Meet us where specialty coffee is brewed for good
The mission at Whirlwind Coffee Company is to make really good coffee at a fair price and, perhaps most importantly, to give back.
At this small-batch roastery, 100 percent of net profits are given to charities and communities in need. The planet is also top of mind for this independent, family-owned business that uses an environmentally friendly roaster.
The name Whirlwind is a nod to the elixir that coffee can be when life throws its unpredictable wrenches in our path.
That’s an experience that owner David Silverstein certainly understands. His late wife, Elana, died in 2012 due to a tragic medical mistake, leaving behind David and their young daughter, Maya.
It took some years to patch their life back together and, along the way, David relied on a bit of caffeine and a newfound passion for roasting green beans. Today, Whirlwind is a father-daughter business where craft coffee is brewed for the purpose of giving back.
Whirlwind is open Monday through Friday from 7:30am to 2:30pm and Saturday from 9am to 1pm. (Closed Sunday.)
Pick up a variety of specialty coffee beans at Whirlwind for about $16. You can also grab a coffee drink and pastry!
David Silverstein operates his craft coffee shop on a motto repeated by his late wife, Elana. “Every day I just try to be a good person,” she once said.
That’s what Silverstein does at Whirlwind, a business he operates with the help of his young daughter, Maya.
Stop by the shop to see if David is roasting green beans behind the counter in his small-batch roaster!
The shop itself is a bit of a guide to David and his team.
Operating out of a building built in 1920 for the Gilchrist Hardware Store, Silverstein refurbished the space but retained the sentiment of the original owner, Andrew Gilchrist, who was known to drop everything if someone in the community needed plumbing or hardware help.
Silverstein now strives to maintain the Gilchrist legacy of “community first”.
Located at 513 Madison Street in Oak Park, Whirlwind is just over a half-mile walk from both the Harlem/Lake Stop on the CTA Green Line and the Jackson Stop on the “L” Blue Line.
