Manic Mondays

Lately I feel like I could write about nothing but coffee places. Something about the change in the weather has me needing caffeine like nobody’s business, and especially on Mondays. I was thus thrilled to discover that Naked Lounge Coffee Roasting in Oak Park offers a half-price deal on pounds of fresh-roasted coffee every Monday. You go and peek in the warehouse—which sports a couch and a table amid the 50-pound bags of C&H sugar, boxes of Monin Syrup and other café supplies, and various heavy equipment—and pretty soon you’ll have a $6 pound of deeply, darkly scented coffee in your hot little hands. Better yet, a bonus espresso or an Americano comes with it, the shot pulled (in my case) by a shyly friendly Jack Black look-alike. I left clutching hot coffee in one hand, to brighten up that Monday, and a pound in reserve for the gray and chilly weeks to come. 3527B Broadway, www.thenakedlounge.com.