Joanne Kwiatkowski died of breast cancer three years ago, leaving a hole in the life of her daughter, Beth. But Joanne also left her daughter with some words of wisdom.
"She asked me that I live my life and not let anybody hold me back," Beth says. "That's what inspired me to do this crazy thing and spend all of my money on it."
That crazy thing is Beth's own coffee shop,
The Little Bird Cafe in Ypsilanti. Beth has worked as a coffee buyer for Whole Foods for years. She loved going into work everyday and seeing people who eagerly awaited her work with coffee. Today she works in a more corporate capacity for the upscale grocer. While Beth likes her current job, she wants to get back to interacting with customers on a regular basis.
"I'd like to do my own thing and not be in the corporate world anymore," Beth says. "I think I would be perfect for it."
So Beth is in the process of launching The Little Bird Cafe, a craft coffee shop that specializes in espresso drinks and pour-overs. She bought a small commercial building at last year's Washtenaw County Tax Auction. The 1,200-square-foot structure at 908 N Congress was an abandoned party store that Beth used to jog past in Ypsilanti’s Normal Park neighborhood.
"I said this would be the perfect place to open my coffee shop one day," Beth says.
The city of Ypsilanti recently approved the zoning for The Little Bird Cafe. Beth is now starting to gear up to renovate the building with an eye of opening the doors in mid 2016.
Source: Beth Kwiatkowski, owner of The Little Bird Cafe
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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