When I moved to Lansing after seminary, I needed to find a coffee shop like I had in Tennessee. Filling the shoes of The Coffee Company would be a challenge. Lansing at that time was full of Beaners Coffee shops, but their coffee was rotten, over roasted swill in my opinion. The hunt was on.

Shortly after I moved to Lansing, a guy named Dennis opened up Il Bacio Caffe. It was named after the painting Il Bacio. There was even a copy of it hanging right inside the door.

Because I spent at least a couple mornings there each week, I got to know Dennis. He was a loud character, always friendly to his customers. He loved that place. I loved that place.

The shop itself was large. It had some intimate seating around coffee tables at one end and a plethora of both regular height and high top tables. I always sat at the high top in the corner. It was my seat. A guy named Lenny normally was at the table beside me. I would help him from time to time with his unstable laptop.

The beauty of Il Bacio was the endless cup of coffee. For $2 you could get a nice warm mug right off the espresso machine to drink from. Dennis always had four or five coffees brewed up and in the air pots. My favorite was Highlander Grogg from Fortunes Coffee in Pittsburgh, PA.

Dennis was always trying new places to source coffee from. He would pick some real winners. He also had some bad brews that would reach out of the mug and slap you in the face. That's how he would describe them as you stood there contemplating which coffee to get.

The shop also had a back room that you could rent out for meetings and so on. It was the perfect coffee shop. I loved it dearly.

Unfortunately, Dennis closed the place down. He couldn't get good help and his wife's health was not well. He now spends his days living half of the year in Lansing and half the year in Latin America somewhere. He's allowed. He's retired!