Flipside Café reopening soon

Will Von Hartz at Flipside Café

Photo: Martha Williams

Will Von Hartz just called to say that summer is officially over. Well, he put it a little differently: Miko's Italian Ice's Bucktown location has closed for the season, he informed me, and he's gone to work moving out the freezers, rebuilding the bar and repainting, in preparation for the reopening of his seasonal pop-up, Flipside Café (formerly known as Miko's Flipside Café). The end of summer festivals? Of local tomatoes? Of fun? Depressing. But the opening of the Miko's Flipside Café, an enclave we adore so much we gave it a Critics' Pick for Coziest Place to Hibernate at last year's Eat Out Awards? Not depressing at all. In fact, awesome. And making it even better: All the shop's staples—pour-over coffee, Valhrona chocolate cake, grilled-cheese sandwiches on housemade bread—will return, and Von Hartz has teamed up with Alfredo Nogueira, a.k.a. Big Star bartender Fredo, to oversee the food offerings. (It's Fredo's first chef gig, but after attending a dinner party at Fredo's house, Von Hartz was convinced.) What exactly Nogueira has in mind is not finalized, but Von Hartz says that, among other things, they're working on some sort of pasty/empanada/meat pie. Von Hartz has one other thing in the works, too: Flipside may not be a pop-up for long. He dropped the Miko's from the name because come April, the shop will be looking for its own permanent digs, hopefully in the same neighborhood.

Flipside Café (1846 N Damen Ave, 773-645-9664) is slated to soft-open around October 5th.