If you haven’t made your way to Monday Coffee, a Black-owned cafe on the West Side, consider this your sign to step into good music, good vibes, and even better coffee. This weekend, Monday Coffee will stay open late to provide a welcoming and community-focused space during Riot Fest.
Dubbing their extended hours as “After Monday,” the cafe is open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. through Sunday. There will be some partying, food and fun programming, as well. “After Monday” began on Wednesday.
The coffee shop will follow-up its weekend festivities with a three-mile community run at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, called “The Cool Down.”
“I wanted to make sure that, for anybody who feels uneasy about what’s happening at Riot Fest, there’s another spot down the street that has comfortable couches and incense,” said Felton Kizer, co-founder of the shop.
Kizer and Amanda Christine Harth opened Monday Coffee in November 2024. Located in the Starling Community Center in North Lawndale, the airy cafe is filled with the lovely smells of coffee, teas and incense. Light jazz and R&B are in rotation underneath the coffee shop’s skylight and warm-toned wood panel walls.
While Douglass Park and the surrounding North Lawndale neighborhood experiences extra foot traffic during the 20th annual Riot Fest weekend, taking place Sept.19-21, Kizer invites fest-goers and those seeking refuge to visit Monday Coffee, which is less than a mile away at 3243 W. 16th St.
With an estimated 40,000 attendees flocking to Douglass Park for Riot Fest each day, the surrounding neighborhood has complained of traffic, noise, litter and disruption of public park access in previous years. Organizers have fought to kick Riot Fest out of Douglass Park, which is situated in a predominately-Black neighborhood. In 2024, the festival was planned to move to SeatGeek Stadium in suburban Bridgeview, but fest organizers decided to stay due to “overwhelming support of the City of Chicago and our fans.”
Opening its doors in November of 2024, this is the new coffee shop’s first encounter with the Riot Fest crowd.
“For me, thinking about somebody who has gone to festivals before, I enjoy when neighboring restaurants, cafe spots, are doing things in the same vein of that,” Fizer told The TRiiBE.
On Wednesday, “After Monday” hosted Black Film Club Chicago for a night of film and dialogue. Tonight at 7:00 p.m., “After Monday” will feature a “Lost and Found” event, with Monday Coffee co-founder Amanda Christine Harth sharing an intimate story about building the cafe and the magic behind it.
Friday at 4:00 p.m., Monday Coffee will host a bar takeover featuring In Good Spirits, a non-alcoholic bottle shop located in West Town. The event serves as the official launch of the shop’s new non-alcoholic beverages, something Fizer is excited for. The menu for the takeover will feature non-alcoholic drinks, including CBD beverages, non-alcoholic wines, and new house made non-alcoholic cocktails.
With hopes of a good response from the public, Fizer said these In Good Spirits drinks would permanently stay on the menu.
“We are simultaneously introducing that new concept, which is a whole bunch of programming just to celebrate Riot Fest weekend,” Kizer told The TRiiBE. “We, in theory, would have been closed. Now it’s like, oh wait, we can do a lot more with evening programming, because now we have this NA [non-alcoholic] bar concept to sort of funnel that through.”
On Saturday and Sunday, Monday Coffee will host “Monday Fest,” where the shop will possibly stay open later than 8:00 p.m., and will have special food from Beats, Sneaks & Eats Chef Nikki Bryant. Her menu will consist of chicken wings, southwest egg rolls, and french fries.
The two-day special will also feature Chef Christopher Chaney of Bread Head Bakery, who will be offering empanadas, focaccia, and sandwiches.
The coffee shop also boasts a proud vinyl collection, ranging all the way from soul singer Anita Baker to rap princess Doechii, according to Fizer. During store hours, they welcome patrons who own vinyls to bring them to be played.
“I’m really just curious and excited to see how everyone takes in the space, especially people who’ve never been to North Lawndale before,” Fizer told The TRiiBE. “Then also, I’m really excited for our regulars, who always come, just to see the space being activated in a much different light this weekend.”
