Stephanie Barto
April 22, 2014
In my travels as a Chicago photographer, I love discovering the unique and sometimes quirky businesses that lend character to our city’s neighborhoods. I thought it would be fun to focus specifically on one type of business, and each week feature an example from a different neighborhood. After some consideration, I decided on an exploration of our city’s barber shops and the people who work there.
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Stephanie Barto
February 7, 2014
The Noble Horse, located at 1410 N. Orleans in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, is one of our city’s most unique historic venues. Noble Horse is currently Chicago’s last remaining Riding Hall, and also serves as headquarters for one of the city’s most popular carriage rides services.
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Stephanie Barto
December 20, 2013
Kusanya Café, an inline espresso bar and gallery located at 825 W. 69th Street, opened last month to a flurry of press intrigued that someone would launch such a business venture in Englewood. Writers described it as a “rare sit-down dining experience” in the neighborhood, and expressed curiosity about management’s decision to not install bulletproof glass.
Four years passed between the initial idea of opening Kusanya Cafe and its debut on November 19, 2013. Those years were fraught with multiple instances of absentee commercial property owners backing out of lease negotiations, and banks refusing to lend money for the venture. Kusanya’s eventual success relied heavily upon Kickstarter funding and the rallying of resources within the neighborhood.
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John Morris
April 18, 2013
The typography and striking color of the 1970s building in the photo above was one of the first things I noticed about the Albany Park neighborhood. After speaking with some of the mechanics that worked there, I learned something a little humorous about the place. Notice anything unusual on the mounted yellow sign?
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