LINCOLN SQUARE — They say when one door closes, another one opens, and that certainly seems to be the case for Julius Meinl.
Just weeks after shuttering its Ravenswood patisserie, the Vienna-based purveyor of coffee and refined European cafe culture hung a “Coming Soon” sign on a trio of Lincoln Square storefronts.
Staff are working to quickly convert the adjoining spaces at 1918-22 W. Montrose Ave. — formerly home to a tai chi studio and Sweet Sensations bakery — with a goal of opening the new Meinl coffeehouse and patisserie by mid-December, according to employee Kelly McAndrews.
The move kills two birds for Meinl, which was in the market for a site with more seating and less storage, essentially the opposite of its situation on Ravenswood, McAndrews said.
“We wanted to go where there was more visibility and foot traffic,” she added.
It will be a return in many ways to the type of presence Meinl once had in the neighborhood. The company ran a successful cafe at the corner of Montrose and Lincoln for nearly a decade before abruptly closing up shop in 2017.
“We can’t go out the door without someone being like, ‘Julius Meinl, oh my god,” said McAndrews. “People missed us.”
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