Misericordia's new Hearts and Flour Bakery and Cafe opens in West Ridge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Things are really cooking at the new Misericordia Bakery and Café that employs people with disabilities.
The coffee and staff are so smooth, you'd never know the shop is only two weeks old.
CBS 2 first told you about plans for the new venture in December and now we went back to check in.
Morning Insider Lauren Victory discovers what went into designing the cute but complex business.
The amount of caffeine it took to create the Hearts and Flour Bakery and Cafe in the West Ridge neighborhood is immeasurable. The shiny new building was once a tired strip mall. Old Google Maps photos show the liquor shop, cleaners, and empty storefronts that used to call 6130 N Ravenswood Avenue home.
"Seeing kind of what's here now is a little bit of night and day," said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th).
He helped cut the ribbon on what's been five years of permitting and paperwork.
"They had to do a shadow study to make sure the height of the building wasn't going to throw off other places that were here," explained Vasquez.
Adding a drive-thru created even more challenges said Father Jack Clair. He is president and executive director of Misericordia, which owns the bakery.
"The footprint had to be a little bigger obviously to drive around. Plus, the parking spaces there are difference licenses required from the City and zoning requirements," said Clair, who adds that figuring out where trucks could park to deliver delicious ingredients was yet another hurdle.
It's enough planning to cook up a headache, but planning that benefits people like Jeff, a relative of Victory's.
"I love my new job," he said.
He works the register at the bakery, which is off-campus from Misericordia, a community for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"I greet people. I take people's orders," said Jeff, who has been a Misericordia resident since 2016. "It shows that I have skills to be able to do this more often."
Every sale at Hearts and Flour helps chip away at Misericordia's annual $25 million gap that's not covered by state or federal funding. Enjoying a nice breakfast there also helps pay Jeff and other Misericordia residents a minimum wage. It's nice spending money.
Jeff uses his to go on vacation and to buy his girlfriend some presents.
You'd never know from the outside, but the floor above the bakery is home to another job opportunity. Residents will be paid to create art that will then be auctioned off at various Misericordia fundraisers. That space is scheduled to be opened by the end of the month. Sometime in the future a third floor will house another money-making operation: packaging whole bean and ground coffee to be sold in the bakery.
