Mather’s More Than a Cafe

Great Senior Hangout!
Staff is welcoming. If you like it you can become a member — it’s good for discounts on food, classes, programs, and outings. Affordable, with or without the discount. Your membership is good for any of the 4 locations in Chicago.
Some habitués can be clique-​ish. Since I don’t play well with others that turns me off. However there is a library of donated books so reading and eating is good for me. Nice spot for a late breakfast, lunch or afternoon snack. Fitness equipment available. Social worker has office hours here once a week — excellent way to access resources. Computer center with classes in English and Spanish on the basics.
A bonus (?) is the pierogi outlet store cattywampus across the street. The building and parking lot are shared with a children’s center. For seniors who use paratransit this can be a problem unless they insist on «lobby contact.»
Recent event was a Polish program with dancers and singing after a luncheon of some favorite comfort foods. I was totally impressed at how the entire staff plus some hard working volunteers kept the food coming and the tables cleared without missing a beat. Oh yes — they also managed to provide service and space for those who didn’t make a reservation in time to join in.

I was looking for a comfy, quiet spot with wifi to get some work done when i decided to check this place out. I’ve driven by it many times and was Always curious.
My first impression was that of a community center for young kids, but instead of young kids running around there were older folk, young at heart! The staff were very welcoming. You can sit and have access to their great WI-​Fi with any small purchase from their café. I started out with a good old cup of coffee. It was good. It was also 75 cents and free refills! Can’t beat that!
For lunch I had the chicken ceaser wrap, it was very yummy! Very fresh. I didn’t feel rushed out after I ate. I got a lot of work done and had a great lunch. Im definitely coming back here. Beats any starbucks!
I am going to hang out here a lot when Im young at heart :)

I’ve been practicing for the golden years for so long now, that when I finally get to be officially old I’m truly gonna be hip for the first time in my life. It seems like most of the times my friends trust me to call the shots, we end up (unintentionally) surrounded by seniors– listening to local history lectures at the Cultural Center, swaying to the blues on the far south side, sharing half bottles of vodka during polka night at Podlasie Club, learning how to play dominoes in the former movie palace on Pulaski.
My latest adventure involved a solo visit to a lecture on the glorious and highly Polish history of my beloved neighborhood of Avondale. Of course I found myself in a roomful of seniors. This «more than a café» targets the 50+ crowd, but the hostess and the cashier at the café were super welcoming and glowing with a love of life. I picked up a 55 cent cup of coffee and some breakfast here to go with my lecture (though the burgers looked decent). Prices were super reasonable, but next time I’m going to wear a powdered wig so I can get the senior discount and save even more.
In addition to the food and occasional lectures, there’s a bank of computers with internet access, and you can watch seniors run on treadmills in a glass «fishbowl» room in between the café and the community room. Normally my favorite part about hanging with seniors is overhearing a dose of irreverent, brutal honesty from someone who no longer worries about what other people think of them (like the time at symphony hall when the seventy something shouted out, «this is awful, this is killing me!» in the middle of a classical concert) — but there didn’t seem to be any of that charming crankiness here. Which means Mather is successful in their goal of creating a social center and a learning center for seniors.
This may not be the place for me today, but if I was in my 50s, I’d probably be here all the time.