Espy Cafe Seeks to Surprise and Delight in Ann Arbor

Inside the new Espy Cafe in Ann Arbor, Michigan. All images courtesy of Espy Coffee. 

Long communal tables set the tone at a new coffee destination in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called Espy Cafe, which is applying thoughtful approaches to ingredient sourcing and worker satisfaction. 

The come-as-you-are cafe pairs scratch-made food and drinks with subtle global flavors. A few examples include chermoula and harissa tucked into a trout sandwich served on house-made Palestinian-style taboon flatbread. A pistachio aillade tops salads, while the shop makes its own apple soda with a reduction of local cider. House-made hazelnut orgeat syrup is available for espresso drinks.

Classic espresso drinks with coffees roasted by Espy are available with A2 dairy or with Ope Milk, Espy’s house-made milk that co-founder Peter Littlejohn said “theoretically” fits a similar profile to dairy milk for protein, sugars, fat, calcium and phosphorous.

“We’re using amylase enzymes to break down the starches of oat porridge just like the commercial brands do, but we’re blending in stone ground sunflower butter as opposed to neutral oil, which also brings along the naturally occurring lecithin and proteins,” Littlejohn told Daily Coffee News. “It’s super creamy [and] tastes great.”

In a previously windowless light-industrial building off Huron Street on downtown Ann Arbor’s western edge, the cafe has been given natural light, plenty of casual seating and a buzzing bar. 

Carpenter Jim Pudar milled Michigan-native hard maple and red oak for the bar, tables and cabinets, giving the cafe a handcrafted look. Two-inch-thick tabletops sit on wooden trestle bases assembled with oversized mortise-and-tenon joinery, built to take years of nicks and scratches.

“The juxtaposition of the heirloom quality tables with the thrift store school chairs captures something specific about the project,” Pudar told DCN. “I can’t quite put my finger on what to call it, but it’s perfect.”

Two single-group Decent DE1XXL espresso machines sit in recessed bar stations alongside a Mahlkönig EK43 used for single-dose grinding. Rinsers and tools are also recessed for a low-profile platform that keeps sightlines open for conversation as drinks go into handmade ceramics. Anna Schwartz of Ypsi Clay House spent a year and a half making more than 300 pieces for the shop.

“For whatever reason, people really talk here, both to friends and to strangers,” Littlejohn said. “I think that has to be at least partially because of how the space was built and all of the millions of choices made along the way.”

Sam Schaefer and Peter Littlejohn, who met while studying music at the University of Michigan, had originally planned to launch Mockingbird Coffee, a roastery and tasting room in Ann Arbor. When Mockingbird’s investor pulled out for personal reasons, the duo acquired what they could of the project’s green coffee and leaned on friends at Detroit’s Anthology Coffee — owned by Josh Longsdorf — for storage and access to equipment as they regrouped.

Schaefer also joined the Anthology staff as a barista and continues to roast for Espy out of the Detroit shop, where Anthology’s IMF RM-15 machine supports production. Espy’s green coffees come through traders including Semilla and Sundog Trading.

“Semilla is committed to implementing equity in a specific and practical way, and that’s the metric for how we pick our coffees,” Schaefer told DCN. “We commit to multi-year buying from one project at a time and we only add variety as we can sustain more volume, rather than leaving our annual commitment behind.”

Beyond coffee sourcing, the Espy founders say they’re committed to promoting equity closer to home, with a long-term vision for worker ownership. Requirements tied to a Small Business Administration loan that helped fund the build-out prevent that option for now, although the owners said decisions will continue to be made democratically, hourly wages will be equal and profit-sharing will be based on hours worked.

With the cafe now bringing Espy’s vision into a public space, the owners plan to refine operations while taking feedback from guests. 

“I think that this is the kind of space that people really crave. We’re not doing anything super heavy-handed from a service perspective, just having fun making the bevs and foods we like,” Littlejohn said. “I think cafe magic, compared to restaurants, often comes down to surprise and delight and flexibility, so we’re trying to do our best at a lot of different things.”

Espy Cafe is located at 404 W Huron St. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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