It’s the same old same old at the SAME Café, and that’s a good thing.
Located inside the Toledo Lucas County Main Library, 325 North Michigan St., this neighborhood lunch spot has no set menu with no set prices.
As a donation-based nonprofit, SAME Café, meaning “So All May Eat,” provides the community with just that: healthy food access for everyone, and has been doing so for nearly one year.
SAME Café was created first in Denver, Colo., in 2006, but as of Nov. 4, 2022, its second location opened right here in Toledo.
“It’s almost like we’re 1-year-old and 17-years-old at the same time,” Rori Quinonez, executive director of SAME Café, said. “We saw the need for this concept in Toledo; we needed not only a source for healthy food, but for the community to be able to come together and share a table.”
When it comes to ordering a meal, Ms. Quinonez said 65 percent of guests contribute a monetary donation of any amount ($16 is the suggested donation), 30 percent donate their time by volunteering at the cafe, and 5 percent donate produce.
“We want to be as accessible as possible,” Ms. Quinonez continued. “Everyone gets the same portions no matter if they donate 50 cents or $50.”
Over the course of its year of operation, Ms. Quinonez said the cafe has served more than 16,000 meals.
The menu at the cafe rotates daily, according to the ingredients on-hand, said Courtney Schmidtke, SAME Café chef, but sticks to creating menus around the same three items: soup, salad, and pizza.
The versatility of ingredients has allowed Ms. Schmidtke to “experiment and play around with flavors,” she said. “It’s just really good food.”
“I come from a fine dining background, and I get a lot of my ideas from that,” she added. “That’s where my culinary skills were honed. Gus from Mancy’s helped me a lot; I wouldn’t be here without him.”
Adapting to the influx of produce during the summer and early fall months has been a learning curve, Ms. Quinonez said.
“It’s almost like a Chopped style of cooking, considering you don’t always know what produce we’ll have on hand,” she said. “We’re continuing to understand and get more in tune with farms and gardens.”
Donations come from all over, Ms. Quinonez added.
“We have regular food donations from the 577 Foundation, Toledo GROWs, Bittersweet Farms, and more,” she noted. “A lot of individuals also donate; we have a librarian that donates herbs and eggs to us.”
When it comes to hospitality, that’s the cafe’s bread and butter.
It’s more common than not to become a regular at SAME Café, said Heather Fricke, a guest of the eatery.
“I started coming June 30th and have been here every day since,” she said. “I sat at the community table and said ‘My name is Heather, you don’t know me yet, but I live here now’.”
Ms. Fricke has made a routine of coming to the restaurant to eat lunch, then volunteering her time, she said, and she often finds that she doesn’t want to leave after volunteering is over.
“I was really struggling with the sense of purpose, but I found that being in this environment and community has helped me realize that my purpose is just people,” she said.
A second guest of the restaurant, Damon Brandy, agreed with that sentiment.
Mr. Brandy said he didn’t just find the cafe, but the cafe found him in a way.
“I came to Toledo homeless, and I came upon SAME Café by chance," he continued. “I found a home within [the restaurant], I started contributing my time, and practically get lost in the kitchen every time I volunteer. I don’t feel like I have to [volunteer]; I want to .”
The ever-changing cafe menu excites the guests, said Ms. Fricke, because you can’t get tired of it — you’ll almost never get the same thing twice.
As the first year anniversary approaches, SAME Café has a lot to be grateful for, Ms. Quinonez said.
“Sixty percent of our guests come every day,” she shared. “It’s been really nice to see the goodness of Toledo all in one place and get to know our guests on a first-name basis.”
In the future Ms. Quinonez hopes to start doing quarterly chef takeovers, where the cafe will invite local chefs to take a stab at the menu. Smaller sit-down dinners are also in the works.
“A change of pace in the menu” is being considered as well, she said. With a build-your-own bowl style of service being an option.
Ms. Quinonez emphasized that SAME Café is meant for everyone — it’s right there in the name.
“The library is a magical space,” she said. “It’s a wonderful hub for people to come together and naturally connect with each other, we are so much more alike than we are different.”
SAME Café is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. To learn more about its story, visit samecafetoledo.org.
The featured recipes this week are inspired by three previous soup, salad, and pizza choices from the restaurant. With these recipes, you can bring the ambiance of the SAME Café to your own home.
The first dish is a classic French onion soup, with a rich broth, deeply caramelized onions, and toasted bread and sharp cheese on top.
The salad combines beet and sweet potato on a bed of greens, tossed with a maple vinaigrette. The array of flavors in this dish speaks for itself — with tender sweet potato, peppery arugula, and the earthy taste of the beet, you’re practically eating a garden.
The final meal is a spin on eggplant parmesan, but in pizza form. A homemade crust, with dollops of tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, slices of Roma tomato, and sprinkles of parmesan on top.
Enjoying these meals can easily be done in the comfort of your home, but it can be just as satisfying when you can break bread alongside your community, and that’s exactly what SAME Café is here for.
Recipes:
French Onion Soup
A classic soup with a rich broth, deeply caramelized onions, and toasted bread and gooey cheese on top.
½ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sliced onions
5 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
4 slices French bread
4 slices provolone cheese
2 slices Swiss cheese, diced
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Melt butter with olive oil in an 8-quart stock pot over medium heat. Add onions to butter and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
Add beef broth, sherry, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Let simmer for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven's broiler.
Ladle soup into oven-safe serving bowls and place one slice of bread on top of each (bread may be broken into pieces if you prefer). Layer each slice of bread with a slice of provolone, ½ slice diced Swiss and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese.
Place bowls on a cookie sheet and broil in the preheated oven until cheese bubbles and browns slightly, 2 to 3 minutes.
Serve hot and enjoy!
Source: Inspired by chef Courtney Schmidtke and Lori Levin
Beet and Sweet Potato Salad with Maple Vinaigrette
The salad combines beet and sweet potato on a bed of greens, tossed with a maple brown sugar vinaigrette. The array of flavors in this dish speak for itself — with tender sweet potato, peppery arugula, and the earthy taste of the beet, you’re practically eating a garden.
Ingredients:
Salad:
1 sweet potato, diced
2-3 beets, diced
2 cups of arugula
1 oz. feta cheese or goat cheese
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
Dressing:
½ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Dice sweet potatoes and beets and place on a lined baking sheet and toss with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until tender.
While the vegetables are roasting, make the dressing: combine balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon, and brown sugar and place in a wide-mouth mason jar. Using an immersion blender, blend the base of the dressing until smooth and combined, then add olive oil and blend for a second time. You can also shake the dressing together if you don’t have a blender.
To a bowl, add the arugula and add cooked beets and sweet potato. Toss with the dressing, add the pumpkin seeds and crumbled cheese.
Serve immediately. The salad can also be served at room temperature or refrigerated.
Source: Inspired by chef Courtney Schmidtke, adapted by Maddie Coppel
Eggplant Parmesan Pizza
Think eggplant parmesan, but in pizza form. A homemade crust, with dollops of tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, slices of roma tomato, and sprinkles of parmesan on top.
Ingredients:
1 small eggplant
½ cup grated parmesan (use any extra to top finished pizza)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup pizza sauce
2 cups whole milk mozzarella, shredded
1 Roma tomato, thinly sliced
Pizza crust (recipe to follow)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Remove the ends of the eggplant, then cut into ⅛ inch slices. You'll want about 8-10 slices. Place the eggplant in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle a thin layer of grated Parmigiano cheese evenly over the top, season with salt and pepper. Bake until the eggplant has wilted slightly and the parmesan is very lightly browned, about 10-15 minutes.
Assemble your pizza. (Dough recipe to follow). The crust I prepared is for a sheet pan pizza, so you’ll want the dough to fit a half-sheet tray.
Scoop your pizza sauce onto the center of the pizza dough. Spread the sauce to the edges of the dough, leaving a bit around the edges for a crust. Sprinkle on about 2/3 of the mozzarella, then top with the tomatoes and eggplant evenly distributed. Finish with the rest of the mozzarella and a sprinkle of any leftover parmesan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Serve immediately.
Source: Inspired by Paige Rhodes and chef Courtney Schmidtke, adapted by Maddie Coppel
Sheet Pan Pizza Crust:
Ingredients:
500 g bread flour
390 g room temperature water
10 g kosher salt
3 g instant yeast
Olive oil for greasing
Softened butter for greasing
Instructions:
The day before you want to make the pizza: prepare the dough. In a large bowl, mix bread flour, water, salt, and yeast together until fully combined. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Uncover and fold the dough by pulling up each side of the dough and folding them into the center.
Cover and let rest another 30 minutes. Repeat the folding process from step 2.
Drizzle the top of the dough with a bit of olive oil and cover with plastic wrap. Transfer to the fridge to rest overnight.
The next day, when you are ready to bake: preheat the oven and a pizza stone (if you have it) to 500 degrees.
Grease a half sheet pan very well with butter and oil all over. Place dough on the tray and press/stretch dough out as far as you can. It won’t fit the entire sheet tray at this point. Oil the top and place a sheet of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Let dough rest 30-45 minutes at room temperature.
Source: Hailee Catalano
First Published October 21, 2023, 11:30 a.m.
