Noman Husain and Bilal Husain considered buying a franchise, but ultimately opted to launch a new family business. They tried chai, a flavored tea, in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, then perfected their own recipe. | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie
When Noman Husain, an industrial operations manager, emigrated from south Asia in the early 1990s, he carried with him a booklet of his mother’s handwritten recipes. They came in handy over the years and especially when his son Bilal, a 2022 Wayne State business and marketing grad, said he wanted to open a café.
They considered buying a franchise but ultimately opted to launch a new family business. They opened the first CupsnChai in Canton Twp. last year. Their brand-new second location sits between fellow newcomers House of Chimney Cakes Café (Marketplace Changes, October) and The Getup (July) in a revitalized mixed-use building on S. Fourth Ave.
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They’d noticed that most coffee shops in North America treat chai as a secondary offering at best, Noman says, so they decided to feature it foremost. “We went and tried chai in all different regions of India and Pakistan and Bangladesh,” he says. “We formulated our own blend of chai. Our chai comes from Assam, India. It has a bold flavor.”
Starting with black tea and aromatic spices, chai forms the basis for more than a dozen drinks, including creations containing French vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, zafrani (saffron), coffee, chocolate, and berries. They’ll be introducing the classic Italian coffee brand Lavazza as well. (The family lived in Turin for several years during Noman’s engineering career.) Nine cold drinks include the popular (nonalcoholic) mango tango mojito.
The food menu fuses the flavors of south Asia with American and European influences. Sandwiches, such as the Lahori chicken melt and Bombay masala melt, utilize breads ranging from sourdough to ciabatta to croissant. The slate of over thirty food items, many vegetarian, also includes flatbread pizzas, paratha wraps, snacks, all-day breakfasts, and desserts. “We do months of testing before we put anything on our menu,” Noman says.
The café’s design combines modern and traditional elements, with wood paneling, large globe lighting, a tile floor, and gold accents. With counter service and seating for about fifty, they aim to appeal to Ann Arbor’s student population and host a range of cultural, musical, and educational events, as they’ve done in Canton.
Bilal, twenty-four, spends much of his effort on business development, marketing, and social media, while still working daily as part of CupsnChai’s operational team. Asked how his cultural background and international experience informed his perspective growing up in metro Detroit, he succinctly explains why he finds the U.S. “the best country in the world.”
“This community is very vibrant. You have different races, different ethnicities, different religions. They help each other and assist each other in growing as a whole,” he says. “And challenges come with even your own people. You have to figure out how to navigate those challenges and figure out how to accept how people are, and work with them and around them.”
CupsnChai, 214 S. Fourth Ave. (734) 369–8900. Sun.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–11 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–1 a.m. cupsnchai.com
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