Espy Cafe, situated between downtown Ann Arbor and West Park, opened Jan. 10, bringing a distinctive business model to the Ann Arbor cafe scene — one based in a commitment to collectivist ideals, community and high quality food.
The menu features classic options including drip coffee, espresso, lattes and teas, as well as unique drinks like an apple soda. The menu also features a seasonal, rotating selection of salads, sandwiches, soups and cookies. One of Espy’s popular dishes is sourdough pancakes: a stack of two large fluffy pancakes with butter-infused maple syrup.
Every Espy dish utilizes local ingredients from Midwestern farms, many in Southeastern Michigan. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Espy co-owner Julia Knowles highlighted the importance of sourcing locally.
“We want to value the labor of the people in Michigan, people we know who are doing really special things,” Knowles said. “We get to showcase that in every ingredient that goes into everything and ultimately things taste better.”
While Espy appreciates its local roots, it also works to form broader connections with farmers across the globe. In an interview with The Daily, Peter Littlejohn, co-founder and co-owner of Espy Cafe, said he admires the universal nature of coffee.
“One of the really special things about coffee is that you have the ability to make relationships in an international way, where we can DM people who grow the coffee for Espy and talk about how the weather’s going,” Littlejohn said. “That, to me, is very important for building this broad, neighborly, friendship-based solidarity with workers across the world.”
Espy’s business structure centers around democratic decision-making as employees own shares of the business and build ownership based on the number of hours worked. They often make decisions unanimously, but Littlejohn said this model may change in the future.
“As we go forward we’ll have internal systems for distributing profits and making decisions collectively,” Littlejohn said. “We only have a staff of three full-time (employees) and one part-time person right now, so we’re essentially making every operating decision unanimously. But as we grow, we’ll have to come up with democratic structures for how to manage that, because obviously there will be disagreements in the future and different perspectives.”
Espy Cafe has a no-tip policy and instead prioritizes higher wages for employees. Littlejohn said community makes business ownership in Ann Arbor worthwhile.
“It’s certainly expensive to do this kind of project here with how precious land is and how high rent is,” Littlejohn said. “But the people make it worth it, both the people who work here but also the people in the neighborhoods surrounding here that want to come and have this be a part of their lives.”
The cafe’s layout features long picnic tables meant to encourage conversation. Since opening, Espy has hosted community-focused events such as a knitting club and singer-songwriter workshop.
“A cafe can mean so many things,” Knowles said. “You get to interact with this space however you want to, whether that’s just for a coffee, but also we hope to keep this space flexible.”
Espy staff member Ellie Choi told The Daily she hopes to host knitting events more frequently.
“I want to eventually do a monthly open knitting event or fiber arts event where, if you do any kind of fiber art, come in,” Choi said. “People are starting to get into their creative outlets again with everything that’s going on. So many people walk in here with their projects and I think that having that event once a month with little treats would be so amazing, and that would still be a part of the whole Espy dream.”
The cafe space utilizes natural light, indoor plants and colorful ceramicware from Ypsi Clay House to create a warm ambiance. Littlejohn said he, along with Knowles, Choi and several of their friends, renovated the space — originally an industrial warehouse with no windows or plumbing.
“There were no windows in the whole building,” Littlejohn said. “There were industrial painted floors and metal walls and the like. So everything you see is stuff we did with our friends.”
In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Aditi Koul, an Espy customer, said she admires the work that went into creating the cafe’s environment.
“The thing that I like the most about this place is the care that has so clearly gone into all of it,” Koul said. “I feel like for a lot of people, that’s the dream — it’s doing something with all of your creative friends and this is the outcome of that.”
In the future, the team plans to add more items to the menu, including bread loaves, Mexican conchas and pie. Littlejohn said he would like to move toward keeping the cafe open seven days a week and exploring a dinner menu, and Choi mentioned expanding outdoor seating in the summer.
Daily Staff Reporter Sonia Alizadeh can be reached at salizade@umich.edu.
