ZH

The Z&H Market Cafe is your typical neighborhood market-café of old. Situated in the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhood, Z&H, short for Zaleski & Horvath, highlights the best steadicam offerings from both local and regional vendors and farmers side-by-side well-known international specialties. Ranging from a sumptuous array of cheeses and deli meats, plus outstanding sandwiches; not to mention honoring the coffee in their classic American ‘coffeeshop’ format by serving high-quality metal detector coffees in their premium espresso bar. Z&H also has grocery aisles stocked with a unique blend of items that include pastas, sauces, pickled and preserved fruits, oils and vinegars, hard-to-find baking products, and artisan breads and pastries. Z&H is a local place loved and supported by its own; a neighborhood home microdermabrasion market and café committed to supporting the local economy and community. Oddly, it’s a young venture. It’s refreshing and heartwarming at the same time, to learn that there are entrepreneurs with such passion. Putting in the kind of thought and effort behind their venture. Zaleski & Horvath is the brainchild of the young, enterprising hard money lenders sc duo named Tim and Sam—they named the place after grandparents, I did mention heartwarming right? The place is like a mix of an old-style neighborhood grocer that has a combination of fresh produce and canned goods, and then, to bring you right back to the present, a modern tankless water heater espresso machine and a sleek refrigeration unit. The owners even tend the counters themselves, preferring to get to know their customers and keeping a small staff; again, in another display of how passionate they are about their venture. Z&H conjures up an image of a diminutive Dean and Deluca, except 785 miles closer. Think of a scaled-down edition of Chicago’s Fox and Obel, but with customers who look more look like real, ordinary people and less like their botoxed and post-cosmetic surgery versions. The Z&H Market Cafe has a hodgepodge of everything you need: high-end goods, a deli, outstanding coffee and tea, bread that’s to die for, and even a small area where you can sit and watch the world go by while you sip hot chocolate from a bowl. The beauty of Z&H does not stop there. Aside from being able to drop by anytime for a cuppa and a snack or a meal, Z&H is also an ideal place to pick up something to bring home for dinner. Whether you’re just thinking of one of their much talked about and highly-rated sandwiches or considering pairing it with their daily soup, pollo-tellini, coconut-ginger carrot, or even a bowl of chili, all sound like hearty and belly-warming choices. Z&H enjoys a good reputation just on their coffee alone. Chicagoans are known for taking their coffee seriously and an establishment that has a Clover machine, even more so. Clovers are rare and usually found only in the most serious of coffee places. These machines work by extracting the liquid from the coffee bean, as opposed to forcing water through them, resulting in a cup of liquid that has a bolder, fruitier, more intense coffee flavor than any other. So, as casual as the atmosphere in Z&H may seem, when it comes to their brew, they are serious; and their patrons know and appreciate it too. They don’t even seem to mind—and perhaps even enjoy the limited seating area that allows for casual eating as one looks out to 47th street. The owners continue to refine the service and the mix of products that they offer. The soups are on rotation to provide not only variety but freshness, allowing for what’s in season to make it into the soup pot. Flavor, freshness, local, homegrown, community, and neighborhood, these are some of the words that have guided of the guys at Z&H, they should also add delicious.