Coffee roaster and cafe opens in downtown Clawson

Much of Trevor Graham’s life has been defined by coffee. Now he and wife Miranda Graham are celebrating the opening of their Sabbath Coffee Roasters in downtown Clawson.

Trevor’s love affair with coffee started early on. As a kid, his grandmother would fix him a cup of decaf with sugar and milk so he could sit at the table with his grandparents as they enjoyed their own brew. He started drinking Folger’s — out of necessity, he says — in college.

He says that his first cup of an Ethiopian roast changed his life. His first date with Miranda — over coffee, naturally — certainly did, too.

“We bought a small home coffee roaster when we were in our first apartment and set off the fire alarms. We started giving it away to friends, started going to farmers markets. Everything we did was based around coffee,” Trevor says.

“We always had the dream of one day owning a coffee shop. I was in the auto industry but it wasn’t my passion.”

The Grahams focus on fresh and quality coffee beans, importing the beans while they’re still green before roasting them in-house. They utilize a batch brewing process that emulates a pour-over. Rather than baristas using the pour-over process to brew coffee, the batch process brews coffee mechanically, ensuring consistency.

There are also the espresso-based drinks typical of a cafe as well as specialty drinks designed in-house, like the frozen apple cider drink and a vegan frozen latte.

For now, COVID-19 restrictions have the Grahams offering coffee to-go. Indoor seating will have to come later.

It was actually COVID-19 that helped move their dream along. Although they had secured the Clawson storefront in November 2019, a round of coronavirus-related layoffs at the beginning of the pandemic spurred the Grahams to open Sabbath Coffee even sooner than they had planned.

“Corona hit in March and I was laid off. We were talking in bed and we thought that maybe now is the right time to do this. It struck me — nothing is really safe,” Trevor says.

“I thought, you know, YOLO. Let’s chase our dreams.”

Sabbath Coffee Roasters is located at 24 E. 14 Mile Rd. In downtown Clawson.

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