Know Your Barista: Elizabeth
Our very own Elizabeth rocking the stand-up stage.
Community Lead Elizabeth Hamilton does a lot around necessary & sufficient coffee® in Printer’s Row: booking artists and musicians, coordinating social media posts, and pouring latte art which she describes as “ugly little guys”. Her favorite thing, though, is making people laugh.
Elizabeth hails from Mesick, MI, a small village of less than 500 people not far from Traverse City. While other Mesick residents felt prepared to settle down in their 20s, Elizabeth wondered what else was out there: freedom, independence, and like-minded individuals, she suspected. Also, she hoped, the chance to break into stand-up comedy.
“I started doing stand-up a couple of months after I moved. In August, it’ll be a year,” she says.
Chicago regularly ranks in the top 5 – often top 3 – cities in the United States for good comedy. Popular comedians such as Tina Fey, Steve Carell, John Mulaney, and Steven Colbert all grew up or started their careers in the Second City.
The Annoyance Theatre & Bar in Lakeview brands itself as the place for “Chicago’s only funny comedy”. For Elizabeth, this seemed the perfect place to start getting involved in improv and hone her sketch-writing skills.
“I’ve been running some characters, working on some sketches, and collaborating with [comedians at the Annoyance] every other week,” she says.
Elizabeth’s comedy is most inspired by Mary Beth Barone, Nikki Glaser, Ilana Glazer, Amy Poehler, and Patti Harrison.
“It’s nearly impossible to turn my brain off, so I have a lot of ideas. I find myself daydreaming and fleshing out ideas until it’s this whole dumb elaborate plan I have in my head,” Elizabeth says of her creative process. “The ideas come easy, the kicker is just putting it on paper and executing it. Comedy provides a space for me to put all those big crazy ideas somewhere.”
As Elizabeth fastidiously constructs her comedy empire, we here at necessary are grateful that she hasn’t quit her day job. She’s been slinging lattes, matchas, and cortados here at the shop for about as long as she’s been doing stand-up.
“I like making flat whites and eight-ounce lattes, because they give me the best chance to do latte art. It has to be whole milk, because whole milk is the best paper for my brush,” Elizabeth says.
Elizabeth’s latte art skills have skyrocketed to perfection in the almost-year she’s been pouring them behind the counter at Printer’s Row, and the results are nothing to laugh at. Well… maybe sometimes.
“I should say my favorite latte art is something normal, like tulips or swans, which I do really enjoy doing.”
(Author's Note: Elizabeth is great at doing tulips and swans.)
“But my favorite latte art is just ugly little guys,” Elizabeth says. “Sometimes I attempt to do a tulip and it turns into this human-shaped thing. I’ll just add some dots to the eyes and a little smile. I’ve noticed people like to take pictures of that. When I do ‘nice’ latte art, they put sugar over it, but when I do the ugly little guys, that’s when they’ll take pictures.”
One of Elizabeth’s “ugly little guys”. Kinda cute, right?
These aren’t the only “little guys” Elizabeth likes to draw behind bar. Fun fact: there are four speakers located in various spots around the cafe, all adorned with hand-drawn caricatures straight from Elizabeth’s vibrant imagination. The anthropomorphized speakers – Barb, Diego, Greg, and Stacy – have quickly become beloved by the staff, as well as some observant customers.
“Barb is a diva, she’s the queen. Diego is like a hot skater boy. Some of the other baristas are in love with him,” Elizabeth says. “Then there’s Stacy – she’s your average horse girl. I’ve met a lot of Stacys in my life. I feel like I had a phase where I was Stacy. Greg kind of looks like Megamind, but more scraggly and ugly. That’s Greg’s story.”
Depending on who has opened the shop that morning, the speakers might be in slightly different locations, and playing music of a slightly different vibe. When Elizabeth is on the aux, you can expect anything ranging from indie-folk to grungy-punk to Michael Jackson. Follow the expertly-curated sound to the nearest speaker to see which of our four humanized speakers you have unknowingly sat next to.
Meet the speakers: Barb, Diego, Stacey, and Greg.
Aside from pouring “ugly little guy” lattes and adding fun flairs to the behind-the-bar culture, we’re beyond grateful to Elizabeth for the ways she builds community as Community Lead.
“The highlight of being Community Lead is booking art shows and being able to collaborate with creatives,” Elizabeth says. “It’s all about finding events that really connect the community. We’ve had ARTNIGHT Chicago, poetry reading events, things like that.”
One of Elizabeth’s proudest achievements as Community Lead was arranging Vista Collaboration – “Vista” standing for “Volunteers In Service To Art” – a massive event for Black artists in the community to come together. The event hosted vendors selling anything from caricatures to tooth gems, with DJs spinning in their own unique styles.
“It provided a hub for people to connect, converse, and explore each other’s art and music,” Elizabeth says. “I like providing a space for other creatives to showcase their talents.”
The best thing about being a barista is community, too, according to Elizabeth.
“I’m coming into contact with so many individuals a day. It’s just nice to hear, like, How’s everyone’s day going?” Elizabeth says. “It’s also a super great feeling when you build a connection with a customer. They used to be somebody who came in once, and now they’re coming back, they’re a regular, I know their name, I know about their family. That’s the most wholesome part about it all. I really love it.”
Elizabeth is currently doing stand-up at Cole’s Bar on Wednesday evenings, as well as hitting the Annoyance Open Stage in front of other comics on Tuesdays. She can be found on Instagram under @biffin.it.
