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LakeForestLeader.com DINING OUT
the lake forest leader | December 27, 2018 | 19
ArrivaDolce becoming cornerstone of downtown Highland Park
Jason Addy
Contributing Editor
The cafe’s homemade hummus ($5.25 for small serving)
comes with carrots and celery or chips for diners to
grab a quick snack.
ArrivaDolce
1823 St. Johns Ave.,
Highland Park
6:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Monday-Friday
7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Saturday
Closed Sundays until
April
When friends and former
business school classmates
Amy Touchette and
Julie Gross set their hearts
on opening up their own
coffee shop in 2010, they
set their sights on becoming
the go-to “neighborhood
hangout.”
Eight years later, all indications
show Touchette,
of Lake Villa, and Gross,
of Wilmette, have done
just that.
Before settling on serving
up coffee, espresso,
gelato and classic sandwiches
with a twist at ArrivaDolce
in Highland
Park, Gross said the two
graduates of Arizona State
University’s Thunderbird
School of Global Management
explored a number of
other options to enter the
food industry, including
franchises.
“We just decided we
wanted to be able to
change things up if we
wanted to do it a certain
way, instead of having to
do it according to a franchise,”
Touchette said.
Once they knew what
they’d be making, then
they had to find the right
location.
“We didn’t have our
hearts set on Highland
Park,” Touchette said,
adding she and Gross were
looking for a location between
their homes. “We
were trying to find something
in between that had
a dynamic downtown still,
[and] that had a lot of foot
traffic. Highland Park was
kind of the perfect fit for
us.”
Gross and Touchette
found a former optometrist’s
office on St. John’s
Avenue in Highland Park
and immediately got to
work converting the space
into a “semi-rustic” Italian
coffee shop — gutting
the office, knocking down
walls and adding personal
touches, like pillars from
Gross’ porches to resemble
Roman arches and repurposed
barn floors to use as
tables.
When they weren’t at
the shop trying to get it
ready to open, which it
did in June 2011, Gross
and Touchette did field
research, going to other
shops selling coffee and
gelato to figure out their
plan.
“I’ll tell you, it was
rough work. We had to
go to a lot of gelato shops
and a lot of coffee shops,”
Touchette joked.
Though it was always
the dream for ArrivaDolce
to be thriving after almost
eight years, both women
admitted others weren’t so
optimistic.
When asked if it seemed
realistic in 2011 that ArrivaDolce
would still be
around today, Touchette
said, “Maybe not to others,
but it seemed realistic to
us,” adding she was able to
prove her “skeptical” husband
wrong in the process.
Recalling advice from
a book she read while researching
how to run a
small business, Gross said
“you have to do everything.”
“You have to create a
destination. You have to
have good customer service.
You have to have
quality products,” Gross
said.
From ArrivaDolce’s
locally-sourced coffees,
teas and sandwiches to its
wall of local art, it’s clear
Gross and Touchette have
followed that playbook for
success.
Earlier this month,
Gross and Touchette celebrated
the two-year anniversary
of the launch of
their second ArrivaDolce
location at the Loyola Red
Line station, located near
the heart of Loyola University
- Chicago.
Though it’s a much a
different customer base,
Gross and Touchette are
still following their triedand-true
method of providing
high-quality products
with a “really strong
The lemon dill tuna salad sandwich ($10.30) showcases classic tuna salad with a
punch of zest on multigrain bread. Photos by Alyssa Groh/22nd Century Media
ArrivaDolce baker Marilyn Stewart’s muffins, cookies, breads and scones keep
customers coming back to the Highland Park cafe.
focus” on customer service
at their Chicago cafe,
Gross said.
Last week, a group of
22nd Century Media editors
stopped by ArrivaDolce’s
original location in
Highland Park and tasted
some items from each part
of the cafe’s menu.
We first tried ArrivaDolce’s
signature hot chocolate
($3.85 for 12 oz.),
before Gross brought out
samples of the cafe’s hot
chocolate with sea salt and
caramel, along with homemade
hummus ($5.25 for
small serving), carrots and
celery to pick at between
dishes.
Next, we had the lemon
dill tuna salad sandwich
($10.30), which showcases
classic tuna salad with a
punch of bright flavor on
multigrain bread. The sandwich
is one of the stars of
ArrivaDolce’s menu and
even “has a cult following,”
Touchette said.
Our next dish was the
six-cheese garlic grilled
cheese ($9), which melts
together mozzarella, provolone,
cheddar, Parmesan
and Romano cheeses with
a slice of the customer’s
choice of cheese, Touchette
said.
Switching from lunch
to dessert, we next tried
ArrivaDolce’s cinnayum
pastry ($3), a mashup between
a cinnamon bun and
croissant finished off with
a sprinkling of sugar.
To cap off the feast,
Gross brought out a plate
featuring ArrivaDolce baker
Marilyn Stewart’s vast
selection of baked goods,
including biscotti, muffins,
cookies, breads and scones,
which are made with dough
from Alchemy Coffee
House in Wilmette.