Lex and Jazz of Char’latte Coffee Company Detroit (photo by Char’latte)
* The sisters will be located inside Eastern Market’s Shed 5 during Detroit Bookfest. Come check out their amazing coffee! Please bring small bills, especially $1’s and $5’s.
I love coffee. The aroma, flavor tones, nuances, trimethylxanthine, and accelerated association of ideas that results after gulping down a cup or pot of it. So, when I heard that Char’latte Coffee Company is bringing some liquid deliciousness to Detroit Bookfest, I was ecstatic.
Officially opened in February 2022, Char’latte Coffee Company is run by two Metro Detroit sisters and former baristas who saw a need in the market and decided to fill it.
Alexis Hallam (aka: Lex) and Jazzmyne Cansler (aka: Jazz) are very close siblings. Lex is four years older, likes photography, plays the drums, and started working at a coffeehouse. She got her sister, Jazz, who plays the strings, a job at the coffeehouse and they both “fell in love with the Art of Coffee,” says Jazz.
Alexis Hallam (aka: Lex) and Jazzmyne Cansler (aka: Jazz) of Char’latte Coffee Company Detroit (photo by Ryan M. Place)
“After working in different coffeehouses, we decided to pool our talents, love of coffee, and entrepreneurial spirits,” says Lex. “We created our brand and started our own operation. The coffee is sourced from Stumptown Coffee Roasters and all flavored syrups are created in-house.”
Currently, the sisters offer specialty pop-ups, and their operation consists of an 8-foot-long mobile coffee cart.
“We offer drip, pour over, iced, cold brew, espresso, teas, hot chocolate, and lemonade,” says Lex. “We are hoping to add some pastries in the future.”
Some top sellers right now are:
Brown Sugar Lavender Oat Milk Latte
Hot chocolate with whipped cream
And the Madagascar vanilla bean
Char’latte Coffee Company Detroit
“We love the freedom of mobility,” says Jazz. “In the future, we’d like to add a large trailer and our ultimate goal is to eventually open a brick-and-mortar coffeehouse, most likely in the heart of Detroit.”
This is a true family operation. “Our Uncle Shane built the cart for us, outfitted it and he even helps transport it to events in his truck. His wife and kids all help contribute greatly to our success and we are very thankful for their love and support,” says Lex. “And the name Char’latte is in honor of my two-year-old daughter, Charlotte.”
The sister’s coffee cart can be booked for events. “We politely request a minimum of 50 people,” says Jazz. “There is no maximum. We do weddings, office parties, house parties, graduations, corporate events, community events, all sorts of different things.”
The sisters are trying to make this gig full-time. Help them out by booking them for your next event!
Many people will walk over and find great food and drinks for sale inside the Strategic Clubhouse or the Classic Grill inside the Fox Classic Clubhouse.
Ages
This is an all-ages event, open to anyone.
Appearances
Former Detroit Red Wings champion, Darren McCarty will be coming to the cornhole tournament! Darren will be doing meet n’ greet, signing autographs, taking photos, etc. Bring cash. Bring your items to be signed or purchase them from Darren.
Darren McCarty at Detroit Bookfest Cornhole Tournament (photo by Darren McCarty)
Bags
You can BYOB (bring your own bags) if you want to. If not, house bags will be provided to you.
Bar
Alcohol will be for sale for those 21+ up. You can purchase inside the Summerhouse or from one of the mobile carts or at one of the three clubhouses.
Beer
We are excited to announce that Bell’s Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Co.will be ON-SITE doing samplings, selling beer, and giving away swag/merch!
Bell’s Brewery & New Belgium Brewery at Detroit Bookfest Cornhole Tournament
Cornhole
Cornhole boards are placed 27 feet apart from front edge to front edge. You stand opposite your partner. Each team throws four bags per turn. You alternate throws with your opponent. A bag on the board is one point. A bag through the hole is three points.
In cancellation scoring, the points of one player cancel out the points of their opponent. For example: if you throw a bag through the hole, that’s 3 points and if your opponent gets two bags on the board, that’s two points. You would do 3-2, so you get one point on the scoreboard. Whichever team scores 21 points first is the winner of the game and will advance to the next round.
Detroit Bookfest
The Detroit Festival of Books (aka: Detroit Bookfest) is the largest book festival in the state of Michigan. Entry to the event is free. The event is organized by a 501c3 non-profit organization comprised entirely of unpaid volunteers who donate their time to making the event happen. It occurs annual on the 3rd Sunday in July at Detroit’s historic Eastern Market.
Food
Big Red’s BBQ Pit (based in Westland) are bringing their amazing BBQ foodtruck to the cornhole tournament! Click on the link for their menu. The food from this truck has gone viral online. They have some amazing BBQ food.
Format
The format is a round robin to match skill levels. Once levels are matched, it’s a Double Elimination (meaning if you lose two games, you’re out).
Fox Hills
Fox Hills is a 500-acre golf course with 63 holes of golf. They also have a driving range. Fox Hills is also very popular for special events like weddings. Fox Hills Country Club was established way back in 1927. Then in 1974 it became a public golf course. Thanks to the generosity of Fox Hills, we are able to host this fundraiser at Fox Hills.
Fox Hills has 3 golf courses: Golden (great and beautiful course), Strategic (short game, no driver needed), and Classic (versatile and great for any skill level). They also have two driving ranges and the Strategic range even has Footgolf.
Fox Hills is also a great location for events such as weddings, showers, high school banquets, corporate picnics, corporate team building, and more.
The Learning Center at Fox Hills features eight brand new Trackman simulators, which create an amazing experience for the user.
The cornhole tournament will take place at the Summerhouse, both inside and on the Summerhouse lawn.
The Summerhouse is a 10,000 square foot pavilion with a bar and restrooms inside. The Summerhouse walls are made of retractable windscreens.
Fox Hills Summerhouse (Plymouth, Michigan)
Money
Teams must register online. Stripe is used to process your funds.
However, once you are at the event, cash is preferred for the 50/50 raffle, bars, foodtruck, etc. Credit cards and debit cards will also be accepted for bars and foodtruck.
Nature
Fox Hills is a certified Audubon Sanctuary. Bald eagles live on Fox Classic (the hills). There are also numerous deer, turkeys, sandhill cranes, and more.
A partial listing of wildlife sightings at Fox Hills includes a variety of birds such as herons, orioles, red tailed hawks, pheasants, woodpeckers and cedar wax wings. In addition, other animals such as fox, mink, muskrats, rabbits, frogs and turtles are commonly seen. Over 100 species of wildlife/birds have been observed on the property.
Bald Eagles at Fox Hills Plymouth
News Coverage
Thank you DBusiness Magazine for the amazing coverage!
Who is organizing this fundraiser? This charity fundraiser is being organized by Friends of Detroit Bookfest and Bearded Boards Cornhole. Thanks to the generosity of Fox Hills, we are able to host this fundraiser at Fox Hills. 100% of the proceeds go directly to Detroit Bookfest.
Bearded Boards Cornhole is co-organizing the Detroit Bookfest Cornhole Tournament
Parking
Fox Hills regularly handles massive events. There is plenty of free parking.
Prizes
1st place prize, 2nd place prize, 3rd place cash prizes. Amounts depend on how many teams register.
Proceeds
100% of the proceeds go to Detroit Bookfest, which is a 501c3 non-profit organization.
Raffle
There will be a 50/50 Raffle. Bring cash to buy your raffle tickets!
Refunds
Refunds will only be issued if this event does not take place.
Registration
You can register your two-person team here. The cost is $50.00 per team.
Pure Michigan is a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in Lansing. The MEDC exists to help foster and promote positive economic activity statewide.
We are honored and delighted to be featured on the calendar.
Pure Michigan (courtesy of Pure Michigan)
Fun factoid of the day:
Michigan has the world’s longest freshwater coastline (3, 288 miles).
Aerial photo of Mettetal Airport Canton (photo courtesy of Mettetal)
Mettetal Airport is a non-towered airport (ie: no control tower) that was founded in 1939 on 63 acres in Canton, Michigan. One of the hangars contains a rare resource in the form of Paulson Aviation Library.
John Maxfield, VP of EAA Chapter 113, graciously answered questions and provided a fascinating tour.
“We have about 3,500 volumes. The library was started in 2002 and is hyper-focused on all things aviation. Our main librarian is Barb Cook but she’s on vacation right now. And yes, this is a functional library, Dewey catalogued and everything.”
Paulson Aviation Library @ Canton’s Mettetal Airport (photo by Ryan M. Place)
“The library features mostly books. Non-fiction, biographical, military, reference & technical manuals. We also have vintage journals, flight manuals, various ephemera, photos, DVDs and VHS tapes.”
“Some classic standard books we have are Stick and Rudder (1944), We (1927) Lindbergh, and Carrying the Fire (1974). I’m currently looking for a decent copy of Sled Driver (1991) by Brian Schul.”
“The founder of our library, Robert Paulson, was a Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol. He was a CAP Chaplain, lived in Dearborn, and was parish priest at Church of the Holy Cross in Novi. He was also a book enthusiast and initially started this library by donating his own personal collection. He didn’t own an airplane, so this was his main project. And it’s grown over the years mostly via donations.”
“Mettetal Airport was started by Bob Mettetal. He was a bomber pilot in WWII. His brother Marv (Marvin) was also a pilot. The Mettetal family owned the land since 1920 when it was purchased by Bob’s dad Raphael (Ray) Mettetal. They had a greenhouse and decided to build an airport. Currently, Mettetal is mostly a recreation airport for enthusiasts, and it’s also used by corporations and air ambulances. It’s owned by MDOT Office of Aeronautics.”
Robert Mettetal @ Mettetal Airport Canton (photo courtesy of Google Archives)
“The State of Michigan has made a couple of incredible historic contributions to the field of aviation. In the 1920’s-30’s, Ford Motor Company invented commercial airline travel with the Ford-Trimotor Airplane. What is now Ford Proving Ground (Oakwood Blvd, Dearborn) used to be the Ford Airport, which had one of the world’s first paved runways. The Dearborn Inn across the street was one of the first air travel hotels. And the other contribution was of course the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti during World War Two.”
“Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is the world’s largest recreation sport aviation association. EAA Chapter 113 was founded here at Mettetal in 1961. Our nickname is the Backyard Eagles. Anyone from the general public can join. Legally, the chapter cannot own an airworthy airplane but flying clubs can form within. Our chapter has 4 flying clubs with 7 airplanes, mostly single-engine Cessnas.”
“We host interesting speakers monthly every 3rd Thursday. We’ve had authors, parachute riggers, aviation medics, astronauts, military personnel, etc. And our Young Eagles program offers free airplane rides for those aged 8-17. We do this four times per year.”
Paulson Aviation Library @ Canton’s Mettetal Airport (photo by Ryan M. Place)
Donate your aviation books (they may possibly purchase exceptionally rare items)
Paulson Aviation Library is available by appointment and also during regular gatherings (3rd Thurs of the month, 7:30pm) and events (see calendar on their website).
Iconic photo of Detroit Bookfest taken by Debbie Maciolek in 2018 (Eastern Market, Shed 5, Detroit)
Native Detroiter, Debbie Maciolek, runs Debography, a local photography company. She expertly photographed some early incarnations of Bookfest for us in the past. And now, thankfully, she’s back!
The quality of her work is superb, and we are immensely fortunate to have her documenting the event.
You will see her running around at Detroit Bookfest taking photos. Please treat her with courtesy and respect.
Debbie Maciolek self-portrait (photo by Debbie Maciolek)
Here’s Debbie:
“I’ve got lots of books to donate. I can’t throw out a book. It goes against everything I believe in.”
“My early years? Wow, well, I grew up on Detroit’s Upper Eastside. I lived on Lansdowne, between Yorkshire and Grayton and attended Guardian Angels at Kelly and Whittier and also Bishop Gallagher.”
“I attended Wayne State University, studying business and have my certificate of Photographic Arts from Macomb Community College.”
“For the past 28 years, my husband Bob and I have lived in Macomb. He’s a Colonel in the National Guard and we’ve owned a software business for 16 years now called Static Line Software.”
Abandoned Detroit building (photo by Debbie Maciolek)
“We have a son and a daughter, Blake and Claire, both finishing up college at Western Michigan and University of Michigan respectively and two furry kids. Our two dogs are Bella – a Lab-Pit mix, and Dexter – a Great Pyrenees-Siberian Husky mix.”
“I come from three generations of Detroit firefighters. My grandfather and father both retired as Chief of the city and my brother is a current Sergeant on the Eastside.”
“When I was young, my dad used to race stock outboard boats all over the state in short courses and marathons. This is actually how I started photography. To this day, I love photographing live sports, especially hockey, and capturing the raw in-the-moment action. Traveling frequently allowed us to camp all over the state. There is nothing like Michigan in the summer, the forests and lakes are incredible.”
“Debography was started November 2016. I was able to leave my job with a software services company and move into being a photographer full-time. I shoot senior photos, lifestyle, off the beaten path type stuff, abandoned buildings, nature photography, events, etc. Not weddings, never weddings.”
Detroit River photo (photo by Debbie Maciolek)
“My camera setup consists of a Canon 5D Mark IV and I use primarily Canon lenses, and Sigma Art lenses. My preferred editing software is Photoshop and I’ve found the absolutely best company for lighting supplies and support – Flashgear.net.”
“My advice for aspiring photographers is to understand the manual settings and remember that lighting is everything, it will always make or break your shots. Take the time to understand how light affects your subject.”
“As for hobbies, I love traveling, seeking out new adventures, experiencing off the beaten path type stuff. I’m an avid reader, mostly mysteries. I belong to a book club that’s…really more of a wine club, but hey, it’s fun. I’ve also been getting back into running, I’ve completed four half marathons and am looking to fit in a fifth one.”
“Michigan is a wonderful state, we love it here; there is always something new to do. My husband and I have a cottage in Gladwin on Secord Lake and have made some fabulous friends up there. I grew up going to Burt Lake and Indian River, which are about a half hour south of Mackinaw City, and will always be one of my favorite spots. The State Park is great and the swimming and hiking can’t be beat. Locally, we love spending time outdoors at Stony Creek Metropark and Dodge Park. Favorite restaurants near our house include Da Francesco’s Ristorante for Italian food and Golden Fleece in Greektown for Greek food.”
“Outside of Michigan, my favorite spot hands down is Ireland. Stunningly beautiful country. I recommend renting a car and driving around southern Ireland, especially the Killarney area. And yes, for some reason, the Guinness really does taste better over there, the rumors are true! It tastes like Irish Magic.”
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