A Rose by Any Other Name

Becky Tranchell’s journey to open Rose and Fern Café inside Potter’s Bakery early in 2019 was filled with meandering detours, thorny hurdles and a few lucky breaks.

The exuberant 31-year-old chef cut her teeth at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute at Northwestern Michigan College, then bounced from coast to coast, working insane hours to hone her craft. An ill parent, a gig running a food truck, a stint managing a café during turbulent political times and a fortuitous conversation with a local bakery eventually opened the door to Rose and Fern, her delicious and cozy coffee shop and Middle Eastern-inspired breakfast and lunch venue on Eighth Street in Traverse City.

To understand Tranchell’s ambition, picture her rising before dawn to work an eight-hour shift as the pastry chef at Alice Waters’ Café Fanny in Berkeley, California, taking a half-hour nap, then biking to the BART station and commuting into San Francisco to work another eight hours at her unpaid internship at Greens—an iconic vegetarian restaurant on the waterfront. During her three-month stay in the Bay Area, she got hit by a car and had her bike stolen. But Tranchell says it’s there she learned about the importance of fresh, locally sourced food—the hallmarks of California cooking.

Next came a job working as a personal chef for a filmmaker in New York City. The news that Tranchell’s mother was terminally ill brought her back to her native Owosso, Michigan. She wanted to be close to family, but mid-Michigan had little to offer her culinary ambitions and Tranchell returned to Traverse City. She bounced around town, working as a pastry chef at Stone House Bread, as a cook at Om Café (now closed), as a teacher at Yen Yoga, and she also ran a food truck at The Little Fleet called Friends With Food. But sourcing local, high-quality ingredients, such as cheese from Boss Mouse and bread from Pleasanton, forced her to charge more than $10 for some items. She quickly learned that customers didn’t want to pay that much for grub from a food truck.

She then managed a local coffee shop for two-and-a-half years until the owner fired her for wearing a “Not my Prez” T-shirt to work a couple days after the polarizing 2016 election. Tranchell says she was hurt, both by losing her job and by the political climate enveloping the nation. “That door closed and this one opened,” she reflects.

After a stint as an adjunct teacher at her alma mater, the Great Lakes Culinary Institute, in July 2018 Tranchell and her friend Jeff Brown, owner of Stockist coffee company, approached Mike and Kathy Potter, who own Potter’s Bakery, a Traverse City mainstay that has served donuts and pastries for 90 years. They asked the Potters about opening a café in their more-or-less vacant event space in the back of the bakery. A back-and-forth dialogue followed, and Tranchell came aboard as an employee to build the family’s trust. She made sandwiches and eventually transitioned from serving the Potters’ menu to her own. Within weeks, she says, she built a loyal customer base.

Meanwhile, Tranchell, Brown, family and friends worked nights to remodel the event space. In January 2019, Brown’s Stockist coffee was ready and they opened Rose and Fern in a cozy and inviting environment that, Tranchell says, “feels like you’re in someone’s home.”

Fern wallpaper punctuated with dots of copper lines one wall; murals on the building invite guests through a side door; a pine bench, maple countertops and small tables adorn the eating space; a wall of coffee mugs marks the corner where Brown roasts the beans on-site; occupying the shelves are potted succulents, historic Michigan postcards, classic old cookbooks including one illustrated by Andy Warhol, and an olive oil tin with an aloe plant growing from it. All this, the pastels and the track lighting are antidotes to the industrial, minimalist motif Tranchell sees in many new restaurants. They also help ward off the grey skies that mar Michigan six months of the year.

“I want this place to be a warm, welcoming neighborhood café where people can come and be taken care of and have close relationships with my staff,” says Tranchell, who lives nearby and has long hungered for a cozy coffee shop on this side of town. The name Rose and Fern is a nod to the two parallel streets the café sits between.

“People can come and have conversations or feel like they belong,” she adds, in a nod to the political upheaval that, in part, prompted her to leave the coffee shop and approach the Potters. “I have a transgender cook in the kitchen who says it’s nice to have a space where she feels comfortable and feels safe.”

She jokes that Rose and Fern is also versatile enough to please both a mid- Michigan meat-and-cheese guy like her dad and her vegetarian brother from New York City.

Tranchell was a vegan when she started at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute, but one of her teachers encouraged her to expand her palate. “If you want a full education you’ve gotta taste this stuff,” she was told. “I don’t care if you spit it out.”

Rose and Fern’s menu boasts hearty Midwestern staples such as the All American Breakfast (maple sausage, egg and sharp cheddar on an English muffin); the Morning Missile (a tortilla filled with sausage, eggs, black beans, potato sticks, feta and pickled red onion); and the Pork & Pickle (ham, salami, dill pickle and mustard on a baguette). But take a closer look and you’ll see a distinct and delicious Middle Eastern inspiration. Hummus, pita bread, beets, yogurt, tahini and toum dance across your taste buds and dare you to spin your mental globe. The aforementioned Morning Missile packs toum—a creamy Lebanese garlic sauce; the Pork & Pickle includes banana peppers. My own favorite (non-meat) items at Rose and Fern are the Yemen Beet (yogurt, green sauce, pickled red onion, feta and radish on pita) and the Berbere Carrot (tahini, toum, green sauce and cilantro on pita).

“I don’t know why, I’m just pulled to Middle Eastern flavors,” says Tranchell, who years ago picked up a cookbook called Jerusalem that spoke to her. “They’re colorful and rich. The spices are warm and comforting.”

Since local ingredients are paramount, Tranchell sources her produce from Lakeview Hill Farm and supplements that from Second Spring Farm. Both farms are certified organic and just outside of Traverse City in Leelanau County.

“People like the vibe,” Tranchell says. “It seems like as soon as people come in, they become regulars. I’m still having a hard time believing it, but hearing people say ‘This is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten’” ... her voice trails into a joyous laugh.

IF YOU GO:
910 E. Eighth St., Traverse City
6 AM–3 PM Monday–Friday
8 AM–2 PM Saturday

Monthly dinners with ethnic focus, tickets available at café