City’s First Kava Bar Hits West Town

The grizzled editor of this blog is inexplicably fond of alliteration despite everyone’s best efforts to dissuade him. Hence, today’s broadly assigned topic Food, Film and Photography.

Patience please
Patience please…

I’ve never sampled kava, but I’ve long wanted to. Apparently, the universe listened to this request, and not my other one of discovering millions of gold coins in a rusting suitcase… 

A juice bar serving nonalcoholic drinks made with kava root — offering a natural remedy for anxiety and a buzz minus the hangover, among other claims  — has been steadily gaining converts since opening in March, according to Tropikava Kafe & Juice Bar owner Jeff Ramsey.

Drinking kava has been described by one user “as if alcohol, marijuana and coffee had one wild night and created the sedating, antidepressant drink.”

Ramsey said the feeling a person gets while drinking kava is “a euphoria that makes you mellow.”

“Here, it’s about relaxing, enjoying and socializing,” he said of the 25-seat cafe, where patrons can sit on couches or at the long bar and drink kava together. Since the cafe is BYO, some patrons also bring in wine and champagne and mix it with their kava, Ramsey said.

On Wednesday, Ramsey said he had just catered a midday kava event for workers at a Downtown architectural firm arranged by a woman who has become a regular at Tropikava, located at 1115 N. Hermitage Ave., just south of Division Street in West Town.

(click here to continue reading City’s First Kava Bar, Offering A ‘Natural’ Buzz, Hits West Town – East Village – DNAinfo Chicago.)

Maybe this weekend?

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