Thrd Coffee Is the Third Space Bucktown Needed
A multi-roaster shop born from a pandemic coffee cart that became a neighborhood fixture
Thrd is pronounced Third, a nod to the third wave coffee movement. Spend enough time there and you start reading it the other way too — as a third space, the kind of place that fills the gap between home and work and becomes the reason you leave the house on a Saturday morning.
Raoul Adwan founded Thrd in 2020 as a mobile coffee cart, born out of the pandemic when the usual rhythms of coffee culture had disappeared and people needed something to hold onto. Adwan has roots in Bolivia and traces the concept back to early childhood memories of coffee rituals, a thread he followed into specialty coffee work before landing here. The cart became a shop, the shop became a Bucktown fixture, and the space reflects how intentional the whole arc has been.
The interior is bright and light. White walls, bold branding, colored murals that give the room personality without overwhelming it. Not huge, but sized correctly for what it is — a place to have a good coffee, talk to a friend, or get some work done without feeling like you're imposing on a space that doesn't want you there.
Thrd is a multi-roaster shop, which means they curate rather than roast and the bean selection is worth exploring if you want to take something home. The baristas are well trained and the drinks are consistently good. Seasonal matcha drinks and flavored foams show up on the menu if that's the direction you want to go. Baked items are available on the sweet and savory side, sourced rather than made in house.
The location is the last thing worth mentioning and probably the most useful. Thrd sits along a cute stretch of Bucktown near the 606 trail entrance at Wicker Park. It is the coffee to grab before you walk the shops along the corridor on a nice day. That's a specific use case and it fits perfectly.
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