It’s not unusual for a store to add a coffee bar but what North Shore native Dan Weiss did with his Dollop General Store & Café is next level.
The innovative concept—unveiled earlier this year in the Albion building in downtown Evanston—offers the stellar Dollop coffee and housemade pastry service, but with a twist. Guests at the Dollop General Store are also able to shop for household necessities and favorites such as beer and wine, local Ice cream pints, breakfast cereals, snacks, everyday pantry items, and more.
“We were excited to bring this to this area of Evanston, which lacks an accessible grocery store,” says Weiss, who also brought the Dollop coffee and Hoosier Mama Pie concept to Evanston nearly a decade ago. The 20th location in Weiss’s Dollop family, the new concept marries an old-fashioned general store with Dollop’s signature coffee bar, pastries, and donuts— featuring such new specialty coffee/tea drinks as the Orange Creamsicle Cold Brew (cold brew, orange zest, oat milk, and vanilla), Blue Milk Latte (vanilla mint, cold brewed pea flower tea, cold foam oat milk), and a refreshing Strawberry Lemongrass Matcha (strawberry lemon grass blend, matcha tea, and oat milk).
Weiss, a graduate of Roycemore Prep High School, was a regular at several extinct, classic Evanston cafes such as Cafe Express, Cafe Ambiance, and Potion Liquid Lounge. Dollop General Store & Café captures some of that café nostalgia which also providing a needed resource to this area of Evanston.
“I spent a lot of time in Evanston and a teenager and young adult and have really dreamed of bringing something unique and needed to this community,” he says.
Dollop General Store & Café is located at 1508 Sherman Avenue in the Albion Evanston building. For more information, call 224-307-2163 or visit dollopcoffee.com/locations/general-store-cafe-location.
