The Urban Cup / M43 Fitness

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This building, 2225 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing’s Groesbeck Neighborhood, will soon become home to M43 Fitness, a new gym/personal training studio. Also coming to the site: The Urban Cup, a new craft coffee house co-owned by Nick Gavrilides, who also owns/operates Soup Spoon Cafe in Lansing and the Bistro in Williamston.

Next month, Lansing’s Groesbeck Neighborhood will be getting in on the booming craft coffee scene with the arrival of the Urban Cup, an eightseat coffeehouse specializing in locally roasted coffee and award-winning soup.

“The idea is to offer great coffee, great soups and inspire great friendships,” said co-owner Nick Gavrilides. “Groesbeck is definitely underserved when it comes to coffee, and it’s an opportunity to let Rob Flanders’ coffee magic shine on its own.”

Flanders is the owner/operator of Rudy Baggs Coffee Roasting Co., a small batch coffee bean roasting business he founded in 2003 in Lansing as a home delivery service. He found a fan in Gavrilides, who started serving Flanders’ fare in his restaurant, the Soup Spoon Café when he opened 10 years ago. Flanders even created a special blend just for Soup Spoon: the Spoon Bender.

“I’ve always loved what Rob does, so when my friend Scott bought this building in Groesbeck and said he wanted to have a café in there, Rob was the first person I thought of,” Gavrilides said. “It’s a fantastic location and I think it will be a welcome addition to the area.”

Scott Abramouski purchased the multisuite building at 2225 E. Grand River Ave. to turn it into M43 Fitness, a fullservice gym/personal training facility.

The building is located next to Westlund’s Apple Market just west of I-127, and it has a history of being a watering hole: Abramouski said the 1959 building had a soda fountain. The building is also home to the long-running hair salon A Cut Above; Urban Cup will take over the remaining 800-square-foot suite.

“I’d actually gotten out of personal training because it’s hard to make it unless you’re working for yourself,” Abramouski said. “But I was saving up my money, and when I saw this building for sale, I thought it would be a perfect location for a gym. I’d just gotten married, so I just said to my wife, ‘What the heck, let’s do this.’” Abramouski bought the building for $365,000 in August and will invest around $200,000 to transform it into M43. He hopes to cut the ribbon on the business sometime early next month (the website is already active: m43fitness. com), while Urban Cup will come online sometime in early spring.

The Lansing area’s cup overfloweth with craft coffee these days. Between the two Strange Matter Coffee Co. locations (on the east side and in downtown Lansing), the two Crafted Bean Coffee Co. spots (in DeWitt and near Lansing’s Stadium District) and REO Town’s Blue Owl Coffee Co., capital-area coffee aficionados have no shortage of places to grab a pour-over or a coffee cocktail these days. And besides soup, the Urban Cup will have something customized for fitness buffs: a high-performance java called bulletproof coffee, which is designed to jump-start the body’s fatburning abilities and cognitive functions.

It combines fresh-brewed coffee, MCT oil (also known as brain oil) and grassfed butter, and was developed to be an ideal post-workout beverage.

“We’re also going to have a traditional espresso bar inside, so you can grab a latte or a cappuccino without too long of a wait,” Gavrilides said. “The concept is to be takeaway driven. You come in, grab a cup of soup or a coffee and you’re on your way. I think we may add breakfast items eventually, but for right now we’re just trying to get to open.”

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