‘We get it right from Texas’: Summer Moon Coffee landing in Wheaton

With beans roasted where “the stars at night are big and bright,” Summer Moon Coffee made its Illinois debut in Crystal Lake.

“Most coffee is roasted over a gas flame, and ours is over an open flame of Texas oak. So it just creates for a really smooth, never-bitter coffee experience,” said Emily Moffitt, who, with her husband, Jesse, opened the homey shop near the Three Oaks Recreation Area.

Three years later, the couple will soon introduce Wheaton to that distinctive wood-fired coffee from the Lone Star State.

“We were looking for another great, vibrant community to go next, and we fell in love with this space in Wheaton, right on Butterfield Road,” Jesse Moffitt said.

The Wheaton shop — only the second Summer Moon Coffee in Illinois — will go in a prime space across from the Danada Forest Preserve trail system and Rice Lake. It’s close to lots of shopping, but “just missing great, great coffee,” Jesse Moffitt said.

The couple will replicate the inviting, comfortable feel of the Crystal Lake shop. Touches of wallpaper, wainscoting and globe lighting add to the warmth. Coloring books are available for kids. And y’all, there’s a chessboard.

“It’s not as big as Wheaton will be, but we've tried to make it a place where people can still sit for a while,” Emily Moffitt said.

A fireplace, brick, white oak and photos all pay tribute to the coffee roasting process.

“We get it right from Texas every single week, and it's fresh and quality controlled, and it's fantastic product,” Jesse Moffitt said.

They also have a selection of muffins, cookies and other sweets to pair with a cup of joe. And, in Wheaton, they will offer gluten-free options from Rosie’s Gluten Free Sweets. The Crystal Lake bakery makes gluten-free muffins, oatmeal cream pies, whoopie pies, cookies, pop tarts and more.

Wheaton customers also will see breakfast wraps on the menu. The Moffitts get those from the Eggville Cafe, a nearby restaurant in Cary. The sausage, egg and cheese wrap and a version with chorizo are so popular that they typically sell out in Crystal Lake.

Sticking with the lunar theme, Moon Milk is Summer Moon’s rich, sweet cream and featured prominently in its winter lineup: pistachio mocha moon latte, cold brew topped with pistachio cold foam and a latte with the flavors of the best kind of pie — pecan.

“It's definitely like a dessert. It's delicious,” Emily Moffitt said of the latter.

The couple discovered the coffee through her sister in Texas. You could say they were left moonstruck.

“When we would visit, we’d always check out her favorite coffee shop, which happened to be Summer Moon,” Emily Moffitt said.

The company launched in the early 2000s and went on to expand with franchising outside of Texas. The couple decided “we want to get in” and opened the Crystal Lake shop in 2023.

They’re hands-on, and they complement each other. He is also vice president of operations for a company called Grand Appliance. She is a former teacher, stayed home for a number of years while their kids were young and went back to school and became a nurse.

“We knew about Summer Moon for a long time, and then when we saw them franchise, and that the franchise model was very successful, we thought, ‘This makes a ton of sense,’” Jesse Moffitt said.

“Emily's background, dealing with people and just kind of those service-type careers, and then my background with operational efficiencies, I think, lent itself well to starting this business and really being successful.”

Building on that success, they plan to open the Wheaton shop in March. The space became available when Chipotle moved to another site. The city approved a new feature — a drive-through — paving the way for Summer Moon in a multi-tenant building.

“I would have never guessed that years and years ago, we'd be business partners, but I think it's been a fun adventure,” Emily Moffitt said, “and we work well together.”