Milli By Metric Coffee Goes the Extra Mile in Chicago

Inside the new Milli by Metric cafe on Chicago’s Northwest side. All images courtesy of Metric Coffee.

Quality-focused Chicago roaster Metric Coffee brought a three-year project to fruition this month, opening a new roastery, headquarters and all-day bakery cafe called Milli in Avondale. 

Inside a former 10,000-square-foot antique European furniture warehouse, Milli occupies the front of the house, offering views into the new Metric roastery and the Milli bakery. 

Warm colors and varied textures of brick, wood, stone and plants balance liveliness and comfort throughout the seating and service areas. Tall windows and vertical pillars draw attention to unique overhead lighting and creative inlaid designs that fill every inch of the soaring space.

During the day, the warehouse is now flooded with sunshine through newly cut skylights. As the day winds down, the glows from large modern pendants and a 3D-printed light fixture designed by Metric Coffee Co-Founder Darko Arandjelovic take over.

“Darko’s hand is everywhere in the design, from the way the service spine guides the guest flow to the way light itself becomes a building material, and he managed to tame a massive warehouse without carving it into boxes,” Metric Coffee Co-Founder Xavier Alexander told Daily Coffee News. “The most remarkable part is that we built it without outside investors. Painful? Absolutely. Worth it? Completely.”

Milli, whose name references the metric system, is debuting as a daytime eatery with plans to expand into an all-day affair by next year. Current offerings include seasonally rotating pastries, a full coffee menu and retail bottles of wine. Culinary Director Kirstin Alexander, Xavier’s wife, leads the kitchen with head baker Lou Turner, turning out laminated pastries and breakfast fare while sandwiches, quiches, pizzas and more are in development.

“If Metric was a tight solo, Milli is the whole band — same melody, bigger stage, new instruments,” said Xavier Alexander. “Milli carries the same DNA that’s always defined Metric: coffee sourced with care, roasted with precision and served with transparency so guests can see and feel the work behind every cup… What’s different is the scale and ambition.”

After launching as a roasting company in 2013, Alexander and Arandjelovic opened their first cafe in 2016. In 2020, Metric absorbed the bakery Brite, running the wholesale-only operation for four years prior to winding it down in advance of the new project. The founders then celebrated the Metric’s 10th anniversary not by throwing confetti but by swinging hammers for the Milli buildout.

Metric and Milli Co-Founders Xavier Alexander and Darko Arandjelovic.

“From there it was a saga: permits, demo, more permits,” Alexander said. “Darko and I, plus a few fearless friends, gutted it ourselves to make way for plumbing, electrical and all the unglamorous guts.”

The company’s Probat UG15 continues to anchor the roasting operation, while the former roastery at the Fulton Street cafe has been transformed into a wholesale showroom, training lab and hub for home and commercial espresso equipment sales.

On the Milli bar, equipment includes a brass-plated Modbar system paired with two La Marzocco Swan grinders, plus a Poursteady PS2 automatic pourover machine paired with a Mahlkönig EK43S grinder.

Adjacent to the main cafe is a to-go cafe that might gradually become more of a quick-bite pickup spot as the food component expands. 

“For Milli, the focus is on finding our rhythm — dialing in the food program, opening up into a true all-day cafe, deepening the wine list and creating space for community events,” said Alexander. 

Meanwhile, Metric plans to continue to strengthen its direct-trade relationships while continuously seeking and improving quality and precision roasting. 

“They move in tandem, two sides of the same coin,” Alexander said. “One rooted in the bean, the other opening the door to the whole feast.”

Milli by Metric is located at 3110 N Kedzie Ave. in Chicago.

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