A Little Coffee Stand With Roots In Coffee Art
Strider Coffee Stop shares space with Q Bakehouse and Market
Food News looks at emerging food businesses and small players around my hometown of Ann Arbor and elsewhere. It’s an occasional feature for all CulinaryWoman subscribers. Feel free to suggest a subject for a future Food News feature.
When I stopped by to visit Rachel Liu Martindale at Q Bakehouse and Market a couple of weeks ago, I decided to get a cortado to go with my pastries. It was delicious, just the right amount of espresso and oat milk, and it was topped with attractive coffee art.
It turned out that Strider Coffee Stop is a separate business and has some interesting roots. Caleb Ingalsbe, its owner and operator, got deeply interested in coffee by competing in latte art.
Far from a hobby, latte art is a serious avocation. Baristas from all over the globe compete in the World Latte Art Championships, which will be held this June in Copenhagen.
Caleb, a cyber security expert whose degree is in computer science, has taken part in at least 11 latte art competitions and placed as high as 16th in the world. “It’s changed my life,” Caleb tells me. “The people I’ve met through (latte art) I affectionately call my coffee family. We traveled together, we eat together.”
He met Rachel and her husband Jonathan several years ago. Around 2021, they brought up the idea of starting a cafe that would feature her pastries and his coffee. But Caleb, who was then working remotely, says it was too soon. “It was overwhelming. I said, ‘there’s no way I can do this, I have a job. I don’t have a partner who can support me while I start a business.’”
So, the idea was set aside. Meanwhile, Caleb got involved with Dessert Coffee Roasters, a Rochester, Mich., cafe that expanded to Detroit, Royal Oak and Ferndale, and also worked with Commonwealth Cafe in Birmingham, Mich. Rachel and Jonathan circled back to invite him to do bakery pop ups with them, with Caleb working from equipment installed on a coffee cart.
Taking the plunge
He made the leap from art to permanent spot once Rachel and Jonathan zeroed in on a location for Q. “When she acquired the space and decided she wanted coffee, I said, ‘well, I’ve gotta do it. I don’t want you guys to have to do coffee on your own and me to sometimes come in for it.”
Luckily, the coffee machine he used on the cart could be installed in the shop, so his initial investment was below $20,000. Caleb expects the expense will grow, since he will eventually need a more serious commercial espresso maker, which can cost $20,000 in itself.
His shop features beans from Archetype Coffee, a small batch roaster in Omaha, a connection made through the latte art world. He also recently connected with Ilse Coffee of New Canaan, Conn., and he still has a relationship with Dessert Coffee Roasters.
Dreams down the road
Along with coffee, Caleb is quickly gaining a reputation around Ann Arbor for serving delicious matcha lattes. He uses matcha sonogi, a ceremonial tea grade variety from Hugo Tea, a Kansas City, Mo., company that imports from Japan.
For now, Caleb is at the cafe daily, pulling espresso and whisking matcha. But he has ambitions for his fledgling coffee business. “I would love to grow, organically, as volume increases, and expand our coffee program here,” he says. Eventually, “the dream is to open full service cafes, and, you know, train up the next generation of baristas.”
For Caleb, coffee has provided a sense of satisfaction that was missing in his cybersecurity work. “It’s a beautiful thing to be able to feel like you can express yourself, and express what is important to you and what is good and right in the world.”
Strider Coffee Stop, inside Q Bakehouse and Market, 1608 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48103