Cafe Arbor Vitae

Phenomenal!!! The coffee is in– house roasted and of best quality too. Homemade or from scratch with quality ingredients are these chefs specialty breads, soups, salads, baked goodies and sandwiches! A lot of skill and love goes into every scrumptious morsel! A hidden gem!!!

This place is so good. You should come here even if you do not work or study here. Best Lentil soup ever.

Soup was delicious on a below 0 day. Service good and workers very pleasant. Quite a «find» — I’ll go back for coffee another time. Thanks to Candice G otherwise I’d never have found this place and her descriptive directions otherwise I’d have turned right around in the large imposing foyer. I got take-​out and the aroma was the envy of my coworkers.

Popped in here with hopes of hanging out for a while with my laptop and enjoying a cold caffeinated beverage. Well, half of that happened… Let me explain.
This café is located on Naperville’s NIU campus. I would have never known it was here if it wasn’t for Unilocal.But I’m always looking for new coffee joints to hang out at so I decided to give it a try!
Thanks to Candice G.‘s directions I was able to find the place just fine. I walked into the empty café and ordered a blended latte drink. It was taking quite some time for the only guy working to whip this up. He completely apologized for the wait and said he wasn’t ready and that he really needs to lock the door. Well now I’m confused…
When he rang up the beverage I asked him what time they closed. He said they close everyday at 2pm, but reopen again at 5pm. AH HA. That explains why at 2:10 he was nowhere near ready for my service.
All was forgiven and I packed up and left. Honestly, the blended coffee itself was just okay. Cute little shop though so I’ll be back another time when they’re open and ready for business. Updated review coming soon…
Key takeaway: they’re closed from 2−5pm!

Delicious soup, wonderful hospitality. Added bonus for the delicious homemade cookies and cakes. I stumbled in before an appointment for a quick lunch and a place to work for an hour. Perfect environment and awesome food. The gentlemen working there takes pride in what he does and really goes above and beyond.

I’m slowly sipping on the mocha from Café Arbor Vitae because I don’t want this delicious experience to end. A perfect balance of coffee and chocolate it was worth the wait.
Visiting the café felt like stepping into an oasis during the work day. The music, ambiance, friendly service made the busyness of the work day slow down.
Overall a great experience, I’ll be back soon.
Be sure to read the directions to get there. It’s not visible from the outdoors, you will need to enter NIU to find it.

This café is hands down, amazing! I’m a student at the NIU Naperville campus (the café is INSIDE the campus), and I literally count down the minutes until break when I can go to the café and get my Chai Latte. Pretty much everything is organic, even the chai used for the latte. Ashraf is the chef and he makes the most unique pairings that always give my tastebuds a food explosion of goodness. Carrot cake with an apricot sauce? YES. Peanut butter brownies? OMG so good. Muffin with apricot and macadamia nuts? Died and went to heaven.
I really need to come here for lunch or dinner. My classmates give raving reviews on their soups, hummus, and falafel. Plus Ashraf is just the sweetest dude ever. Awesome customer service and really makes everything with care.

Great little stop ahead of a client meeting. Hard to find, but once you’ve been there, you’ll go again. NIU building and wi-​fi as a guest. All good.

They have very freshly made high quality sandwiches here. They are a little pricy though and it was a bit slow on our carryout order of the Egyptian chicken shawarma wrap (delicious) and a roast beef and cheddar croissant. The Middle Eastern owner guy was gracious and friendly and offered us samples of their roasted garlic and cream of chicken soup (very good), as well as a free small cookie (I think it for our wait as the sandwiches were prepared by another). I added the 4^th star basically for the touch there. Parking and location tip here for you as the Café is not visible — just enter the eastern entrance (there’s a western one) on Diehl to the NU campus, and there are two marked parking Arbor Café spaces in the lot. The café is straight up the corridor as you enter the nearby rear entrance from the parking spots.

This place is exactly what you need after you realize that starbucks is terrible. I became a lifetime customer yesterday after stumbling onto the NIU Naperville campus following google maps. Generally at this point I would have given up, there is no signage and no real sign of anything but the NIU building. However, I endured, purely in the pursuit of freshly roasted coffee beans.
Walk in the front door, quickly go down the hallway to your right… and BOOM! There it is.
The coffee is out of this world.
The service is insane.
The baked goods CAN NOT get any better.
This was breakfast…
I decided to come back for lunch.
Salad was cheap, and had all fresh ingredients.
Bought a pound of coffee.
Bought a peanut butter brownie.
If you are reading this, you need to stop immediately and go discover this hidden diamond.
— I created a Unilocal account purely to ensure this place gets all the free marketing it can get.
Did I mention cheap loose leaf tea?

Coworker stumbled upon this little gem this AM by looking for a café on Google. His raves and an invite brought four of us for lunch. I normally brown bag it but I am so glad I decided to leave the brown bag in the fridge at work.
I had their Curry Chicken as a wrap. Wow was it great! The wrap he used was flakey. In addition the ingredients were mixed together carefully. It is a mayo based chicken salad but its not heavy like you would expect a chicken salad. The grapes inside were a nice surprise.
I also purchased a slice of carrot cake. Hands down, the best carrot cake I have EVER had. Normally carrot cake is heavy. This cake is very light and crumbly. he garnishes the cake with a light cream cheese frosting and candied carrot. He knocked my socks off when he recommended a strawberry sauce for the cake as well. I thought how can this work, but it does.
Finally I purchased a pound of coffee to bring home to the wife. Best part is that the coffee is roasted on premise. I cannot wait to go back. The shawarma is next on my list.
Keep up the great work!

A shout out to Candice G. for her great review (complete with directions) which led me to today’s stop on the Caffeine Cruise.
By now all my friends and family know I have undertaken this mission and want to be part of it. I wanted to get together with my bud for her bday and she lives in Plainfield. Unilocal gave me this suggestion when I searched for Coffee Chops near Plainfield, I love Unilocal!
First and foremost, this was a total hip hip hooray on the Caffeine Cruise, a smooth and delicious Vanilla Latte which tickled my taste buds and made me awake and happy! But remember, my friend had turned a year older; lunch was in order.
I ordered the Egyptian Shawarma Chicken, mild spice, with the soup of the day, chicken vegetable. (My friend ordered a salad, I know, I love her anyway.) The soup and sandwich were divinely fresh, flavorful and unique. Everything was so delicious that it seemed criminal that they were also so reasonably priced! The staff here could not have been friendlier and more helpful. I felt like if I had asked them to balance my checkbook they would have done it and done it well! What terrific customer service. I was glad to see a little crowd gather here around lunch time.
All around magnificent day — great conversation, exquisite food, smooth coffee and my friend turned a year older, not me!
Cup — mug
Cost — 3.90 for 16 ounces
Preparation — hand crafted with pride

Friendly service and GREAT coffee. Located inside the NIU building. Hard to find location but definitely worth it.

Echoing Candace: Great little place… if you can find it, and if it’s open.
It’s INSIDE the NIU building, which the girl I spoke with when I called for directions neglected to tell me. The location gives it an awkward feel, and the place was empty, which made it feel weirder. Setting that aside, cute ambiance, free wifi, extensive coffee/​juice/​smoothie menu and decent selection of sandwiches, quiche, soup and goodies are all pluses. My curry chicken salad sandwich was absolutely delicious– green grapes gave it some crispy sweetness and the wheat bread was soft. Perfect lunch. Could be a place to nestle down & do some reading or work for a while… IF they didn’t close for two hours in the middle of the day. Hours are funky: M-​Th and Sat 7am-​2pm & 4pm-​8pm. Closed Fri and Sun. Might have been 4 stars or even 5 in a different location with better hours.

What a great little find! … if you can find it, that is.
Before today, I’d only had Arbor Vitae coffee in the form of beer. What? Yeah, that’s right, Baby. This little lady is living the mofo-​in’ dream. My fave porter from Two Brothers Brew Co, Red Eye Porter, is made with Arbor Vitae Coffee and I figured they’ve gotta make a mean cup a joe if they can make a beer taste so close to magic.
Here’s the first, possibly most important tip for Arbor Vitae Naperville: The Directions. The map on here is correct but it’s not in an obvious place and if you stop reading now, you’ll certainly drive past it a few times as it can’t be seen from the road. It’s located in the Northern Illinois University building on the South side of Diehl road. Once you find the building, park in the main lot and enter through the large center entrance. Are you standing in a large foyer now? I hope so, otherwise you’re lost and you should prob keep your rape whistle handy. It can be pretty dangerous in this area. Ya know, all those corporate types and all. F*ckin’ suits. Anyway, once you’re in the foyer, you’ll see a front desk to your right. Just walk right on past that and keep following the curve to the right and Arbor Vitae will be on your left, likely with a cute little standy sign outside advertising their specials.
The interior is cute and filled with small marble and mosaic table and chairs. I’m sitting at the pretty green one right.this.very.instant. The one worker bee is helpful, friendly, and made quite the Chai tea latte with soy. The prices here are so cheap at just over $ 3 for a very large Chai tea latte with soy and food items will run you around $ 5.50 for a delicious healthy wrap with both meaty and veggie options. They also offer some nominally priced smoothies, refreshing iced tea, fresh fruit and veggie juice, baked gods… er, I mean goods, and a variety of health conscious snacks.
I will defo be back, and perhaps on a nicer day I’ll move my caravan of belongings outside to where you overlook a scenic pond and fountain.

Do you need caffeine? Do you try to stay healthy? Do you still indulge in incredible, succulent baked goods?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, Arbor Vitae may be just the place for you.
Oh, you also need to be in the Naperville– or as I refer to it-​NaperVILE area.
Caffeine? Oh yeah, they have this. They carry a fair trade coffee that meets my needs– and I am pretty darn picky. Their blend is called «Wild ASS” — and tastes pretty fine. One of my friends and colleagues has compared it to the «Puerto Rican Rocket» blend that we always drink in NYC. Their flavored coffees are always a bit weak to me, but, I know quite a few people that drink them. Arbor Vitae also carries a large selection of teas.
Staying Healthy? They have an incredibly large menu of made at request smoothies and ginger drinks. They also make some fantastic organic salads. In my opinion, their hummus is exceptional– I typically order the hummus plate.
Desserts? Whew… these make my mouth water. Trust me, order the peanut butter brownie when you are having a horrible day. Things will look better! I have been known to order plates of the brownies for when my teams are locked down in long meetings– they really do help make everyone happier– me especially, and if I am happy, well, things go better! The carrot cake is also yummy.
Pricing may feel a bit high– but if you are used to this VILE town, no problem! Check them out. I don’t think you will regret it!

I L O V E D this spot, I cannot get over the fact they decided to move to two campuses within the county. My Naperville meanderings shall never be the same: o (
Guys, please consider reopening somewhere nearby!

Give them props for having a roaster in house, roasting their own beans. They hire colorful people to work the counter, but I hear they aren’t so nice to employees — so eat but don’t work here.
I love the smoothies, even though they can get up to $ 5 a small cup.
Been going here almost as long as I have lived here, and they carry Alternative Baking Company Cookies.
Too bad about going out of business, but rent is astronomical in this town.

Another great independent business is leaving downtown (apparently rent has doubled, so they are moving out in January). Everytime I come back to Naperville, we seem to lose one more great business downtown — the old Oswald’s pharmacy, the Tasty Bakery, etc. All to make room for Williams Sonomas, Pottery Barns, and other snobby joints.
Arbor Vitae… what an adorable, cozy place. Relax at a table outside and watch the riverwalk traffic go by. They roast their own coffee, gotta love the Wild Ass blend. Enjoy them at this great location while you can!!!

Such a cute little juice and coffee bar, totally reminds me of the places that my friends and I would hang out in while we were in high school. Friendly staff, family feel, and definitely a bit small. Great coffee, too– I usually get a pound of their Wild Ass house blend to go as well.
Edit, whelp, this joint closed down. WTF. Like downtown Naperville needs another Stabucks or Jamba Juice, gah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater and I patronize chain stores like the Bux way too often for the good of my wallet and the size of my ass, but still, GAH.