Rumors of Cafe Luwak closing put to rest

By Tom Perkins
Dec. 9, 2009    ·    12:40 p.m.

The good news is Café Luwak owner Jim Karnopp officially put to rest the rumor that he is shuttering Depot Town’s best stop for a latte and a sandwich.

The bad news is Karnopp is exhausted from five years of working 80 to 100 hours, and no longer desires only having off two days per year, as has been the case in 2009.

In between early morning and evening stops at Luwak, Karnopp puts on the computer consultant hat at an agency in Detroit, and he said he is now seeking a partner to buy into the operation to alleviate some the stress.

“I’ve been doing this for five years and I think this place has got a lot of potential, but I’m getting burnt out,” he says. “I definitely do not want to close the place. Ideally, we’re hoping to find a partner in the next year.”

Karnopp sees the perfect partner as someone who has front-of-the house experience in the restaurant business and is passionate about food.

He says he loves and knows his coffee, is good with the business end and describes himself as quality oriented, but needs someone with skills complimentary to his – in short, someone who is at home in the kitchen and with customers.

“Having someone who is good at technical stuff like I am would be redundant,” he said. “Now that we put all this money into the kitchen, here we are with a whole lot of possibilities with the infrastructure in here.”

Karnopp has also had turnover issues with his day-staff, since the original team that helped build the restaurant’s business graduated from college and moved on.

He isn’t there to supervise during those hours, and says it would be helpful to have someone who has the experience to develop a quality staff and keep customers coming in for their caffeine fix and a bite.

“We need more energy at the front of the house,” he said. “Two years ago we had the best sandwich shop in southeast Michigan and now we’re not doing so well.”

Karnopp says another complication is the problem caused by the Thompson Block fire, and the closing of Cross Street that came of it. The structure has since been supported by exterior frames, which extend out to the adjacent lanes on both River and Cross streets. The city has closed portions of both streets, closing west-bound traffic on Cross Street and north-bound traffic on River Street.

The day the building burned was the day Café Luwak launched a breakfast menu in which Karnopp invested heavily. Business has been down in the morning since then, and Café Luwak has yet to cook more than five breakfasts in one day.

Karnopp says the problem is the morning traffic no longer goes through Depot Town because of the detour.

“We worked so much to get this breakfast going,” he says. “It (the Thompson Block) is just killing us.”

While Café Luwak remains open for now, there is a time limit, albeit a long one. The building’s landlord has agreed to a one-year instead of five-year lease, and Karnopp is hopeful a partner can be found between now and then.

In the meantime, Karnopp said he is confident street will be opened. the breakfast menu will live up to its potential and the addition of a train stop will only add to the café’s popularity.

“We’ve got a whole lot of loyal customers and I would really miss them,” he said. “I like being a part of this community and if I didn’t have this place I wouldn’t have quite the anchor that makes me a part of things.”
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Editor's note: Parts of this story were changed on Dec. 10 due to intended edits that did not get made to the story. Information and background were added to the portion of the story concerning the Thompson Block.