{"id":71883,"date":"2018-08-31T10:26:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T15:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=71883"},"modified":"2018-08-31T10:26:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T15:26:48","slug":"sputnik-coffee-company-a-bona-fide-coffee-business-burgeoning-in-back-of-the-yards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/sputnik-coffee-company-a-bona-fide-coffee-business-burgeoning-in-back-of-the-yards\/","title":{"rendered":"Sputnik Coffee Company: A bona fide coffee business burgeoning in Back of the Yards"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hayley Prokos<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

A small homage to Soviet glory is bringing life to a barren corner of Chicago\u2019s Back of the Yards neighborhood. Four enterprising friends have opened a bustling coffee business and caf\u00e9 on W. 51st and Hoyne Avenue, calling their business the Sputnik Coffee Company.<\/p>\n

With few caf\u00e9s nearby, Sputnik has become a convenient and affordable place for residents and those who work in the area to get a caffeine fix and custom pastry.<\/p>\n

The operation was conceived when two of Sputnik\u2019s owners, Vova Kagan and Diarmuid Horan, began roasting and brewing coffee for themselves and the staff of their former workplace. \u201cI would sit in the basement of my loft roasting coffee, and the whole stairwell would smell like coffee,\u201d Vova recalled. \u201cPeople thought I was a little crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, Vova and Diarmuid were thinking about turning their hobby into a business. While they saw a market saturated in the quality coffee business, they thought \u00a0that a local company offering affordable prices for a good roast was still missing. After bringing Vova\u2019s brother, Greesha Kagan, and friend Michael Roytman into the fold, the group set out to fill the gap.<\/p>\n

They bought a twenty-year-old coffee roaster from Craigslist and set up shop in a friend\u2019s basement in Logan Square. The Kagans\u2019 honored their Russian roots by naming the business Sputnik, which was also the name of the first satellite to orbit Earth from Russia. \u201cWe like to think of our coffee as a travel companion,\u201d Greesha Kagan explained.<\/p>\n

With feedback from friends and industry insiders, the Sputnik founders developed their full medium roast. \u201cWe would also talk to grocery store owners to get their thoughts on what people were looking for in local coffee,\u201d said Vova. \u201cOur blend came from all of these conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

With\u00a0the demand for their product increasing\u2014from both average coffee consumers as well as restaurants and grocery stores\u2014and the founders\u2019 desire to be more than just a distributor, the coffee savants began looking for a space that they could turn into both a workspace and a caf\u00e9. They opened on 51st Street in March 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Sputnik
In addition to coffee, Sputnik also offers imported tea and an assortment of pastries. (Hayley Prokos\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, every Tuesday and Friday, the foursome gets together to roast and package nearly 180 pounds of their single, signature coffee blend. The process is a science: they roast each kind of bean\u2014Colombian, Brazilian and Sumatran\u2014separately and mix them together after. They label each bag with a custom red stamp featuring pups Belka and Strelka, the first animals to return safely from the Soviet-sponsored Sputnik 5 spaceflight. While their vintage roaster holds over 11 pounds of beans, the group sticks to eight pounds of beans per roast to maintain quality.<\/p>\n

Cheaper than most competitors, patrons can snag a cup of Sputnik’s original coffee blend or imported tea with one refill for $2. A bag of coffee comes to $6 per pound.<\/p>\n

Nearly everything in the near 700-square-foot caf\u00e9 is secondhand, from the roaster to the copper espresso machine to the iron celestial-inspired chandelier, reminiscent of the 1960s Soviet satellite itself. Still, the store is a work in progress. The owners recently opened a patio space off of Hoyne Avenue and commissioned artwork from the students of Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School to animate the solid burgundy walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not just here to be a coffee shop,\u201d said Nanci Lopez, a student at Back of the Yards College Prep. \u201cThey\u2019re here to give people a place to hang out and get good food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find Sputnik\u2019s original blend in over 25 groceries stores and caf\u00e9s across Chicago.<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo at top: Sputnik Coffee Company in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. (Courtesy: Sputnik Coffee Company)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hayley Prokos Medill Reports A small homage to Soviet glory is bringing life to a barren corner of Chicago\u2019s Back of the Yards neighborhood. Four enterprising friends have opened a bustling coffee business and caf\u00e9 on W. 51st and Hoyne Avenue, calling their business the Sputnik Coffee Company. With few caf\u00e9s nearby, Sputnik has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":71884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,4390],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nSputnik Coffee Company: A bona fide coffee business burgeoning in Back of the Yards - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/sputnik-coffee-company-a-bona-fide-coffee-business-burgeoning-in-back-of-the-yards\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sputnik Coffee Company: A bona fide coffee business burgeoning in Back of the Yards - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Hayley Prokos Medill Reports A small homage to Soviet glory is bringing life to a barren corner of Chicago\u2019s Back of the Yards neighborhood. 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