Every Monday through Friday between 5:30 and 9 a.m., 54 commuter trains rumble through Du Page County, squeaking noisily to a halt at their final destinations, Union and North Western Train Stations in Chicago.
The doors roll open and thousands of commuters-about 30,000 a day-scurry down the steps heading to offices tucked in the towering skyscrapers of downtown Chicago.
Many of these commuters would not even dream of making the trip without a cup of steaming black liquid variously known as java, cup a joe, caffeine, or just plain coffee to bolster them.
”I desperately need a cup of coffee,” groans one man as he bursts into Spice & Ezy, 528 Crescent Blvd., Glen Ellyn. It`s a coffee and gourment food emporium with a shiny black and white checkered floor, classical music melting in the background and vases of colorful flowers scattered throughout.
The harried commuter selects the special brew of the day, mocha java. Even its name sounds soothing and aromatic. But this man will not take time to savor the coffee`s rich qualities until he sinks gratefully into a seat aboard the train.
Like a skilled juggler, he manages to balance a briefcase, muffin and coffee cup as he glances at his wristwatch. A few seconds later, he is lunging hurriedly out the door.
This same scenario is taking place throughout the western suburbs at a variety of places. Coffee houses, a dairy store, restaurants, delicatessens, small counters set up inside train stations, and even a food and drink truck are in the brisk business of serving the commuter that first, essential jolt of the day.
At Spice & Ezy, as at all of these coffee places, there are regular customers who make stopping for a steaming cup of coffee as routine a part of their day as brushing their teeth.
Glen Ellyn resident Michele Pfister explained, ”I come every day. Besides the great coffee, it`s a nice atmosphere.” Adds another customer,
”It`s a real positive way to start the day.”
During the rush at Spice & Ezy, which one commuter called a town hub,
”people are literally lined up outside the door to get the muffins,” said Pfister.
In the pursuit of the early morning commuter business, owner Lynn Chalfont has engaged in an intensive, although not scientific study of the ritualistic behavior of the commuter.
”Commuters tend to have patterns. They tend to stand in the same place on the platform, get on the same car of the train, buy their coffee and paper at the same place. We had to make our store part of their pattern,” said Chalfont.
Four years ago, Spice & Ezy moved from its previous location just a half block away to its present site. ”That (the former location) was not a place commuters were going to go to,” explained Chalfont.
Keeping a wary eye out for an approaching train is another of the characteristic behaviors exhibited by most commuters. ”They have to be able to see the train,” emphasized Chalfont.
Commuters also time their schedules down to fractions of a second and sometimes even tempt fate in their quest for a cup of coffee.
Bill Murschel, a veteran rider of the Burlington Northern who boards the train in Hinsdale, said, ”I know within two minutes of when I should leave my house. As long as I am locking my bike before the train guards go down, I know that I can get my coffee and make my train.”
In Hinsdale, many commuters take their first sip of the day at a tiny counter inside the station. It is called Commuter Coffee and is manned by two cheerful ladies, Alice Cummings and Cookie Fleisher.
Like Spice & Ezy, the tiny stand in the Brush Hill Depot is a place to trade local news and see people you know.
According to Cummings, three romances between coffee-savoring commuters have blossomed there, including her own, which culminated in marriage. Cummings claims that the owner of the business, Lynne Duetch, is something of a matchmaker.
”We`ve made a few marriage matches,” boasted Cummings. ”Lynne introduced them and they would start to ride the train together and things just took off from there.”
Cummings nonchalantly shrugs her shoulders as if to suggest that there could be no other ending than a blissful one to a romance sparked by an appreciation of coffee.
Asked if the coffee contains some special sort of love potion, Duetsch laughed and said that if it did, she would try to patent it.
One couple, Bonnie and Russ Muehleman of Oakbrook Terrace were not introduced to each other by Duetsch, but they have become fast friends with the staff at Commuter Coffee. The couple is planning a move to Aurora soon.
”We`ve known Lynne for 10 years, and we`ve become good friends just over getting our morning coffee here. We`ll miss coming here,” said Bonnie Muehleman.
Just a couple stops west of the Hinsdale stop is Quinn`s Coffee House, a quaint, family-owned business in Clarendon Hills.
Decorated with a smattering of shamrocks, and a few classic Irish sayings that have been embroidered and framed, the shop is just south of the tracks at 9 S. Prospect.
It is the domain of Peg Quinn, who without hesitation or even a perplexed look, greets most customers by name. ”Remembering names is just a gift I have,” she explained.
On any weekday morning, she and her daughter Mudgeon Martinek and an employee, Diana Craig, are pouring coffee, popping bagels of every variety into the toaster, and snatching glazed rolls from a glass bakery case for waiting commuters. They manage at the same time to cheerily return their customers` early morning chitchat.
Quinn has built a rapport with customers and notes that they are scrupulously honest: ”If people owe us a nickel or dime, they tell us.”
The trust between Quinn and her commuter customers also extends to short- term financing. ”We`ve lent $20 to men who`ve come in somtimes without their wallet. They forgot it at home.”
Regulars who have a favorite coffee mug can keep it at Quinn`s. A rack of about 60 mugs of every shape, color and clever saying hangs on one wall.
One customer has something many commuters envy, a bit of time to linger. Edgar Plachek, a resident of Clarendon Hills for 37 years, used to take the train downtown, but now he`s retired.
This day, he is sipping coffee as his wife gets her hair done in a salon a couple doors away. ”Quinn`s is a good meeting place for friends and older people in town. It`s very friendly. From the first time I came here, we got on a first-name basis right away.”
A less quaint but no less friendly atmosphere is found at Dagwood`s Deli at 113 W. 1st St. in Elmhurst. The delicatessen features a bright yellow and green decor, and posters of movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and the Marx Brothers are splashed across the walls.
For the sake of convenience and speed, customers pour their own coffee, said Kim Samples, who has worked at the deli for four years.
Just completing the morning commuter onslaught, Samples notes another quirk of commuter behavior in smiling exasperation, ”They never seem to come one at a time. It`s either everybody or nobody.”
Besides coffee, Dagwood`s offers muffins, bagels, doughnuts, toast and sometimes, scrambled eggs. Samples does her best to meet the needs of her customers, including one who always orders a slice of bologna with his coffee. Another orders a drink that Samples clearly finds unusual.
She grimaces as she explains, ”There`s a guy who comes in and always asks for a glass of Slice with two squirts of chocolate sauce in it.”
At Sharon`s Coffee located inside the Elmhurst train station, owners Sharon and Dick Rusk serve commuters coffee and sometimes a bit of amusement to while away the 30-minute train ride into the city.
Every week, the couple concocts a trivia quiz. Players of one week`s quiz wrestled with such television trivia as, ”Who comes out when the full moon is bright?”
The commuter who answered Zorro was correct. The right answer to this and to other head-scratching questions earned the winner a prize of three bags of Corn Nuts.
”The prize is different every week,” explained Sharon Rusk. ”Some people even come back with questions to put in the next one.”
The couple also sells well-thumbed copies of old paperbacks to commuters for 25 cents from a rack in front of their food and drink stand.
Sharon Rusk is enumerating other items she offers such as packaged lunches when a man in a gray suit enters the train station huffing and puffing. He swings past Rusk picking up a cup of coffee in one hand as he places some change on the counter with the other.
”Thanks,” he shouts as he exits the station and hops aboard a train.
Rusk explains: ”I call them runners. I get everything ready when I glance out the window and see them running to the station. If they`re regulars I get their order ready and they just swing by and get it.”
One of the Rusk`s regular customers is Bensenville resident Allen Lewis. He says he catches the train in Elmhust because the the schedule is better for him, but as he savors a cup of Bavarian Orange coffee, one wonders if he doesn`t have other reasons.
”Well, I do like the gourmet coffee and the people, too,” he admits.
Sometimes commuters in Wood Dale make time for a full breakfast before hopping on the train. If they do, it`s likely that they stop at Christy`s, 200 W. Irving Park Rd., for their ham and eggs.
”Mostly though it`s just a fast cup of coffee to go,” said hostess Jeannie Lagowski, who estimates that she serves about 75 commuters a day.
In Geneva, a silver truck driven by Gary Zell pulls into the train station parking lot in the wee morning hours. Even before the sun rises, he is serving 60-cent large coffees to the line of commuters that is beginning to form.
Talk of a long-awaited win for the Cubs is bandied about. Arta Henson of St. Charles sips her coffee saying, ”It`s just what I need to wake up.”
When there`s a lull in activity, Zell lines up cups of coffee and places them on white paper napkins. Anticipating what his regulars will order, he writes various abbreviations such as ”black” or ”with cream” on the napkins.
As he has for the last 10 years, Gary Ernst of St. Charles picks up a coffee and a plain doughnut from the truck.
Explaining why he takes his coffee here instead of at home, he said,
”I`m too busy.”
He thinks a moment and then laughs and sheepishly admits, ”Well, maybe I`m just too lazy to get out of bed in the morning.”
If he is, then there are thousands of other commuting coffee drinkers who are too.
