A whole-wheat buttermilk waffle with fresh fruit, Calder Dairy butter and Michigan maple syrup at Commonwealth. (Credit: Sylvia Rector/Detroit Free Press)

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Birmingham's newest gathering place is an independent, barista-style coffee cafe called Commonwealth that has sleek, contemporary styling; a healthful, local menu of chef-prepared foods, and direct-trade coffees from Grand Rapids' MadCap Coffee Co. and the chic Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Ore. It's a place designed for serious coffee lovers: Beans are ground just before brewing for each cup of coffee and espresso, and each cup is individually prepared using a pour-through drip brewing system. It takes about 3 1/2 minutes to prepare a cup of coffee and about 2 minutes for an espresso. --Sylvia Rector