Four New Eateries

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For that cup of coffee at the end of the meal, you get a choice of Illimani from Bolivia, Buziraguhindwa from Burundi, or the most expensive, at $4 a cup, Thiriku from Kenya. "A lot of restaurants are solicited by coffee companies who entice them with free machines," Roumanis explains. Refusing to be seduced, he spent $15,000 to buy his own equipment--and, he says, "Our coffee is as good as any coffee shop in the area."

Vellum, 209 S. Main, 929-4929. Daily 5:30-10:30 p.m. (till 1 a.m. Fri. & Sat. for dessert and coffee). vellumrestaurant.com

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Around the block, on Liberty, Kuroshio is the work of another father-son team.

"I have zero training in restaurant management," says twenty-two-year-old Alan Wang with a smile. Neither does his father, Kenneth. The Wangs came to Ann Arbor from Taiwan when Alan was a toddler to open the American office of their forklift manufacturing company, Wanmax. A few years ago, when the Wangs sold Wanmax and were looking for a way to invest the proceeds, they thought a restaurant would be interesting.