It's True: A New Coffee Shop for Eastern Market

This post was authored by Curbed contributor MJ Galbraith.

College kids and freelancers: you may commence squealing in delight. Detroit is getting another coffee shop courtesy of the family responsible for the red pistachio nut.

The Germacks and Rafals are two of Eastern Market's oldest family names and when the Rafal Spice Co. closed up shop in 2009, the Germacks saw an opportunity and took it. Having recently bought the old Rafal Spice building on Russell Street, the Germack Pistachio Co. is expanding its operations--to say the least. The building--or complex--will house the Germack Pistachio Co. store on one end and the Germack Trading Co. store on the other end. Smack dab in the middle will be the Germack Coffee Roasting Co. and its cafe. Any more Germack stores and they'll have to just go ahead and take over Shed 2.

Elyse Germack gave us the skinny on her new building:

We purchased the building from the Rafal family, who operated a spice store (and prior to that - personal care products) since the 1950s. The building was in utter disrepair and we completely rehabilitated it top to bottom, keeping true to the building's original aesthetics and salvaging as much as we could. In the old Rafal store footprint (most of the building was used by Rafal as storage) we are doing much as Rafal did. Selling bulk spices, herbs and coffee. The cafe and coffee roaster opens-up into this space. Customers will be able to watch coffee roasting on-site on Saturdays and linger over freshly brewed coffee and teas.

The cafe will be open beyond the market's Saturday hours, serving drinks Tuesday through Saturday beginning March 10th. What's more, General Manager David Shock assures Curbed that there will be a full espresso bar along with traditional drip, pour over, and siphon brews available. Sounds pretty good to us. And now that they're on Russell Street, maybe Supino Pizzeria can give Germack tips on how to get featured in all the hip Detroit docs. They could talk about how Detroit bounced back from the first Great Depression.