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Whispers Cafe To Return To Mariano Park After Bow Truss Ousted: Alderman

By David Matthews | May 30, 2017 12:43pm | Updated on May 30, 2017 1:28pm
 Whispers Cafe is returning to Mariano Park, 1031 N. State St. The longtime Gold Coast coffee shop was replaced by Bow Truss last year.
Whispers Cafe is returning to Mariano Park, 1031 N. State St. The longtime Gold Coast coffee shop was replaced by Bow Truss last year.
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DNAinfo/David Matthews

GOLD COAST — Whispers Cafe will reopen this summer at Mariano Park, its former home of 13 years. 

The beloved outdoor coffee shop will reopen within two weeks at the Gold Coast park, 1031 N. State St., Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) told constituents in an email Saturday. Hopkins said he and Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) will host a yet-to-be-scheduled Grand Reopening party soon. 

Whispers' return is good news to neighbors who were irked when the Chicago Park District kicked the cafe out of the park nearly two years ago in favor of Bow Truss Coffee, which promised to pay the park district nearly $20,000 more a year in rent.

But Bow Truss, beleaguered by bouncing paychecks and other signs of strife, vacated the park earlier this year after failing to pay its bills. 

Whispers is run by Nemer "Tiger" Alia, who ripped the park district for kicking out his cafe as it sought to collect more in rent money from the park he worked for more than a decade to improve. Bow Truss agreed to pay the park district $64,000 a year to rent the coffee kiosk at State and Rush streets, while Whispers paid $45,000 in 2015. 

Alia said in an interview Tuesday that Whispers will sell the crepes, gelato and juices neighbors had come to love for years in the park. He's buying new patio furniture now and hopes to reopen the cafe within two weeks.

"It's great to be back," Alia said.

Alia declined to disclose the terms of his new park district lease, and a spokeswoman for the park district did not immediately return a message.

The park is one of the oldest in Chicago, and construction crews have repaved its patio all spring. Whispers will reoccupy a century-old concession stand designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Birch Burdette Long.

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