Color Me Coffee, a small Chicago roastery with roots stretching back to the mid-1980s, has been tapped as the exclusive coffee supplier for the Obama Presidential Center and has rolled out a special “44 Reserve” roast for the campus. The blend, a proprietary mix the company says pairs Kenyan, Hawaiian and Indonesian beans, is now flowing in the Center’s cafe and is also available through the roaster’s own channels. For local coffee loyalists, it is a rare hometown win on a national stage.
Color Me Coffee won a blind taste test earlier this year and was chosen to supply the Center’s restaurant, cafe and catering, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The paper reports that judges included representatives from the Obama Foundation, Bon Appétit and the Chicago Beverage Co., and that sample bags at the Center sold out during early visiting days. The Sun-Times story also walks through the roastery’s history and the development of the 44 Reserve blend.
How a Local Roaster Landed the Gig
Chef Cliff Rome, who is leading the Center’s food and beverage program through a partnership with Bon Appétit, has been working to foreground South Side producers as the campus opens, as WBEZ reported. That partnership, operating under the BAMJoy banner, aims to pair chef-driven menus with local suppliers and create training pathways for South Side workers. Color Me Coffee’s exclusive slot is one of several local vendor placements the program is using to keep the money and opportunity close to home.
A 40-Year Chicago Legacy
Founder Rhonda Stivers has a long history in the city’s coffee scene: she purchased her first espresso machine in 1976 and helped open Color Me Coffee in Lake View in 1985, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. After years of wholesale work under the Stivers name, she repurchased the Color Me brand last year and has said she plans to expand into a new, high-tech roastery in Grand Crossing. For Stivers, landing the Obama Center contract doubles as a business coup and a symbolic return to the front lines of Chicago roasting.
What Visitors Will Find
The Obama Foundation’s visitor pages list dining and a public cafe among the campus offerings and give the Center’s address as 6001 S. Stony Island Ave. in Jackson Park. The Obama Foundation also outlines hours and on-campus amenities. Meanwhile, Bon Appétit has profiled the BAMJoy initiative and its emphasis on sourcing from Chicago vendors and creating job pathways for the South Side.
Whether you swing through for a full museum day or just a quick espresso, the 44 Reserve gives the Obama Center a distinctly Chicago flavor that traces back to a small Black-owned roastery woven into the city’s coffee story for four decades. For Color Me Coffee, the placement is both a milestone and a clear sign that South Side suppliers are set to be part of the Center’s daily rhythm.
