Bløm’s glass garage door is frequently open during the day these days. But don’t expect for a car to come out, instead, expect for a steady stream of people to stroll into what is now the home of Curious Coffee for parts of the day.
Proprietor Michael Bawden originally studied philosophy and started getting into artisanal coffee while he was a teacher in Berlin. He began to take the idea of going into the café scene professionally seriously while he started getting to know people in the German capital’s café scene and roasting his own beans at home.
Once his wife got a job opportunity in Ann Arbor, he decided that now was the right time to pull the trigger on turning his burgeoning pipe dream into a reality, which was made possible once he hit it off with the owners of Bløm.
Since the meade and alcoholic cider company is an evening-focused business, they decided to maximize the utility of their street front shop by letting him operate out of it during the day. The shop officially opened on this winter.
“I want to serve excellent coffee and a big part of the business is doing pour overs and selling beans. The green coffee price that I use for the beans is very high, and accordingly the packets of coffee I sell are on the higher end of things. But I really want to make coffee relatively accessible.”
Quality over quantity
It is a casual, cosmopolitan space – minimalist, with a lo-fi soundtrack playing (even the mugs lack handles). The leafy buddings of spring have allowed the garage door to be open, bringing in a fresh and bright aesthetic deep into the building in a way that slightly blurs the difference between inside and outside, just as Curious Coffee manages to just slightly blur the line between producing caffeine and producing art.
Bawden’s drip coffees, lattes, coffee,and a few treats form a confident line up. The 11 drink menu is hardly the longest one you can find, but it is actually a good signal — it is a quality-focused byproduct.
The standard latte can be used as a good gauge of overall caffeine quality and it provides a solid first impression. The raspberry and pistachio brownie is also a standout. It is very much a standard chocolate brownie, but with the upbeat flavor of the berries, and salty boldness of the pistachios effortlessly coming through undiminished.
The brownies are made in house. Shatila Bakery, in Dearborn, supplies the baklava.
Major coffee chains, and even moderately priced locations rely on syrups to sweeten their caffeinated drinks. Curious Coffee does not, instead relying on sugar or honey.
Sourcing and community
Sourcing coffee is obviously a big deal for Curious Coffee. Bawden says that he has made a point of developing one on one relationships with farmers abroad, made possible via DMing growers on social media, and that tariffs from the Trump Administration haven’t affected his business as of yet.
Each coffee option is named after the farm, or collection of farms that Curious Coffee sources from, and you can even see photos of grinning farmers if you choose to order via the website. Orders of white big bags, or smaller and pricier black bags, can be either delivered to you or collected at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Huron Street. Bawden is going to be constantly experimenting with new approaches to the art of high end coffee making, so just about every Sunday you can show up to find something totally new.
“There’s not always events on, but there’s always something to try. It is called Curious Coffee – coffee can be curious – it’s for people who are curious,” Bawden said. “And I’m following my own curiosity by following my love for coffee and seeing where it takes me. As an educator, I’m a big believer in staying curious. Learning is just curiosity. I want to stay curious. … One of my favorite things is for people to come in, and if they’re curious, and try something, I love that almost more than someone who is already really into coffee and likes what I’m doing. Of course, I like both, but we’re so lucky to have customers who value what we do, and a lot of them decide to sit there, and chat to us, and enjoy it, so it’s quite an enjoyable experience, especially at the weekends when it is very busy now.”
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Prices for drinks range from $3.50 for a standard espresso or Americano, to $4.50 for the drip coffee of the day, to $12.50 for the most expensive pour over. The baked goods go from $3 to $4.50.
Curious Coffee is open from Thursdays through Sundays. The current plan is for Curious Coffee to stay at the 100 South Fourth Avenue location at least until the end of the summer. A standalone Curious Coffee roastery, café, and “educational space” is in the works, but Bawden says that new edition is very much in the planning stages.
“The daytime pop-up is going well. We’ve had a handful of long-term pop-ups in the past, and for us it’s a great way to make use of a downtown space during hours when we aren’t open to the public. The more time that this can serve as a community space, the better. It’s also always a delight to have Bløm customers discover Curious, and vice versa,” Lauren Bloom, Bløm owner, explained to Current in an emailed statement. “Mike is a real stickler about process. When you’re paying for a cup of coffee, you’re in part paying for the endless hours of research that Mike has done to determine the best roast and water chemistry for that coffee bean, so he’s delivering you the best possible version of that coffee. Ann Arbor has a number of incredible coffee shops, but Mike has created his niche by really diving deep into that part of the process, and inviting his customers to chat with him and learn more about it.”
Experimentation and the future
Bawden is also in the process of restarting an old podcast focused on the art of coffee experimentation, which he hopes to make into a monthly series in the near future. A newsletter is also available.
That unabashedly nerdy knack for experimentation can lead to wonderfully new creations like the lemongrass infused Wilder Lazo geisha, which is another standout. It is a slow drip black coffee which skillfully infuses two flavors that you might think wouldn’t mix into a harmonious combination where neither flavor overpowers the other.
Being a slow drip affair, it takes a bit longer than your standard instant to get ready. Bawden actually apologized to your correspondent for how long it took, but the drink is so good that you really have to wonder why. Because like he said, “good things take time.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
