Voca Kagan explains roasting temperatures used for their coffee blend as he sips a cup of their daily coffee blend. (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)
A new coffee shop recently opened its doors to patrons in Back of the Yards, a neighborhood in the New City community area.
The newly-rehabbed space sits on the intersection of Hoyne and 51st street and serves one type of coffee blend with pastries from Delightful Pastries that come fresh from Portage Park every morning.
The corner of 51st Street and Hoyne Ave. (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)
It all started when Vova Kagan and Diarmuid Hogan found a 900-pound coffee bean roaster in Ohio. They set out to pick it up and brought it back to Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.
“We started in a small basement in Logan Square. It wasn’t liveable, so we gutted the basement and just put the [roaster] in there,” said Michael Roytman, who handles web design/social media and is one of four partners.
“We are incredibly lucky because the person who lived above was really into coffee,” said Roytman. He said that the man would check up on them occasionally to see what they were working on.
As Kagan roasts the beans and checks on the temperature, he talks about the various techniques they use to make their coffee. “It’s kind of old school,” said Kagan about the roasting machine. “The green beans go into this drum and it will go for 13 to 14 minutes and once we reach the right temperature for that coffee, we start the cooling fan, start the stirring fan and drop [the temperature].”
Kagan and the rest of the Sputnik crew are also trying to promote a different kind of green bean and other healthy options for first graders at Chavez Elementary School.
Kagan sits on the board of Purple Asparagus, a nonprofit organization that offers healthy eating education programs to more than 30 schools in order to change the way children eat and reduces childhood obesity.
“I had conversations with Purple Asparagus and they had mentioned that Hyatt had pulled funding for Chavez this year so we decided that we had to jump in and try to use proceeds from some of our [pastry] sales to help fill the gap [and] provide what we call Delicious Nutritious Adventures for the kids,” said Kagan.
The sound of beans clashing into the roaster can be heard clearly as Kagan’s brother takes over roasting duty for Kagan to continue talking about the coffee shops’ early beginnings.
Kagan and his twin brother Greeshia Kagan, are typically working in the back of the coffee shop as they roast and take care of customers, as well as packaged coffee and other things.
“Sometimes roasters will throw them all together, but we find that if we want it to be a smooth coffee, it’s just best to do them all separately and blend them at the end,” says Vova Kagan about their coffee roast. “We are trying for a smooth [cup of coffee],” he adds.
Roytman and Kagan talk about the three months it took them to learn how to roast on the machine and how they moved it into its new home in Back of the Yards after a few months.
“We were looking at multiple spots, mostly on the South Side and to start something like this–it’s surprisingly difficult to start a small business in the city of Chicago, so we knew we had to have a little bit of flexibility,” said Kagan.
After looking at various spaces further south, they felt like there wouldn’t be a lot of foot traffic or interest in areas like 93rd Street.
Horan’s girlfriend’s father who invested and owns property in the area proposed that they speak to him about obtaining the space on 51st Street. The minute her father heard about it, he immediately asked them to check out the space.
“He’s like, ‘you know, maybe you guys can do something here and if you guys think you can pull it off, I’ll be flexible with you.’ He thought it was a good idea to have a little crown jewel on the corner [of the block] he’s invested in,” said Kagan.
After getting feedback from his tenants- who also liked the idea of having a coffee shop close by—everyone agreed that with the building owner’s help, they could get the coffee shop started.
While there was no brainchild for the coffee shop, Kagan expressed that they all drink crazy amounts of coffee, pull apart espresso machines and roasters as a hobby and started seeing coffee as its own expense.
The book Soviet Space Dogs by Olessya Turkina sit on the countertop of the pastry display at Sputnik Coffee Company. (The Gate/Gloria Talamantes)
“Everyone just goes to Dunkin Donuts now because that’s what’s available and that’s what’s convenient, we thought we [could] offer an alternative and that’s why Back of the Yards is important for us because we have a pocket [where] people drive up and down this street,” said Kagan.
The name of the coffee shop was inspired by a book that Kagan’s girlfriend gave him, Soviet Space Dogs by Olessya Turkina. The word Sputnik can be any of a series of Soviet satellites. The word also means, traveling companion and for the two Russian brothers and four friends, this is relevant because they are immigrants from Russia, Ireland and Ukraine.
Sputnik is at 2057 W. 51st Street and the coffee shop is open every day until six in the afternoon.