Senior Alydia Ullman, Paul Trainor ’23, Gillian Ruch ’24, and owner John Spiteri. Courtesy | Alydia Ullman

When John Spiteri and his wife, Robin, opened Checker Records in 1987, it could never have won a food award. They sold records and CDs, not coffee and sweets. But the Hillsdale landmark earned a shoutout from Michigan news outlet MLive last month as one of “Michigan’s Best Local Eats.”

“When the music industry started taking a turn for the worse, we decided we had to do something to stay alive,” John Spiteri said. “Our kids were both involved in travel sports, and we spent a lot of time on the road. We would go to coffee shops just for something to kill time.” 

Spiteri said they were inspired by Borders, a former bookstore-coffee-shop hybrid chain, and decided in 2003 to bring in espresso machines and baristas to complement the shop’s rows of CDs and vinyl records. 

“If they could deal with books, we could try it with music,” Spiteri said. 

What was once a small records store on Bacon Street, made possible by a loan from Spiteri’s parents, is now a bustling music and coffee shop open seven days a week. The Spiteri’s son Derek, who worked as a Checker Records employee in high school, now runs Handmade, a Hillsdale sandwich shop.

“I just wanted to be involved in something that I could make a living at and that I would enjoy,” Spiteri said. 

Checker Records sells everything from guitars to recycled canvas tote bags to shaken espresso drinks to flavored drip coffee, commonly catered to Hillsdale College events. According to Spiteri, they source their coffee from a local Michigan roaster. They also offer a wide array of baked goods, coffee beans, and other drinks. 

“We get more business from the coffee side,” Spiteri said. “It’s picked the music part up, because more people come through the door and see what we have.”

According to Spiteri, Checker Records currently sells more vinyl than CDs.

“Vinyl has made a huge turn around,” Spiteri said. “They don’t print as many CDs as they used to, and it’s hard to get your hands on them if you don’t order them when they first come out.”

Spiteri said his small-but-regular staff contributes to the Checker Records experience. 

“We try to have the same staff so that they know the customer and the customer knows them,” Spiteri said. “It doesn’t matter who makes your drink. Everybody tries to do the same.”

Senior Alydia Ullman has frequented Checker Records throughout her time at Hillsdale. 

“My go-to order is a large black coffee, usually house blend or Turkish blend,” Ullman said. “I think Checker Records has the best plain drip coffee and the best blended drinks.”

In a town with several local coffee shops, its casual atmosphere and fast service makes Checker Records stand out, Ullman said. 

“When you go in, you’re going in with people who are locals and regulars,” Ullman said. “It has this very lived-in, familial environment.”

Junior Alexandra Laird said Checker Records seems to draw more people who live in the Hillsdale area, compared to other coffee shops that seem to draw more Hillsdale College students. 

“It has the spice of life in it,” Laird said. “Checker Records is the perfect place to go in, grab a coffee, and check out the music while you’re waiting.”

Ullman described Checker Records as a place in which she formed some of her favorite traditions as a Hillsdale student. 

“Gillian and I would always go before a big exam,” Ullman said of her friend Gillian Ruch ’24. “Anytime that something big was going to happen, we were going to go to Checker Records really early in the morning.”

Ullman said she and Ruch went for each other’s birthdays and before each break. Before Ruch graduated, the two decided to buy matching Checker Records sweatshirts to commemorate their love of the coffee shop. They took a picture that day with Spiteri, as well as Paul Trainor ’23, who worked as a Checker Records barista. 

“Checker Records has a place in all of those big moments of Hillsdale,” Ullman said. 

Though Ullman said she doesn’t know the Spiteris personally, she has benefited from their generosity. 

“One of my favorite memories is that I ordered just a plain coffee and before I got it, I realized I didn’t have my wallet,” Ullman said. “I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ll just put my cup back.’”

But Spiteri objected. 

“He said, ‘No, no one leaves here without their coffee,’ and gave me coffee on the house,” Ullman said. 

She returned to pay later that day.

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