Brew Cafe to open Dec. 17, bringing coffee, eventually beer, to Delta Twp.

DELTA TWP. – It took longer than Adam Crane had hoped to transform the ground floor of his Creyts Road building into The Brew Cafe.

The 2,000-square-foot space sits below Crane's second floor tattoo parlor, Ministry Ink, near West Saginaw Highway. Previously home to a fitness center, and before that an auto parts store and motorcycle shop, it is the perfect place for a one-of-a-kind gathering place, Crane said.

He hatched the plan for the business model, a coffee cafe that will eventually serve craft beer and wine too, more than a year ago.

In taking his time renovating the space and designing the cafe, he learned an important lesson.

"Good things come to those who wait," he said. "I had to really chew on that.”

That wait is almost over.

The Brew Cafe is set to open its doors Dec. 17.

"This whole building has been my heart and soul," Crane said. "Everything happened the way it should."

'Blood, sweat and tears'

The ground-floor space inside the doors of Crane's building at 610 N. Creyts Rd. in Delta Township has been re-imagined.

Huge wooden electric spools that lined a wall in an otherwise empty space in November of last year have been transformed into rustic tops of tables positioned throughout the cafe.

One wall is covered in pallet wood and features a raised area shaped like the state of Michigan, lower and upper peninsula included. A client at Ministry Ink provided two large rusty vintage wooden sickle tools that hang on either side of the Mitten.

The tools, coupled with more than a dozen old barn pulleys that are suspended throughout the space holding fit filament bulbs lend a re-purposed, rustic look to The Brew Cafe. Crane got those from an antique collector, another customer at Ministry Ink.

“The way things have been working out is just beautiful,” Crane said from a seat at one of the tables. The cafe, with seats for close to 50 people, is meant to look rustic, but a bit industrial too, Crane said.

“I love outside inside,” he said. “That’s what gives you that real rustic feel. As you can tell it’s a lot of lumber and it just smells like wood in here. I love it. It’s just me. This whole place is me.”

Friends have helped Crane realize the cafe's design. Lansing-based contractor Holly Wicker of Holis Taylor Designs helped considerably, Crane said.

Wicker, a long-time friend of Crane’s who also had a hand in the design of Ministry Ink’s space, said the tattoo shop “feels like a family” and she thinks the cafe will have the same vibe.

So does Crane, who said two of the seven employees he's hired to work in the cafe are clients at Ministry Ink.

Crane did much of the work himself, save electrical and plumbing, investing an estimated $80,000 in the new cafe. He sanded the pallets on the wall down himself, painted walls and spent countless hours sanding five layers of paint off six metal poles running the length of the space.

Crane fit the renovations in when he wasn’t working upstairs, tattooing clients and supervising his second-floor business.

“Blood, sweat and tears,” he said. “I haven’t had a day off really, except Thanksgiving, in six months.”

Along the way he got plenty of encouragement, both from friends, family and clients, and members of the community. They inquired about the cafe's progress on a daily business.

“When’s the cafe opening up?” they still ask Crane.

“I probably hear about it half a dozen times a day,” he said. “It’s a blessing in disguise, because people are anxious, and you know you’re building something that they want.”

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A gathering space

When it opens Dec. 17 at 6 a.m. The Brew Cafe will offer brew coffee and specialty espresso-based drinks, including lattes, cappuccinos and mochas. The cafe will also offer nitro brew and cold brew coffee as well pour-over coffee.

“I don’t want to go too sugary with the drinks,” Crane said. “I want people to like coffee, because the coffee I have is phenomenal.”

 Those coffee beans will be provided by Sozo Coffee Roasting in Ionia.

Crane hopes to add pastries in the future, and breakfast and granola bars may be on the menu when they open, he said.

Crane still plans to introduce craft beer and wine to the menu eventually as well. That could come by late spring, he said, and when it's added he hopes to showcase what Michigan-based breweries have to offer.

Crane wants there to be a flow of people between the cafe and Ministry Ink, but he hopes everyone feels comfortable visiting The Brew, regardless of their position on body art.

“I want people to have conversations,” he said. “I want people to come to me and say ‘Thank you for building your cafe. I met my wife there. I met my husband there.’"

“When I see people meeting and talking and laughing that is going to be everything to me. That’s going to be the dividends, right there.”

Besides creating an accepting gathering space, Crane said he hopes The Brew Cafe plays a part in invigorating Delta Township.

“I love this area,” he said. “I want to bring life back to the west side.”

Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.

The Brew Cafe

The Brew Cafe is set to open Dec. 17 at 610 N. Creyts Rd. in Delta Township. The ground-floor cafe is located just below Ministry Ink tattoo parlor.

It will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.