Located in the heart of Chicago, Pilsen. Enjoy espresso drinks and meals accompanied by local art in the heart of the city. Home of the Dirty Abuelita!
La Catrina Cafe is located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. A "mom-and-pop shop" founded in the spring of 2013, La Catrina Cafe has quickly established a presence in Pilsen. Aside from the rotating art on display, the cafe hosts numerous events—including open mics, meetings for local organizations, and classes, among other events. Come enjoy espresso drinks and meals accompanied by a stimulating artistic atmosphere in the heart of the city.
This is 18. We opened March 8, 2013. We decided to cash in our 401K and take a leap of faith and open up the cafe. The community has responded really, really well. We get a lot of locals and a lot of people from far away. A lot of teachers. I've seen attorneys study here and they're now attorneys. So it's amazing. Most of us are either family or friends. I have a couple of hotheirs that Interviewed, but yes, they all live in Pilsen. I've lived in Pilsen pretty much about, I'd say, 20 years out of my life. When I graduated high school, I ended up moving away to go out of town to study business and finance. So when I actually moved back out here after graduating, it was kind of I walked into a neighborhood that I virtually didn't really recognize. I kind of felt Not being there anymore and now being new establishments or even just apartment complexes now. When we have events And what they do is they help draw people in. Not only that, but more importantly, it's a space for the community to get together, to come together from different areas of the city and explore and be involved, keep them off the streets. We'really open to practically anything and everything. So we've thrown open mics to obviously the gallery opening that included the cleansing. We've thrown various private events in terms of baby showers, parties. There's been a couple of DJs who've come and thrown their own sets here and we've ran events all the way up until Pilsen itself is really small, so we try to showcase that with these events by showing, hey, You're opening up your space to the community and right now that's really important because right now they don't have anywhere to go. I mean, you meet at restaurants or other cafes, but they're so small. So that's one of the advantages we have is that we're so big and we have a big room with a projector and we have a small room with a projector and we have the patio outside. So there's a lot of room for events to happen. I do believe that like if businesses around the community just offered events like we do and did it consistently, I think the Pilsen community would thrive a lot more and people would be a lot more open to kind of getting to know other people as well as, And it kind of brings the community closer because It's definitely a good feeling.