When Miko Fossum first envisioned
Magdalena’s Tea House, she wanted to create a space where people could come together and play music in a café-like setting.
“I really wanted to re-create what I had experienced in Europe,” she says. “There were these great spaces where everyone took their shoes off at the door, and I felt completely enveloped when I walked into them. I wanted my tea house to feel like that.”
So, with a dream in her heart and a vision in her head, she set out to open her own café. Magdalena’s as an Eastside Lansing tea house and performance arts space opened in June of 2004, and quickly became a popular spot.
“I had months booked full with entertainment,” she says. I had national acts—Seth and Daisy Mae, Neil Jacobs, The Kreegor Brothers, Elis, Steppin In It, Rachel Davis—and we were turning a profit.”
Past PrepackagedThe performance space was doing well. But sustainable living had always been important to her as well, and she wanted to offer her customers more.
At the time, licensing limitations only allowed her to serve coffee and tea and a few other items, such as prepackaged muffins and cookies. She decided to put in a small kitchen, so she could offer sandwiches, soups and salads. But that still required buying lots of prepackaged food items.
“It really went against my beliefs on so many levels. It wasn’t sustainable. Too much money was being spent, and it was so removed from who I was,” she says.
The kitchen went through several major transformations before Fossum finally decided to change everything.
She started learning about vegan and raw lifestyles; then she read a book called
Eating without Heating and started experimenting with raw food. With the help of a friend, she began serving five-course, gourmet, raw food dinners once a week, and people really liked them.
Fossum enjoyed serving and preparing the raw dinners so much she took them over completely. Soon thereafter, she put more raw offerings on her menu.
“I have been honing my skills in the kitchen for a little over a year,” she says. Now I am a raw food chef, and I love it.”
Famous FoodiesThe community of healthy and adventuresome eaters are enamored with Magdalena’s. Since adding a strictly vegan venue with delicious, healthy dishes, gourmet raw meals and desserts, organic fair trade coffees and teas, the menu is drawing in customers from Lansing, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Mt. Pleasant and even Chicago.
From committed vegans and raw foodists to newbies and dabblers, the tea house has attracted a following.
“We have a lot of regulars, and they’re all coming in to try the food,” Fossum says. “There just aren’t any places where you can get food like this.”
Raw foodist expert, Danielle Anwar, and her mother, Janice Welsh agree. They have lived in Lansing for 30 years, and are authors of the book,
Raw Health: Pathways to Natural Healing. They also produce and host their own television show,
Eat Fresh Food, which airs every Tuesday at 6 p.m., and has been on for three years.
“There is no other restaurant in town where I will eat,” says Welsh. “Everything Magdalena’s makes is great. It’s all good healthy food.”
Anwar and Welsh started eating raw in 2003 and both saw amazing results in their health. Welsh’s diabetes disappeared and Anwar, who had suffered from lifelong allergies, was suddenly allergy-free—and she lost 93 pounds. The two have been eating raw ever since.
“I eat there at least once a week,” Anwar says. “The energy in the tea house is so great. Fossum has a positive attitude, and she cares about my health. That isn’t happening at any other restaurants.”
From ScratchDave Menzo, a 21-year-old music education student at
Michigan State University (MSU) is one of the tea house’s regular performers, but he’s also a regular diner.
“I love organic and vegan food,” Dave says. “The food at Magdalena’s is just incredible, and they are very accommodating and willing to tailor the meal, so it’s what you want.”
Dave likes it that the tea house makes all the food from scratch—that it’s fresh and not processed in any way. “When I eat at other places, I don’t know where the food really came from. At Magdalena’s, I know that the food is fresh and healthy.”
Dave says he wishes healthy, fresh food were the norm. “Genetically engineered food is really scary,” he says. “I should be able to have more healthy options.”
Having the freshest, healthy ingredients is important to Fossum, too. She does all of her own shopping and buys as much local and organic produce as she can—no genetically modified foods—and everything is pesticide-free.
“We make our own chai and mochas now, and all of our dressings and marinades are made from scratch,” she says.
Fossum suggests people often think a raw diet is limiting, but she wants the opportunity to prove them wrong. “There is so much you can do with raw food,” she says with enthusiasm. “As the farmers markets open up, and more things become available, my menu will reflect that.”
Full CircleFor all the music lovers out there, the tea house’s music scene has not died. While it was a balancing act trying to vamp up her raw menu while keeping tabs on her musical guests, Fossum likes where the restaurant is now. So she’s ready to focus on bringing the music back to where it was.
“I had to focus on the food side of the business for a while,” Fossum says.
Fossum has hired someone to book shows and promote the music and is looking forward to revitalizing that side of the tea house. Magdalena’s continues to host fundraisers and other events, as well as its popular Wednesday open-stage night.
“The tea house started out with the music, and I feel I owe it to myself and the community to keep that going,” Fossum says. “The music is definitely making a comeback.”
“I feel like the kitchen is finally doing what it was meant to do,” she says, laughing. She thinks that some people might have an outdated picture in the minds of what the tea house is, and she wants them to know it has changed.
“We still have all the things that people loved before, but now we can give them even more.”
Dawn Gorman lives in Lansing with her two daughters, and has written for several magazines and newspapers.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Miko Fossum and Magdalen's Tea House
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie