By Bob Seidenberg
Evanston’s Café Au Lake, which faced some early challenges, nearly doubled its profit in its second year of operation.
The success of the lakefront cafe at the Arrington Lagoon is now spurring city recreation officials to expand food operations at other sites, including at the Prieto Community Center near Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street later this month.
“When we invest and we are able to operate, we can improve services across the city,” Evanston Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Audrey Thompson said in a report on the cafe at the city’s Oct. 28 Economic Development Committee meeting. “Café Au Lake demonstrates what’s possible when we invest in the public space and manage it as an active service.”
Thompson thanked the committee, which in 2023 endorsed the department’s strategy to expand food service to the Arrington Lagoon area.
Officials had several hurdles to clear after that, though, including a broken sewer line and an outdated kitchen in the cramped Depression-era shelter where the café is housed.
In April 2024, before the cafe’s opening, the city issued a request for proposals looking for a vendor to run the facility, but received no responses, the RoundTable’s Jim Brown reported in a December 2024 article.
“The building was in such a state of disrepair that most businesses did not want to take on the task of remodeling,” Michael Drape, the city’s food service coordinator, said at the time.
With backing from Councilmember Clare Kelly, whose First Ward includes the lagoon, the City Council allocated federal pandemic recovery funds and capital improvement money to building improvements.
Thompson praised Drape as well as Michael Callahan, the city’s deputy director of parks, recreation and community services, who manages food service, for their roles in making the cafe a success.
Drape, she said, “was really intentional about not rushing and making sure we had the right food, the right beverages — that they tasted the way that his palate would be comfortable with … and I’m very appreciative of that.”
Staffed and run by the city, the cafe officially opened Oct. 26, 2024. Since then, it has shown significant growth, with gross sales climbing from $86,960 in 2025 to $95,980 in 2026, Thompson reported.
Though open two months less in 2026, the cafe nearly doubled its profit, going from roughly $14,000 to just under $28,000, she said.
Thompson praised Drape as well as Michael Callahan, the city’s deputy director of parks, recreation and community services, who manages food service, for their roles in making the cafe a success.
Drape, she said, “was really intentional about not rushing and making sure we had the right food, the right beverages — that they tasted the way that his palate would be comfortable with … and I’m very appreciative of that.”
Staffed and run by the city, the cafe officially opened Oct. 26, 2024. Since then, it has shown significant growth, with gross sales climbing from $86,960 in 2025 to $95,980 in 2026, Thompson reported.
Though open two months less in 2026, the cafe nearly doubled its profit, going from roughly $14,000 to just under $28,000, she said.
Thompson noted that “we really wanted to make sure that this would be a public amenity with a business mindset, and so we wanted to operate more than just a concession space.
“So that’s why we don’t have hot dogs, we don’t have hamburgers. We have really light fare. We have light breakfast items. We have all types of hot and cold beverages, and then this year, we expanded Friday and Saturday evening with beer and wine service, and we’ve really made that space very inviting so that people will want to spend more time at the lakefront.”
At the Robert Crown Community Center at 1801 Main St., for instance, the city has turned a profit of $12,000 in food sales so far in 2026, compared with a little more than $20,000 the previous year, Thompson said. But with the always popular Nutcracker on Ice performances and four other large events coming up on the calendar, officials still expect to exceed the previous year’s total, she told the committee.
Similarly, at James Park at Dodge Avenue and Oakton Street, where concerts are held during the summer, the city’s profit has also nearly doubled, said Thompson.
Using food revenue to avoid raising fees
Thompson predicted that a walk-in refrigerator approved by the council for Robert Crown “is going to be really life-altering for Drape not having to run to the store and purchase items as much.”
She said the sale of beer or a cup of wine, which the department has made selective use of at venues and special events, will expand next year, too.
City officials are also planning a soft opening on Nov. 16 for a new cafe at the Dr. Jorge and Luz Maria Prieto Community Center at 430 Asbury Ave., Thompson announced.
“We will also operate a store in the Prieto cafe and sell all of our parks and rec gear, as well as our parks and rec wine glasses,” she said, “so just expanding to find many, many different ways to build revenue for our department and not continue to raise fees for our recreation.”
Kelly, the current chair of the Economic Development Committee, thanked the officials. In this case, she noted, the project is located in the First Ward, where lakeside activities have sometimes brought complaints in the past from neighbors.
In this case, she said, “I haven’t heard any complaints. I’ve only received just an outpouring of accolades and praise. And I really think this is like a prize example of the use of that ARPA money, coming out of COVID (that) this got created. We spent some money on it (the cafe) and it’s actually generating revenue, generating jobs, and (it) made people happy, so Bravo to all,” she said.