From a Downtown Pop-Up to a Café of Its Own

Curious Coffee began building its Ann Arbor following during a residency inside Bløm Mead + Cider on South Fourth Avenue. That arrangement gave founder Mike Bawden a place to roast, serve, teach, and connect with local coffee drinkers before making the move to a permanent storefront.

The new café occupies the former Mighty Good Coffee space at 217 N. Main Street, just south of the Kerrytown area. According to the Ann Arbor Observer, the room was designed for roughly forty customers, with front seating, barstools, and a communal table toward the back. It gives Curious Coffee more space to function as a café, roastery, and gathering place for people who want to explore coffee rather than simply pick up a familiar drink.

The Coffee Is the Main Event

What makes Curious Coffee special begins with the beans. Bawden seeks out high-quality green coffees, including distinctive lots sourced through growers and reputable importers, and roasts them lightly so that their natural character remains easy to taste. Instead of making every coffee taste dark and roasty, this approach can reveal fruit, floral notes, sweetness, acidity, chocolate, or nuttiness depending on the bean and how it was processed.

The selection has leaned heavily toward Colombian coffees, along with offerings from other origins. Curious Coffee’s online shop shows just how broad the flavor range can be: washed coffees, natural-process coffees, pink bourbon and geisha varieties, and experimental co-ferments that may suggest flavors such as blackberry, strawberry, peach, or watermelon. Those descriptions do not necessarily mean flavored syrup has been added; in some cases, the character develops through the coffee variety and processing method.

For someone new to specialty coffee, the regular espresso drinks and drip coffee offer an approachable starting point. More adventurous visitors can ask about the rotating pour-over choices. Each one is prepared to highlight a particular coffee, and staff can help explain the differences without requiring customers to arrive as coffee experts.

Precision Without the Pretense

Curious Coffee pays close attention to details most customers never see. Bawden has spoken about refining roast profiles and even adjusting the mineral content of purified water because water chemistry changes how coffee tastes. At the new café, pour-overs are taste-checked before they are served—a quality-control step that also trains the staff to recognize when a cup is showing the coffee at its best.

That care could easily feel overly technical, but education is one of the business’s two stated pillars, alongside high-quality coffee. Bawden spent about twenty years as a teacher and course developer before turning his coffee interest into a profession. Curious Coffee has offered small-group and one-to-one classes covering home brewing, espresso, latte art, and guided tasting. The point is not to make coffee complicated. It is to help curious customers notice why two coffees can taste remarkably different.

Why Curious Coffee Fits Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor tends to support independent businesses that pair strong craft with a willingness to share what they know. Curious Coffee fits that tradition particularly well. It is locally grown, intensely focused on its product, and comfortable serving both the dedicated coffee enthusiast and the person who simply wants to try something new.

Its move to North Main Street adds another locally owned stop between the traditional Main Street business district and Kerrytown. With Culantro’s Peruvian cooking, Chapala’s Mexican menu, the longtime German restaurant Heidelberg, and now Curious Coffee all within a few doors, this stretch of North Main is becoming a stronger food-and-drink destination. That kind of street-level business helps make downtown Ann Arbor feel lived-in: a place to meet a friend, slow down for a cup, and discover a flavor you did not expect.

For readers considering a move, our guide to neighborhoods close to downtown Ann Arbor and Michigan Medicine offers a helpful look at nearby places to live.

Because the café has just opened, current hours and daily offerings may change as the team settles into the new space. Check Curious Coffee’s website before making a special trip—and when you arrive, ask what the staff is most excited to serve that day. At a place called Curious Coffee, that seems like the right way to order.