Café Jon and Galleria officially opens its doors this Sunday, September 6, transforming a 30-year-old auto repair shop in Pilsen into a 6,000-square-foot hybrid daytime coffee shop and private event space. Located at 18th Street and Damen Avenue, the snazzy new venue serves as the physical flagship for Jon Basíl Tequila, blending local neighborhood history with contemporary hospitality.
From Auto Repair to Retro Chicago Cool
The sprawling new space at 18th and Damen was formerly Ruben’s Auto Service, operated by neighborhood artist and entrepreneur Ruben Mandujano for three decades. Mandujano, who was born in Mexico and has lived in Pilsen for 40 years, closed his auto shop two years ago. Rather than selling out to outside developers, Mandujano partnered with the founders of Jon Basíl Tequila to create a community-focused hub. The interior oozes retro industrial charm, featuring a Yamaha scooter mounted to the wall, vintage parking signs, license plates, and a car engine cleverly repurposed into a coffee table. Nostalgic 1990s Chicago Bulls memorabilia is sprinkled throughout the communal seating area against a towering vinyl wall.
“We had been getting offers to buy, but I’m very excited to stay, to grow, to bring new generations together, to bring new ideas, and to implement more diversity,” Mandujano notes regarding his decision to partner on the project rather than sell the prime real estate.
Roots in Chicago and Craft Beverage Partnerships
Jon Basíl Tequila was founded in 2015 by Uduimoh Umolu and Belall Taher, who met as students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Umolu, a Rogers Park native of Nigerian and Ghanaian heritage, and Taher, born in Palestine and raised near Bridgeview, built the brand over 11 years through word-of-mouth investments and community ties. The brand’s blanco, reposado, and añejo tequilas are produced in Jalisco, Mexico, and are currently stocked in over 900 locations across Chicago alongside national distribution partnerships.
For the beverage and culinary program at Café Jon, the founders enlisted local heavy hitters. Coffee is supplied by Monday Coffee Company, with co-founder Felton Kizer running the drink menu, featuring house specials accented with honey-rosemary and brown sugar vanilla syrups. Meanwhile, pastries are baked fresh in-house via Saints Bakery, which operates a baking residency inside the cafe. The venue also features a massive 4,000-square-foot private event space equipped with its own dedicated bar.
Navigating Pilsen’s Development and Cultural Landscape
The opening arrives against the backdrop of significant economic shifts along Pilsen’s 18th Street corridor, a historic center of Mexican culture and Chicago’s first majority-Latino neighborhood. Over the past three decades, the area has seen intense battles over gentrification and rising living costs. According to a 2023 report by the University of Illinois Chicago, the share of residents paying over $1,000 in monthly rent jumped from 32.5 percent to 51.5 percent between 2005 and 2020. Having fielded numerous acquisition offers from developers aiming to push him out, Mandujano views Café Jon and his nearby Xoco House Gallery as vital anchors for community preservation, diversity, and multigenerational engagement.
Following its weekend-only soft launch in July, Café Jon and Galleria launches its full weekly operations on September 6. The founding team plans to regularly utilize the space to host rotating art galleries featuring local creators, brand activations, and public tastings, cementing the venue as a living monument to Chicago culture.
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