A tale from the owners of Coffee Lab & Roasters 

In the frigid days leading up to Christmas, Josie Langevin and Luke Cason were flying home to Ohio to celebrate Christmas with Cason’s family. The couple had only ever lightheartedly mentioned becoming business partners, but Luke decided to take a chance. Only moments before takeoff, he texted his boss, “Hey, sell the shop to us.” To Josie, this seemed like a bold ask. 

Langevin, 26, and Cason, 31, had been together for five years and shared a feeling that their lives were moving slowly. 

Cason, looking for a new world apart from his degree in biochemistry doing miserable lab work, thought this may be his chance to start something new. At the time, he was living among nine others in a DIY space in Lakeview and had recently become enamored with coffee, dabbling in various shops, and eventually landing himself a barista job just down the street at Coffee Lab & Roasters; finally, a lab that wasn’t miserable. Upon hiring him, the owners, Helen Kim and Peter Moon, initially told him that they were considering selling the place during his first interview.  

Langevin was working at Nomad Chicago (a luxurious boutique coffee shop), where she was hired for retail and merchandising after graduating with a fashion business degree. There, she dabbled in the coffee scene a bit but had no particular inkling for it. 

“I really didn’t like coffee before,” Langevin said. “I never explored it or really knew anything about it until I met Luke.” 

Kim and Moon responded to Cason’s text, letting him know another buyer was interested. But after putting more thought into the future Coffee Lab, they deemed it necessary to hand the place over to someone who really loved coffee. So, Langevin took the risk with Cason and became a Coffee Lab barista in April 2023. By May, she and Cason were the owners and even moved in together that same month.  

Owners Josie Langevin & Luke Cason outside of the Lab. Photo by Kiki Dyball.

“I never really thought about owning a business because I’ve always hated the idea of, like, the business owner corporate,” Cason said. “But I hated working for people more.” This became Cason’s new lab, a lab of his own. 

Despite fleeting thoughts of doing so one day, neither Cason nor Langevin had ever owned a business. They were facing a drastic change in both their personal lives as they were sharing a space at home as well as sharing a space at work in their professional lives. They were quickly and blindly forced to learn everything that comes with running a business. With that, they also had to make sure that everything was okay at home – that they had a third space, so their whole life was not just about coffee. 

“I don’t think anything works out nice and neat the way you wanted to,” Langevin said. 

A truly delectable menu. Photo by Kiki Dyball.

The co-owners have dealt with various challenges from accounting, to hiring and firing, to equipment breaking. Having a trustworthy accountant is absolutely necessary – they now have a very trusty bookkeeper – and everything must be written down. Employee management has led to increasing stress levels, too – although they love all their employees as people, sometimes it is necessary to do what is best for the business.  

“We are trying to figure out how to not be there all the time,” Cason said, “Just kind of embedding ourselves in the community, just becoming a bigger part of the community … We want to be an established part of the community for a long time.” 

Just recently, Langevin and Cason have extended their hours on the weekend and have hired a few new baristas. Prior to that, it was just the two owners and Einah Park working seven days a week from the hours of 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a year and a half.  

Park, smiling as usual. Photo by Kiki Dyball.

The transition from employee to owner has brought various challenges fiscally, emotionally and personally. Both Cason and Park were hired in October 2022 by the previous owners and built a strong friendship at the Lab. However, once Cason became the owner, Park grew nervous about whether they would keep her as an employee.  

Cason reassured her. “He was like, I know it’s a strange new dynamic, and I want you to just be as comfortable as you were before talking to me,” Park said, “We’re still friends, and I still want you to see me as an equal, as a coworker.” 

Six months ago, Park was promoted to lead barista, expressing her gratitude towards Cason and Langevin for trusting her enough to step up and take some administrative work off their hands. She is an asset to the Lab, and the customers know this, too – reflected through her keen memorization of regulars’ orders.  

Customer sips coffee, accompanied by some work. Photo by Kiki Dyball.

“Shout out to Einah. She’s a big part of the reason that so many people come to the shop,” Luke said, Having someone like her who wants to be there … like [who] wants to see the shop do well and grow … that makes a big difference.” 

“I really wanted to just make an impact on every single customer that came in. I wanted to talk to everyone that came in,” Park said, reflecting the shop’s mission to build stronger community ties,“It’s something that I’ve really made my own personal ambition … we’re smiling at them, we’re making conversation with them, we make them want to come back.” 

Park elaborates that the flow of the Lab as a barista is much harder to navigate since there has been an increase in foot traffic, since they were recently featured in social-media videos of the Best Coffee Shops in Chicago. Both owners feel that they want to do more with the shop, with Luke mentioning that, at least, “We haven’t run into the ground.” 

After a year of ownership, Langevin said: “Our learning isn’t done. It’s continuous.”  

Langevin and Cason elaborate that there are many factors stopping them from making brand changes. In the meantime, there are a few things they have been working on – specifically Cason’s passion and specialty – their cold brew coffee recipe. Moon, the original owner, first came up with their sacred cold brew recipe using Kyoto-style cold brew. This is a specialty in Chicago since these machines are sparse and the cold brew is made by letting the cold water slowly drip over the coffee grounds for nearly eight hours. Cason has recently been tweaking and refining Moon’s original recipe little by little to perfect it, and he is in the works of making plans to wholesale their cold brew. 

Park also gushed over the espresso recipe: “I love our espresso. It’s one of the more chocolaty ones where it kind of, like, hits really differently because it has such great undertones and profiles there … that’s perfection, really, in my opinion,” Park said. 

Coffee Lab is among four other coffee shops within a two-block radius; a coffee Mecca, if you will. Langevin said customers ask her if they are nervous about the other shops, but instead, she finds the coffee culture to be very fun. Cason, too, is much happier collaborating than competing as there is enough room for everyone. “We’re just there to make a snippet of someone’s day better however we can,” Langevin said. “And if that’s a cup of coffee, that’s great.” 

Lying at the base of a cream-toned townhouse on North Lincoln Avenue in Lakeview is Coffee Lab. The exterior is marked with simple, black capitalized lettering: “Coffee Lab & Roasters,” painted as an invitation to come in. Inside, aromas of freshly ground coffee mingle with the sweet scent of pastries while wooden floorboards creak softly beneath your feet and streams of golden afternoon light bathe the interior. The walls that celebrate local artistry are decorated with sketches and photographs. Behind the glass shelves are pastries from pHlour Bakery and defloured: A Gluten Free Bakery. The barista, always a friendly figure with a warm smile, crafts coffee where the spirit of the town is felt in every sip.  

My coffee. Photo by Kiki Dyball.

But at the end of the day, Coffee Lab is just a coffee shop.  

Cason in his own words puts it best: “Good coffee, good people.” 

Header by Alexis Phelps