this review is for my HOT CHOCOLATE people: do NOT get the hot chocolate here. It was truly terrible, and also this tiny little thing was $7, even though the highest price for hot chocolate on the menu was $6, so I feel scammed. I took like 3 sips before I threw it away because it was just so bad. I had 2 friends of mine try it also to make sure I wasn't crazy, and they both hated it also and said they really only tasted water and no chocolate. That's the other thing - they made it with WATER by default, not asking me what I wanted it made with and I had assumed that it would have been made with milk by default. A waste of $7. Go to Nomad instead, just north up the street, for actually amazing hot chocolate for less money. read more

Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea - Hot chocolate - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I'm glad my friend and I met here to grab afternoon coffee - the menu is vast with a bunch of different coffee, espresso, cold brew, tea options. They even had many items on draft - so I went with a tasting flight. Though pricey at $8, I was able to try a lighter cold brew which was tasty, a kombucha, and a darker nitro cold brew (wasn't a fan of this). Cute and clean atmosphere as well. Not loud and not too quiet. read more

Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea - tasting flight - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Great service, clean, fresh, healthy vibe without any pretense. A ton of healthy options for every type of nutritional need. Salads are abundantly packed, leaving you full and satisfied without the guilt. Sandwiches, Wraps & Grain Bowls are available too. To add a but of nice-naughty, an assortment of bodacious pastries are available. We enjoyed the Raspberry Creamcheese muffin. Very moist and not too sweet. Each cup of Vosges Mocha comes with a delectable Truffle that was the perfect treat. read more

Great location, modern ambience (complete with swings at the counter), and a wide variety of food and drinks on the menu. It's a nice sunny spot to get some work done or meet for a quick bite or cuppa with a friend. Plenty of traditional breakfast items, including smoked salmon, as well as fresh pastries. I was disappointed to see that our meals came out in plastic containers even though we were dining in. Service was good. Would return. read more

Very cute cafe with lots of natural lighting and cute decor (and swings!). Great for studying. The workers were kind and helpful. We ordered the mocha and chai latte, and the mocha was one of the best ones I have ever had in my life! Super rich and flavorful but not too sweet. Would definitely come back! read more

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This is a new casual breakfast / coffee spot that has a pretty cool atmosphere being right under the train tracks that run across Franklin Street The sausage egg and cheese was good, but would have liked for the eggs to be more prominent in the dish (maybe just add 1 more egg). I Also tried the Austins Breakfast Tacos and they were loaded with Mexican style toppings (tomato's, onions, salsa etc...) The coffee flights are a cool idea where you can try 3 different coffee, teas or kombucha they have on tap. They had about 10 different taps to choose from and give you a pretty good variety to pick. The breakfast sandwich, breakfast tacos and coffee flight came out to $25 total, which is a pretty good deal read more

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I was in Chicago for a week for work about a half mile away from this location. I am a tea drinker and always struggle when traveling for work to find good tea options. While there seems to be an abundance of coffee options finding a great tea can be a challenge. So often I end up paying $5 for a tea bag that I could grab at the grocery store. Fairgrounds has an incredible loose leaf tea selection and every one I got was brewed to perfection. I ended up going back every morning and when I went to other places around out of necessity, it was even more obvious how unique and great their selection and preparation was. read more

The food is great, I really appreciate the grab and go options for hot food in the mornings. The drinks are sometimes good but sometimes not. One time I got two drinks that tasted like soap. It feels like a toss up as to whether I'm going to have a good coffee or an awful one whenever I order here. Also while the majority of the staff is friendly and welcoming, there are 2 specific employees who are rude, ignore questions and put off customers so they can continue a chat ( I have no problem with chatting at work but to say 1 minute to a customer as they lean on the counter and wrap up a chat is kinda rude). I try to avoid coming here as much as possible. read more

I was super high maintenance since I'd never been here before (do you have iced coffee? No? Just cold brew? Do you have decaf? No? Okay give me a minute I need to think.) and they were all super nice. Since I wanted decaf and they didn't have any the barista was very helpful cautioning me to avoid the nitro since it was the highest in caffeine. Lovely atmosphere, lots of seating, and outdoor seating! read more

Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea - Salted caramel cold brew - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Shaken espresso was very average. Lacking on both flavor and sweetness. Id come back to enjoy the vibe, but I'll pass on the coffee. The staff is excellent read more

Cute as a button coffee shop but they need to work on their coffee skills. I spent $7.00 on a snickerdoodle latte and it had no flavor. All the good stuff settled at the bottom- wasn't worth the price and they didn't even have regular coffee ready to go. The aesthetics are on point, the coffee not so much. read more

Last week, we returned to this Fairgrounds location and had a great time, delicious lattes and breakfast sandwiches! Try the vanilla or rose lattes. The service was kind, and I highly recommend the space to get some work done. And again, the parking at this location is good and plenty. The owner here is really on top of things, and I appreciate her response and efforts to make the experience better for the customers. We will be back! read more

I'm so happy this place opened in the neighborhood! Their menu options are extensive and everything sounds super delicious. We came in on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of them being opened and it was pretty packed with people eating, working, or reading by the fire. The decor is sooo cute and topnotch For food we got the funnel cake fries (8/10 - they could be a little crispier) and the breakfast sandwich (10/10 - loved the sauce) and to drink we got a power flower match drink (10/10) and a fairgrounds coffee (another 10!). We felt like everything was priced fairly and we will definitely be returning (or ordering on the mobile app, or coming in to get some work done) soon! read more

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I came in originally not planning to get anything. My phone was dead and I just needed a place to charge my phone but I only had a usb and not a block to plug in the wall. I told the woman working and she said that there wasn't a spot I could charge with just a usb. I was gonna head out but then she offered me her portable charger. I wish I asked her name but she had purple hair. It was a very kind gesture, she was also under a lot of pressure mostly working the front alone yet she kept a very positive and welcoming attitude. Shout out to her. The smoothie I ended up getting was really good too, expensive but it was huge. read more

I came here during the day to work and it has a very cute vibe! The problems are that I did not enjoy the drink I got and it is right next to the L so it is very loud. Still cute and had lots of people working or having coffee dates. read more

I've been to a few of the Fairgrounds locations and this is by far my favorite. The service was great (helpful in deciding what drink to select) and my drink was warm and rich (I've been to another Fairgrounds location where my drink tasted watered down). There's plenty of unique options for coffee lovers, tea drinkers, and hot chocolate lovers too! read more

This coffee shop is an excellent place to do work while getting full meals/coffee throughout the day. The ambiance was amazing, I went on a rainy day and there's a corner with a fireplace that made it feel so cozy. I also got their grilled cheese and tomato soup which was delicious. The soup was creamy and the dunkers from the kids menu were the perfect size for each bite. They also have coffees on draft that you can try before you choose. I got a rose latte and iced chai, both of which were high quality and delicious. Highly recommend! read more

This place is amazing! Great service, food & coffees :) I worked a full shift on my laptop in here and it wasn't so bad! It definitely gets loud at times but I liked that, and having meetings went fine! The atmosphere is very nice & the booths & wooden swings are super cute! Definitely coming back! read more

I really want to love this place but they make it hard. 1) it's slow. Tough to justify waiting 20 mins for your order. 2) they CONSTANTLY mess up my order. 3 of the last 4 breakfast burritos I've gotten have left out the extra protein I paid for to have added. Really, really frustrating. They also recently made the burrito much smaller. 3) it tastes great when you get what you want. Food and coffee are great. For the price, I'd prefer to just make my own and know what I'm getting. TLDR - nice people but poor service. The staff needs to be consistent and pay more attention to detail. read more

Absolutely in love with the vibe, the kind staff, and my breakfast burrito (which are not premade so you can get it without certain ingredients!) read more

I ordered online, including a very generous tip, and when I arrived at the restaurant half of my order was not fillable because their kitchen was not working. Things happen, and that's fine. But they should have called because a phone number is required when you buy online. Or- restaurants closed their online ordering all the time, they should've shut that down. I would have canceled the entire order. They did refund my money for what they didn't provide, but they kept the entire tip. read more

Staff was phenomenal and very helpful. Even warned the breakfast sandwich had a little spice which I'm a huge fan of and understand many don't but it's good they thought about that just in case. Great call on the coffee choice rec as well for my warm up to my meeting. Looking forward to stopping in again on my next visit to the area read more

Great spot to work and grab some coffee! Very fast wifi as well, did not have any outlets that j could see so great to work for an hour or two over coffee. I also noticed they had blended espresso drinks so will be definitely trying that next time! read more

I live in the area so was pumped to make this my new spot but I was not impressed. Love the ambience and location but the staff, service and food was not impressive. The staff was very cold when I was ordering. I just ordered a coffee and it took quite some time to come out. They ran out of half and half and then refilled it with ice cold half and half, which made my coffee cold. The food came out cold and not pleasant looking. I showed them how dry my eggs are and they gave me a $5 gift card and brought new eggs so that was nice of them, however I would not make this my new spot unfortunately. read more

Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We were looking for a cute casual cafe to grab a late breakfast. Ordered the avocado toast, comes with pickled radish slaw and sunflower seeds, pretty tasty but I wasn't blown away. My partner got the sausage egg and cheese sandwich, he said it had an aioli that was great. The sausage is not your typical sausage, I think it might've been chicken sausage? But tasted good regardless. We both ordered vanilla lattes, one hot one iced. They forgot to add the vanilla but no big deal. They also have copper cups for water which were cute. We had our dog with us and they offered to bring him a pup cup and water - great service for a casual place! read more

Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea - Avocado toast, sausage egg and cheese sandwich - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Just went here for a business meeting and must've waiting 6 minutes at the desk without being acknowledged by the staff that was right in front of me. When I did get my coffee, it was very watered down. I ordered a black cold brew and it was almost translucent when I received it. Good ambiance overall. read more

Food was verrrry sub par. Where is the training? Coffee wasn't great either. Kind of cool vibe, but the food was not good.

Food and coffee is solid. Service is hit or miss depending on who's working. Paid and tipped for breakfast tacos, was given a number so they could identify me, but tacos were left up a the expo station to get cold. If this place asks for tips like a full service restaurant, provide service that is commensurate with getting tips. Not doing any favors for the perception of tipping culture. Three stars, but could have been 4. read more

Service is super slow. I've been placing my orders in the app and they have not been ready when promised. Really bad.

Used to feeling robbed after buying a latte someone put cinnamon in but this place is more expensive than Alinea tbh. Yes I'm triggered

Love this new location. So fun to have another Fairgrounds to go to and this one is in a great location. Loved siting by the fireplace or the swings and watching then"L" go past. The holiday limited time offerings were awesome. read more