ST. PAUL - At Golden Thyme Café, the music playing in the background is almost always jazz.
The drinks on the menu are named after famous musicians like Billie Holiday.
Everyday, the entree selection changes.
But you'll get more than meal and a cup of a coffee.
When Mycheal Wright and his wife Stephanie opened the café in 2000 they didn't know they would stir up something more than meals.
In fact, some told Mycheal Wright he wouldn't be in business long.
"They laughed. Little high school kids just laughed," he recalls standing behind the counter near the main entrance. "They said, 'Ahh, it will be closed in three months. I just internalized it."
That was 17 years ago. Mychael Wright said he loves doing what people says he can't accomplish.
Golden Thyme, located at the corner of Selby Ave. and Milton, has become a place where public officials meet with their constituents. It's a place where members of the community organize and create plans for future developments. And for others, it's a place linked to Rondo.
Rondo, once the beating heart of the African-American community in St. Paul, was obliterated in the late 1950s by the construction of I-94.
About 600 homes and 300 businesses were leveled for the freeway.
Some business that rebuilt didn't survive. Golden Thyme was never part of Old Rondo Avenue but its legacy lives.
"Golden Thyme is a place to slow the pace and reminisce with a friend or two," Mycheal Wright said.