Ferndale-based Chazzano Coffee filling cups in four states

When Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo started Chazzano Coffee in 2009, roasting beans from a hole-in-the-wall office in Farmington Hills and then moving as he grew into a larger light industrial park, he expected to land maybe 20 wholesale accounts.

He's far exceeded that number, reaching 170 wholesale outlets for the coffee he roasts himself and distributes only in small batches to keep it fresh, but he's built a business that is 70-percent retail based. He sells in Michigan and three other states.

"It's amazing. I had about three accounts before we opened the cafe coffee roastery in Ferndale. Those accounts led to more and more, and right now the 170 whole accounts…restaurants, cafes, speciality markets like Whole Foods, Randazzo's, Plum Market, Holiday Market," Lanzkron-Tamarazo says.

Dozens of offices order his coffee, as do coffee club members who receive deliveries of special roasts on the 1st and 15th of each month.

During the last year, the former synagogue cantor's coffee began filling the cups in Illinois, Iowa and Kentucky, and unexpectedly the roastery in a not so attractive part of Ferndale drew more customers than it had room for. So within a year Chazzano will be moving into a much larger space, likely in Ferndale, with a bigger cafe and roasting area, more parking and more space for retail.

"We're kind of special because I roast all the coffee fresh to order when I get the order," he says. "We call each of our 170 wholesale accounts each week. We keep the orders small so that the coffee doesn't get a chance to lose its freshness."

Any coffee around more than 2 - 2 1/2 weeks old is ground and donated to a homeless shelter. His wife, Lisa, made a delivery of fresh roasted beans and a brewing part to a Bowling Green, Ohio cafe yesterday.

"My whole goal in the beginning was getting better coffee when you go out. I can't stand going to an awesome restaurant, where the food is fantastic and the service is great and the coffee is lousy. It makes no sense. 

"Once they start serving my coffee, then they become retail customers…then at home, then at a favorite restaurant, then to the office," he says.

As grateful as he is for the growth and business expansion he knows he wants to limit it.

"We're really a boutique roastery. We're different than any other roaster around. We're always going to make sure we're small enough so that there's quality."

Source: Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, owner, Chazzano Coffee Roasters
Writer: Kim North-Shine