ALL THINGS ELGIN
Low Down on Lo-Fi
Lo-Fi Coffee House and Studio has been serving curated coffee, pastries and sold-out art workshops since May 2023. With a background in baking and beans owner Ashley Dahlke sourced an off-site commercial kitchen in January 2024 to take creative control of the shop’s offerings. They swapped their sourced-food options in favor of handmade pastries like Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Bacon Jam Croissant w/Gruyere Cheese and Classic Iced Cinnamon Buns.
This January Lo-fi makes another move. They’ll relocate from Main Street to Central Avenue, right around the corner… into the original Southside Market building. The added space now offers a commercial kitchen. While the dedicated workshop space will change, this allows for an expanded menu made in-house!
Elgin Chronicle caught up with Ashley Dahlke to find out . . .What's Next?
What do you remember most from your first day?
"As soon as we opened, we had a line to the door. I was actually in shock over the amount of support we felt on our very first day."
You teased in an August Instagram post, with that flashy cherry tomato photo, you’d be bringing a bigger menu AND shining a light on your own Lo-Fi farm. Can you give us any more hints?
"Our menu is definitely expanding, we are still recipe testing but there will be sandwiches! My husband and I own a small farm out in McDade where we have been growing our own produce and raising animals and it has been a goal of ours to share that with our community."
"We are striving to source as much local ingredients as we can, and we have already formed some really great relationships with a few local farmers."
What will the transition from Main St. to Central Ave. be like?
"We will close for a few days in January (keep an eye on their IG for updates) to get everything moved from the current location. We’ll be here (30 Main St.) through the end of the year."
How will you carry “pastry, art and coffee” into your new location?
"They are expanding our pastries (think: bakery) with more options and quantities and are adding a couple more roasters to the coffee rotation. Ashley added, “We already have a couple of art shows and events planned and will continue to support local arts through pop-ups and smaller workshops. We will also be hosting more local musicians, poets, and storytellers.”
What would you like us to know that we didn’t ask?
"We are just so thrilled to have the support we do here in Elgin, because of our customers we are able to make this expansion even sooner than we initially planned."
by Steph Lewis, Features Editor
