A privilege of getting to work from home is the freedom it grants you to choose where you want to spend your day working. A well-established passion of mine is foolishly spending too much money on expensive coffee, so my placement this summer has been wonderful for enabling me to drink as much coffee as possible in as many different cafes as possible. It hadn’t occurred to me until I started this blog post, that trying out different coffee shops is actually a very rewarding way of getting to explore Detroit and its surrounding areas. Surprisingly, I haven’t gone downtown a lot, but I’ve been to about a dozen different cafes to work around Detroit.
Every coffeeshop has its own different feel and most of the ones I’ve been to have all felt, in some way, apart of Detroit’s diverse culture (I hope that doesn’t sound cliche). I generally try to stay away from any brand name places as I want to be aware of where my money is going. Something that I’ve been thinking a lot about actually is the relationship between coffee and gentrification, which I know sounds like a wild thought without any context, but hear me out! It’s so easy to stop by any brand name coffeeshop like Starbucks without realizing that there are also local businesses that have much better coffee and are in much more need of your support! Obviously, not everyone has the privilege to go out of their way to buy local, but I think it makes a difference where you’re spending that little bit of money. It’s hard to know for sure (as I’m not a local) which cafes are the product of gentrification and which are owned by longtime residents, but I generally feel like it’s not too hard to gauge what the case is (case in point, Great Lakes Roasting Co. emits heavy gentrifying vibes).
One of my favourite spots though is the Bottomline on 3rd Avenue. Not only do have good cappuccinos, but they’re also very LGBTQ+ friendly (check out those pride flags!) and have a running tally of cups of coffee that have been paid forward for those who can’t afford it. They also sell records! It’s a pretty cool place and is steadily becoming a hotspot for me when I work from “home.”
This was a very fun post for me to read as a coffee lover. I can definitely see how coffee shops would be a good mode of exploring a city. I’ve walked by Bottomline a few times and wanted to go in, it”s cool to see that it’s as unique as it appeared to be from the outside. I don’t think connecting gentrification and coffee shops is a stretch at all. I’d definitely be curious to see if there’s a guide to locally owned coffee shops(or businesses in general) in the city, it could be a cool promotional tool and link for local business owners to connect with one another. Let me know if you have any other good recommendations for a cup of Joe!
Hi Nissa! I’ve done the same thing. I’ve made a list of all of the places I’ve tried but I’m also really aware of how coffee might equal gentrification. Where have you tried?
Nissa,
Lovely post, it was a delight to read. Bottomline sounds like a cool place, I’m going to try to check it out! I enjoyed your exploration of the relationships present between coffee shops and gentrification.