Community Highlights: Meet Ryan Wilman of The Owl, Morning ’til Night

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Wilman

Hi Ryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
our journey started just over 10 years ago in 2014, when we opened the coffee shop called”The Morning Owl” our goal was to be a community center for the Milan area and that the drink we would serve would keep our lights on. this goal was captured by the events we hosted that we either created or our community came to us and asked us for. this also allowed many non profits to reach out and get a chance to be seen, Hearth to Hearth, compassion of Milan, Aid in Milan, Moving Milan Forward and many more. as the first two years evolved we realized we were not filling the needs in our community, they wanted more from us, more than what a coffee shop can offer. so we made an expansion to include craft beer, cider and a few cocktails. this allowed us to stay open late and allow for the community to grow into later hours. that is when we rebranded into “The Owl, Morning til Night”
we wanted to keep our identity as a community minded, so we made sure to slowly introduce our offerings, not to push out our foundational following. and to wrap up quickly, we today still do events, still offer great coffee, still try to create a community space for those who wish a place, and we also have some amazing hand crafted cocktails along with many unique craft beers & ciders

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
a smooth road is nothing that a small shop can ever expect or experience. when we opened the downtown was 60% vacancy, and it was a risk, we trusted in God and our believe that the Milan community wanted what we wished to offer, and it did.
we have always prided our selves on our ability to adapt and be ever changing and improving, and during the COVID spike, we were put to the test, changing our operation to offer more to-go options, like canned cocktails, and evolving into outdoor seating. (which expends right out our front door into the neighboring parking)

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Ypsilanti roasted Coffee from Hyperion.
many Michigan craft beers featured.
local distilleries featured, like 2 James, Arbor Distilling, and Iron Fish.
Locally made ingredients like Lavender from Lavender Lane in Milan.
Feature Artists throughout, Ink & Dye a tattoo artist designed many of our cocktail cans
many hand made ingredients

we are always focusing on craft, always looking to try something new, and always creating a consistent elevated beverage
monday – wed 7a-10p
th-fri 7a-11p
sat 8a-11p
monday $2 off growlers
tuesday Opinionation (Family feud trivia) 7-9p
wed Trivia 7-9p
Thurs Run/walk your way to Happy Hour @6p (-8pm)
Fri twisted pretzels @5

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
there are always changes in the industry, and we look forward to the evolution, some past years craft beer drinkers wanted big IPA’s, then later into dark heavy beers, maybe next we see lighter, easy drinkers take hold, either way we are excited to swap out our menu and offer the best we can find.
the above concept can also be adopted into our cocktails and even our coffee offerings, we are excited to let the market desires steer us to what we want to offer our community.

Pricing:

• daily happy hour 4-6pm
• craft beer pints ~$4-6
• Cocktails ~$10

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theowlmilan.com
• Instagram: the_owl_milan
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theowlmilan