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gourmet coffee in the detroit area


san

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i will be moving back to the d in a month or so and my wife is very concerned about her coffee shop options. does anyone know of a coffee shop worthy of a discriminating (obsessive) palate? she especially likes illy and intelligentsia.... i appreciate any and all suggestions

Sandy Levine
The Oakland Art Novelty Company

sandy@TheOaklandFerndale.com www.TheOaklandFerndale.com

www.facebook.com/ArtNoveltyCompany twitter: @theoakland

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i will be moving back to the d in a month or so and my wife is very concerned about her coffee shop options.  does anyone know of a coffee shop worthy of a discriminating (obsessive) palate?  she especially likes illy and intelligentsia....  i appreciate any and all suggestions

I live in Cleveland, not Detroit, but the principle is the same. I don't want to pay the shipping for Intelligensia so I roast my own which isn't much more difficult than making popcorn and costs half the price.

Go to Sweet Maria's to find out everything there is to know about home roasting.

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I can't give you any specific recommendations, but you (or your wife) may want to contact the coffee shops near home or work and ask which roaster they use for their espresso beans. I was pleasantly surprised to run across a shop in K'zoo that uses (and sells) Intelligentsia beans. There also are some excellent alternatives to Illy and Intelligentsia. For example, my favorite place here in GR uses beans from Caffe D'Arte in Seattle. You also may want to contact Intelligentsia directly and see if they'll tell you which shops in your area, if any, are wholesale customers of theirs.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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i will be moving back to the d in a month or so and my wife is very concerned about her coffee shop options.  does anyone know of a coffee shop worthy of a discriminating (obsessive) palate?  she especially likes illy and intelligentsia....  i appreciate any and all suggestions

I don't know of any Illy shops, but the only Intellegentsia coffee shop in Detroit-proper is (I forget the name, but something cute coffee like) in the Dime Building downtown.

Last time I checked with Intelligentsia, they listed two other shops, but Cafe Detroit is sadly no longer and Jazzy Java in Rochester now roasts their own.

Where in Detroit are you moving?

Bode

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Check out Mighty Good Coffee in Ann Arbor - I'm not a coffee drinker, but my husband likes their coffee a lot, and I just partnered with them to produce a coffee truffle for my business. I think they deliver to Detroit.

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san, I assume you asked about coffee shops, not coffee roasters -- is that correct?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Where in Detroit are you moving?

Back to berkley (11/woodward)

san, I assume you asked about coffee shops, not coffee roasters -- is that correct?

yes, just places for her to go before work or on weekend mornings

thanks for all the help everyone...

Sandy Levine
The Oakland Art Novelty Company

sandy@TheOaklandFerndale.com www.TheOaklandFerndale.com

www.facebook.com/ArtNoveltyCompany twitter: @theoakland

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There are a couple of shops on 9 mile in Ferndale, both just west of Woodward. Neither is especially memorable nor deplorable. I think there's "beaners" on southbound Woodward just north of 9 mile, but I've never been there and think they're going to change their name soon because of the potential offensive nature of their name. I think there are still a couple of independents in Royal Oak too, but it's been a while since I've gone looking for them.

Bode

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If you want to go to a coffee shop where the owner is impassioned about coffee, A Brand New Day in Canton, Michigan is the place.

(734) 983-0334

42480 Cherry Hill Rd,

Canton, MI

The owner, Chris, often will predict what specific style/type of coffee someone will want when they walk in the door. Usually he's correct, too.

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If you want to go to a coffee shop where the owner is impassioned about coffee, A Brand New Day in Canton, Michigan is the place.

(734) 983-0334

42480 Cherry Hill Rd,

Canton, MI

The owner, Chris, often will predict what specific style/type of coffee someone will want when they walk in the door.  Usually he's correct, too.

I'm om the east side (Grosse Pointe) and I haven't found anything too exciting. I always order 5-6lbs at a time from Intelligentsia. Ground shipping is $6 and it arrives the next day. Best plan IMO. You'll burn more than $6 in gas and sit in traffic to try and find something good.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

The places in ferndale referred to upthread are the now defunct Xhedos, which used to serve Illy, and Java Hut. Java Hut always seems to be busy, but I think that's more for their internet and atmosphere because in my opinion the coffee tastes acrid, as if a handful of dirty nickels were infused into the pot.

san, what restaurant do you manage?

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I haven't lined up employment as of yet... I actually just arrived late last night and will be digging my way out of the 50,000 boxes in my house for the next several days, then start the job hunt.

Sandy Levine
The Oakland Art Novelty Company

sandy@TheOaklandFerndale.com www.TheOaklandFerndale.com

www.facebook.com/ArtNoveltyCompany twitter: @theoakland

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