As far as American cafés go, the Bourgeois Pig is in a class all its own. It sprang from humble beginnings in 1993 when a 28-year-old traveler named F. Mason Green, who after years of backpacking through Europe and visiting many of the continent’s most fabled coffeehouses, plopped down just enough money to secure his own café upon his return. And it’s been a Chicago institution ever since. But despite this popular haunt’s ubiquity to the Windy City, the Bourgeois Pig was no impulse buy.
