September 12th 2023.
When Mychael and Stephanie Wright opened Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe in 2000, they didn't know they would be creating a community landmark in St. Paul, Minnesota. Twenty-three years later, the cherished coffee shop has been sold to the Rondo Community Land Trust and will be transformed into a Black-owned restaurant and food vendor incubator space, now called "Golden Thyme Presents".
Mychael's brother had given him some business advice, and the Wrights were ready to move on to the next chapter of their lives. Knowing this, the Rondo Community Land Trust stepped in to help them sell the cafe while preserving it as a cultural gem. Deputy director of the land trust, E. Coco, said, “For us, it’s such a cultural gem, we couldn’t not step in to preserve it and create a plan to maintain the asset in [the] community.” On evenings and weekends, the cafe will feature pop-ups from different businesses. The first Minnesota business to be featured is Sammy McDowell’s Avenue Eatery.
The Rondo Community Land Trust was established to restore the uprooted Black middle-class community of Rondo which lost hundreds of homes and businesses due to the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. Mikeya Griffin, the executive director of the trust, expressed her commitment to rebuilding the community, “When I was a young girl, Rondo was a place of Black innovation, abundance, and joy — and I am fiercely committed to rebuilding the more than 300 businesses and 700 homes that were taken from our families.”
The Rondo Community Land Trust is the first of its kind in the state of Minnesota. Thanks to the leadership of the Wrights and others, the trust is making great strides to restore the community of Rondo. Golden Thyme Presents is a great example of this progress and a shining example of what can be achieved when the community comes together.
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