Chazzano Coffee Roasters Moves to Downtown Berkley
(Mary Dupuis, Jan. 11, 2023)
Berkeley, MI- After 13 years of coffee and community in Ferndale, Chazzano Coffee Roasters has recently moved to Downtown Berkley and held a grand reopening on Jan. 3.
The owner, Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, said despite his love for Ferndale and his landlord, he wanted to buy his own building for business security and more space.
“We’ve been there for 13 years and I loved Ferndale,” Lanzkron-Tamarazo said. “Ferndale’s a great neighborhood, a great town. It’s one of my favorites and they always treated me well. It’s always a good place to do business. But also, the business changed in a good way.”
Over time more and more people began to come to the cafe and stay longer, thus leading Lanzkron-Tamarazo to extend its hours. This also led to Chazzano Coffee Roasters receiving accounts in Randazzo’s Fresh Market, Western Market, restaurants, bakeries and cafes all over town selling their coffee.
Due to this increase in business the cafe’s production facilities all became smaller.
Then, the pandemic hit and caused issues with the global supply chain. This resulted in Lanzkron-Tamarazo having to buy more coffee beans than usual because of the extended amount of time it would take to receive each order.
Since there was an increase in the amount of space needed for production and coffee beans, Lanzkron-Tamarazo said even as the pandemic began to slow and people could return to the cafe, there was nowhere for them to sit.
“People sitting down at a cafe creates community,” Lanzkron-Tamarazo said. “You meet people you’ve never met before or you meet people you haven’t seen for a while and it creates lots of business.”
Lanzkron-Tamarazo said one of the biggest parts of his business is the quality of the coffee. Chazzano Coffee Roasters has a selection of 30 different coffees, all of which are roasted fresh in the cafe.
The extensive variety in coffee is obtained through Lanzkron-Tamarazo’s relationships with different coffee traders around the world.
“They know that I’ll buy expensive coffee if it’s really something that’s going to enhance my customers’ lives,” Lanzkron-Tamarazo said. “So when you’re drinking a cup of coffee I joke around that if you put cream or sugar in my coffee that God cries and an angel loses its wings, because it’s so good why would you want to add something to it?”
To ensure the best experience for customers, Lanzkron-Tamarazo said he roasts coffee differently to bring out different notes based on how the coffee will be used.
For example, if he knows the coffee is being roasted for cafe or a market, he roasts it to bring out different notes to that are most compatible with the menu of the place it’s going.
Following the roasting process Lanzkron-Tamarazo will also do a tasting of the coffee in a variety of forms such as a French press, a shot of espresso or a pour-over. He also experiments with the flavor by leaving the coffee sitting in his car or in different temperatures to see if the flavor is still satisfactory in different conditions.
Upon reopening, Chazzano Coffee Roasters will continue to not sell food, as he feels it would take away from experiencing the complexity of the flavors offered with each coffee.
However, the cafe does offer a variety of drinks in addition to the 30 coffees, such as decaf coffee, homemade vegan hot chocolate, teas, Brooklyn Born Coffee Soda, Fruit of the Bean Cascara Soda and Chazzano Coffee ice cream.
For those who aren’t able to make it to the cafe in person, Chazzano Coffee Roasters does make deliveries of coffee beans within a 30 minute radius of the cafe and Lanzkron-Tamarazo’s home in Mount Clemens.
Any roasted coffee beans that are past the three week mark of peak freshness are given to homeless shelters and low income housing for free.
Despite the cafe’s coffee roaster breaking down on the day of its reopening, Lanzkron-Tamarazo said it was able to be quickly replaced, and that the Berkley community has welcomed Chazzano Coffee Roasters warmly.
“It’s great to be in Berkley,” Lanzkron-Tamarazo said. “It’s great to be in a walking town and I’m looking forward to creating more community here. In the Ferndale place when I first opened in the first couple of years before the pandemic, business people would come in all the time and I’d introduce them to each other. People got to know other people here so I want to build that back again in Berkley.”
Moving forward the cafe has added a bike rack and is going to have a mural painted, in addition to outdoor seating when the weather gets warmer. The distinctive red building is already attracting thirsty customers, and the smell of the fresh roasted beans mixed with the warm smiles of Frank and his staff make it an inviting place to stay and chat.
Chazzano Coffee Roasters is located at 2725 Twelve Mile Road in Downtown Berkley. Learn more at https://chazzano-coffee-roasters.square.site/
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