In-season: Coffee
Whether we sip from our morning mug of coffee for the rush of caffeine or simply to enjoy the flavor, our culture has become obsessed with coffee. It’s often referred to as “liquid gold”—mostly for br...
Exploring the Delights of Michiana’s Coffee Scene
Michiana coffee houses offer more than just a cup of joe. They reveal what makes the region special—where creativity meets sustainability and social consciousness—sourcing beans that connect to small farmers in faraway places, and offering sweets and savories made from scratch and a place to meet, work, hang out and build community.
With some old and new favorites beckoning, I load up my GPS and begin my coffee quest—an exploration of all things caffeinated throughout Michiana.
I start with The Electric Brew, the oldest coffee business in Elkhart County. It was founded in 1996 and now—with three locations in Goshen and Elkhart, Indiana—is owned by Myron Bontrager, who bought the business in 2007.
“It may be the oldest in St. Joseph County, too,” says Bontrager, “but there weren’t many coffee places back then.”
Coffee has its own odyssey. As I begin my morning at The Electric Brew in downtown Goshen with a cup of Vietnamese Coffee—espresso sweetened with condensed milk—Bontrager reminds me of percolators and Sanka, the instant decaffeinated coffee invented around 1900. Today the buzz is about cold fusion and nitro brews.
Bontrager, who sources 10 tons of coffee beans a year, likes coffee that tells a story. “We’re sourcing beans from Nicaragua, a small farm owned by the same family for 60 years; they do great things to help people in their community,” he says. But as with family farms in America, corporations are taking over coffee production, making it hard to find small growers, says Bontrager, particularly in Brazil where the majority of coffee is grown.
Since stories are important to Bontrager, it’s worth mentioning that on display in his downtown Goshen store is a Janus motorcycle. “They’re literally made outside our back door,” Bontrager says. “They’re great machines.”
Cloud Walking Coffee, a roastery, bakery and café just down the street from the South Bend Farmers Market, bustles midmorning on a weekday. The colorful tables and chairs are filled with people, cases brim with delectable sweets and savories, many made by The Elder Bread using a sourdough starter nurtured for close to a quarter-century. There is a pastel rainbow of macarons created by Mandy Krause, owner of Love & Macarons. Stacks of Violet Sky single-origin, bean-to-bar chocolate line the shelves. Patrons can see processing of the coffee and cacao beans using a customized San Franciscan roaster through the large brick-lined window that opens into a building next door.
But what fascinates me the most is the custom-made espresso machine manufactured by the Netherlands-based Kees Van Der Westen Expressionistic Works, with its sweeping image of a blue sky dotted with clouds on the front panel, and the colorful ceramic coffee cups piled on top. Even if I weren’t ready for my midmorning java pick-me-up, I would order one of their specialty coffees.
There’s hard stuff on the menu as well, but it’s only 10am, so I skip the drink specials, which include Star Flower, a concoction of strawberry gin, lavender, hibiscus, egg white and heavy cream. I order the cranberry juice espresso tonic with rosemary lemon syrup and pick up a bar of Violet Sky chocolate infused with silver pine and juniper and aged in a rye barrel from The Journeyman in Three Oaks, Michigan.
That should get me through to lunch.
Back in my car, I head north to Niles, Michigan, where owner Desyree Alberganti has created a taste of Italy in her marvelously decorated Gabrizio Italian Cafe & Bakery. With its brick walls, colorful art and myriad balloons, the place has a celebratory air. Part of the city’s burgeoning food scene, Gabrizio is within a short walking distance from the Iron Shoe Distillery and the venerable Veni’s Sweet Shop, which opened in 1910. On the same block is Jim’s Smokin’ Café, Niles Brewing Company and Apothica Teas, a steampunk, apothecary-style tearoom.
I order the Verde—oat milk, Japanese matcha and cardamom—and the American-Italian, slices of ciabatta layered with salami, capicolla, peppered ham, provolone and spicy giardiniera. Making a choice is difficult because there’s lots to choose from, including a soup of the day, a Torta Salata—quinoa, eggplant caponata, fresh mozzarella and olives—and, if I had arrived in time, breakfast sandwiches. Specialty coffees include crème brûlée, with vanilla bean and caramel, and the Gabrizio, made with Nutella and hazelnut essence.
I sit down to chat with Gabrizio’s manager, Alex Zielinski, who tells me they change up their pastry offerings frequently. There’s a large poster featuring photos of Alberganti’s best-selling cakes, and it’s hard to decide which is the most beautiful. Popular options include her Lampone al Bianco—a vanilla sponge cake with raspberry mousse and jelly, fresh raspberries, white chocolate ganache and Swiss buttercream icing—and S’more, a chocolate sponge made more decadent with chocolate mousse, caramel sauce, chocolate ganache, Biscoff crumbs, Swiss buttercream icing and meringues.
I should walk after all this, but instead I head west to Buchanan, Michigan, where Lisa Gustavsen is following in the footsteps of her late father, Williard, who invented a pizza-making machine and for a while ran a popular pizza and coffee shop in downtown Buchanan. The two planned Gustavsen’s Norwegian bakeri/kafe before his death.
The family takes its Norwegian heritage seriously. Williard was born in the U.S. but his parents moved back to Norway before going to Africa—hence the knowledge and interest in coffee. Gustavsen’s, at this time of year, serves Scandinavian cinnamon rolls in three flavors—plain, pecan and pistachio—and bollers, cardamon-flavored rolls with or without chocolate, along with coffee roasted on site. The recipes belonged to Gustavsen’s grandmother. “At first it took a lot of practice to learn to make them as good as she did,” she says. “Each of the bollers has to be hand rolled and shaped.”
Gustavsen says she’s not the perfectionist her father was, but that’s hard to believe when she describes how she often roasts coffee beans in a shallow pan over an open fire behind the store, where split logs are piled up along the side of a fence.
The bakery is in a small building with a cast-iron wood-burning stove dating back to the early 1900s and windows overlooking the Buchanan Commons and the restored Pears Mill near the mill trace.
The family also builds furniture, and the canopied picnic tables are in place for when the weather warms up and Gustavsen starts serving pizzas using her father’s patented pizza ovens. Her tables are also in use at the River Saint Joe restaurant in Buchanan.
Gustavsen likes the sense of community that exists in Buchanan and feels the city has been supportive of her business. “We look out for each other,” she says.
The sun is setting over Lake Michigan when I arrive at David’s Delicatessen & Coffee in New Buffalo, Michigan, on the main street that leads directly to the beach and lake.
Owners Joe Lindsay and Emma Brewster were hand-selected by the former owner to continue the tradition of a real New York–style neighborhood deli. Joe often signs his emails as “not David.” Lindsay and Brewster have experience working the food scene in New York City and they bring that sensibility as well as a love of small towns and businesses to David’s.
David’s is where my coffee quest ends. But it’s not over a cappuccino and one of their signature Reuben sandwiches made with corned beef from the Detroit-based Grobbel's, the country’s oldest corned beef specialist which opened in 1883.
As good as that is, I’m here for when the deli closes at 6pm, transforming into The False Front, a lounge-like place for cocktails and music and settling in on comfy couches and chairs. There’s a limited food menu and more than 70 Irish whiskeys to try, as well as a variety of cocktails.
Offerings change frequently, says bar manager Alex Silva, and have included a Coquito, a traditional, rum-based Puerto Rican beverage generally served around the holidays. Like everything here, whether it’s David’s or The False Front, it’s all about the details. “For the Coquito, we soak some raisins and cinnamon sticks into a Jamaican rum—using Appleton Estate—and let that sit for a few days and then blend the strained rum into coconut cream, coconut milk, sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg,” Silva explains.
But since this is a coffee journey, I order their espresso martini. “It’s really simple,” Silva says, “just vodka, St. George coffee liqueur, a simple syrup and freshly brewed espresso.”
But what a way to end a trip.
The Electric Brew
136 S. Main St.
Goshen, IN
theelectricbrew.com
Cloud Walking Coffee
1215 Mishawaka Ave.
South Bend, IN
cloudwalkingcoffee.com
Gabrizio Italian Cafe & Bakery
104 N. 3rd St.
Niles, MI
gabrizio.com
Gustavsen’s
125 Days Ave.
Buchanan, MI
269.479.8146
facebook.com/gustavsencafe/
David’s Delicatessen & Coffee
The False Front
30 N. Whittaker St.
New Buffalo, MI
davidsdeliandcoffee.com
Jane Simon Ammeson lives in Southwest Michigan. She writes about food, travel and personalities. Follow Jane at janeammeson.com/.
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