Pop-up restaurant to sling health-conscious food at Old Town Marquee

Worn down by greasy food? Did your favorite brunch spot let you down last week with some soggy French toast? If you’re craving something new, a unique dining opportunity is coming to the Old Town Marquee this weekend. Abundance Café, an occasional pop-up restaurant started by Erin Meadows, is returning for its third round of dishing out health-conscious, homemade food over a single weekend.

“Abundance Café is a healthy, made-from-scratch type of restaurant. I focus on healthier options made with whole foods,” head chef and owner Erin Meadows, 45, said. “It’s to help to meet that niche of special dietary needs. There’s a lot of people that are gluten-free or vegan, but there’s not a lot of places for them to get delicious food to eat.”

Just because Abundance Café is a pop-up doesn’t mean the format is any different than a standard café-style restaurant. You place your order, sit down and wait to be served. Meadows prepares the food beforehand at Morton’s Fine Catering, where she works, and brings it to the Old Town Marquee’s warming kitchen.

Ingredients used by Meadows are as local as possible. Chickens and eggs are supplied by Circle F Ranch in Fowler. Fruits and veggies are normally supplied by farmers markets, but the winter has Meadows hitting up the local options at Meijer and Horrocks.

“Horrocks has a lot of local products and they help support the local farmers. That’s part of my thing too, helping support the local economy,” Meadows said. “When we get food from local farmers, we’re also ensuring that people get the freshest food possible.”

She hasn’t finalized the menu for this weekend, but a few dishes are a surefire lock: chicken salad croissants, apple basil chicken salad, quinoa and black bean salad, mango ginger salad and gourmet hardboiled eggs. Meadows will also be preparing soup, which she has sold for a few years at the Meridian and DeWitt farmers markets. Adding to the pop-up’s cozy atmosphere will be live music, massage therapy and tarot card reading.

Meadows wants to eventually open a proper brick-and-mortar version of Abundance Café that would serve breakfast and lunch. She also has ambitions for the permanent location to double as a yoga studio. Her current timeline to get it all done is by the end of 2020.

“One of the most important things to me, is to let people know that I want them to be healthier and feel great. That’s part of my passion, this isn’t just a moneymaking deal for me; I want to help people feel better,” Meadows said.

Abundance Café Pop-Up Lunch

Saturday, Jan. 25, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 26, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Old Town Marquee

319 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Lansing

(517) 853-5880, oldtownmarquee.com