A brand new all-day cafe and bakery called Loaf Lounge is making its way to the resurging Avondale, located at 2934 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The “bread-centric” cafe comes from husband-wife duo Sarah Mispagel and Ben Lustbader, who has worked at some well-known Chicago restaurants. Loaf Lounge will serve various freshly baked pastries and bread, all made in-house, as well as sandwiches, soups, and salads. As for drinks, guests can expect coffee from Logan Square’s Four Letter Word in the morning, and beer, wine, and batched cocktails at night. The new cafe is expected to open sometime in Summer 2022, according to Block Club Chicago.
Mispagel, who has worked at mk, Nightwood, and Sepia; and Lustbader, known for working at Lula Cafe, Nightwood, Giant, and Chef’s Special Cocktail Bar, have spent the past year doing pop-ups out of friends’ restaurants under the Loaf Lounge moniker. Despite years of collecting valuable individual experience in various restaurants throughout Chicago, this will be the couple’s first restaurant together.
“Bakeries did really well during the pandemic; fast-casual, too,” Mispagel tells Block Club Chicago. “So we realized that this is a thing we wanted to do for as long as we can remember. Even if life stays the way it was at the end of 2020, we’re working with a model we thought would be appropriate for that.”
