One Year In: Golden Thyme Celebrates a New Chapter as a Cultural Anchor in Rondo
MSR editor Jasmine McBride reports on Golden Thyme Restaurant and Bar's one-year anniversary celebration under Rondo Community Land Trust leadership, where generations of Rondo residents gathered on Selby Avenue to mark the milestone, honor the restaurant's legacy and look ahead to a new season of programming and a small business incubator along the corridor.
On a sunny afternoon along Selby Avenue, the smell of wings and po’ boys drifted through Golden Thyme Restaurant and Bar as neighbors, founders, and community members filled the space to mark a milestone: one year since the beloved Rondo gathering place reopened under new leadership.
The celebration on May 7 drew generations of Rondo residents together for food, music, and reflection. A reunion in the truest sense, said Heather Raibon, who helped shape the restaurant’s menu and atmosphere during its reopening.
“It is truly like a family reunion every time you come in here,” Raibon said. “Somebody from someone knows somebody, and tables just continue… ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were going to be here.’ It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, because it’s like being part of their families too.”
Golden Thyme, which operated for decades as Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe under founders Mychael and Stephanie Wright, was taken over in 2024 by Rondo Community Land Trust, a three-decade institution in the neighborhood. The transition came when the Wrights were ready to retire and approached the Land Trust about preserving their legacy.
“We asked them to give us a chance,” said Mikeya Griffin, president and CEO of Rondo Community Land Trust. “They weren’t just going to let their legacy go to anybody. So just being able to say, ‘please trust us, and thank you for trusting us with some of the visions and things that you wanted to see happen.’”
For Griffin, who grew up in Rondo, the stewardship is deeply personal. She described the original Golden Thyme as a place she visited for coffee but later understood as something far more significant. A space where community decisions were made, relationships were built, and people felt at home.
“I get so emotional around this, because I’m also a Rondo baby,” Griffin said. “They didn’t know they [referring to Mychael, Stephanie, and other Rondo elders] were my mentors. All the hard work and legacy over the past 38 years… Golden Thyme is more than a restaurant. It’s been a cultural anchor, a gathering place, and a source of pride along Selby Avenue.”
Stephanie Wright, who attended Saturday’s celebration alongside her husband, said she is proud of what Golden Thyme has become.
“I love what they did and how they’re keeping it going,” Stephanie Wright said. “It’s still in the neighborhood, and it’s still surviving.”
She said the original vision was simple: a place where the community could slow down and feel at home. “We needed a place to slow the pace and bring back our community and have everybody come in and feel like they’re at home,” she said. “It brought the community back together, and it opened Selby back up.”
Mychael Wright reflected on what he and his wife built, and what they handed off.
“The wife and I created a vehicle with Golden Thyme Coffee and Cafe, but the community drives,” he said. “What they’ve done to transform it into this restaurant bar is quite superb. I’m happy for them, and it’s good for our community.”
He described the original Golden Thyme as a place where people could be fully themselves: loud, joyful, and unguarded. “We like to laugh loud. We like to joke loud. Golden Thyme allowed our community to do that,” he said. He added that meetings held at the cafe quietly shaped the neighborhood. “People said they got more done here than in our office, and it’s all hinged on bettering Rondo, bettering our people, bettering our kids.”
That sense of purpose extends to the bar staff. Todd, a bartender who grew up in Duluth and has worked at Golden Thyme since the reopening, said the job has changed how he thinks about going to work.
“My whole life, I’ve never had a job where I can wake up and say I get to go to work today and feel good about it,” he said. “I would work here for free. It’s the people, the owners, the community, the camaraderie… the family that we have.”
Rondo’s history looms large over the celebration. The neighborhood, once a thriving hub of Black life in St. Paul, was bisected by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s, displacing hundreds of families and businesses. Griffin said the work of Rondo Community Land Trust, and places like Golden Thyme, is part of an ongoing effort to restore what was lost.
“It’s bringing back that sense that Black people are here, that they’ve been here, and we’re not going anywhere,” Griffin said. “I grew up in the embrace and the love of not just my family, but my community. And we’ve lost a little bit of that. We’re trying to bring it back.”
The anniversary also marked the launch of a new season of programming at Golden Thyme, including monthly R&B nights, Sunday suppers, game nights, and open mic nights. Rondo CLT also announced that Golden Thyme Cafe, a separate location down the block, will anchor a new small business incubator along the Selby corridor.
Proceeds from a featured event cocktail, the Rondo 93, will support Rondo CLT’s efforts to expand housing opportunities and move families off its waitlist and into stable homes.
“Golden Thyme reflects the heart of Rondo CLT’s commercial work,” Griffin said. “To preserve culturally significant spaces, support local businesses, and ensure community assets remain rooted in the neighborhood for generations to come. We’re excited about what’s next.”
For more information, visit www.goldenthymeco.com/ for the restaurant, and www.rondoclt.org/ for the Land Trust.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.