Afro Joes Coffee & Tea

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Research record

Afro Joes Coffee & Tea · Staged record CTL-PL-0207 · Entity Depth Program · 748 words · Evidence grade: VERIFIED (canonical master, carried unchanged) · Researched 2026-10-25

Afro Joes Coffee & Tea began, the way a lot of South Side institutions begin, with a frustration. Kendall Griffin could not find the perfect specialty cup of coffee in his own neighborhood, so in 2020 he and his wife Aisha Griffin opened one themselves in Auburn Gresham — in the middle of the pandemic. Eater Chicago's August 2021 account, written when the shop stood on South Halsted, called the roomy café a neighborhood beacon: caramel lattes and a Cinnabon mocha, breakfast sandwiches and signature pastries called Afro Puffs, a seasonally changing menu built around items like avocado toast, salmon BLTs, house-made lemonades and iced teas, and a South Side short-rib grilled cheese whose beef is braised twenty-four hours in cola and served on sourdough. A garage-door window opened the art-filled room to the street, the space hosted live music, and the Griffins roasted and sold their own coffee blends for home brewing, named to honor Black Chicago — a Harold Washington blend and a DuSable blend. When the shop was hit by two burglaries that August, the owners called them minor setbacks and said they felt safe. The CTL graph records Kendall and Aisha Griffin as the shop's founders, and Afro Joes appears in the graph on a list of Black-owned coffee shops.

The Auburn Gresham lease was not renewed, and the shop's second act turned out better than its first plan. The Griffins had been preparing a second location in Beverly, taking over the café space at 1818 W. 99th Street from City Grange; when City Grange could not stay, it offered them the whole space, in Aisha Griffin's words at the perfect time. The Beverly Area Planning Association's business spotlight — the source that verifies this CTL record, published September 30, 2022 — documents the relocated shop as a staple of Beverly/Morgan Park for work-from-homers, commuters, and neighbors, and quotes the philosophy directly: bring community together, and host events that provide information not typically available in our communities. Every event runs under one of four charters named by the owners: Maternal Health, Children's Literacy, Supporting Living Artists, and Building Community.

The menu keeps the first neighborhood on the wall of the second. Alongside the Auburn Gres-Ham Panini and the Bronzeville Breakfast Sandwich, the shop's current menu runs a Chatham Cheese, an Englewood Sandwich, an Ashburn Avocado Toast, an Out West Wrap, a Beverly BLT, and a Vincennes Veggie Wrap — a lunch counter that doubles as a gazetteer of Black Chicago, each sandwich a place-name a South Sider can navigate by. It is a small thing and not a small thing: the Griffins built a menu that teaches the geography of the community it feeds, in the community's own names.

Regional food media ratified the shop early and kept the endorsement after the move. Eater Chicago's map of the city's best coffee shops calls Afro Joe's "a revelation" since the Griffins opened in Auburn Gresham — great food, quality coffee, and "a community gathering space; places like this are sorely needed in the neighborhood" — and notes that in Beverly they have continued to perfect the formula. That is the through-line of the documented record: the address changed in 2022; the formula — serious food and drink, house-roasted blends named for Black Chicagoans, programming organized under four community charters — did not.

The programming gives the charters dates on a calendar: a First Friday open mic night, Saturday Soul Sessions, Sunday Tabernacle house music, teacher appreciation days, birthing classes, and a small-business pop-up in the courtyard each October, the shop's anniversary month. A monthlong Artist in Residency program puts local art on the walls, all of it for sale, with a Wine Down with the Artist evening for the maker to explain the work. The menu itself does cultural mapping: Aisha Griffin built it from her own recipes, and its sandwiches read as a tour of Black Chicago — the Auburn Gres-Ham panini, the Bronzeville Breakfast Sandwich, the Southside Short Rib Grilled Cheese — alongside sweet potato drinks, cheesecakes, and a sweet potato Afro Puff. Aisha Griffin describes the café as an extension of their home; the couple has four kids, and both owners can be found in the shop on any given day. CTL holds Afro Joes as a VERIFIED place record: a Black-owned Chicago coffee house founded in Auburn Gresham in 2020, relocated to Beverly/Morgan Park in 2022, and run, deliberately, as a neighborhood living room with a mission statement it actually schedules.

Sources for this record

• Business Spotlight on Afro Joe's — Beverly Area Planning Association (Kristin Boza)
  Claims supported: Kendall and Aisha Griffin started the shop in Auburn Gresham in 2020 after Kendall's frustration finding a specialty cup in his neighborhood; moved to 1818 W. 99th St. after the flagship lease was not renewed, taking over the whole City Grange space; four event charters (Maternal Health, Children's Literacy, Supporting Living Artists, Building Community); Artist in Residency program and Wine Down with the Artist; First Friday open mic, Saturday Soul Sessions, Sunday Tabernacle House Music, birthing class, October anniversary pop-up; Aisha Griffin's own recipes and the café as an extension of the family home; published September 30, 2022.
• An Auburn-Gresham Coffeeshop Delivers Serious Food and Drink for the Community — Eater Chicago (Ashok Selvam)
  Claims supported: Opened during the pandemic by Aisha and Kendall Griffin; roomy Auburn Gresham café on South Halsted described as a neighborhood beacon; caramel lattes, Cinnabon mocha, breakfast sandwiches, Afro Puffs; seasonally changing menu with avocado toast, salmon BLTs, house-made lemonades and iced teas; South Side short-rib grilled cheese braised 24 hours in cola on sourdough; garage-door window, art-filled space hosting live music; house-roasted blends honoring Harold Washington and DuSable; two August burglaries described by the owners as minor setbacks.
• Afro Joe's Coffee & Tea — Online Ordering Menu — Toast (the shop's ordering platform)
  Claims supported: Current menu carries sandwiches named for Chicago neighborhoods and South Side geography, including the Auburn Gres-Ham Panini, South Side Short Rib Grilled Cheese, Chatham Cheese, Out West Wrap, Ashburn Avocado Toast, Englewood Sandwich, Beverly BLT, and Vincennes Veggie Wrap, and a pastry case built around Afro Puffs.
• Chicago's Best Coffee Shops — Eater Chicago (Ashok Selvam)
  Claims supported: Eater Chicago's best-coffee-shops map: Afro Joe's 'a revelation' since the Griffins opened in Auburn Gresham, praised for food, coffee, and community gathering space ('places like this are sorely needed in the neighborhood'), and continued in Beverly.

Citations

Published October 25, 2026, from the head-verified staged record in the Entity Depth Program (Batches 001–003). Source: CultureTechLens