Whitmore Lake's M-36 coffee roastery carries on legacy of Ann Arbor's Espresso Royale coffee shops

If you were sad to see Ann Arbor's three Espresso Royale coffee shops close their doors when COVID-19 lockdowns took effect in 2020, you’re in for a wonderful surprise from Whitmore Lake-based coffee roastery M-36. 

M-36 rose from Espresso Royale's ashes, resulting in the reopening of a former Espresso Royale location in Ann Arbor and the creation of a roastery that serves numerous other businesses. M-36 co-owner Ken Pargulski says that to him and his wife and business partner Lisa Tuveson, Espresso Royale never fully went away.

"It’s part of our DNA," Pargulski says. "Lisa and I both worked at Espresso Royale. When we opened our café, we brought a whole bunch of Espresso Royale. We still have that relationship with them because of that longevity. To me, that’s where we got our roots from."
Doug CoombeM-36 Coffee Roasters co-owner Ken Pargulski at their Whitmore Lake headquarters.
The company's Whitmore Lake headquarters, in an industrial park off of 9 Mile Road, consists of little more than an office and a warehouse space containing supplies and a roaster – but it is a model of efficiency. Sacks of beans from Latin America, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Indonesia all pile up on one side. Each one is the size of a Great Dane's dog bed and has to be broken up into buckets to make the job manageable. 

M-36's Idaho-made coffee roaster looks like what would happen if a red fire engine got stuck halfway through changing into a Transformer. Taking anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds of green coffee beans at a time at one end, the roaster conveys them past a magnet that pulls out impurities and heats them into roasted beans at the other. Pargulski estimates that M-36 averages 200 deliveries of finely roasted beans to customers per month. 

The rise and fall and rise of Espresso Royale

Now for a bit of history: it might seem like European-style coffee shops have always been a part of every American city’s landscape, especially Ann Arbor. But that was not so when Espresso Royale was established in 1987. Coffee was a wholesale product to be made at home. People might ask for coffee in a restaurant – but a sit-down establishment just for coffee and tea was a foreign idea.

It took a while, but it worked. Soon the company began to establish café after café in and around college campuses. Other chains may have had more locations, but Espresso Royale's homespun nature and quality baked goods made it a local favorite. The company even established M-36’s current roaster in Whitmore Lake. 

The Ann Arbor Observer sounded as close to mournful as is possible in journalism when it announced the chain, then comprising 14 locations, would shut down for good as COVID shut down life. The Observer’s Micheline Maynard quoted Espresso Royale's then-CFO, Jonathan Martin, that July: "The weekend of St. Patrick’s Day, we watched our register receipts drop like a stone. By the end of the week we had nothing. We had 227 employees who expected to be paid and were paid. But we had rent payments [due] the next week." The company decided that, despite qualifying for federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, it was time to close. 

Building a new brand

But then comes the twist. In 2021 Pargulski and Tuveson bought the company, took over the roaster, and began to rebuild. They now supply coffee companies around the Midwest with beans, and have even opened an M-36 café in an old Espresso Royale location at 1101 S. University in Ann Arbor. M-36 employs around 44 full- and part-time employees in the Ann Arbor area between its roastery and coffee shop. The company makes and distributes a limited number of baked goods at its roastery. Its specialty coffees include bourbon-barrel aged beans, which employ a proprietary process to infuse bourbon flavor into freshly harvested coffee beans for at least four weeks. 

"The more they wait, the more the bourbon comes out," Pargulski says.
Doug CoombeCoffee beans awaiting roasting at M-36 Coffee Roasters.
M-36 coffee can be bought online, and in certain cafes and grocery stores. Its beans are available in Washtenaw County locations including Kerrytown’s Sparrow Meat Market, Cinnaholic, and stores like Busch’s and Plum Market. 

You can also find M-36 at certain farmer’s markets, where the business got up and running again during the pandemic and its aftermath. As soon as in-person markets were allowed again, Pargulski and Tuveson sprang into getting their products into as many markets as possible.

M-36 also partners with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) through its Michigan Parks Coffee line. The line of five coffees donates 50 cents per $11.95 bag sold to help fund DNR state parks and trails. 
Doug CoombeM-36 Coffee Roasters co-owner Ken Pargulski at their Whitmore Lake headquarters.
M-36 also supplies the other descendant of Espresso Royale – Espresso Royale CU. This separate company is based in Illinois, following the same model as its predecessor in Urbana and Champaign. Although Espresso Royale is a crucial part of M-36's DNA, Pargulski says his priorities are closer to home.

"We applied some of [Espresso Royale's] business principles because we descended from Espresso Royale," Pargulski says. "But being a mom-and-pop [business], our focus is on the community. In Ann Arbor, we are very involved in the college community, where our cafe is. We like to keep our faces in the local community."

Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up in Whitmore Lake, Michigan. He graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism in 2016, and earned an Master of Science degree in journalism in 2019 from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. 

All photos by Doug Coombe.