The smell of coffee beans greets my nose as I walk through the doorway into a tight plastic shelter at Colectivo Coffee, 2530 N. Clark. There’s no door to the makeshift structure, which is probably seven or eight square feet. The chill leaves my body as soon as I step under the temporary roof and hold the door open for the person behind me.

A pastry case displays aesthetically-stacked scones, croissants, and muffins from Milwaukee-based Troubadour Bakery, and only two out of thirteen seats in the compact indoor space are empty. Vibrant hues of blue and orange advertise Rwandan coffee, Letterbox tea, Italian sodas, and smoothies to patrons lined up into the unusually cold, wet late-May weather–45 degrees and sprinkling.

Six baristas and a manager flit around behind the busy counter, pouring coconut milk, adding sweeteners, and filling tissue paper-lined metal baskets with soups, sandwiches, and chips.

“Alex, I have your Rwanda pour-over at the bar,” one says, placing the drink on the counter. Alex, a tall twenty-something with close-cropped blond hair, claims his drink, laptop in hand, and goes outside to a bright green metal table to continue working.

Two minutes later I walk through the back of the small indoor café and out the usually-open double doors, piping-hot mug of coffee in hand. Steam wafts from the near-jet-black drink and joins the cacophony of voices drowning out the peppy music playing throughout the space.

Patrons at this time, 10:30 a.m. on a Sunday, are mostly white, millenial women attired in jeans or leggings and a light spring jacket, though there are a few men and families interspersed throughout the wooden tables. Many customers are working–the typical setup at any given table is a coffee, a pastry, and a laptop or book–but some catch up with friends or debate with their families. Customers seated in this area are protected by a plastic tarp that extends around the entire rectangular section, and the air is warm thanks to the heat lamps on the ceiling.

Opened in May 2017, the Lincoln Park Colectivo Coffee was the first to be opened in Chicago. According to the website, the chain’s name was inspired by colorful, artistic public transportation buses in Latin America, called “colectivos.” Originally based out of Milwaukee, the 18-café chain boasts hand-roasted beans, collaboration with co-ops and farmers, and made-from-scratch food. The beans themselves are sourced from nine countries spanning four continents–Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malawi, Mexico, and Rwanda.

In addition to its artisan options, according to manager Maelen Kloskey, who, after working at Ground Round and Quaker Steak and Lube in Wisconsin has worked at Colectivo Lincoln Park since its debut, the team shares a unique camaraderie. “I would say the atmosphere and the café staff itself has better teamwork than I had at any other customer-service job,” Kloskey said. “The team just works super well here, everyone’s super friendly, and it makes the shifts run so much smoother.”

One week later, the scene at Colectivo Coffee is both different and similar. It’s hot now, the first true summer day Chicago has seen all year. The plastic sheet is gone, leaving only a black awning with bright blue-and-green letters bearing the café’s name. The air-conditioned indoors provides refuge from the sweltering combination of heat and humidity. The heat lamps in the partially-covered section are no longer in use, but there are three burnt-orange umbrellas sheltering the exposed metal tables from the sun. The smell of coffee is less prominent, but the conversation persists as cars, trucks, and buses whiz by on Clark Street.

“Summer is our busiest time of the year,” Kloskey said. “Winter is a little slower, and the Lincoln Park café is a little slower than normal cafés because most of our restaurant is outside, with the big patio.”

Indeed, the patio, which last week was nearly empty, is bustling with diners enjoying their food, people working, headphones in and music on, and baristas sporting casual uniforms: a blue t-shirt that says “coffee” in black letters with a black star, a green t-shirt with a pink skull, or a red t-shirt that says “Colectivo” in blue script, with black jeans or leggings and a black apron.

Colectivo customer Jordan Gross frequently sits at the fire pit in the back of the patio with a coffee and book–today it’s a bottled cold brew and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah.” “I love the feeling of this place,” Gross said. “I moved here five months ago, during the winter, so the patio wasn’t open–I would just get a hot coffee and then leave. Now I like to stay and enjoy the weather. Sometimes on the weekends I spend the entire day here without realizing it.”

Despite Colectivo’s success in its first year of business, the green awning across the street is noticeable to everyone at the café, patrons and baristas alike. The Starbucks at 2525 ½ N. Clark opens an hour before Colectivo does each morning and offers many of the same amenities that Colectivo does: food, free WiFi, and outdoor seating, as well as far more indoor space. The chain has built up a dedicated following since its 1971 founding, and several Parker students prefer it over Colectivo, including junior Sarah-Jayne Austin.

“I’ve been going there longer,” Austin said. “I go and do homework there every single day after school. I’d say that the main reasons I like Starbucks better are because I know the people there more, the drinks there are actually cheaper than the ones at Colectivo, although the people who go to Colectivo say otherwise, and I would say that I’m not a big coffee person, so I’m not really choosing my coffee shop based on the quality of the coffee. And then the other thing is that during the school year, it’s more often cold, and I think Colectivo is a lot less fun when it’s wrapped up in a bubble.”

Kloskey doesn’t see Starbucks having a significant impact on business at Colectivo. “I think we affect them more than they affect us,” Kloskey said. “I’ve definitely had people who come in here and say that they like our coffee better than Starbucks, multiple times.”