Beezy's buzzing with business

By Christine Laughren
Nov. 21, 2008    ·    10:16 p.m.

Someone once told her she was a good cook but a terrible chef. And that’s the way Bee Mayhew, owner of Beezy’s Café, likes it.

“I don’t try to make anything too fancy,” she said preparing tomorrow’s French Toast. “It is what it is, not too fancy, simple and honest.”

Beezy’s opened its doors, at 20 N. Washington St., Nov. 10. While whipping up some eggs, Mayhew said the feedback has been great and she has had a steady stream of customers since she opened.

The café sells everything from coffee and espresso drinks to fresh soup, salads and sandwiches. Mayhew said she learned to cook at a little restaurant in Petoskey called the “Roast and Toast.” After almost a decade at the restaurant, Mayhew headed south and started plans for what would become Beezy’s.

She said she has always liked to experiment with food and use all the scraps, leaving very little to the to the garbage.

“By the end of the night all we have to take out is one garbage bag,” she said pointing to a 32-gallon garbage can.

After years of living on a small budget, Mayhew knows the very definition of “waste not want not.” She says she tries to have as little waste as possible, right down to the soft cloth napkins available with every meal.

Some of the food scraps are given to Growing Hope, an Ypsilanti-based non-profit, other scraps sit in sealed buckets for eventual compost.

Mayhew also said she would like to have a worm compost, solar panels on the back doors an herb garden on top of the walk-in cooler in the back of the café, outside.

She looked in other cities and towns including a space in Milan, but Mayhew said she didn’t find anything that jumped out at her.

“The one in Milan was a really nice space, and we wouldn’t had to do any work to it, but it just felt empty,” she said.

However, as soon as she walked through the doors on Washington Mayhew said she fell in love with the space. Three rooms separate her cafe in the 147-year-old building; the third room is not finished yet but Mayhew has big plans for it.

Walking through a piece of fabric draped over the doorway, Mayhew points to a stack of wood flooring yet to be installed. She said the flooring was from fallen Ash Trees around Washtenaw County.

“In some of these pieces you can see where the Emerald Ash Borer was,” Mayhew said rummaging through the planks.

Pointing to the front of the dusty room Mayhew said she plans to put a soapbox at the front window so she can have “Soapbox Saturdays,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Patrons can get on the soapbox and do some spoken word or discuss the issues of the day.

The room will have outlets along the far wall so people can take advantage of the wireless Internet and Mayhew said the room is scheduled to be finished by the New Year.

Mayhew said she looks forward to the years she will spend at 20 N. Washington St. And her outlook is bright.

“I want to be an old lady - with God knows how many more tattoos and piercings - and see my daughter here with her children, while I’m back making them food,” she said looking out from the kitchen toward the tables.”

But for now, she will continue to make her food, her way and be a great cook. Who cares about the chef part?