October 2025

Getting ready to pour concrete for our building foundation on Monday! This photo is looking from the classroom/office into the kitchen (insulation pad on the ground for our 10x10 walk-in coolor on the left) and then into Dining Room 2. After concrete, the building framing is going up! 

The excellent work of our GC - Element Builders - not only survived an atmospheric river storm event this week but thrived. Owner, Chris Grippi, even said the heavy rains helped pack down the sand for the team.

As we start closing in on the final stretch, we will start sharing more about our vision for the menu and the space. Over the past seven years of pop-up and temporary cafe locations, we’ve developed and tested so many recipes and concepts. We’re listening to our neighbors and friends in Normal Heights, and we’ve also recently found our own archive of sorts. 

The MAKE Blog actually started out of the COVID pandemic when we created MAKE Magazine as a way to keep our program operating while everyone was sheltering at home. As we look ahead to building the best menu for MAKE Cafe, we’re enjoying taking a moment to dig into our own history of how we got here and the beautiful stories of food, culture and family that bind us all.

Check out all our Global Cultures posts on the rest of our Blog