Summer is pretty much shot, so we’ve resumed our hunt for a home. We’re looking for an older single-family home and our agent said there were some candidates in neighborhoods like Logan Square, Avondale, Bridgeport and the Parks — Irving, Albany and Portage. Most of these neighborhoods are mysteries to us so we explored one or two yesterday.
Being first-time buyers we can’t afford to be too choosy about the kinds of amenities we want nearby but we had a couple of criteria. Our new home had to be close to an el stop, obviously, a good bar, and (were we pushing our luck?) a café.
We gazed at the front of a brownstone two-flat on the 2800-block of West Fletcher Street. I was a little uneasy about the vibe of the surrounding streets. There was a high ratio of hoopties to regular cars, (maybe I’m getting old?) a couple of industrial lots filled with trucks and music booming from a building of indeterminate business.
It wasn’t looking promising, but then we suddenly caught sight of what looked like a bar and stumbled toward what we hoped wasn’t a mirage. It was Kuma’s Corner, 2900 W Belmont Ave, a year-old bar with bronze tin ceilings, a small beer garden and a menu that includes mussels cooked in Belgian beer and this inventive $10 Make Your Own Mac & Cheese, with ingredients like prosciutto, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions and kitchen sinks.
The clientele was a mix of young couples, some with kids; Harley Davidson riders and a type I call “Lone Riders” (tattooed dudes who would like to own a Harley but can’t afford it or their wives won’t let them). In observance of the state’s quaint licensing laws, we made polite small talk and pretended to drink Coke until the clock struck noon and the bartender could respectably serve the $4 Bloody Marys, which were good, by the way.
We sipped our booze and decided they ought to have a category on those MLS home listing pages for great little neighborhood bars. And cafes, for that matter. We looked around for the mandatory cafe, and amid the cell-phone dealerships and truck yards, found MoJoe’s Hot House, 2849 W Belmont Ave. MoJoe’s, which also opened about a year ago, is a cute space with big comfy couches and a little stage for open mic nights. We’d hardly be urban pioneers in these parts; one entrepreneurial real estate agent has set up a sign at MoJoe’s offering a “free” mortgage quote and “free” pre-qualification along with a free hot drink from MoJoe’s (medium-size). Yes, he’s a tool for offering “free” consultations, but at least he understands the nexus between buying your first home and finding a good neighborhood café.
We left happy. We’re used to having a world of choices in neighborhoods like Wicker Park and Bucktown, but you know what was the nicest thing about our field trip? Instant seating and timely service.