After
temporarily
closing
all
locations
for
almost
two
months in light of the COVID-19
pandemic, Espresso Royale Coffee
has announced all business will
permanently
cease,
including
branch operations, catering and
online sales.
“Some
would
say
that
a
company that goes out of business
has failed; we don’t think so,” their
website said. “Since 1987, Espresso
Royale has served excellent coffee
to millions of customers, has
provided good work for thousands
of people, and has purchased
millions of dollars of goods and
services from businesses around
the country. We think that’s a
success.”
LSA
sophomore
Lucianna
Rosania said she was surprised the
company was closing, especially
since the coffee shop has been
around for most of her childhood.
“I was totally shocked when I
found out it was closing,” Rosania
said. “It hit a lot as an Ann Arbor
native because I’ve been going
there since I was 6 years old, and
my dad is a professor at U of M so
I have very fond memories of those
locations.”
Besides being integral in the
Ann Arbor community, Espresso
Royale has also been a long-time
campus staple. It was even voted
Best Coffee Shop in Ann Arbor in
2014.
Engineering sophomore Zach
Eichenberger
noted
Espresso
Royale had a special ambiance that
made it better than other coffee
shops.
“I always loved going to Espresso
Royale,” Eichenberger said. “The
atmosphere was really chill. It
stood out from all the Starbucks
and other (places) because it had
more of a cozy atmosphere. It was
more personal.”
Conveniently having multiple
locations
on
campus,
the
University of Michigan community
could often be found holding meet
ups and doing homework while
sipping a cup of coffee. For LSA
sophomore Dominic Coletti, the
Espresso Royale on South State
Street
and
South
University
Avenue was a frequent place to
visit both for quality coffee and a
place to study.
“I would always go there before
all of my exams and just grab a
small, hazelnut coffee because
their hazelnut was the best out of
anybody that I could find,” Coletti
said. “I also lived in East Quad, so
that was a pretty popular place to
go and study for people that just
needed to get out of the building
but didn’t want to go too far,
especially on cold, winter days.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic
struck, classes moved online and
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Stay
Home, Stay Safe order took into
effect, many local businesses set
up GoFundMe pages to stay afloat.
Many businesses told The Daily
they question the future of the
local economy and the possibility
of
reopening.
Unfortunately
as the pandemic dragged on,
Espresso Royale noted “it became
impossible for our company to
remain viable.”
Eichenberger said he thinks the
absence of the campus community
played a large part in Espresso
Royale’s closing and noted the
misfortune of the loss of the coffee
shop.
“Their main source is probably
college students, professors, and
with
everything
going
online
they’re not going to have those
people,” Eichenberger said. “I
think the University (community)
is losing something really special
by losing Espresso Royale.”
Summer Managing News Editor
Francesca Duong can be reached
at fduong@umich.edu
3
Thursday, June 18, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
Engaging, Managing, and Bond-
ing through Race is a research
program at the University of
Michigan involved with helping
Black parents and children con-
front racial stress through dia-
logue.
Alum
Emma
Schmidt,
a
program
coordinator
with
EMBRace, said the goal of the
program is to reduce parent and
adolescent racial stress, as well as
promote bonding for the families
in the program.
“A lot of the work we do centers
around racial socialization, which
is basically talking to children
about what their race means and
what the social consequences
surrounding race are,” Schmidt
said.
The
EMBRace
program
received
Institutional
Review
Board approval in winter 2020 and
was set to launch its intervention
program in Detroit this summer.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic,
EMBRace leaders postponed the
program due to restrictions on
working directly with Detroit
residents.
With the delay and limited
ability to do in-person work,
research assistants such as Public
Health senior Nia Watkins have
been doing transcriptions and
observational coding of videos
from the EMBRace program in
Philadelphia, as well as weekly lab
meetings.
“The program has been done
in other cities, most recently in
Philadelphia,” Watkins said. “I
know that there’s been a lot of
positive responses there; we’re
looking at a lot of that data.”
Watkins said her involvement
in EMBRace gave her the ability
to understand perspectives on
current racial tensions from those
outside her age group.
“As a member of EMBRace, I’m
thinking like how are young kids
experiencing this, what are they
thinking when they see this and
how are their parents talking to
them,” Watkins said. “I think I
have a broader array of thought
looking at these topics, because
I just realized that there are
younger kids who also have to deal
with this and it’s not just me and
people my own age.”
The program — which was
founded by Dr. Riana Anderson,
University
researcher
and
assistant
professor
of
health
behavior and health education
— is an eight session family
program that brings Black parents
and their children together for
conversations about race, cultural
pride, discrimination and stress
management.
Schmidt said the plan for
the program is to have families
with children between the ages
of 10 and 14 meet for an hour
and a half each week to engage
in
conversations
surrounding
race. These conversations can be
facilitated through a variety of
techniques such as role playing,
debating and art projects.
Schmidt
got
involved
with
EMBRace after taking PUBHLTH
308: Black American Health: A
Focus on Children, Families, and
Communities with Dr. Anderson
as an undergrad.
“(The class) was mostly based
on racial disparities in Detroit,
and
structural
barriers
and
structural racism,” Schmidt said.
“It was eye-opening for me (that)
as a white person, I could be able
to use my privilege and power and
education and my middle class
status to be able to try and help
people and try to reduce these
barriers that so many people don’t
even recognize.”
With the international protests
against police brutality sparked
by the killing of George Floyd and
prominence of the Black Lives
Matter movement in recent weeks,
Schmidt said she felt EMBRace’s
research has been emphasized.
Research program EMBRace
to open new place in Detroit
IULIA DOBRIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Design by Hibah Chugtai
Espresso Royale
Coffee announces
permanent closure
FRANCESCA DUONG
Summer Managing News Editor
Read more at michigandaily.com
Local college staple closes locations around the
country amid COVID-19 pandemic
University helps families
handle racial stress
through dialogue