Golden Thyme Presents, the successor to the longtime Selby Avenue coffee shop now owned by a Rondo nonprofit, opened Tuesday as an incubator for Black-owned food businesses.
Two restaurants are actually up and running within the space: On weekdays, Sammy’s Avenue Eatery will serve sandwiches, salads and occasional. That is its second location; owner Sammy McDowell has run the restaurant in North Minneapolis for a few decade.
On weekends, Gravy Babies will serve soul food. Currently a catering company, the business is owned by Jocie Thomas, who grew up within the Rondo neighborhood.
The unique Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe was founded in 2000 by Stephanie and Mychael Wright, who also began Selby Avenue JazzFest. Earlier this yr, the couple sold the coffee shop to the Rondo Community Land Trust.
Now, as Golden Thyme Presents, Rondo officials hope the space will further the organization’s mission of constructing community wealth and inexpensive developments in town, deputy director E. Coco previously told the Pioneer Press. The Rondo land trust goals to revive the vibrancy that existed within the predominantly Black neighborhood before much of it was destroyed by construction of Interstate 94, within the Sixties.
Thomas began cooking as a young person and launched a catering business in 2007, she said. For a number of years, she ran a soul food restaurant called The Cozy Kitchen, but ultimately returned to full-time catering several years ago as Gravy Babies.
In any case, she said, her business is a “one-woman show.” So although Gravy Babies is simply at Golden Thyme on the weekends, Thomas is all the time busy. Even when she thinks she desires to branch into one other profession, she said, she all the time finds herself gravitating toward the recipes her mom, aunts and grandmother taught her.
“Soul food is what I do all day, on daily basis,” she said. “And I keep getting drawn back into it!”
At a grand opening ceremony on Oct. 31, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter praised the project as a step toward equity, in each its definitions — boosting pluralism and opportunity in a social context, and constructing long-term financial stability for Black entrepreneurs in an economic sense.
He recalled, back within the late 90s and early 2000s, that folks — including his own — warned their kids to avoid this particular stretch of Selby Avenue. By opening Golden Thyme, he said, the Wrights were “angel investors in Selby.”
“It’s exciting to take this business — which was a lot at the center of the revitalization, reimagination, transformation of this avenue — and say, look: The following stage of that is community ownership,” Carter said to the gang of about 50 people on the grand opening.
In transforming the space into Golden Thyme Presents, the Rondo land trust also installed latest visual and sculptural art, and plans to host occasional artist talks.
The organization plans to revive the Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe brand as a cooperative business, owned collectively by a gaggle of Rondo community members. The brand new cafe would open sometime later next yr on the corner of Selby and Victoria Street, a few block away from the unique location.
They’re asking former Golden Thyme customers to weigh in on favorite menu items to retain at the brand new iteration of the cafe via a web based survey. Should you’re from Rondo and fascinated by joining the ownership group, you may email rondo@rondoclt.org.
At Golden Thyme Presents, Sammy’s is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to three p.m., and Gravy Babies is open weekends from 11 a.m. to six p.m.
Golden Thyme Presents: Sammy’s Avenue Eatery and Gravy Babies: 934 Selby Ave; 651-207-5945; rondoclt.org/selbymilton/golden-thyme-presents/