Dark Matter Coffee Opens Caravanserai Mexican Drinking Chocolate Cafe | Eater Chicago

"The new Avondale cafe from Dark Matter will focus on Mexican drinking chocolate and features a pour-over bar highlighting unusual recipes and techniques from Mexico City–based partner La Rifa Chocolatería, as well as a Leva pull espresso bar and a full drink menu. Staff will concoct uncommon, chocolate-forward drinks made from pre-colonial recipes that eschew milk in favor of ground cocoa, sugar, and water aerated by hand to create a more traditional chocolate style. The food program includes a daily rotating menu of tamales from Otoniel Michel of Estrella Negra and his signature pozole on weekends, plus a playful selection of sweets and pastries from local partners. The bright, colorful space seats about 60 at low and high-top tables with four spots along a tall, tiled espresso bar, is dotted with potted desert plants, and is decorated with vivid, hyper-realistic murals by Jason Brammer inspired by Mexico’s San Cristóbal and additional murals by Ceaser Perez and Rodrigo Oñate Roco (including a snarling panther in the restroom)." - Naomi Waxman