Corktown's European-style cafe Momento Gelato and Coffee gets liquor license

Corktown’s European-style cafe Momento Gelato and Coffee gets liquor license

Posted by Admin October 24, 2024 Fashion

Corktown is getting a bit more cosmopolitan with the addition of a liquor license at Momento Gelato and Coffee.

The Trumbull street cafe was already unique for serving affogato, an Italian dessert of creamy gelato with hot espresso poured over; it’s a really sweet pick-me-up. Now, with the implement of booze, Momento is able to offer something for customers as we exit gelato season and settle into a cozier time of year.

The European-style cafe opened in early 2022 and serves a wide variety of gelato flavors, coffee drinks and some other snacks like panini, ice cream sandwiches and cannoli. It acts as a neighborhood hub with indoor and outdoor seating, plus an all-season room for something in between. Customers can also grab pints of made-from-scratch gelato for their freezer at home.

Momento opens early, functioning as a neighborhood coffee shop, but now with the addition of booze, it’s also a go-to for a pre-dinner drink or nightcap. The new menu has cordials from all over Europe, including Drambuie, Grand Marnier and Frangelico, which you can sip on their own, pour over gelato or have mixed into your cappuccino or latte.

For the freshest, most balanced espresso martini you’ve ever had, the one at Momento is made with their house espresso, Tia Maria coffee liqueur and top-shelf Grey Goose Vodka. The well-edited alcohol menu is rounded out by a few beers and a selection of around half a dozen wines by the glass or bottle.

“This is the best rosé I’ve ever had. It’s out of France,” said owner Tom Isaia of the Chateau de Campuget, which is sold for $14 a glass.

A native Detroiter, Isaia founded the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor as a coffeehouse in 1971, years before it became one of the most iconic small music venues in the Midwest. For the past several years he’s operated Coffee Express Roasting Company in Plymouth, and those products are used at Momento.

Isaia knows a thing or two about the coffee and bar industries, he’s not some guy who decided to open a business in Corktown because it was cool and decided on coffee.

“I like machinery. Maybe it’s a Detroit thing. I really got the hang of espresso machines and I knew that I had to start roasting coffee,” he said, adding that the he went to New York City and bought an espresso machine for the Blind Pig before it opened. His connection with espresso and espresso machinery is what led to him want to work with gelato as well.

“When I went to Italy in the late ’60s, gelato was a big thing. It was everywhere,” said Isaia, who grew up in the Avenue of Fashion area of Detroit and studied abroad in college.

While Isaia wants to showcase Momento’s European characteristics, his pride for Detroit is evident from the decor. The all-day cafe has a wall that pays homage to history-makers past and present. While cashing out for your coffee, check out the framed portraits of everyone from Antoine Cadillac and Shawnee Chief Tecumseh to Rose Parks and Berry Gordy.

Isaia is a fan of one of the city’s newest names, too, like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s music director of just a few years. Like espresso and gelato, he is also from Italy.

“Jader Bignamini … he’s damn good. Man, is he good,” Isaia said, adding that he recently saw him leading the DSO in performing music from Leonard Bernstein and other composers, and he thinks the Crema, Italy, native would enjoy Momento. “I’d love to get Bignamini in here.”

Momento Gelato and Coffee, 2120 Trumbull, is open 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat. and 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sun. Call (313) 974-6054.

mbaetens@detroitnews.com