“There’s a lot of really great staples on Packard in Ann Arbor,” Hailey Polidori Caragay says. “I’m excited to be a part of that.”
She and her husband, Bryan Caragay, both twenty-nine, have bootstrapped Hazel Coffee Co from a pandemic-era espresso machine into a full-fledged coffee shop fronting the new Packard Row Apartments building.
“It was a bit more of a stretch than some other places that we looked at, but we felt really passionately about the area,” she says. “A lot of our local favorites are right around here,” including Fraser’s Pub a block north and York Food and Drink across the street. The couple, who’ve been together since high school in the Plymouth/Canton area, bought a house near Buhr Park in 2022. “We knew we’d be basically serving our neighbors,” Hailey says.
Related
Vinyl & Wine: York expands its “neighborhood oasis.”
Log Cabin to Fraser’s Pub: The evolution of 2045 Packard
They both studied entrepreneurship at Central Michigan, along with psychology in her case and computer science in his. Work took them to Austin, Texas, where, as Hailey puts it, they “really loved the coffee scene.”
When the pandemic struck, she found that some apartment communities there were sitting on funds allocated for events, so she tapped into that by pitching the concept of bringing coffee to tenants’ doors.
“Everything we’ve done has been self-funded,” she explains. “We believe in growing slowly. So we went from the machine to a cart to a truck”—a converted 1950s Red Dale camper.
They’d always envisioned moving back to Michigan, and their choice came down to Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor as they sought “the cool energy, the kind of community that we had in Austin,” says Bryan. He works remotely as a software engineer for Toast, a provider of point-of-sale systems for restaurants.
Their coffee catering gigs led to referrals to Google and Detroit Tigers events, to name a few. Named for Hailey’s mom’s favorite coffee flavor, hazelnut, Hazel Coffee Co has close to 16,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, where they’ve documented their journey to opening the shop.
“I am super passionate about social media,” Bryan says. “We try to be transparent and share everything we possibly can. And it’s a cool way to connect with people.”
With a $150,000 budget and ample support from landlord Jackson Dearborn Partners, they designed a space combining their respective tastes. As Hailey describes, “Bryan’s very minimal, clean, fine lines, and I’m way more eclectic, vintage, knick-knacks. So we both balanced each other out and tried to make this space something that had a little bit of a Southern feel, but was also comfortable and approachable.”
For their espressos, drips, cold brews, and such, they’re featuring local roasters including Ann Arbor’s Dozer Coffee and Ferndale-based Dessert Oasis. Matcha and chai lattes are popular choices as well. Bittersweet Bakehouse in Westland is among the rotating suppliers of sweet and savory snacks. They’re also planning to offer Iggy’s Eggies breakfast burritos.
Related
Dozer Coffee Joins the HOMES Taproom
Iggy’s Eggies Opens
“We’re specialty in the sense that everything we make has a lot of thought and care put into it,” Bryan says. “But we’re not specialty in the sense we’ll turn you away if you want something that isn’t necessarily, like, just coffee.”
Hazel Coffee Co, 2111 Packard, ste. 130. (734) 492–3570. Daily 7 a.m.–5 p.m. hazelcoffee.co
Got a retail or restaurant change? Email [email protected].