Jerk chicken breakfast sandwiches and scotch bonnet pepper espresso drinks are hitting the menu at Yum Village on Saturday.
The Afro-Caribbean restaurant in New Center is partnering with coffee pop-up Hold Me Closer XX, to revamp the menu with four new espresso drinks, six cocktails, and a quick-to-eat breakfast sandwich made with Caribbean flavors. The restaurant is also planning more evening events in addition to the live DJs it hosts on the weekends.
Hold Me Closer XX owner Indy St.Louis, 37, is combining his Trinidadian background with his love of coffeemaking to offer Detroit something new.
“Expect a lot of unique coffee drinks, a whole coffee experience that I believe that few other coffee shops in the area are really doing,” he said.
St.Louis launched Hold Me Closer XX in October with a pop-up at the Russell Industrial Center. Soon after, St.Louis started collaborating with Yum Village owner Godwin Ihentuge, birthing the new menu featuring unique Caribbean-flavored housemade syrups and drinks with pistachio, hibiscus sweet cream and matcha, coconut vanilla cold foam and other creations.
The collaboration builds on years-long efforts to bring more coffee from the African diaspora to Detroit. Much of the coffee imported to America comes from Black farmers, yet Detroit, a majority-Black city, has had few Black coffee shop owners and roasters until recently.
“There’s not enough Black and Brown-owned coffee businesses,” he said.
St.Louis sources his coffee from Craig’s Coffee in the Cass Corridor because of the shop’s coffee bean traceability and commitment to sustainable coffee production. Eventually, St.Louis said he hopes to make his own coffee blend and has his eye on a brick-and-mortar, which would include space for a ceramicist to work in the shop. In the near term, St.Louis said he’d like to offer coffee flights and coffee and food pairings. The breakfast sandwiches are made with bread from the newly opened Filipino bakery across the street, JP’s Makes and Bakes.
Yum Village’s new coffee service means Detroiters have plenty of options for a coffee tour in the neighborhood: JP Makes & Bakes, Baobab Fare, Stella Good Coffee and directly adjacent, in Milwaukee Junction/the North End, Milwaukee Caffé and Sepia Coffee.
Despite the concentration of coffee shops in the area, coffee expert and owner of Craig’s Coffee, Craig Batory, said he thinks Hold Me Closer XX will do well partnering with Yum Village, especially by doing things differently.
“He’s got quite a unique lineup of drinks that I think will do really well,” Batory said, citing a single-origin Brazilian espresso and the “cocktail vibe” of the drinks. “There’s a market for people wanting really nice specialty coffee.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling and stylizing of Indy St.Louis.
