Birchwood Café

BY CYN COLLINS

Residence: Seward Neighborhood, owns home next to Birchwood Cafe

Occupation: Owner/Operator

Organizations/Affiliations: Birchwood Bike Team; an all women’s book club for 14 years; Seward Civic and Commerce Association member; Minneapolis Yoga Workshop member; Pro-choice Bowlathon Bowling Team–Birchwood Deadly Viper Squad teammate (May 3rd, Bryant Lake Bowl)

SSP: Tell me about the Birchwood Bike Team...
TS: It’s a nice community-oriented bike club. We’re getting more and more women interested in and gaining confidence about road-riding.

SSP: Tell me about your bookclub. What are you reading?
TS: “The Known World.” It’s a historical fiction about the Civil War era and slavery—a freed slave who owned a plantation and slaves after he was freed.
I was just in Africa—I’m reading Paul Theroux’s “Dark Star Safari.” I love travel books and fiction about Africa, or by African writers.

SSP: What was Africa like?
TS: I met a friend in Nairobi and we traveled around for two weeks, including safari. It was different than I expected, not scary. There were travel advisories. Everyone was kind and generous. It was surprising to me how westernized and globalized it was. Masai warrior men had red beaded cellphone holders next to their machetes. From their standpoint, globalization has been a big improvement for them, such as in terms of communications.

SSP: What are your favorites books?
TS: I’m an avid reader. That’s a very difficult question as there are so many. I’d say “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “The Bone People.”

SSP: What is the Birchwood Café like as a community?
TS: The clientele is very varied but many of the people keep coming back. The people who come back are the ones who seem open to the energy and vibe of the place—its been here since the ’20s and the previous owners were really involved in the community. I love the vibe and energy of the building. It’s a certain perceptiveness people have that come here. They’re people who like to connect. People are so busy. They receive and send millions of emails and cellphone calls—they’re simultaneously more connected and more disconnected. I use e-mail more than the phone now ... that disturbs me. People like the sense of community here. For some people, the community and atmosphere is as important as the food, sometimes more.
People like seeing each other and talking face to face, getting validated as a human being. Seeing people you know here and talking to them ... people like that. A minister comes here on Friday and Saturday nights to work on his Sunday sermon. Krista Tippet, host of MPR’s Speaking of Faith [show] works on her program here.

SSP: Tell me about community events you host at the Birchwood ... TS: We host the Speaking of Faith Salon here. They’ve met here twice so far. They meet the first Wednesday of every month. They discuss all topics of faith; it’s nondenominational. At the salon, we talk about the show we just heard.
Saturday mornings we’re playing KFAI’s Mostly Jazz show from 9–11 a.m.

SSP: Tell me about the Birchwood’s socio-political involvement . . .
TS: Before the Iraq war, I put out anti-war signs. Some people didn’t like that, but that’s how we felt. We’re putting up a sponsorship for pro-choice resources bowl-a-thon. We’re also having a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina, Sun., May 9. We’re donating food for a nonprofit for that. We did two weeks of Mardi Gras related food, where a percentage of the proceeds went to victims of Katrina. We’re hosting for Dining Out For Life, April 26. We’re offering treats for the cleanup crews on Earth Day and Arbor Day. We underwrite and provide food for KFAI also.

SSP: Tell me about your philosophy of food.
TS: I’m not doing this to get rich. We serve fresh organic food, buy from local farmers. We use Peace Coffee, and Izzy’s ice cream and Fischer Farms for example. Also, the Southeast (Farmers) Food Network. People can get so disconnected from the food they eat. People get more connected to local, organic and fresh food. That makes them feel good about what they’re putting in their bodies. People who are afraid sometimes of the menu items, such as tempeh, tofu, etc. at first come every couple weeks, then more often until incrementally they become regulars, and like the food they weren’t originally familiar with.
In modern society, food is so processed. The end result looks nothing like what it came from. There’s fragmentation in people’s psyche. It’s a different level of connection. Our food is back to the basics. It’s simple and fresh and makes people feel good. People are looking for that and sometimes they find it. It’s important for people to think about where their food comes from.

SSP: What do you like about the Seward neighborhood?
TS: I love the sense of community — I love walking my dog or biking and seeing a half dozen people I know. It’s our own little slice of Mayberry RFD. It’s a nice community. People seem to look out for each other. I think it’s such a hub. It’s a destination.

SSP: What is your favorite place to recreate?
TS: Biking, or walking my dog. We’re right by the river, within five minutes of nature! I bike everywhere. I’m excited about the Greenway.

SSP: What, if anything would you change about the Seward, and the city?
TS: I’d like to see more funding for the Seward Neighborhood Group and its staff — its an important service and funding has been cut down. For the city, I’d like to see an easier time of zoning and planning. Zoning issues for this business are still difficult.

SSP: What are your hopes and fears for the future?
TS: I hope the Birchwood continues to be a vital, sustainable and dynamic business. It’s more and more expensive to run a small business and I hope we can continue. I hope it’s a place to keep having people come and get connected and feel good, and eat good food. I’d like it if I can continue to provide health insurance and IRA savings to our employees. I know businesses that have to keep cutting benefits because of rising health insurance costs. I’m in denial that there may come a day when we couldn’t afford health insurance. A lot of people work here full-time, about 15. There are 34 employees. Many live in the neighborhood.

SSP: What are your future plans for the Birchwood?
TS: I’m applying for an entertainment license. We’ll find out May 9. We’d have music as sort of an ambient background. I’ll continue writing newsletters; I’ve done that for a year. We have art shows by local artists that rotate every six weeks. We’ll continue doing that. We hope to start selling our granola in stores.