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Bow Truss Coffee Plans Logan Square Cafe -- And Chicago Empire

By Darryl Holliday | November 13, 2014 1:02pm
 Interior at Bow Truss, 1641 W. 18th St.
Interior at Bow Truss, 1641 W. 18th St.
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DNAinfo/Chloe Riley

LOGAN SQUARE — Bow Truss Coffee is ready to expand to one of the city’s most up-and-coming neighborhoods.

A new Logan Square location is one of two new shops in the works from Bow Truss founder Phil Tadros, who said a shop was slated to open in an undisclosed Logan Square location by April.

And here’s one hint: the new shop will be close to the Logan Square Blue Line station and Longman and Eagle, one of Tadros’ favorite restaurants, he said.

The Logan Square location will join three existing Bow Truss storefronts in Pilsen, River North and Lakeview, that’s in addition to a new roaster set for the Loop.

“We’ll do something unique for the neighborhood,” Tadros said regarding plans for a Logan Square offering. The business will be “similar to what we do in River North or at the café in Lakeview ... we're opening more stores.”

Most of the other Bow Truss shops are under 1,000 square feet but the Logan Square location will come in slightly over that figure and will include a back patio, Tadros said. The Northwest Side expansion is part of a larger plan for Bow Truss that includes a citywide push.

“I want to be in every neighborhood in Chicago,” Tadros said. “To have a little hub in each neighborhood, I think it’s reasonable.”

Funding for a future Bow Truss empire could come from LendSquare, a crowdsourcing site based in Chicago and run out of a shared community workspace that includes Bow Truss.

LendSquare allows people to give cash to companies they believe in, and once the business is up and running, the supporters will get their money back (with interest). Bow Truss has been using the site for years to expand and get new equipment, and its supporters have been paid back through its success.

“We’re the type of scrappy entrepreneurs that are going to do it ... no matter what,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have a good team that makes great coffee, and were fortunate to be to able to share it with everyone.”

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