\
A selection tea pots is also for sale at Brooks Cafe. (Michelle Manchir/Tribune)
The owners of the little cafe in the lobby of Fountaindale Public Library are serving more than cherry danishes and iced coffee to their daily clientele.
Chris and Jennifer Peterson, the Bolingbrook couple who operate Brooks Cafe, are running the place with a socially conscious mindset – right down to the biodegradable forks made from potatoes they stock and the coffee beans they buy from a family company in Ottawa.
“We’re here to make money but also to help out,” said Chris Peterson, 34. “We see ourselves as a value added to service the community.”
To serve that goal, they sell mostly products from Illinois companies, and their six employees are all from the Bolingbrook area. The beef jerky sticks they sell are bought from a vendor that benefits burn victims and soldiers who fight overseas. The coffee cups are made of sugar cane and easily compostable. They even use an eco-friendly method to clean their counters.
“Anything that we can make eco-friendly, we have,” said Jennifer Peterson.
Those efforts may be lost on the café’s biggest clientele, though: little kids. Chris Peterson said they see a big demand especially from the middle-schoolers who attend nearby Brooks Middle school and are especially interested in the shop’s 75 cent cookies.
“You can’t keep enough of them,” said Jennifer Peterson.
Pies, coffee, tea, $5 boxed lunches, pies and other snacks fill out the menu. But patrons can also buy high-end tea pots, bags of coffee beans and cold lemonade.
The Petersons’ cafe concept was chosen among three vendors who contacted the library board with a proposal, said library board president Peggy Danhof.
“We were impressed with their knowledge of the Bolingbrook community and also the products they would offer,” Danhof said. “They are a wonderful addition.”
The Petersons aren’t new to the business. They ran a tea shop in Naperville in 2008, but the economic recession shuttered it about a year later. Now, Brooks Cafe serves as supplemental income for the pair. Jennifer Peterson also works, and volunteers, for Girls Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. The couple also has two young daughters.
Chris Peterson said the couple is looking to expand to other libraries in the area, in addition to getting involved in the community. They’re considering assisting with Valley View School District’s STEP program for young adults with disabilities, helping students learn the ins and outs of running a business, said Jennifer Peterson.
For now, both Petersons look forward to the August completion of the new library’s parking lot, hoping it will bring in more traffic to the shop.
“It holds its own,” Chris Peterson said, adding that keeping the place open is a life-long dream of sorts.
“Neither one of us ever wanted to take orders,” he said. “We always kind of saw outside the box. The only way we can do that is to do it on your own.”
Go to Brooks Cafe website for more information and view the menu.
