HYDE PARK — Greenline Coffee has expanded to Hyde Park, opening a new location in the University of Chicago’s Chicago Innovation Exchange.
The Woodlawn-based coffee shop opened on Wednesday in the university’s business incubator at 1452 E. 53rd St., serving Bridgeport Coffee and a menu of sandwiches and baked goods.
The cafe opened in Woodlawn in 2014, serving specialty Belgian waffles as part of a project by Sunshine Enterprises to jump start small businesses in Woodlawn.
“People aren’t poor because they want to be, it’s because there are no jobs,” said Joel Hamernick, founder of Sunshine Enterprises when Greenline opened in 2014. “Every day we have people coming in begging for a job.”
He said Wednesday that the new location has helped bring in more funding to continue expanding and hire a new chef.
Sean Meyers, who grew up in South Shore and worked under Charlie Trotter after graduating from culinary school, has come in to help redo the menu as Greenline plans to expand its catering with a better foothold in Hyde Park.
Most customers of the new location on the second floor of the Innovation Exchange are expected to be university students and faculty working at the business incubator developing business ideas.
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