The storefront at 1150 Central Ave. in downtown Wilmette sat empty for three years after The Rock House closed in 2018. Five years after Katie Degen filled that gap, Central Station Coffee + Tea has grown from a single pandemic-era storefront into a two-location operation anchoring a stretch of downtown Wilmette that had been partly vacant for years.

Degen, a Wilmette resident and mother of three, opened Central Station on Friday, June 4, 2021, after spending a decade at home raising her children. She marked the café's five-year milestone in June. Degen had a background in event production and hospitality but had never run a coffee business. To prepare, she visited more than 400 coffee shops across the country.

"I was able to pick apart and pick the pieces of everything that I loved about those coffee shops, and then really hone it in and make it very Wilmette," Degen told Patch. "I built this coffee shop for Wilmette, and I feel like people get that when they see it."

She signed the lease in October 2020 for the space The Rock House had vacated two years earlier. Inside, a long mint-green coffee bar with a white marble surface anchors the room. Chalkboard menus hang behind the counter, and about 10 white-top tables fill the space.

Two locations, one corridor

Degen said she began asking the Village of Wilmette about expanding into the Metra station as soon as the main café opened. The Wilmette Village Board approved a two-year licensing agreement on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at an annual lease rate of $3,000. Central Station was the sole applicant for the concession space, according to village records. Degen renovated the station with updated countertops, equipment, and lighting at her own cost.

The bodega inside the Wilmette Metra station at 722 Green Bay Road opened Tuesday, January 3, 2023, serving commuters from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays with coffee, espresso drinks, pastries, and packaged snacks. The space had been vacant since 2019, when The Rock House's lease expired. Pandemic-era drops in commuter traffic kept it dark for nearly four years.

Central Station also runs a rotating artist-of-the-month program that gives local artists wall space to display and sell their work. The café hosts weekly sketching and watercolor classes and has offered writing, mahjong, and French classes over the years. Degen partners with the Wilmette Public Library, local schools, and the village's fire and police departments on community programming. On the sustainability side, Central Station works with Go Green Wilmette, a nonprofit founded in 2006, on waste-reduction practices the café describes as near-zero-waste.

Between the two locations, Degen has filled two long-vacant commercial spaces on Central Avenue and Green Bay Road. The Metra station concession space is owned by Union Pacific Railroad, which has an agreement with the Village of Wilmette allowing the village to sublease it.