Americans spent $301 million per day on coffee in 2022. The number of coffee shops surpassed 40,000 total stores then as well.
While 16,000 of those stores are Starbucks locations, local coffee shops make up less than half of the market share compared to the chains like Caribou Coffee and Dunkin’.
The Northeaster coverage area has three Starbucks and three Caribou stores, but it has far more independently owned cafés. Each of them does things differently than the Seattle-based beanery.
Left, the iconic sign at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe, 1618 Central Ave. NE. (Davis Steen)
Motorcycles and hospitality
Biker bars have a reputation for serving gruff individuals with lots of leather and scars. The cliché goes that you don’t want to find yourself in one of these establishments, but what about a biker coffee shop?
“Diamonds is a motorcycle hub,” Jim Weatherhead, leader of the Team Strange motorcycle club, said. “It’s all because of Lucy.”
Lucy Bacon is the owner of Diamonds Coffee Shoppe, located in the Thorp Building, 1618 Central Ave. NE. All the motorcycles parked outside of the shop tend to attract attention during the warmer months.
“I’ve been told about the motorcyclists in the summertime,” Diamonds barista Navaya Baird said while make a sandwich for a customer. “I’ve been here since February, so I haven’t experienced them yet.”
Diamonds has excelled at engaging with Minnesota’s motorcycle community. Weatherhead and Team Strange runs its I-Cycle event, an annual gathering of motorcyclists, out of Bacon’s shop every year on January 1.
“Her passion for motorcycles makes this happen,” Weatherhead explained.
Along with the fostering of the motorcycle community, Bacon’s hospitality keeps people coming back.
“She was already sponsoring the I-Cycle, it just made sense to move it to Diamonds,” Weatherhead explained. “She makes sandwiches and lunch. She gives us a place to warm up, too.”
A selection of olive oils and vinegars at Curiouser Foods. (Davis Steen)
Sugar and spice and everything mushroom
Trista Soave took over ownership at Anonna Gourmet — at the time, a shop that mostly sold oil and vinegar — and transformed it into Curiouser Foods at 2900 Pentagon Dr. in St. Anthony.
“We wanted to drive foot traffic, so we opened the café,” Soave said, “to show everybody that you don’t just use oils and vinegars on a salad.”
Soave won the 2024 Business of the Year award on April 24. Among the reasons for her award, the St. Anthony Chamber of Commerce stated, “She has introduced a creative selection of new products and fresh, flavorful food options.”
Looking at the menu for Curiouser, there is a noticeably different selection than the vanilla lattes and green tea found at any major coffee chain.
“We make an olive oil latte. We use our spices and salts in some of our drinks. We make vinegar drinks,” Soave said. “Our bestseller is probably our mushroom latte.”
Soave has also made the café into a gathering place for the community, hosting everything from a typical coffee shop meeting to Nina Guertin’s death cafés.
“St. Anthony and Northeast Minneapolis form a tightknit community, and they are very supportive of local business,” Soave said. “People really want to support a small operation. We know 70% of the people that walk in the door by name.”
A map the Yemeni coffee shop shows its coffee’s journey from the Middle East to the U.S. (Davis Steen)
A global attitude
Yemen is a country just to the south of Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula. The country is known to be warm, dry and mountainous — all things coffee needs to grow.
“(The coffee) comes straight from Yemen,” Sue Wazwaz, an employee at Qahwah House, said. “We actually roast the coffee right here.”
Qahwah House, 1851 Central Ave. NE, is one of Northeast Minneapolis’ newest coffee shops. The shop opened the week of April 28.
“We’re known for Yemeni coffee and tea,” Wazwaz said. “A lot of cardamom, ginger and nutmeg. We have Adeni chai, too.” Adeni chai is a tea made with evaporated milk and flavored with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.
Sabayah in the case at Qahwah House. (Davis Steen)
The shop is filled with smells of tea and coffee — the roaster sits in the front corner of the establishment. On the wall opposite is a map of the world to show just how far the coffee has traveled.
Along with the drinks, they boast pastries that aren’t common in bakeries in the area. One of the most bought treats is sabayah.
“That one is thinned, layered bread with butter in between and served with honey,” Wazwaz said talking about the triangular pastry. “That one’s really good.”
Qahwah House was founded in Dearborn, Mich., and it has grown into a national brand since its inception in 2017. They chose to open in Minneapolis because “there’s a good Muslim community here,” Wazwaz said.
Things are hopping in the kitchen at The Fixx and The Central Mix, where mother and daughter duo NJ and Shelley Santrach make coffee and run a catering business. (Davis Steen)
Upcycling and community catering
The Fixx and The Central Mix, located at 4028 Central Ave. NE in Columbia Heights, is both a coffee and a commissary kitchen. The coffee shop is in the front, with the kitchen in the back next to an event space.
Small businesses and restaurants rent the kitchen, using it to cook what they need for the week. “We have people that bake,” NJ Santrach, one of the shop’s owners, said. “MinneapplegirlBakes is here.”
NJ and Shelley Santrach co-own the shop. “We’re a mother-daughter duo,” NJ said. The two will celebrate the shop’s one-year anniversary on May 10.
While the kitchen is used for products in and out of the coffee shop, they try to limit waste. “We do a lot of upcycling,” NJ said.
Upcycling is a process of transforming discarded items into new and useful products, often of greater value than their original. “For instance, our banana syrup is made from peels that were used to make banana bread,” NJ said.
The front of the shop is lined with pastries and treats that are either upcycled or created by renters of the kitchen. “We take leftover bread and make bread pudding,” Shelley said.
While coffee shops are generally a place to grab a hot or cold beverage and use a table for an hour or two, the Santrachs know they need to reach the community outside of their walls.
“We do a lot more community-based catering,” Shelley said. “We do a dinner at the city hall on the first day of the month.”
Stop in for a cup
Diamonds Coffee Shoppe is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day and has coffee and sandwiches for everyone — no motorcycle required.
Curiouser Foods, one of many stores in the St. Anthony Village Shops shopping center, will serve you from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Qahwah House, which is in the former Half Fancy and The Mill Northeast building, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The Fixx caters meals out and about, but will host you in their store Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.