DETROIT — There’s a staggering array of distractions inside Detroit Vintage Coffee & Tea Shop on West Eight Mile Road, a virtual flower in the weeds here among the collision shops and liquor stores along this busy road. Antiques and decorations fill every inch from floor to ceiling, while people sip their drinks on plush old couches, as if lounging in their grandmother’s crowded attic. Newcomers are often stunned when they first discover it.
“They say, ‘Wow!’ when they come in,” said Pam Duvall, the shop's soft-spoken 72-year-old owner. “They’re shocked, kind of overwhelmed. But mostly their reaction is, ‘This is beautiful.’”
Every space here is taken by something interesting, some new element to discover, all of it arranged artfully. There are the dangling kites and birdcages, the ancient typewriters, the chessboard on a table, the guitar that rests in a corner, a thousand fragile teacups on display, a billion words inside hundreds of books stacked and shelved without rhyme or reason.
“And nothing is in order,” Duvall said, smiling.
She opened in 2013 inside a building that once housed the soul food restaurant that her parents ran for years. She makes and serves the drinks herself, unless her sister drops by to help out. The menu offers a few dozen teas and coffees, plus cakes and pastries displayed under little domes of glass.
She doesn’t advertise, doesn’t have a website and opens only on the weekends. Yet the shop still somehow draws people from as far away as Australia, who come to lounge and linger among the antique lamps, the paintings on the walls, the lanterns and chandeliers, the colorful fabrics sweeping downward from the ceiling in arcs and streamers.
That morning, her first visitor was a young man in construction wear who came in to escape the summer heat. He was sitting by the front window, improbably pouring himself tea from an elegant pot into a dainty cup, staring serenely outside at Eight Mile Road in all its contrasting asphalt grittiness as classical music played softly in the background.
“People just like the vibe in here, like to linger and stick around for a while,” she said. “It’s cozy. This is a great spot. And I love it here.”
Detroit Vintage is located at 10335 West Eight Mile Road, Detroit. For more information, call: 313-341-4810.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ‘They’re shocked’: 1st-time visitors to Detroit Vintage Coffee & Tea Shop can’t believe it
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