May 1, 2017

Meet Shannon Valko of Little Beans Cafe in Lincoln Park and Evanston

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Valko.

Shannon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Little Beans Lincoln Park opened a little under 7 years ago when myself and my bother (Rob) decided we wanted to open a larger facility for open imaginative play combined with good food/drinks and other programming. We came up with the concept and after finding funding we opened with a focus on making sure parents/caregivers enjoyed the space as much as the kids. After operating our Chicago store we decided we wanted our future stores to also include older kids so we started looking for our second store which landed in Evanston 2 years ago!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some aspects have been smooth but there have been plenty of struggles. It can be a very challenging business to manage due to our seasonality. We are so busy in the Winter but so slow in the Spring, Summer and Fall. We have to staff seasonally and we have to manage our financials to maintain our business to the highest standard year round, despite seasonality.

Little Beans Cafe – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Little Beans is a family cafe and imaginative playspace for kids. We offer open play, classes, events, parties, camps and more. Our cafe serves Intelligentsia coffee, paninis, salads, pastries and more. We are a great place for kids and their parents/caregivers and we offer something for everyone. I think what I am most proud of is our programming. We have really awesome events that are a great value and fun for the whole family.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think my proudest moment was opening our Evanston store. Opening our first store was obviously very exciting but we worked really hard to get our Evanston store opened and it only happened because we proved our concept, got a SBA loan and found a supportive community. I am proud of the company culture we have created and the community environment that so many families love.

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