Local Eats: Food Dance in Kalamazoo adjusts to coronavirus restrictions with outdoor seating, to-go cocktails

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Food Dance, the farm-to-table staple that has been serving downtown Kalamazoo for 25 years, is back open for dine-in service and will soon offer outdoor seating.

With the restaurant’s 11,000 square feet of space, founder and executive chef Julie Stanley said she felt comfortable welcoming the community back in.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer banned dine-in service at bars and restaurants in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The order was lifted June 8 with restrictions, including a requirement the businesses reopen at 50% capacity and maintain social distancing with at least 6 feet of separation between people.

Even with the 50% capacity limit, Food Dance can still serve 110 customers, Stanley said.

“The joy of seeing our guests is amazing,” she said. “It’s hard with masks, but it’s still really great.”

The restaurant, located at 401 E Michigan Ave., has joined the more than 300 bar and restaurant owners in signing the “MI Restaurant Promise,” an agreement between restaurants and customers pledging to keep each other safe while dining.

Food Dance will soon offer outdoor dining to make customers feel more comfortable. Stanley said they sold off a piece of equipment to purchase a tent so that outdoor dining could be set up in the parking lot.

There will be three parking spots designated for those ordering carry-out from the restaurant.

Food Dance continues to work to serve their customers in the safest way possible, the owner said.

Now that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has allowed to-go cocktails, the restaurant is packaging its signature mimosas and Bloody Marys for brunch lovers to enjoy in the comfort of their own home.

The to-go cocktail kits and new vegan menu items are a bright spot in what has been a hard adjustment period for the business, Stanley said.

It is apparent that diners are still nervous about resuming their usual lunch meetings and date nights, Stanley said. Compared to this time last year, she said, the restaurant is pulling in about 40% of its usual sales.

Food Dance’s farm-to-table style puts it at the center of a local business ecosystem, so when the restaurant takes a hit so do the farms that supply it, Stanley said.

“That’s why it’s so important for people support local restaurants,” she said. “[It’s not] just about the money staying local and you’re supporting the people that live in this town, but it’s a bigger community than that with all the farms and suppliers and purveyors, all the different people that we work with.”

The restaurant is still buying all of its eggs and chickens from Carlson Farms in Lawton. The silver lining in buying smaller quantities is that owners can now buy beef from the farm as well, which Stanley describes as “healthy and happy meat.”

The key, farm-fresh philosophy won’t change, as its the backbone for Food Dance’s success. The menu will still rotate with what is in season, Stanley said. Vegan and vegetarian options are also expanding.

“People always said, ‘Why did you decide to do a farm-to-table restaurant?’ I said, ‘I didn’t, I just, that’s how I eat,‘” Stanley said. “I was always buying from farms and I would want to know where my food came from, and was always looking for the cleanest option.”

The process behind serving such fresh products can be cumbersome, she said. For example, the bread and pastries are all made from scratch so time needs to be built in for the two-day process of letting the yeast rise slowly.

Some of her staff have been with the restaurant for a decade. Stanley said returning to work with only 30 of the usual 75 staff members was difficult. Sustaining that has been even harder.

At the beginning of the pandemic, she said, customers were generously tipping above 20%, but that has tapered off.

“Most of the restaurant industry is based on gratuity, so to not have that in the volume that they’re used to, or that that provides them with a living wage, is really hard,” Stanley said.

She said wages for both the front and the back of the restaurant were increased in response to the pandemic.

Servers now earn double their previous base wage. Additionally, almost $5,000 was raised through a GoFundMe as a relief fund for the staff when the restaurant closed in March.

Stanley described the restaurant reopening as a machine restarting. As the business celebrates its 25th anniversary, she said its exciting to see the wheels still turning despite all of the uncertainty.

“It’s like a big machine, so to see it kind of come back up it is very fun and exciting,” she said. “We just would like more people here.”

Carry-out orders can be placed online or by calling 269-743-2261. Restaurant hours have changed to 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A breakfast only menu is offered 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

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