A red garage door marks the entrance to downtown East Lansing’s newest business, but instead of cars and motorcycles rolling in and out, it will be cappuccinos and espressos.
The oldest downtown coffeehouse, Espresso Royale Caffe, is about to come back from a seven month hiatus and open up shop at the former Bagel Fragel site, 547 E. Grand River Ave. The coffeehouse is set to open Aug. 16, said Rose Garland, marketing director for Espresso Royale Caffe.
“It’s bigger,” manager Sommer Olli said. “We’re doing a lot of things differently. We’re having an indoor-outdoor patio. During the winter it will be heated and during the summer it will be outside.”
Of the 24-store chain, the garage door entrance is the second in the nation, the other is in Virginia. Olli said management came up with the idea of trying the door at the new location.
Couches, skylights and carpeted floors will give the establishment a study-hall feel, Olli said. New additions will include a fireplace and a sandwich shop.
“We want to give our customers the best,” Garland said. “We felt this environment gave a cool and relaxing comfort area.”
But to get “the best,” there were talks among Espresso Royale Caffe management about moving a few stores down the road into Bagel Fragel since October of last year.
When the shop closed in January, Olli said plans already were in the works to move into the location.
“The president always wanted to move into Bagel Fragel,” she said. “You get the foot traffic from across the street.”
A crosswalk connects MSU to the new shop’s complex and MSU professors have been a big market for the cafe in the past, she said.
Another reason for the move was to be able to compete with area cafes. Olli hopes her cafe will be a destination point for residents seeking lunch or dinner or just a cup of joe.
“We had to open a new spot because Starbucks is new and Barnes & Noble is there, and we wanted to offer our clientele a nice shop,” Olli said.
The only other downtown coffee shop allowing smoking, Caffe Latte at 130 Charles St., is ready for the challenge.
“I cannot tell right now, but I think I’ll be fine,” owner Young Oh said. “They can’t open the door after October, so I think it will be hard to control smoking.”
But the cafe also will bring in city officials and students, especially because it will be only the second coffeeshop in the downtown area to have a designated smoking area.
“It looks like they’re doing an incredible operation,” said Jim van Ravensway, director of East Lansing’s department of planning and community development. “It looks kinda cool, I’m anxious to see what it looks like.”
Past customers are awaiting the day for the cafe’s opening.
“Yeah, Espresso Royale, that was a cool place. It’s possible they’ll steal some business,” East Lansing resident Johah Duel. “But I will tell you one thing (Espresso Royale) makes one mean-ass raspberry mocha.”
