{"id":4534,"date":"2026-02-17T11:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/espy-cafe-opens-in-ann-arbor-offering-coffee-and-community\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:49:18","slug":"espy-cafe-opens-in-ann-arbor-offering-coffee-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/espy-cafe-opens-in-ann-arbor-offering-coffee-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Espy Cafe opens in Ann Arbor, offering coffee and community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espy.cafe\/\">Espy Cafe<\/a>, situated between downtown Ann Arbor and West Park, opened Jan. 10, bringing a distinctive business model to the Ann Arbor cafe scene \u2014 one based in a commitment to collectivist ideals, community and high quality food.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s popular dishes is sourdough pancakes: a stack of two large fluffy pancakes with butter-infused maple syrup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to value the labor of the people in Michigan, people we know who are doing really special things,\u201d Knowles said. \u201cWe get to showcase that in every ingredient that goes into everything and ultimately things taste better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne 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\u2019s going,\u201d Littlejohn said. \u201cThat, to me, is very important for building this broad, neighborly, friendship-based solidarity with workers across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Espy\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we go forward we\u2019ll have internal systems for distributing profits and making decisions collectively,\u201d Littlejohn said. \u201cWe only have a staff of three full-time (employees) and one part-time person right now, so we\u2019re essentially making every operating decision unanimously. But as we grow, we\u2019ll have to come up with democratic structures for how to manage that, because obviously there will be disagreements in the future and different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Espy Cafe has a no-tip policy and instead prioritizes higher wages for employees. Littlejohn said community makes business ownership in Ann Arbor worthwhile.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s certainly expensive to do this kind of project here with how precious land is and how high rent is,\u201d Littlejohn said. \u201cBut 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The cafe\u2019s layout features long picnic tables meant to encourage conversation. Since opening, Espy has hosted community-focused events such as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DUjtLJkkfOz\/?igsh=YmZpY2JwOXVvN2xq\">knitting club<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTqZbleEVck\/?igsh=NzJkN205MXJ1OHp5\">singer-songwriter workshop<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA cafe can mean so many things,\u201d Knowles said. \u201cYou get to interact with this space however you want to, whether that\u2019s just for a coffee, but also we hope to keep this space flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Espy staff member Ellie Choi told The Daily she hopes to host knitting events more frequently.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to eventually do a monthly open knitting event or fiber arts event where, if you do any kind of fiber art, come in,\u201d Choi said. \u201cPeople are starting to get into their creative outlets again with everything that\u2019s 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The cafe space utilizes natural light, indoor plants and colorful ceramicware from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ypsiclayhouse.com\/\"> Ypsi Clay House<\/a> to create a warm ambiance. Littlejohn said he, along with Knowles, Choi and several of their friends, renovated the space \u2014\u00a0 originally an industrial warehouse with no windows or plumbing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were no windows in the whole building,\u201d Littlejohn said. \u201cThere were industrial painted floors and metal walls and the like. So everything you see is stuff we did with our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Aditi Koul, an Espy customer, said she admires the work that went into creating the cafe\u2019s environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing that I like the most about this place is the care that has so clearly gone into all of it,\u201d Koul said. \u201cI feel like for a lot of people, that\u2019s the dream \u2014 it\u2019s doing something with all of your creative friends and this is the outcome of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><em>Daily Staff Reporter Sonia Alizadeh can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/business\/espy-cafe-opens-in-ann-arbor-offering-coffee-and-community\/mailto:salizade@umich.edu\"><em>salizade@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Espy Cafe, situated between downtown Ann Arbor and West Park, opened Jan. 10, bringing a distinctive business model to the Ann Arbor cafe scene \u2014 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[242,243,2593,413,441,4262,4263,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-4534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ann","9":"tag-arbor","10":"tag-cafe","11":"tag-coffee","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-espy","14":"tag-offering","15":"tag-opens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4536,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions\/4536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}