Sumercé Colombian Coffee Roasters

Sumerce Colombian Coffee Roasters builds its menu around the things you'd find in a Colombian kitchen. Arequipe latte, Spanish latte, pan de bono, chicken empanadas with a spicy sipping sauce people single out. The owner is at the counter, described as sweet and always smiling, and the Larkin Avenue space in Crest Hill leans family-friendly in a way that fits the cooking.

The order: arequipe latte if you want to taste what makes this menu different. Pistachio matcha or the Matchbae (matcha with raspberry) if you're in the matcha camp. Dirty chai for the espresso crossover. The chicken empanada with the sipping sauce is the food order people remember, and the sauce gets named specifically, which is rare. Pan de bono. The guava pastry. The waffle with bacon if you're staying for breakfast.

The room is small, cute, decorated with care. Family-friendly. Spacious for the footprint. The vibe is warm when you walk in and someone says hello. The Spanish-language touches throughout the space reinforce what the menu is doing, which is treating Colombian coffee culture as the point rather than as a marketing angle. Sit at the counter and you'll pick up the rhythm.

Now the honest catch. One customer walked in and nobody greeted them, and another flagged prices that felt steep for a strip-mall location, around ten dollars per drink. Specialty pricing in an unassuming corner of Crest Hill is a tougher sell than the same pricing downtown, and people notice. The cooking and the Colombian focus are what people come back for. If you want a quick three-dollar drip and a counter that knows your name on day one, this isn't quite the model. If you want an arequipe latte and a chicken empanada in a room that feels like someone's family put it together, this is the right address, and the spicy sipping sauce is the reason the empanada earns the price.