Clad in a gray Athens Olympics 2004 T-shirt soaked with sweat,Theodore Bratsolias ducked into the Unicorn Cafe, 1723 ShermanAve., Monday morning hoping for some orange juice. Sitting at hisown table in the middle of the cafe, he provided a contrast to thelaptop-toting students and cleanly dressed professionals thatsurrounded him, but had no problem making himself at home.
“(The cafe is) the best,” he said. “It’s good that Northwesternsupports them instead of the people across the street,” he saidpointing at Starbucks Coffee, 1724 Sherman Ave.
As Bratsolias recovered from his daily three-mile run, hepraised the atmosphere that owner Lene Thomas created 13 years agowith her husband and father-in-law. Last week Thomas sold the cafeto Tracie Dahlke, leaving in the hands of her former employee themom-and-pop establishment that Thomas created.
“While we have made it (financially), I like to believe it’sbecause we’ve created a gathering place where people arecomfortable,” Thomas said. “I feel like there is enough corporatearound, and I’m a big fan of mom-and-pop shops. I wanted to keepsomething in the community that’s special.”
Thomas said she wanted the Unicorn to be a locally run and alocally supplied cafe that could serve as a refuge — she comparedrunning the cafe to welcoming people into her home, an attitudethat Dahlke said she will not change. Evanston business leaderssaid the Unicorn is a prime example of a successful independentbusiness.
“I think, in general, (the Thomases) were active,community-minded people who worked to make Evanston a better place,not just make money,” said Dick Peach, past president and boardmember of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. “That’s special.”
Peach lauded the Unicorn’s devotion to local suppliers. The cafebuys baked goods and coffee beans from Evanston-basedsuppliers.
“It’s something (the Chamber of Commerce) has pushed for a long,long time,” Peach said. “When we ran stickers to ‘Shop Evanstonfirst,’ it wasn’t just to the shoppers. It keeps tax dollars here.Everybody benefits.”
The Unicorn grew with the help of area businesses and was notthreatened by other downtown coffee shops, said Diane Williams,executive director of EvMark, a nonprofit marketing group fordowntown Evanston. Instead, Williams said, Thomas embraced hercompetitors because they increased downtown traffic.
“She’s engaging and she’s very positive about being in downtownEvanston,” Williams said. “She really has a big-picture outlook.She looks out instead of looking down.”
Thomas even said she is grateful for Starbucks’ downtownpresence.
“I think that Starbucks actually helped our business because iteducated people about coffee,” she said. “Before, you had toexplain what a latte was. Now everybody knows what they want –they speak the coffee language.”
Thomas insists that the Unicorn Cafe was much more than a sourceof income for her.
“When you have a business that’s open as many hours as the cafeis, it’s something that’s constantly with you and you’re alwaysthinking about it,” she said.
Thomas, who moved to Evanston from Denmark, opened the cafe in1991, while she and her husband were dating.
She took sole ownership in 1993, when her husband, MichaelThomas, opened Casteel Coffee, the bean-roasting company thatprovides the cafe with its coffee beans. New to the country whenthe Unicorn opened, Thomas said running the coffee shop defined herlife.
“It’s half of my identity,” she said. “It’s all that I’ve donesince I’ve come to the States. Now that I’m saying goodbye, I say,’Wow, I’m on my own.'”
Thomas said she tried to create an environment where both sheand the customers could be comfortable. She said that hereight-year-old daughter has spent most of her early years in theshop — behind the counter as a child and being passed around tothe regulars as an infant. It all added to the environment.
“It’s special,” Thomas said. “It’s something you can’t findanywhere you go.”