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New Elgin coffee house to feature from-scratch baked goods

A husband and wife team are opening a coffee house in downtown Elgin that will serve made-from-scratch pastries and sandwiches made with freshly baked bread.

Arabica Coffee is slated to open the second half of May at 59 Douglas Ave., owners Brian and Diane Stanton said.

It will serve a variety of roasts of Bridgetown Coffee shipped from Portland, Oregon, to be paired with different food items. Yes, "paired" as in pairing wine with cheese, the Stantons said.

"Mild coffee can be paired with a cinnamon roll or lemon bar, or maybe a cheese danish. Bold, strong coffee is paired with savory items," Diane Stanton said. "With medium coffee, pretty much anything goes."

Picking the perfect coffee for the Elgin store was the result of a long search, said Diane Stanton, who worked for Starbucks for 10 years as a store manager and operations specialist.

She started by sampling Intelligentsia Coffee, a Chicago-born favorite, but she wasn't convinced. "We kept looking and looking at looking, and found Bridgetown Coffee," she said. "The flavor is amazing."

The Stantons are particular about the wording - their place will be a coffee house not a coffee shop.

"Our concept is going to be specialty coffee and espresso drinks. We're going to have a bakery oven in front, in full view of customers, and the items - like our signature cinnamon roll - will go from the oven to the cooling rack to the front display."

The storefront held a Quinzos sandwich shop for about eight years and most recently the short-lived Sweets & More. Building owner Bruce Corn said he hopes the new coffee house will be successful.

"Is there a market? That's always the question," said Corn, who owns Razor's Edge barber shop two doors down."But I think there are a lot of people who don't want to go to the same place every day. I think it will be really good for the whole block."

The Stantons said they owned a similar coffee house and bakery in Bakersfield, California, for about 10 years; they moved to Elgin from Pennsylvania about three years ago for work-related reasons, and have since retired.

The couple said they are not worried that there are two coffee shops within a few blocks, Blue Box Cafe and Domani Cafe.

"Our concept is going to be just a little bit different, with the fact that will be having these artisan creations coming out of the bakery, and the coffee we're having roasted for us," Brian Stanton said.

Diane Stanton agreed. "I think there is a place for all three of us downtown."

  Arabica Coffee is slated to open in the second half of May at 59 Douglas Ave. in Elgin. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
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