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Posted on Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 1:19 p.m.

Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea location now open on Cross Street in Ypsilanti

By Katrease Stafford

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Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea opened Tuesday on West Cross Street in Ypsilanti and is already seeing a steady stream of customers, owner Lisa Bee said.

"It's great," Bee said. "We have a lot of people coming in and they're enjoying the space. We love being here in Ypsilanti."

Bee said the crowd is a mixture of older customers as well as students from Eastern Michigan University, which is directly across the street from the business.

Wei and Lisa Bee signed a lease last November to open in the 1,300-square-foot building at 735 W. Cross St.

Lisa Bee has hired about 15 people to staff the Ypsilanti location and the shop underwent renovations. It seats between 30 and 40 patrons. The space features one large communal table and smaller ones as well.

Sweetwaters was founded in 1993 by the Bees, who have three locations in Ann Arbor: one on East Washington Street downtown, one in Kerrytown and one on Plymouth Road.

The menu offerings are largely the same as the other locations and feature BakeBar desserts, which are made by Sweetwaters.

The recently renovated building at 729-735 W. Cross St., already is home to two, first-floor retail tenants — a Subway sandwich shop and the Ypsilanti T-shirt Co. shop.

This stretch of Cross Street will see the opening of two restaurants in the span of two months. Insomnia Cookies, is slated to open sometime in April.

Sweetwaters is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays. The shop is also open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

Katrease Stafford covers Ypsilanti for AnnArbor.com.Reach her at katreasestafford@annarbor.com or 734-623-2548 and follow her on twitter.

Comments

Arboriginal

Wed, Mar 20, 2013 : 7:22 p.m.

That steel and wood table that is pictured is the Utmostliest!!

Matt Lang

Wed, Mar 20, 2013 : 10:45 a.m.

that strip of cross has seen a fair number of businesses fail over the years, there are so few students at EMU in the summer months that a lot of the owners can't last until fall, and i have to wonder if 3 coffee places within a mile of each other can survive, Ugly Mug, Starbucks in the student union, and now Sweetwaters. I hope i'm wrong, i like Sweetwaters products

Julie Baker

Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 9:21 p.m.

Looks like they did a great job with the space. I love the chalkboard wall and all the wood. Looking forward to trying it out! I actually haven't been to any of the other locations. Any beverage suggestions?

catbehindthecouch

Wed, Mar 20, 2013 : 1:15 p.m.

I was going to recommend the jasmine tea as well... though I like mine hot!

Jessica Webster

Wed, Mar 20, 2013 : 12:59 a.m.

I love their jasmine iced tea.

joe golder

Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 7:15 p.m.

Great location! Many walk by there all day! If they want drive thru, Domm's is just to the west. The Ugly Mug just to the east has good coffee and parking!

Katrease Stafford

Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 9:36 p.m.

I agree, Joe. It's a prime location with it being on Cross Street and right across the street from EMU.

treetowncartel

Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 6:43 p.m.

Any 5 minute parking in the area? I used to go to the one in Ann Arbor to pick up my morning joe when they first opened, but it was so hard to run in and out from your car

Chrysta Cherrie

Tue, Mar 19, 2013 : 8:17 p.m.

Depending on the time of day, you can find free street parking nearby. Otherwise, there are metered spaces on the block of Cross where Sweetwaters has opened, as well as directly on either side of their building. On the weekend you could also park in the Pease lot on EMU campus, which is basically around the corner. Very excited to have another great local coffee option in Ypsi, and glad it's Sweetwaters because they have their own niche, which makes it easy to continue to patronize the other coffee joints in the area depending on what I'm in the mood for. Hopefully the rest of the community sees it that way, too.

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