Construction is underway on Astro Coffee, the shop Daisuke Hughes plans to open on Michigan Avenue in Corktown late this summer.
Hughes left Michigan in 2002. He lived in various cities around the world but kept tabs on Detroit. Working at highly-regarded
Monmouth Coffee Co. in London, he got hooked on coffee culture. A Model D article about what was to be the Mercury Coffee Bar was the impetus he needed to make the move to Detroit in 2008. "The timing was perfect, coming back and walking into a job that I was qualified for," he says.
While Mercury did not last, Hughes plans to take lessons learned and apply them to his own venture. "Now I have a fraction of the rent, which cuts overhead. And staffing at the Mercury was very high -- it will be a much smaller scale at Astro," he says, noting that coffee drinks will likely overlap with Mercury offerings, but food options will be scaled way back. "I've tried hard to keep what was good about it and retain that, and what was clearly not working, shave away and eliminate that."
Although it might seem cheeky or smart -- depending on one's perspective -- to locate Astro directly across the street from where Mercury opened and closed in just four short months, Hughes scoured the city for a full year before settling on a space. "I looked heavily at the Midtown area, looked at Eastern Market, looked at Corktown and Southwest Detroit pretty extensively," he says, running into his fair share of landlords unwilling to negotiate for the sake of activating their vacant building. "The small business community is filling in the gaps in the city, but we need the help of the building and property owners to give a little so we can bring value to their buildings, which can really help them actualize the value of their building."
Remains of the D is hosting a talent show as a fund-raiser for Astro Coffee on Friday, Feb. 26, at the Polish Village Veterans Hall in Southwest Detroit. Admission is $20, or $10 for performers. Call 313-615-3425 to register your lip-synch, dance routine or magic trick and in the meantime, keep up-to-date with Astro at
its blog.
Source: Daisuke Hughes, Astro Coffee
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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