Dark Matter Coffee (Star Lounge)

Jesse Diaz opened Star Lounge in August 2007, predating Dark Matter Coffee as a roasting company, which launched the following year in February 2008. The cafe is where the Shiratado drink was invented and where Dark Matter's Unicorn Blood espresso blend first found a home, alongside a Mayan Mocha built from cinnamon, cayenne and honey sourced through the company's Guatemalan coffee farm partners.

Dark Matter has since grown to eight Chicago locations plus a 2025 debut on the Bowery in New York, making Star Lounge notable today as the original outpost of a much larger operation rather than just another neighborhood counter.