Founder Mike Bawden is moving Curious Coffee to its own location. “It’s a big step for us” he says. “We have all the signs that there’s a market for it.” | J. Adrian Wylie
Curious Coffee, after a year’s residency at Bløm Mead + Cider, is ready to level up.
Small-batch specialty roaster Mike Bawden says he “can feel the buzz, and we can see that the numbers have been improving since we’ve started there.” So he’s opening his own café just three blocks away, investing $50,000 to upgrade his roaster from one to six kilograms and staffing up to stay open about eighty hours a week.
“I am excited,” says the British-born Bawden, who left his career in academia in Germany when his wife took on a U-M art history professorship. “But it is also a little scary as well. It’s a big step for us. We have all the signs that there’s a market for it.”
The former Mighty Good Coffee spot on N. Main, expected to open in early May, will have space for about forty customers, with fitted seating up front, barstools, and a communal table at the back for laptop users. Aside from the popular banana bread and a few other snacks, the focus is on his curated selection of mostly Colombian coffees, lightly roasted to retain their surprisingly distinct flavor profiles, from “chocolaty, nutty, [and] easygoing” to “very fruity and super funky,” as he describes them. “The starting point is I have to choose coffees that I’m excited about.”
Every pour-over is taste tested before it’s served for quality assurance, helping to hone baristas’ palates. “A knock-on effect is the pride in what you’re doing,” he adds. “The glassware is polished, the ceramics are beautiful, the service is attentive and discreet, and you have that training and you’re tasting things, so you’re not going to be thrown by any questions.”
Bawden continues educational programs for local coffee enthusiasts and other cafés nationwide. Wholesaling to those cafés has grown as well, and he’s added a subscription coffee club offering a monthly supply of take-home beans along with special events and meet-ups.
The successor at Bløm on S. Fourth Ave. is Detroit-based Cold Truth, serving up scoops of vegan, scratch-made soft serve through fall. Owner Tim Mahoney says the six-year-old brand, with a Midtown store at Cass and Canfield, features hyper-seasonal flavors with a coconut cream base.
He says the residency at Bløm is “a great opportunity to meet people and get a perspective, and hopefully that leads to us getting our own spot” in Ann Arbor.
Bawden appreciates how Bløm “kick-started” his growing coffee business. “We’ll be using their honey here at the café just to keep that connection as well,” he says.
Curious Coffee, 217 N. Main. Hours to be announced. curious-coffee.com
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