Kaizen: The One to Watch

Five days in business. When Kaizen Coffee messaged me on Instagram and asked me to come check out their new pop-up, I wasn’t sure what to expect. (Honestly, my first thought was, “Wow! I guess social media marketing actually does work.")

But Kaizen is just my type of shop…a small local business trying to get a footing in the large world of specialty coffee shops. The physical atmosphere might not be much right now, but the coffee was excellent, and this new local coffee source is definitely an up-and-coming destination to watch for in the suburbs of Chicago.

Atmosphere

Being a coffee pop up and not their own shop, I don’t have much to say about Kaizen’s atmosphere, but the location serves its purpose well for now. The simple espresso station is housed in United Kitchen.

“United Kitchen brings local chefs a commercial kitchen to grow their businesses and ignite the entrepreneurial spirit that lives in us all.” -United Kitchen

Though the seating is limited in the industrial space, the black painted ceiling and exposed brick walls open up into a large window that lets in plenty of light and looks out onto the cute shopping streets of downtown LaGrange.

A large photograph of hands holding kitchen utensils emphasize the community focus, and calming acoustic and electronic instrumental music adds warmth to the causal environment.

But the real pulls to Kaizen Coffee are the people and their creative, entrepreneurial goals. The minds behind the startup, Frankie and Mina, aim to be simple, friendly, and approachable (and they have definitely achieved that).

The pair has worked at lots of local coffee shops to help start their coffee programs, but they wanted to do something unique on their own. Drawing from their culinary background, they use coffee as a creative outlet and seek to make their own interpretation of coffee service. I love their passion to bring the ethnic cuisine of the city out to the suburbs.

Drinks & Prices

Kaizen has the perfect partnership…Frankie loves the people, marketing, and business while Mina develops the menu and carefully perfects the overall taste palette. Because of their culinary training, they approach coffee from a hyper precise lens.

Every ingredient for every drink is planned to a T and measured exactly. The opening menu is very limited (just your basic iced and hot espresso drinks with no syrups), but the quality shines through. They don’t actually provide drip brew coffee yet but rather focus on bring artistry and creativity into their drinks.

As far as Luke and I’s specific drinks go, Kaizen serves a good, strong iced americano—rich in flavor but still easy to drink. My iced latte was smooth and milky, but it still had a prominent coffee taste. We also tried some of their fresh baked matcha madeleines—the perfect little treat with fresh coffee.

Kaizen is always experimenting with pastries and other treats by combining the flavors of different cultures (for example, the Mexican fruit popsicles they’re working on now sound amazing). Their prices are slightly high but still reasonable for the quality you are getting, the large sizes, and the satisfaction of supporting a new local business.

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Kaizen wouldn’t necessarily be my go-to hangout spot, but for a pop up the focus is on the coffee, not the atmosphere. It is the perfect place to grab a quick drink. One day they would love to have their own brick and mortar shops and an expanded unique food menu. Keep following Kaizen to see what they’re doing!