The table is set at Oasis Cafe

Source: Ypsilanti Press
You wouldn’t think a new restaurant in downtown Ypsilanti would worry its neighbors.

But the Oasis Cafe, at 20 N. Washington St., made local business owners anxious a year before it opened its doors last Monday.

Run by Hope Clinic, a Ypsilanti-based charitable organization, the cafe had promised to offer low-cost meals to the needy, a plan that had some downtown store owners worried about an influx of vagrants and drunks.

But with soup, sandwiches and salads finally being served, the attitude has changed.

“We talked to the manager down here, and it seems like everything’s going to be OK,” said Al Green, a financial analyst with offices down the street. “It’s not a traditional soup kitchen.”

The cafe looks - and is - a regular restaurant serving lunch Monday - Saturday. There are cafe curtains on the front windows, wooden tables and chairs inside, a kitchen with toque-hatted chef Johnny Ray and even a reading corner.

But the restaurant also offers an unusual bonus for low-income customers. Those who have a gold membership card - which looks like a credit card - will get 70 percent off on the cost of their meals.

To get a membership card, an applicant needs to go to one of five non-profit agencies - two in Ann Arbor and three in Ypsilanti - and prove his income is no more than 150 percent above the area’s poverty level. An individual could have an income of $12,500 and still qualify, a family of four, $25,550, according to Cathy Robinson, Hope Clinic director.

So far, about 25 people have gotten membership cards, Robinson said, and several have come through the restaurant, said safe manager Paul Metler. Next week, the center will offer $5 coupons for sale to churches and individuals who want to give them to the needy for free meals.

When HOPE Clinic discussed the idea of the Oasis Cafe, some business owners, like Green, said they were worried the endeavor would attract vagrants and panhandlers.

Now, Green said, he doesn’t object to what the Oasis is about. “I don’t object to (offering low-cost meals), he said. “I object to people hanging around the streets, drinking out of paper bags.”

But that’s not what the cafe will be, said Green. “I think (customers) will be by referral, young moms with a couple of kids, referred by local churches, and I think that’s a proper form of charity.”

Keith Peters, president of the Ypsilanti Area Chamber of Commerce, agreed. Originally, the idea was that all meals would cost about 50 cents, he said, but the chamber worked with HOPE to come up with the idea of the membership card and coupons to target who would be eligible for the low-cost deals.

Another concern was that the new cafe would undercut prices at existing restaurants, Peters said.

However, the regular prices are competitive with other restaurants. For example, entrees this week included $12.95 for shrimp fettuccinni and $5.50 for spaghetti. Sandwiches range from $3.50 for the grilled cheese to $5.25 for a roast pork and ham.

The restaurant also offers Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, soups, salads and even has a kids’ menu.

But there are differences. A flier on each table explains the organization’s mission. Tips go toward paying the costs of running the restaurant, though volunteers may ask that tips go to a certain organization as a fund-raiser.

Customer traffic has been light this first week, but that’s to be expected, Metler said. There hasn’t been any advertising, he said, and it’s taken so long to open that some people have stopped checking to see whether it’s started operating.

Hope Clinic owns the building and rents out two apartments on the upper floors.

Metler has seen the project through. He was the food manager at Hudson’s restaurants in the Eastland, Westland and Southland shopping malls in suburban Detroit before he came to Hope to run the soup kitchen and the food bank. Chef Johnny Ray was working at Mission Point Resort on Mackinac Island before he heard that Hope was looking for a chef.

Besides Metler and Ray, the cafe employs two dishwashers. The rest of the staff, including the serving staff, are volunteers like Betty Towler. Towler, who got involved in the endeavor through the Vineyard Church in Milan, has never worked as a waitress before, but she’s learning fast.

Asked why she got involved, Towler repeats the Bible story about a man who threw a feast, and when his friends couldn’t make it, sent his servants out to invite everyone they met - including the poor, the cripple and the needy.

Volunteers who would like to help run the cafe may call Sharon DeVee at (734) 439-3217 or e-mail her at sharon.devee@gte.net.
Source: Ypsilanti Press