Records, Roasts & a Second Chance: Turn Back Time Opens Across from Independence Park
By Socialhood News · Irving Park ·
Irving Park neighbors, a brand-new kind of neighborhood anchor just quietly opened its doors on Irving Park Road — and it's the kind of place that makes you want to linger a little longer on your block.
Turn Back Time Records and Coffee opened on Monday, July 14, 2026, at 3834 W. Irving Park Road, directly across the street from Independence Park. The business is owned and operated by Patrick Kapp and Emiley Kiser, a couple who live in the neighborhood — a detail that matters, because everything about the space reflects the investment of people who actually call Irving Park home.
The concept is elegantly simple: a coffee bar anchors the front of the shop, and a record store fills the back. According to a corridor guide published earlier this month, the room was deliberately built so that the second thing — flipping through vinyl — feels like a natural next step after the first: picking up a cup of coffee. It's the kind of layout that turns a five-minute errand into a forty-five-minute neighborhood ritual.
The path to opening day was a long one — and a community-supported one. Kapp and Kiser took over the storefront back in October 2025, and spent nine months converting what had previously been a prosthetics and orthotics business into the warm, music-filled gathering space it is today. Part of what made the transformation possible was a $75,212 Community Development Grant from the city, funding that helped turn a vision into a buildout. Nine months of renovation work later, Turn Back Time opened its doors just in time for summer.
The location couldn't be more fitting. The shop sits directly across from Independence Park, the 15-acre green space that has long been the neighborhood's primary outdoor anchor on the Northwest Side. On a warm afternoon, the combination of the park across the street and a coffee-and-vinyl shop to duck into makes 3834 W. Irving Park Road feel like exactly the kind of address that earns a neighborhood its reputation.
Turn Back Time is also arriving at an unusually dynamic moment for the Irving Park Road corridor. The new shop joins a small but growing cluster of community-oriented gathering spaces that have taken root in Old Irving Park in 2026. It is part of a broader shift that local observers have been tracking all year: operators building the corridor's identity block by block, storefront by storefront, before formal institutional structures like business associations or special service areas have fully caught up.
For residents who have long wished the neighborhood had more reasons to slow down and stay a while, Turn Back Time Records and Coffee is a direct answer. Whether you're a dedicated vinyl collector hunting for a specific pressing, a remote worker looking for a neighborhood coffee spot with genuine character, or simply someone who wants to spend a Saturday morning doing both, the shop at 3834 W. Irving Park Road is well worth the walk — especially with the park right there if you want to take your coffee outside.
Have you stopped into Turn Back Time yet? Drop your first impression in the comments — and tag a neighbor who needs a new weekend morning routine.
Sources:
1. https://klopasstratton.com/blog/the-third-space-question-old-irving-park-just-answered