New Cafe Bombastic Mixing Art, Culture and Coffee in Lake View

Work is being done at a new café in Lake View, and the owner has big ideas to make the space anything but ordinary. 

Bombastic is aiming to open in October at 3732 N. Southport Ave., next door to Blue Bayou, a Cajun restaurant currently being completely revamped. Owner Richard Sykes says the café will be a cross between a coffee shop and event space where customers have a social experience. 

That means contracting lifelong artists to display their work at the storefront, as well as inviting educational lecturers to speak on topics as deep as the United States Federal Reserve. Bombastic will be different.

“We’re going to be out there,” Sykes said. “We want to be a coffee shop where you connect the dots and have an epiphany. We want to be an art gallery with a coffee shop in it. … You could call it a social venture.”

Sykes, who’s owned the nearly 1,500-square-foot space since 1999, says Bombastic will roast single-origin African coffees on site to ensure freshness. Cups will also be served up using a pour-over method rather than brewing drip coffee.

The storefront will have wifi internet when open, but won’t serve food. Sykes said it’ll be a place to relax and learn from published authors, area professors and more.

In addition, he has big plans for the future. Behind the building sits a private garden and garage, an area Sykes plans to develop into indoor and outdoor seating areas and an additional event space next year. 

“When that happens, we’ll have one of the only private outdoor patios on the street,” he said.

Sykes says Bombastic is gearing up for what he expects will be a major spike in interest on Southport in the near future.

“It looks like Southport is getting ready to boom.”