When Michael and Helen Cameron opened their coffee kiosk inside the Century Mall almost 12 years ago, there was just one snag: Chicago didn’t offer a business license for coffee carts. So the Camerons finagled an arrangement with the Chicago Department of Health, which “agreed to let us share a three-compartment sink and a hand sink with a restaurant in the mall,” says Michael. But they still had problems. “They’d threaten to close us down every time an inspector came by who wasn’t familiar with our arrangement.” Between the inspection hassles and the low profits, the couple started thinking they’d be better off opening a stand-alone operation.
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Then one night in January 1991, strapped for cash, they headed to the Subway at Grace and Clark with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. Those turned out to be the best sandwiches of their lives. “We looked up and noticed this boarded-up space across the street,” says Michael. “We walked over and looked in, called the number on the sign, the landlord happened to be in the neighborhood and let us in.” The single-room storefront was perfect: they could use the walls as gallery space and set up a stage for local musicians, and there was plenty of room for sidewalk seating.
In spring 1991–just as Uncommon Ground was about to open–they were approached by Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, who was in the process of converting the former public library branch at Randolph and Michigan into the Chicago Cultural Center. “She was looking for an espresso bar to go into the lobby and asked if we’d be interested,” says Michael. With a city official taking an interest, Chicago finally created a coffee cart license. “She had all the heads of the departments involved, and they pushed through a license so we could open when the building opened” in October.
Uncommon Ground is at 1214 W. Grace, 773-929-3680.
