Since City News Cafe owner Joe Angelastri first opened up shop in 1978, nothing has stood between him and ensuring customers can buy their newspapers and magazines seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Not a fire back when his business was one of hundreds of corner newsstands in Chicago. Not the January 1979 blizzard that brought 40 mph winds and 20.3 inches of snow. And certainly not a car slamming through his storefront early Thursday, shattering all the shop’s windows and wrecking furniture.
For nearly 50 years, the Portage Park proprietor refused to let a day go by without opening his doors, which have been located on the 4000 block of North Cicero Avenue since 1988. It’s important to him that he keeps that streak alive.
“Just like the paper publishes every day, we sell every day,” Angelastri said.
Though he was out of town when the crash occurred, the longtime owner first heard from a window-boarding service that a car careened through the glass that morning. Then he heard from police.
The incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. when patrolling officers saw a car matching the description of a stolen vehicle run a red light at the Six Corners intersection at Irving Park Road, Cicero Avenue and Milwaukee Avenue. The officers attempted to make a traffic stop, but the driver sped away, eventually losing control and drifting sideways into City News Cafe, according to police.
Two of the four people in the car attempted to flee on foot, but all four were quickly placed in custody. Three firearms were located in the vehicle, police said.
“We just walked in and we saw this destruction,” Angelastri said. “Like something out of the Middle East.”
By midafternoon Thursday, the shop reopened its doors to customers. Plywood covered the broken glass and the words “I assure you, we’re open” covered the exterior in blue spray paint.
It didn’t take long before regular customers flocked to the store to show their support.
For decades, Portage Park residents Zia Sargis and John Owens have visited the cafe together to share a cup of coffee and “solve all the world’s problems” on a weekly basis. The pair first met at a house showing in 2006, when Sargis was working as a realtor and Owens was working with mortgages.
Seated in an alcove in the back of the store, behind rows of books and periodicals, the pair reflected on what makes their time there so special.
“You could just go to a Starbucks or a Dunkin’ Donuts, or you could come here, where you have a sense of community,” said Sargis, who stops by City News each morning for coffee.
By Friday, some customers asked employees if they could donate to help the store fix its windows, but were told the best thing they could do was patronize the store by purchasing magazines or cafe beverages. Sargis and Owens, who already planned to stop by Friday for their regular meeting, were glad to do their part to pitch in.
“This place is a routine in so many people’s lives,” Owens said. “You can just come here and meet people and live in the real, physical world, rather than a virtual one.”
Brad Krause, a 58-year-old customer who visits the store occasionally to buy a niche fountain pen magazine and coffee, had not heard about the crash before he showed up Friday morning. When he saw the windows were boarded up, he almost left, assuming it was closed.
Feeling his own “marketing sensibilities” kick in, Krause, who has a professional background in art and consulting, immediately opened his computer and turned to Google Gemini, an artificial intelligence platform, in an effort to help Angelastri advertise he was open.
Prompting the computer to generate images and a proposal, he hoped to play a role in the store’s swift recovery. Unbeknownst to the AI aficionado, City News commissioned a regular customer and local graffiti artist to paint the temporary walls earlier in the day.
Even though Angelastri turned down his AI-generated attempt to help, Krause was glad he visited the store Friday as he believes strongly in its mission.
“I think we all just have a tendency to take our long-standing businesses for granted, so hopefully this tragedy brings some attention back to a place that really deserves it,” Krause said.
