In the last few years, Detroit lost some staples of the city’s coffee and gathering spaces, including:
- Avalon Bakery (original location)
- Astro Coffee
- Bikes and Coffee
- Great Lakes Coffee
- Starbucks (Midtown)
- 3 Tim Hortons locations
Despite all the closings (n=21), the city is only down by one coffee shop overall from 84 to 83 coffee shops. Since 2021 there have been 20 new coffee shops or pop-ups launched. The focus for coffee remains Downtown and Midtown, but the neighborhoods remain under-served by third places (not home, not work).
Other staples got new life as renewed coffee shops:
- Detroit Rosa (former A Public Square, former Towne Hall Caffe)
- SPKRBOX (former Urban Bean Co.)
- Red Hook – Midtown (former Great Lakes Coffee)
Still more moved to grow in new locations:
- Anthology relocated to Eastern Market
- Cairo Coffee moved into Spotlite Detroit space
- Avalon moved in to share space with Jolly Pumpkin
Gathering spaces in Detroit are a hot commodity and not easy to come by, so the loss of just one is usually a substantial hit to the community. A handful of new baristas are trying their hand at pop-up coffee and we can’t wait until they have some physical space:
DETROITography 