The Chicago Cafe That Wants To Decolonize Your Cup – CoffeeTalk

Anticonquista Cafe in Pilsen, Chicago, is a sanctuary that honors the workers responsible for harvesting coffee cherries from a mountain farming community that straddles Guatemala and Honduras. The cafe opened in March and serves as a sanctuary for Chicagoans from the Central American diaspora to eat Guatemalan conchas filled with sweet black bean paste or guava and cheese, or sip their pristine cups of cafe de olla scented with a hint of cardamom, knowing their money is going directly to support the coffee farmers’ work.

Co-owner Elmer Fajardo Pacheco sees an opportunity to impact an industry in which the work of Black and brown farmers in coffee-growing regions all over the globe is often exploited by multinational corporations. For Fajardo Pacheco and his wife and business partner, Lauren Reese, Anticonquista is a vehicle for narrowing knowledge gaps in the global coffee industry. They pay employees more than Chicago’s minimum wage, including $11.02 per hour for tipped workers. At Anticonquista, cashiers earn $18.50 an hour, while lead baristas make $21.50 per hour, plus tips. In the future, Fajardo Pacheco and Reese hope to offer medical and dental insurance, as well as invite employees with two or more years of service under their belts to visit the farm.

For customers, Anticonquista creates a space where the struggles of farmworkers and communities in Latin America are placed front and center in the conversation. The cafe features a coffee subscription program in which subscribers can earmark a portion of the inventory that’s harvested for their home supply, binding the consumer to the farmworker and the land.

This work is taking shape in Pilsen as a reclamation of a neighborhood that has seen an influx of chains and trendy restaurants and bars, while longtime residents, including Latinos, feel left out of the change. Fajardo Pacheco emphasizes the power that corporations have in small countries and how they are pushing many communities to migrate to other countries.

Anticonquista is part of an emerging fourth wave in coffee, driven by the ingenuity of global communities that have historically toiled the land for the profit of multinational corporations in the Western world. This wave includes first-wave coffee, which refers to industrial household brands, second-wave coffee, a nod to chains like Starbucks, and third-wave specialty roasters that pay careful attention to sourcing and focus on craft.

Communities in Chicago and beyond have already begun to embrace a culturally relevant approach, opening coffee shops that boast ingredients like piloncillo, Filipino ube, pistachios, cardamom, and Arab tea. In Pilsen alone, more than a dozen Latino-owned coffee shops have cropped up in recent years, perhaps an act of resistance to changes unfolding in the neighborhood that threaten to unravel the identity of the community.

Anticonquista joins cafes across the country to take things a step further by working directly with farmworkers. At Honduran restaurant Alma Cafe in New Orleans, helmed by James Beard-recognized chef Melissa Araujo, the subtle notes of milk chocolate, candied walnuts, and clementines dot a cup of the restaurant’s Soulmate roast. Alma procures its beans from Finca La Unica in Honduras. Vamonos!, a cafe and community space in Southwest Detroit, serves coffee from Comsa Detroit, also sourcing beans from a family farm in Honduras.

Fajardo Pacheco and Reese launched Anticonquista in 2019 and began operations in 2020 to import beans raised on the family farm to Chicago, where they could roast them and sell them at farmers markets, pop-ups, and with a bicycle equipped with a coffee cart. The operation expanded from a shared kitchen space to a private West Town production area in 2023 and upgraded from an 800-gram roaster that currently sits in the cafe to a 12-kilo roaster that allows for greater production and helps the couple realize a path to opening the physical cafe.

In April 2024, Dish Roulette Kitchen, the same small business support group that helped launch Rubi’s Taco down 18th Street, contacted the couple to inform them there was a space for the cafe at 18th and Morgan. The nonprofit had secured funding through Chicago’s Commercial Corridor Storefront Activation Program, which helps place small business owners into vacant spaces, and provided assistance that eventually led to a signed lease.

Anticonquista’s 1,000-square-foot space has seating for 30, and the couple is working with the landlord to come up with an area to sit outside along 18th and Morgan. On a recent weekend, the cafe filled quickly with local artists, friends on casual coffee dates, and cyclists wrapping up a cross-city ride.

Central American flavors punch up American cafe staples, such as bagel with cream cheese, curtido, cherry cheese danishes, birthday cake, and glazed brioche doughnuts. Guatemalan conchas from local food vendor Hierbita Buenita are available on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The cardamom in the coffee comes directly from the family farm in Guatemala, whenever it’s in season.

Anticonquista is all about drawing these connections between the labor of farmworkers and the coffee we drink to meet the public’s demand for more transparency. “I think the best way to bridge these gaps is to make changes in the coffee industry that allow more autonomy and direct relationships from those that work the land to consumers,” says Fajardo Pacheco.

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