‘Morning coffee with the neighbors’

At the Working Bean shop inside the Glen Ellyn train station, 62-year-old Dotty Flicek serves coffee, donuts and other treats to early-morning commuters rushing off to work.

Sometimes her customers aren’t in the best mood in the morning and don’t want to go to work, but Flicek said she still greets them with a smile when they ask for coffee — just as she’s done for decades.

For 41 years, Flicek, who lives in Glen Ellyn, has been one of the first faces commuters see each day. She arrives at Working Bean at 4 a.m., while much of the town is still sleeping, to keep the doors open from 5 to 10 a.m.

For some, her presence at the train station has become as much a part of the day as, say, morning coffee.

But that’s about to change.

Flicek’s husband had a stroke in August, and the couple decided to move to Indiana or Kentucky to be closer to their daughter and five grandchildren, who live in Alabama.

She planned to sell the shop to a Geneva resident this month and leave for good, however, the plan fell through, so Flicek posted a “For Sale” sign at the shop on Monday.

On Tuesday, a Glen Ellyn resident expressed interest in leasing the spot and will shadow Flicek later this week.

Although her job of four decades has meant getting up before the sun, Flicek said it’s just like “having coffee with the neighbors,” because many commuters have become like family.

Over the years, she’s watched generations of families grow up and has become familiar with the faces of those who stop at the train station to pick up coffee in the morning.

 But on her first day of work in 1971 — back when Richard Nixon was president — she didn’t think the job would turn into her life’s work.

“I saw an ad in the paper (in 1971,) and the guy hired me to start working the next day,” she said. “I was supposed to have a backup pouring coffee, but he was sick that day, so I was alone. I swore I would never come back.”

But she did. She came back the next day, and the day after that. The months turned into years and the years became decades. And she said the more people she gets to know, the better.

She’s been the face of the Working Bean for years, but she just purchased the shop four years ago.

“It’s been fun. It’s not something that’s going to make you rich fast, but it makes a good little profit,” she said.

As word spreads that Flicek is leaving, several commuters and residents have been stopping by the coffee shop, making sure they haven’t missed her last day.

Commuter Michael McGrath said he’s likely spent hundreds of dollars on coffee over the last 10 years at the Working Bean. He said seeing Flicek at the train station is often first outside interaction of the day for those who travel into the city.

“She’s always there, always friendly and always wishes you a good day,” he said. “It’s kind of a quaint throwback to an earlier and simpler time.”

In addition to her customers, Flicek said her five grandchildren will also miss the shop because they come help her during the summer.

“When I wake them up at 3 a.m., they complain,” she said, “But my (grandson recently) said, ‘What am I going to do in the summer if I’m not working (with you?)’”

Now, Flicek is waiting for someone who’s interested in owning the shop to sign a lease with the railroad. Until then, she will continue greeting commuters, train conductors and anyone else who stops in the little shop.

And even though she’s moving on, she’s not ruled out the idea of serving coffee once again.
“Maybe I’ll find a coffee shop at a train station in Indiana or Kentucky,” she said.

 

Coffee with Bill & Sheila
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