Side Practice Coffee

• resultPass
• critical violations1
• last inspectedDecember 3, 2025
• address5139 N Damen Ave, Chicago 60625

Is Side Practice Coffee clean?

Side Practice Coffee is currently Pass from Chicago Department of Public Health, from an inspection on December 3, 2025. Inspectors wrote up 1 critical violation — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.

What did inspectors find at Side Practice Coffee?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on December 3, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 🚰handwashing sink blocked or barecritical
  Adequate Handwashing Sinks Properly Supplied And Accessible • : 6-301.13--- MUST MOVE THE PAPER TOWEL DISPENSER CLOSER TO THE HAND WASHING SINK AND NOT DIRECTLY ABOVE THE CLEAN DISH RACK AT THE THREE COMPARTMENT SINK.
• 🧽surfaces not properly sanitized
  Food-Contact Surfaces: Cleaned & Sanitized • 4-602.11(B-E)--- INTERIOR OF THE ICE MACHINE NOTED DIRTY. INSTRUCTED TO CLEAN AND MAINTAIN.
• ⚠️Contamination Prevented During Food Preparation, Storage & Display • 3-307.11--- MUST INSTALL A SPLASH GUARD ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HAND WASHING SINK BETWEEN THE SINK AND CLEAN DISH DISH RACK.
  Contamination Prevented During Food Preparation, Storage & Display • 3-307.11--- MUST INSTALL A SPLASH GUARD ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HAND WASHING SINK BETWEEN THE SINK AND CLEAN DISH DISH RACK.
• ⚠️All Food Employees Have Food Handler Training • 2-102.13--- NO PROOF OF FOOD HANDLER TRAINING OR CERTIFICATES FOR ALL REQUIRED EMPLOYEES. MUST PROVIDE.
  All Food Employees Have Food Handler Training • 2-102.13--- NO PROOF OF FOOD HANDLER TRAINING OR CERTIFICATES FOR ALL REQUIRED EMPLOYEES. MUST PROVIDE.

When was Side Practice Coffee last inspected?

Side Practice Coffee has 4 inspections on record going back to April 27, 2020.

Side Practice Coffee vs Lincoln Square

Lincoln Square runs 32% clean across 922 tracked restaurants — 293 clean, 67 mid, 556 cooked.

Against the 922 spots Cooked tracks in Lincoln Square, this one comes out cleaner than 68% of them.

Other spots in Lincoln Square

• ✓ Smylie Brothers Brewing Company
  clean · July 27, 2020
• ✓ Turkish Cafe & Bakkal
  cooked · August 9, 2022
• ✓ Lincoln Ice Cream Company Llc
  clean · July 13, 2021
• ✓! Pastores & Brunch
  mid · May 11, 2026
• ✓! Foster Pantry
  mid · September 18, 2020
• ✓ Atx Bodega
  cooked · October 3, 2022

See every restaurant inspection in Lincoln Square →

How Chicago grades restaurants

Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.

Source: Chicago Department of Public Health via Chicago Data Portal. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated December 3, 2025. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.