In many ways, necessary & sufficient coffee—which has a drive-in window at 3624 W. Wrightwood Ave. and a larger sit-down space at 728 S. Dearborn St.—is like other cafes. It has a friendly vibe as well as an enticing selection of food and beverages (including sweet corn milk tea, hot cocoa and a slew of coffees, of course).
But take a deeper look and there’s a business devoted to sustainability, social interaction and paying it forward. Entrepreneur/artist Kate Vrijmoet—a member of the LGBTQ+ community who arrived in Chicago from Seattle—takes all of those concepts quite seriously while hosting events such as an upcoming one-inch button party and allowing local, women-owned businesses such as Tropicake to sell items at the Printers Row location. A conversation with a vivacious but candid Vrijmoet proved to be enlightening (such as telling me that avocado toast originated in San Francisco).
NOTE: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: I have to start by asking what your reaction to the presidential election is, especially being a member of the queer community.
Kate Vrijmoet: I felt a little dissociated so I’m not feeling all the feels right now because I’ve kinda left my body. I have some anxiety. I keep telling my employees he’s not president yet in this very moment and that you’re going to be okay for the next couple of months so take a deep breath—and I’m trying to follow the same advice. I keep trying to make sense of something that I’ll probably never be able to understand.
I am concerned, especially watching the rhetoric around trans people and knowing Nazi history and how that eventually [engulfs] everybody. I’m going to have to figure out what I can do to help the queer community. Here in Illinois, we’re in a blue bubble and I always seem to have lived in blue bubbles so I don’t have the perspective of someone who lives in a red state.
When I opened the other cafe [in Logan Square], it was a reaction to Trump. As a full-time working artist in social change, and as someone who’s studied adaptive leadership and social justice, who opened a studio in Logan Square and who’s held events, I know that activating a space brings people together. They don’t have their own agenda so they can be in touch with each other’s humanity.
I know that, as a person with lighter skin, it’s almost impossible for me to see my privilege although I know I have it. I can’t fix Trump; I can’t fix what he’s doing. But I know how to activate a space and help people protect each other’s humanity without an agenda. I walked around and asked people what they wanted; they all said a coffee shop. As an artist, I spend at least 50% of my time doing research so I got a training certificate, took a bunch of business classes and took time to understand the ethos of specialty coffee, which is very inclusive, equitable and sustainable—and those match my own values. And I love the scientific aspect of it, too—learning about water molecules and the chemistry of water.
I really was very naive. I thought that I’d be slinging lattes from seven to 10 in the morning, and then painting in my studio. And I never learned how to get along well with others or play nicely in the sandbox with the other kids.
WCT: Really?
KV: Because, even as a young child, I was who I was so I was always being disruptive. But I now had to hire people and learn how to manage them, and I had to learn to get along with them and with customers. It was a massive personal-growth exercise. As an artist, I was pretty much a snob about art and I would never consider participating in an art fair.
WCT: So what changed your mind?
KV: Well, I was learning about money exchanging hands. So when I’m done with the coffee shop [having signed a decade-long lease last year for the Printers Row location], I can take my knowledge to my artist colleagues.
WCT: I’ve always been curious about how people come up with the names of their businesses. How did you come up with “necessary & sufficient?”
KV: I was on the board of CoCA [the Center on Contemporary Art] in Seattle and I was on the curatorial committee. I brought together some mathematicians to curate a show called “The Intersection of Art + Math.” One of the mathematicians did contact improv, which is like improv with dancing—you move in a way that’s very trusting of your fellow dancers. She wanted to produce a performance piece for the exhibit and we said, “Great!”—and the piece was called “necessary & sufficient,” and I wasn’t familiar with that phrase. I started applying it to all areas of my life, and I just thought it was beautiful and elegant. I might see something and want it. Is it necessary? Yes. Is it sufficient? No.
It turns out that it’s a term used in advanced algebra and accounting where both conditions have to be met for something to be true.
WCT: Tell me about this pay-it-forward-for-coffee policy you have. It’s also called “caffe sospeso,” right?
KV: Yes! I love this program. For us, this started in the pandemic, when we went cashless, which we knew created inequities. There are people who have jobs and can pay who don’t have bank accounts and ATM cards—so it doesn’t stop that part of the inequity. If someone comes up to the register with no means to pay or they only have cash, we just say, “Don’t worry about it.” This only covers drinks, but someone will ask, “What do you mean ‘don’t worry about it?’” We say, “Someone else has already paid for your coffee.” So there’s this fund for people who need it.
I used to spend a lot of time tracking each penny but it always balanced out, in the end. It’s at both locations. But doesn’t it make sense? If somebody has the ability but just doesn’t have the means that day, then why not?
WCT: Tell me about the upcoming “Hot One-Inch Button Party.” It sounds interesting.
KV: I love this event; I’ve done it before, although I didn’t invent it. It’s a way of making a great social interaction without all the social stress. I also love the serendipity, joy and whimsy of it. Since I have the space, we focus on sustainability—economic, ecological and social. You can be together and apart at the same time; you can be around other people even if you’re rusty with your social skills. We’re connected, even if it’s just being around other people. I’ve learned a lot from research, such as the origin of avocado toast. Do you know the origin of it?
WCT: No, I don’t.
KV: It started at a coffee shop in San Francisco. I was curating a traveling exhibit, “The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human,” and it was about destigmatizing mental health by talking about it. In my research I came across this article in The San Francisco Chronicle about [the cafe] Trouble Coffee but it was mainly about a woman with schizoaffective disorder who displayed tattoos at a time when they were not shown. She opened a coffee shop and only carried things that made her feel right in her body, so it had coconut water, grapefruit juice, avocado toast and coffee; that was the whole menu. And she didn’t have any seats; people would line up and, as a result, neighbors got to meet neighbors. That was the intention behind my other cafe—and that was exactly what happened. I want to sustain the community.
WCT: Is there anything you want to add?
KV: Yes. We have a silent community partnership with the Center on Halsted. And we’re living wage-for-U.S.-certified. The living wage in Cook County is $27.30/hour, so with base pay, portion of health insurance, benefits and tips, our employees make $27.30 or I supplement their paychecks.
Also, if you bring in your own container to our locations, you get a sustainability discount.
The Hot One-Inch Button Party—in which people buy and trade the tiny art of dozens of different local artists reproduced on one inch buttons—will take place Thursday, Nov. 14, 4-8 p.m. at 728 S. Dearborn St.. In addition, a Printers Row scavenger hunt will take place Nov. 16-24, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., while DJ Roads Clear provides vibes on Saturdays at 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Also, the next silent reading/writing night will take place on Thursday, Dec. 5, 6-8 p.m.