Selma Café

Maddie LaKind  

A few miles west of campus, on a lovely and unsuspecting street, there rests a quaint neighborhood house. Now this house may look perfectly normal on the outside: brick façade, long driveway, ivy covered chimney, and quaint front-lawn garden. But walk through the front doors and you’ll realize, this is no ordinary house.

Entering the tiny foyer of 722 Soule Blvd, the first thing you’ll notice are the walls. These walls aren’t painted, or artfully decorated, or even wallpapered in a particularly pleasing fashion, but rather are overflowing with nametags—masking tape nametags actually, scribbled with permanent marker. You’ll be prompted to create one yourself before entering the house.

As you pass through the dining room and veer right into the kitchen, you’ll notice a hefty wood island dotted with varying plates, mismatched silverware, and a wide assemblage of patterned napkins. The air cloaks you in the chocolaty aroma of Roos Roast coffee and the smoky scent of crispy fried bacon.

Hipsters, activists, students, families, and every local in between, overflow this limited space making introductions, mulling over the week’s happenings, and preparing their ravenous stomachs for the wave of breakfast specials about to come their way. What’s going on you may ask? It’s Friday morning at Selma Café!

Run out of the west side home of Lisa Gottlieb, Selma Café is a weekly pop-up restaurant with a mission to bring locally sourced, honestly prepared food to the community. Each week, Lisa invites a different local chef into their home to cook breakfast Friday morning from 6:30-9:30 a.m.—the only time the café operates. With the help of local volunteers, Selma churns out an ever-changing array of morning fare from eggs, pancakes, and pastries, always served with a side of bacon and a salad of local mixed greens. No matter the dish, Lisa insists that all ingredients be sourced locally, driving home their goal of supporting the Ann Arbor food community and promoting awareness of food-related issues.

A $12-$15 donation covers the cost of breakfast and unlimited coffee, with most of the proceeds going to non-profit organizations, specifically those working to improve Michigan’s local food systems and agricultural practices. While the price may seem steep for breakfast, the experience itself is worth every penny.

Now you might think that the unruly hours of 6:30-9:30am would deter people, but you would be sorely mistaken. Out of fear of not getting a spot or missing the height of breakfast rush, most guests tend to make an appearance between 7:00-8:00am. Any first timers should follow this same trend and get there early: the food will be better, the crowd more hopping, and the experience as a whole more authentic. The hosts are always lovely and accommodating, and the coffee is ever flowing, helping you feel right at home even in the presence of mass crowds.

Once you finally receive that envied name call and take your seat, it’s food time. Having visited Selma probably upwards of ten times over my college career, I can confidently say the best dishes I’ve had are always the simplest. Highlights I still remember include: hardy sausage ragu with local scrambled eggs; the silkiest quiche Lorraine I’ve ever tasted encased in a buttery, flaky crust; smoked trout benedict (as seen below); eggs in a basket with zingy, garlicky pesto; and weekly house specials like strawberry French toast (with sugar caramelized on top…unreal!) and vegan granola.

Like any great dining establishment, Selma isn’t perfect. There have been a few select dishes over the years that weren’t quite up to par or tasted just so-so. However, I keep getting roped back to Soule Blvd, Friday after Friday. What I’ve realized is that, at the end of the day, Selma Café isn’t really about the food. It’s about what food represents: local pride, family, friends, honesty, community, and, of course, lots of love.

Selma Café 722 Soule Blvd Ann Arbor, MI 48103