Vegetarian café takes root in Delta Township

Delta Township’s newest café is a lot of things: a health-conscious coffee joint, a vegetarian date spot, a from-scratch bakery and a retailer of the homemade products owner Nancy Hansen already sells locally.

But more than that, it’s a relaxed gathering place for families and friends, with a game basket for kids and an invitation to take a while.

“When you go out to eat and you’re finished eating, you feel like you’ve got to go because you don’t want to hold up a table,” Hansen said. “We wanted a place where people can come and just hang out.”

The Willow Where Our Roots Began opened its doors July 2, selling vegetarian and health-conscious food, coffee and baked goods to the Delta Township community. The storefront was the latest step for Hansen, who began selling spices and hummus at Horrocks last year. She has sold Khillah Magic, an all-purpose Mediterranean spice blend invented by her grandmother and named after her maiden name, for 13 years.

The transition from home kitchen side hustle to commercial family business began last year, when Freshies Bakery opened in DeWitt. Freshies’ owners, who are friends of Hansen, wanted to use Khillah Magic. But Hansen had been making her eponymous blend under Michigan’s Cottage Food Law, which allows goods to be made and sold from an uninspected kitchen under certain circumstances — not including use in a commercial kitchen.

So, Hansen started making the blend in the Freshies kitchen, alongside hummus and other products. She sold her creations at farmers markets last year and, eventually, Horrocks.

But it wasn’t long until Hansen began eyeing her commercial kitchen. After her husband, Clinton, became involved with the business last fall, they decided to move.

“Our friends were very kind to let us use their commercial kitchen, but it’s in DeWitt, and we live in Delta Township,” she said. “That became a little cumbersome, so we had the desire to have our own.

“And we figured that if we were going to be paying rent for our own commercial kitchen anyway, why wouldn’t we also open up a retail space?” she continued. “It just made logical sense.”

It wasn’t hard to decide what to do with that retail space because Hansen has “always” loved hosting people for meals.

“We would always invite friends from church and stuff for meals, and I love hosting,” she said. “So, it felt natural to feed people.”

The resulting café bears the name of Hansen’s spice brand, a reference to Willow Highway, where the family lives. Just about everything inside is homemade, including the syrups for espresso and matcha lattes, the bread and scones, the sandwiches and even the dairy-free cashew milk. Hansen uses organic ingredients whenever possible, including flour and sugar.

“Even if you’re not into the health-conscious movement, it’s still really good,” she said.

But the most important part of the shop is the environment, Hansen said. Two recent customer experiences epitomize her vision for the shop: a mother who came in and spent hours playing games from the game basket on the floor with her four children, and a couple who came in to try the vegetarian charcuterie boards, then spent hours just hanging out.

“It felt like a culmination,” she said. “It was exactly what I wanted.”