Ethiopian-Owned Lucy Coffee House Opens in Aurora

After years as a coffee roaster and wholesale supplier, Lucy Coffee opened a brick-and-mortar cafe at 14048 East Mississippi Avenue in Aurora earlier this month.

Co-owners Mickias (Micki) Alamirew and and his wife, Mehret (Mercy), both emigrated from Ethiopia in the ’90s and met through the Ethiopian community in Aurora. Now they're hoping their shop can provide a gathering place for immigrants not only from Ethiopia, but all over the world.

Alamirew also owns a limo service, and the couple has four daughters under the age of eight, including one-year-old twins. They began roasting coffee in 2018, sourcing their beans from a farm in Yirgacheffe, a region in southern Ethiopia that is well known in the coffee world for producing distinctively floral, fruity beans.

A mural on the wall inside the cafe reads "From the farm to your cup," which is especially true given that shortly after beginning as roasters, the couple purchased half of the farm from which they sourced the beans. "It's a partnership — we didn't want to take over," says Alamirew, who often travels "to origin," a turn of phrase in the coffee industry that means visiting the place where the coffee beans are grown, oftentimes partaking in the harvesting and processing of the green coffee. Luckily for him, the origin happens to be his home country.
The cafe's name, Lucy, pays homage to another origin — the beginning of the human race. "When they found the oldest skeleton in Ethiopia, [which is] 3.2 million years old, they called it Lucy to say that the beginning of human beings were in that area," Alamirew explains. "And also the first coffee, 'kappa,' was found in Ethiopia. Lucy is the start, the genesis, the beginning."

The buildout of the cafe, which was formerly a shoe store, took close to eight months because the couple was starting from scratch. Alamirew says they prioritized a large, open seating area to facilitate connections. "When you move as a teenager — when I moved to America — it was tough for me to mingle, to blend right away," he recalls. "The cultural difference between Americans and Africans is big. We want to sit down and talk and ask a question. ... This is a place where they can do that and learn from the people who came before them."

In Ethiopia, people gather around coffee and generations unite over it. "In Germany, they’ll give you a beer. If you go to China, they might give you tea. But in Ethiopia, we have coffee. ... Coffee is day-to-day life," says Alamirew. To honor this, the cafe plans to host a traditional coffee ceremony bi-weekly.
Food options include some standard American fare as well as traditional Ethiopian snacks such as the Sonoma chicken panini with pesto and cheese along with chechebsa, toasted flatbread with Ethiopian butter and spices.

Similarly, notes Alamirew, "we have normal coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, etcetera, and we also have Ethiopian macchiato and iced coffee. On top of that, we have the Lucy — tea made with ginger, orange and honey, the perfect drink for cold weather." There are several types of fresh-made juices available as well, including avocado and mango.

The business opened on January 6, which is the day before Christmas in the Catholic Orthodox calendar. Though it was a holiday, there was a large turnout, which is a testament to the relationships the Alamirews have made over the years, as well as the need for a community gathering place. "People came from out of the state just for this; a lot of people surprised us," says Alamirew. "I didn’t expect it — I was speechless."

Lucy Coffee House is located at 14048 East Mississippi Avenue in Aurora and is open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 or 9 p.m. daily. For more information, call 720-313-3856.