INTRODUCING - BUILDING MORE SEATS AT THE TABLE

As we celebrate one year as Shepherds Table, I’ve been reflecting on the first twelve

months in Longfellow. I’m incredibly grateful for the community we are surrounded by

and the opportunity to feed so many of our neighbors and friends. After a year, and with

the launch of Building Another Seat at The Table, I want to talk about the origins of

Shepherds Table and my background.

I was incredibly lucky to be raised on a farm in Southern Minnesota with my three

brothers. Right outside of the Big Woods State Park, we roamed the pastures, herded

the sheep, and watched my mom become one of the best cheesemakers in the country.

We watched as she and my papa became involved in the early ‘Slow Food’ movement,

building a farm committed to their community, ethical farming practices, and remaining

stewards of the land.

My summers were filled with milking, watching yearling sheep jump higher than I

thought possible, and sneaking into the far reaches of the pasture for a forgotten wild

plum grove to pretend I was in the Redwall books. My winters, full of bottle babies and

keeping our flock alive in the frigid temps.

When you’re a kid, these things are special, but the power of it never hit me until I was

in my 20s. Right out of high school, I paused in college for a handshake before throwing

myself into a career in insurance and finance that would consume most of the next

twelve years.

Looking back, I’m not positive what I was looking for, but it was in some part the wealth

that most farmers are not going to attain. I wanted the cabin on the lake, the trips to

Florida (ah, youth), and an easier way of life. It was a good career and I met wonderful

people, but I never quite settled.

My dad would call and we’d get caught in talk of the farm. Lambs coming in the spring,

hay prices, a new idea for North African styled lamb sausage. I always left these calls

with a wistfulness I was quick to dismiss.

When I met my wife, Cedar, my world changed. I’d always toyed with the idea of moving

back down to the farm, the Sogn Valley would call to me. My wife, named after the

avenue and a love of Minneapolis, quickly made me a South Minneapolis guy.

Living in Longfellow, off 40 th Street, I felt like I was living in my own small town of sorts. I

became a regular at places, got to know my neighbors. And when George Floyd was

murdered, I watched my community link arms together in the hardest times and I knew

this was home.

We were lucky enough to purchase a home in the neighborhood, with a beautiful maple

tree and the sort of tiny kitchen only we could love. With a new home, Daisy the

Chihuahua and I had an entirely new world to explore. We found ourselves walking past

the same building on the corner of 34 th and 37 th ave repeatedly, and I kept pausing to

look at the building thinking “I wonder what this used to be.”

With a bit of research, I discovered this building once housed a grocery, a butcher, and

a barbershop. I couldn’t stop thinking about the past life of this building, all of the

neighbors flowing into a business owned by someone in the neighborhood. A one-stop-

shop of yesteryear.

This was during 2021, when we were still self-isolating and I wasn’t able to stop down to

the farm to get my cheese fix. I stopped into a local chain to buy some of my mom’s

cheese, chuckling to myself about padding the stats, to discover they no longer carried

my mom’s cheese. In fact, they had cut back every individually-owned cheesemaker

from Minnesota. Most of those cheesemakers, including us, had been selling at that

store for decades.

I went to another store, then another. I started noticing the vegetables, the cereal, the

bakery – they were all less and less local at stores that espoused involvement in their

community. The reasons for these changes could fill another entire volume, many

understandable and justifiable on a spread sheet. But still.

It made me mad.

I’m a nerd, so I started researching to see if there was anything I could do. After a few

weeks of Cedar patiently listening to me grousing, I simply said, “if no one will do it, I

will.”

Years earlier, I’d fallen in love with bodegas and little cheese shops in New York, and

worked at Surdyks Cheese Shop when I returned. I dreamed of doing something similar,

but set it aside as a retirement dream.

Suddenly, it all came together. First really fast, then really slow. I tracked down the

owner of the building, Lori, who was wonderful and dreamed of a building that fostered

and invested in the community as a hub. I asked her to tell me if space opened up.

When it did I pounced.

Gathering my whole family into the dream, we began the trek to make Shepherds Table

a reality. Over the course of two years, I chiseled bit-by-bit at the renovation until one

year ago… we were ready to open. And, open we did! It’s been a wild ride of

sandwiches, triumphs, mistakes, and community. By far the greatest benefit to my life

has been the new friends I’ve met, seeing community bubble and brew in the shop and

gather on the front sidewalk.

But, this was never the finished plan.

I’ll often quip to kids who come to the shop that I’ll “be there for the next 30 years!”

I mean it! I love my neighborhood and want nothing more than to grow and thrive with

the friends and neighbors I’ve made here so far.

That’s where the bigger vision for the shop comes in!

BUILDING ANOTHER SEAT AT THE TABLE

When we opened, we committed to supporting local farmers and smaller producers as

much as possible. We focused on three things initially: a sandwich shop with good

coffee and pastries, a great little cheese shop, and a smattering of groceries that I love,

including inexpensive staples like milk and eggs sourced locally.

Many of the things you find at the Table are foods we love. That’s where the name

Shepherds Table comes from: My family and I are shepherds -- the Table is a reflection

of our table. In the first year, and over many to come, it’s becoming a reflection of our

shared table.

Now it’s time to talk about Building More Seats at The Table.

If you’ve been in our tiny shop, you’ll notice there is no indoor seating currently. To add

seating, we need a bathroom, and a lot more space. Earlier this year, we had the

opportunity to expand into the space next door that was once the butcher shop and a

bakery.

Once open, the additional space has the potential to provide a massive step forward in

our vision for community-building, local food, and comradery as we approach winter.

With seating and some shared tables, the conversations and daily meetings that have

become commonplace at the shop will have space. The Table will be a place to sip your

coffee, meet your neighbors, and eat your sandwich.

The new space next door will also be reservable after hours on days we’re open

(Wednesday-Sunday), without an additional cost. There will a menu of services/goods if

folks want food or beverages plus a donation option, be a donation option, but the

intention is to provide community space. Have a knitting club but meeting with 10 folks

in someone’s house isn’t pragmatic? You’ve found your spot. Your Union is negotiating

and needs somewhere to meet? Your neighborhood believes in your ability to organize.

When this building was built, over 100 years ago, it served its community broadly as a

grocery, bakery, and butcher. Our little shop sits in the former barbershop. As we

expand next door (into the bakery), there is a tremendous amount of work that needs to

be done for the space to be ready for food, community, and merriment.

The owner of the building has been kind enough to tackle the first difficult bar to clear by

putting in an accessible bathroom. The process has been long but that step is nearly

finished.

Next comes the rest of the buildout! Electrical work, painting, sanding, light fixtures,

more coolers, tables, shelving and more. To help spur this step on, we’re inviting you to

join with us as we Build Another Seat at the Table – we’re launching a sandwich CSA

(limited availability), artist-created Table buttons, Tshirts, cheese tasting classes, special

events and more!

We see this new space becoming a fixture in our community, for many years to come.

Not just as a place to buy things, but as a place for us to continue to knit the fibers of

our community tighter together. That’s the main reason I’m coming to the community

with these asks, and for support: the Table is no longer just a reflection of my table, it is

our table. Now we just need to build more seats!

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