Milan Coffee Works
When Milan Coffee Works’ first Ann Arbor expansion didn’t go exactly as expected, owner Matt Bjurman didn’t have any plans to try again. The 5-year-old coffee roastery and cafe has a vibrant and committed customer base in Milan, so Bjurman didn’t feel the need to branch out again. That’s why, when the opportunity to take over an existing cafe space on South University came up, he decided to do things differently.
Bjurman started Milan Coffee Works in 2014 after more than a decade spent teaching special education in Lincoln schools. “I was burning out teaching special ed while I was roasting coffee in my garage,” Bjurman says. His colleagues would get together at Original Gravity Brewing just over the train tracks from downtown Milan, and Bjurman kept his eye on an empty building across the parking lot. “I would chat with colleagues about what we were going to do, because we were all burning out, and it was always ‘coffee shop.’ And I’m the one that made the leap.”
For this new expansion, he’s teamed up with fellow ex-teacher and Milan Coffee Works barista Kara Huckabone to bring Vertex, a sustainability-focused and gluten-free cafe using Bjurman’s coffee, to the University of Michigan’s campus.
“Kara is another teacher-gone-coffee story,” Bjurman says. “I had this talent with me, and I felt I was holding her back. She was ready for a cafe, but was leery of doing it all on her own, so that’s why we decided to go 50–50, to share the financial risk. She’s really taken the reins, and is putting projects together: like, she’s done two cafes already. She doesn’t need me at all.”
Some of Vertex’s projects include a zero-waste initiative and pop-up events, with the goal of engaging and educating the local student population. Milan Coffee Works supplies Vertex with both roasted beans and flash-chilled cold coffee as Bjurman focuses on enriching his local customer base with partnerships new and old.
One of the most significant of these collaborations has been with The Mother Loaf, a sourdough-only bakery whose owner Bjurman had met while they were both selling their wares at the Cobblestone Farmers’ Market in Ann Arbor. Now occupying the formerly empty space beside Milan Coffee Works’ roastery-cafe, Bjurman is quick to emphasize the impact the bakery has had on him. “We’re just two businesses who are trying to do good things,” he says of their relationship.
Elsewhere, Bjurman works with various Michigan distilleries and wineries to source barrels for his bourbon- and wine-aged coffees, and supplies beans to an ever-lengthening list of local vendors, from Zilke Farm Kitchen to Blom Meadworks to next-door neighbors Original Gravity Brewing Company.
Personal connection is deeply embedded in everything Milan Coffee Works does, Bjurman says, and he’s forever grateful to his loyal customers for accepting his business so wholeheartedly. “I think [the community] knows that I’m learning as I go,” he says, “and they’ve embraced that. I think they recognize that I’m just having fun doing it.”
