Alasoufi Nuts & Coffee

Dubai pistachio chocolate, made on site. That is the headline at Alasoufi Nuts & Coffee, a small shop on Milwaukee Avenue in Niles that splits its counter between sweets, Turkish coffee, and whole-bean coffee ground to order. Dubai chocolate has been the internet's pistachio-and-knafeh obsession for the past couple years, and most places carry the imported version; here the chocolate is being worked at the counter while you stand there.

The exterior is unassuming. Inside is immaculate, with the owner often working chocolate when you walk in. Not a sit-and-stay cafe. This is a retail counter where you go in for a specific thing, get walked through samples by someone who clearly cares about the product, and leave with a bag. The owner's hands-on rhythm is the operation.

The pistachio chocolate is the move. The Turkish delights assortment is the right thing to bring to anyone hosting you. Turkish coffee is on the menu and worth ordering at the counter if you have the time to drink it the way it is meant to be drunk, slowly and with the grounds settled at the bottom. If you brought your grinder questions, just ask: they will grind the beans to your method, which not every retail counter will do.

Nuts and dates round out the shelves, with the kind of selection that makes the shop a destination for people planning a hosting event rather than a casual stop. Customers stock up for baby showers and special occasions, which tells you the role this place plays in the community: the sweets-and-coffee specialist you go to when the grocery store version will not cut it.

Good for anyone in the Chicago suburbs who wants Dubai-style chocolate or proper Turkish coffee without driving into the city, and for stocking up before a holiday or event. Not a workspace, not a hangout. Treat it as the specialty grocer it is and the visit makes sense.