Post Market Place Café opens in downtown Waukegan; ‘We're always making things fresh'

Chicago Tribune

08-04-2025

Part of the mission of Post Market Place and its parent company, the not-for-profit Adelante Center for Entrepreneurship, is providing healthy food for people, whether at a restaurant or a food pantry.
Ken Barber, Adelante's executive director, said microgreens for the salads and sandwiches at the Post Market Place Café in downtown Waukegan come from a hydroponic farm on Chicago's West Side — Garfield Produce Company — which is also owned by Adelante.
'We have a variety of healthy, salads, sandwiches and snacks,' Char Barnes, the Post Market Place Café manager, said. 'Our bread and pastries come from a gourmet bakery. We're always making things fresh.'
The Post Market Place Café cut a ribbon for its grand opening Monday in downtown Waukegan three months after a November soft opening gave the coffee shop and eatery an opportunity to tweak its offerings based on customer feedback.
Open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, Barnes said customers can order online or in the café. Online orders are ready when they arrive. Salads and sandwiches are available as grab-and-go options, and a meal like a bagel with egg and bacon can be prepared quickly.
'We got a chance to learn what people wanted,' Barnes said. 'We curated our menu based on what we heard. A lot of people want a healthy option. They were bringing lunch from home. Now they come here.'
Both Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor and Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward, said at the opening that the new café will both offer a new option to people who work nearby, as well as a reason to come to the downtown area.
'These nutritious salads and sandwiches bring a much-needed addition to downtown,' Taylor said. 'This will bring more people to downtown.'
'This is a great lunch for people who work here,' Newsome added. 'It's a new opportunity for lunch.'
While restaurants offer a variety of side dishes with their main course, at the Post Market Place Café a fruit cup comes with breakfast sandwiches, while fruit and chips are added for lunch. Salads and sandwiches are made in the kitchen and then placed in the grab-and-go fixture.
Along with the Post Market Place Café, Barber said the organization operates the Post Pantry in North Chicago. It is a combination online grocery store and a food pantry. Donations come from a variety of places including the Northern Illinois Food Bank. If a patron wants fresh produce, there is an option.
'They place their order online. If they want a (fresh) produce item, they click on the other side and purchase it,' Barber said. 'Then can use SNAP,' he added, referring to the federal food assistance program.
Part of the effort to help low-income individuals eat healthier comes through education. Barber said Adelante runs the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) camp program on hydroponic farming each summer in conjunction with Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 and Abbott.
'A lot of the diet of low-income families is cultural,' Baber said. 'We need culinary education for parents. It needs to start in high school, and even middle school. That's what we're trying to do with the camp. The children can help to educate their parents.'
Barber said he is working with Rosalind Franklin University to help provide 'food as medicine.' Should a doctor feel a specific diet is needed to complement treatment for a medical condition, his organization will provide the education and the food.