Loaves & Witches holds space for java and joy.
At Edgewater cafe Loaves & Witches, co-owners and practicing witches Julia Goodmann and Lisa Harriman strive to nurture a witchy, queer and sober community.
Located at 6034 N. Broadway — a 15-minute walk from the Lake Shore Campus — customers can feast on the menu item Ides of Starch, a potato tart.
Goodmann and Harriman have been friends for around seven years and play together on the Sit on My Base softball team, which competes in the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association Queer League.
“We met when we were both in active addiction and have rekindled our friendship in sobriety, which has been really beautiful,” Goodmann said.
The idea of opening a bakery originally started as a joke, according to Goodmann. Harriman would bring baked treats to softball games, where they and Goodmann would throw around “blasphemous” names for the treats — like “sinnerman rolls.”
Goodmann and Harriman bought the storefront from Edge of Sweetness April 10, opening the doors to Loaves & Witches June 27.
“It kind of was like an audacious leap into ‘We could probably do that,’” Goodmann said. “And we did. And it’s been going amazing.”
The name of the bakery finds inspiration in Goodmann and Harriman’s love of witchcraft.
“We always wanted it to be a kind of magical space,” Harriman said.
Both Goodmann and Harriman’s occult practices are earth-based. Harriman refers to themself as “an astrology rock witch” as they manifest their work with stones, Reiki, tarot and oracle cards.
The two’s practices in witchcraft have found a home in the cafe as well.
“I think there’s a certain type of magic to putting love and care into the bakes and then seeing the community be nourished by it — I think it’s really beautiful,” Goodmann said. “And we both have that shared passion of feeding our community.”
The slogan on the cafe’s website — “A witch is born out of the hungers of their time” — speaks to the idea of fostering and sustaining community, according to Harriman.
“We know that this is a space that others are craving because we are craving it,” Harriman said. “We know there are other people out there who are looking for something like this, and we want to create it.”
Christine Patin, a regular customer, called the cafe her “happy place,” and said she’s noticed a strong sense of community at the cafe, especially when visiting with her granddaughter, Zen.
“They were just so friendly and wonderful and my granddaughter just fell in love with the place,” Patin said. “They treated her so sweetly.”
While visiting Patin over the summer, Zen drew signs and thank you notes for Loaves & Witches, which are now displayed on the cafe’s walls and counter space.
“They just embraced her,” Patin said. “It was very special to me.”
Loaves & Witches is open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to create a space for sober, late-night hangouts. The evening hours also offer opportunities for community events like trivia nights and Halloween bashes.
“Being sober, Julia and I both noticed there’s not a lot of places to go late at night or late at night-ish that isn’t a bar,” Harriman said. “So we want to offer that later-evening space for folks to spend time that’s away from bar culture — where it’s not even something that they really have to contend with.”
However, it’s not all treats — running a business comes with tricks, too. Both Harriman and Goodmann said they’ve found it challenging to juggle “round-the-clock” work.
But for Goodmann, who previously worked as an enterprise account manager at tech company G2, the bakery has been a welcome change of pace, despite the long work hours.
“I was so miserable and mentally exhausted, and coming here, I’d so much rather be physically exhausted and have my heart and soul so full every day,” Goodmann said. “That makes everything worth it.”
When it comes to curating the menu, Harriman and Goodmann said they aim for accessibility in prices and food preferences. Almost everything on the menu is vegan, and about 30% of the items are gluten-free.
“It shows people that they are welcome here,” Harriman said. “That we are catering to them, that we’re thinking of them and that they have options.”
Looking to the future, Harriman said they hope to continue the message Loaves & Witches is built upon.
“It’s less about something tangible that we want to see and more about maintaining the essence and the values of what the bakery is and what this project has been for us,” Harriman said. “Whatever we end up doing, we want it to be held within that vessel of our values, of this third space — this queer, sober, magical space, if you will.”
Loaves & Witches is open 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The cafe is closed on Mondays.
