Coffee trailer owners dock in DeWitt

Since late 2020, Alex Crippen and her husband, Cody, have been selling coffee, ice cream and baked goods out of their iconic mint green trailer throughout the Lansing area. The roaming shop has become beloved by many, especially in DeWitt, so it’s no surprise they chose to open up their first brick-and-mortar storefront there. 

“This past November, we’d been looking for a place to open up a shop, and something opened up in DeWitt, so we jumped on it and did a lot of renovating and opened in February,” Alex Crippen said.

Crippen said she’s had a lot of hospitality jobs in the past, including working at a restaurant and hotel on Mackinac Island, but she always dreamed of opening her own business. 

“I like how much everybody loves coffee, and ice cream, of course, so we just thought we would incorporate those things to make people happy and serve the community,” she said. 

The couple started with the trailer as a stepping stone toward opening a more permanent location. They amassed a following, and people began asking when they would open a storefront.

“We just kept an eye out, and it all worked out,” Crippen said. 

The cafe offers brewed coffee and tea, lattes, flavored lemonade, milkshakes, ice cream, bagels, waffles, smoothie bowls, gelato from Palazzolo’s Artisan Dairy in Saugatuck and, on Saturdays, Groovy Donuts.

The coffee comes from Grounds & Hounds Coffee Co., which donates 20% of all the profits it earns to animal rescue and welfare organizations throughout the country. Apart from supporting that initiative, Tin Cup sells “Pup Cup” drinks for dogs and donates the proceeds to Happy Feet Pet Rescue in Lansing.

Crippen says business at the new location has been great so far. The couple is considering opening on Mondays starting next week, and the cafe will expand its hours to later in the evenings starting in May.

“DeWitt has just been an awesome spot for us. Everybody’s been super supportive and excited about it, so that definitely helps us with the day-to-day, and we’ve met a lot of awesome people, so it’s just really cool to be there,” Crippen said.

With the brick-and-mortar space, the couple has also been able to start hosting events. 

“We want to support the community and do different things to get people out of the house and doing some fun things around town. We have a couple artists that are coming in to do pop-up shops, we’ve got some painting events coming up, and we have Cocoa Confections coming in and selling cookies this weekend,” Crippen said. “We’re hoping to do live music in May. We want to incorporate all the other local businesses and artists and talent and have a place for them to come and share their gifts with the community.”

For now, Crippen said she and her husband are working on getting the new store fully up and running before branching out and growing the business.

“We’d love to grow, whether that looks like more coffee shops around the Lansing area, maybe another coffee truck, things like that. We’re just waiting to see where everything falls to know what to do next,” she said.