A Locally-Grown and Locally-Sourced Breakfast

A little more than three years ago, a unique and sustainable way of serving food to local community members was conceived. Selma Café was “envisioned as a center, a hub, a heart of the many ongoing efforts to improve our lives through community building, free access to affordable, healthy foods, and to foster right-livelihood in vocations with meaning and purpose” (www.repastspresentandfuture.org). Each week, Selma Café features an array of locally grown breakfast dishes prepared by local chefs and volunteers. Although you won’t be met with a bill at the end of your meal, suggested donations are $10-15 for breakfast. Selma is an all-volunteer operation and all proceeds go directly to the local farmers and producers that supply the ingredients and to non-profit groups working to expand access to healthy, sustainable food resources.

In light of Selma Café’s recent showcase at the University of Michigan TEDx this April, Sam, Julie, Ben, Zack and I decided to visit Selma to find out for ourselves what all the talk was about.

What to know about Selma Café before heading over:

You won’t find Selma located on State Street, Main Street or near any of the other restaurants in the Ann Arbor area. This is because Selma Café is hosted at the home of Lisa Gottlieb and Jeff McCabe on 722 Soule Boulevard in Ann Arbor.  Also, be ready for an early breakfast. Selma Café is open from 6:30-10:00am every Friday, but I suggest getting there early because food runs out quick and every entrée is worth trying!

We managed to brave the dreaded early Friday morning wake up and got to Selma around 8:00am, just in time to beat the second wave of breakfast rush. Although we had to wait anxiously for 30 minutes for enough seats to clear, during our wait we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet Jeff and Lisa, and speak with them further about their experience at TEDx.

Once we were finally seated, we decided the only way to get the full Selma Café experience was by trying out all of the dishes on the menu that week:

Here’s how our Selma experience went:

If you're looking to support the local, sustainable food movement and you're craving something different than the usual breakfast places by U of M campus - I'd definitely advise checking out Selma Cafe, it's worth the early Friday wakeup.

Here's their website if you want to find out more about the mission of Selma and what's on the menu for this week: http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/fmselma/