Three years ago, the City of Dearborn realized something: There was a lot of coffee in town. “It was kind of a joke at the time—oh, no, we have another coffee shop coming in,” says Economic Vitality Manager Laura Aceves-Sanchez. “We started to brainstorm about how to capitalize on that.”

Dearborn’s first Yemeni coffee shop opened in 2016, on Schaefer Road. As about 40 percent of the population in Dearborn is Arab, coffee shops are family-friendly, all-ages third spaces in a culture where most people don’t drink. Many Dearborn coffee shops are open until one in the morning.

Since then, the coffee scene has exploded. “From that one shop, now, we have not only 46 coffee shops in the city, but some of them have franchisees all over the US, and even internationally,” says Economic Development Program Manager Mohammed Rezq. “That’s why we claim—and rightfully so—that we are the ‘Coffee Capital.’”

“Our community really gathers around coffee shops,” says Special Events & Outreach Manager Amanda Sancen. “Each of them is unique. It’s really about the stories and about the connection that it creates.”

“In Dearborn, we turn challenges into opportunities,” says Rezq. “So, we were like, ‘Okay, this is a very good problem to have.’”

The solution to this happy challenge ended up being Dearborn Coffee Week, a celebration of the City’s rich caffeinated heritage. Now in its third year, it is the City of Dearborn’s submission for the 2026 Community Excellence Award.

That first year, Dearborn Coffee Week was held in early November. “We really got lucky with the weather,” says Sancen. “I think it was a 60-some-degree day, November 11th.” For 2025, it was decided to bump the event up a bit, just to be safe. Now, Dearborn Coffee Week is held late September into early October. That also coincides with International Coffee Day, which is October 1.

In developing the event, the team looked to activate public spaces in both of Dearborn’s downtown districts. It begins in Peace Park West, in the West Downtown District, and the closing event will be held at Peace Park East, located in, naturally, the East Downtown District.

The opening event takes place September 25 and will feature a big open festival in Peace Park West, with stations from different coffee shops from all around the city. There will be hands-on activities (last year included a matcha workshop), family-friendly events, and a DJ. There will be plenty of free samples of both caffeinated and non-caffeinated drinks, plus giveaways and swag. “We make sure that everybody leaves with something,” says Sancen. “Our businesses are incredibly generous here in Dearborn.”

One goal of the DDA was to aid the participating coffee shops in developing activation in their own spaces while keeping the branding of Dearborn Coffee Week unified. The City developed a partnership with the Arab American National Museum, which is in Dearborn, to create cultural events called jalasat, Arabic for “gatherings.” “It’s a series where we bring artists and singers into the coffee shops,” says Rezq. “We invite people to come and enjoy art, music, and coffee.” These events are held throughout the week, along with discounts, special menu items, and other goodies.

“During Coffee Week, you’ll find the streets extremely busy, bustling, and vibrant with people walking around, going from shop to shop, enjoying themselves with their friends,” says Aceves-Sanchez. “There are activities inside the shops, whether it’s somebody doing henna, whether it’s a live music performance or poetry, or even a chess night. Our businesses have really leaned into this culture using their ideas and creativity.”

The event has branched out in unexpected ways. Non-coffee businesses along with local artists have expressed interest in getting involved in Dearborn Coffee Week. “They want to partner with coffee shops and with the event and be involved in the messaging,” says Sancen. “Even though it’s not a traditional artisan market or an artisan event.”

“The first year, we realized that there were a lot of coffee shops that had wonderful stories, and we tried to highlight them,” says Aceves-Sanchez. And so, Sancen and Rezq hired a crew and produced a documentary short, titled Dearborn: The Coffee Capital. The documentary premiered last year at Dearborn Coffee Week, at the Arab American National Museum.

“We had a panel with some of the participants in the documentary. It really became this bigger thing than we expected,” says Aceves-Sanchez. “Now, we’re kind of the conveners of this scene.”

“We love to brag about how we’ve been able to unify 45-plus different businesses with different stories, different coffee, different everything,” says Sancen. “We’ve created a city-wide venue from a network of independent coffee shops.”

“It’s been amazing to see this reflected in our region—in our state and beyond—bringing people into Dearborn to experience the community that we have here.”

Author

Emily Pinsuwan

Emily is the League’s full-time Content Writer, composing emails, articles, blog posts, and press releases. If you need words, she has many. Prior to becoming a word person, she was a restaurant person, handling catering, event management, and marketing; prior still, she was a teaching person, at a private boarding school in Massachusetts. Having earned a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Georgia, Emily is confident that she is the only League employee fluent in Latin. She also enjoys cooking, stand-up comedy, and is an avid gamer, having achieved level 40 on her Steam profile.