perfectly."

They want people to know the business is run by a family—Brad LaHood's daughter also joins the staff—and that they take great pride in it.

"I think our biggest thing is we really wanted to be the 'Cheers' of coffee shops," LaHood said. "Everybody knows who you are. You've always got a seat at the bar or a seat in the dining room.

"People will introduce cool people to cool people," Johnson added.

"And give you a good cup while you're sitting here," LaHood added.

Johnson is excited to see the community embrace Electric Drip for its eccentric feel that sets it apart.

"Our people are here," she said, "and they're looking for this."

Electric Drip, 17028 Oak Park Ave., will celebrate its grand opening on Sunday, June 7. Hours are:

• Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.