Serene Bean Bistro - (989) 717-6181

The Serene Bean Bistro is a restaurant for all, offering a full menu of fresh cooked food at what you can pay. It is encouraged that those who can, pay it forward so that in turn we can feed those who can’t afford to pay for their meal.

The Serene Bean Bistro is no profit, community owned and volunteer operated. It is a fun place with a funky vibe serving great coffee, tea, fresh baked goods & food good enough to leave home for. Its mission is not only to cook and serve great tasting fresh made food but also to give back to community in any way it can. It is a donation menu where you donate to help others if you can. The Serene Bean is not a corporation or a 501 C3 but falls under a church umbrella. The Serene Bean does not seek or receive any federal funding or State grants. We give away only what is given to us to give away.

The Serene Bean Bistro opened in August 2011 with one volunteer, $1.00 in the till, a plate of cookies & a couple pots of coffee. Today the Bean is staffed with over 30 volunteers and a full menu. The Bean has been able to bless people in need and charitable organizations with financial help and resources.
Professional chefs and restaurant professionals volunteer their time to work alongside, as well as to teach and train volunteers in how to cook, serve and manage a restaurant.

The Serene Bean showcases local artists work and presents live entertainment. The Serene Bean believes in and operates under a Faith Based way of life, in that one must bless others first before one becomes blessed themselves.

The Serene Bean is closed Sunday and has a Bible Teaching Class for all who care to attend Sunday afternoon at 2 PM.

We look forward to serving you.

History Of The Serene Bean:
It started with a vision, to open up a fun place with a funky vibe serving great coffee, tea, fresh baked goods & food good enough to leave home for where the net profits would be returned to the community to fund charitable causes.

With a prayer and less than a hundred dollars in my pocket I walked into a modern looking office building in the heart of Downtown Owosso. It was an old building that had been remodeled with drop ceilings and small dry walled rooms.

It was blah and cramped but I felt it laid on my heart that this was the building that I was to gut out and turn into The Serene Bean. What I didn’t know at the time was that under all the modern coverings was still the old saloon that occupied the building in the 1800s.

It was only by a God instance that the owner of the building allowed us to move in with no money, no contract and start tearing out work that had only been completed less than ten years prior.
Ah but what we found after we removed 100 years of layers of remodeling was the original brick walls, tin ceilings, gas lighting and chimneys from the original Saloon that occupied the building in the mid 1800s until 1909.

The treasures that we found stacked away in the old dungy partially dirt floored basement is unbelievable. We found wood adjustable shelving along with glass shelves that at one time may have held the bottles of liquor behind the bar in the 1800s. The still working cash register from 1920 was on a shelf next to the banana room built in the basement where bananas were hung to ripen close to a hundred years ago.

We have taken all of this discarded, stacked away or covered over features and have brought them back out to be seen and enjoyed as they once were.
A section of our floor is made up of street brick that were just pulled from the road in front of the building a month ago. A gas leak was fixed under the road directly in front of our building in a spot where the street car once stopped in the early 1900s. We were able to harvest this brick that once was exposed outside and incorporate it in our floor.

All the cabinets, tables, counter tops, trim, wall coverings and fixtures have been up-cycled with some enjoying a third or fourth life.
Our Interior Decorator, Beth Kuiper, has done a phenomenal job putting together for us a practical layout on a $0 budget.

Everything either has been up-cycled from this building or from another project except for the new vinyl laminate floors that we installed to meet today’s health codes.

To create our tables we started with some very nice 1980s Formica covered wood tables. We installed up-cycled, from an old fence, cedar trim around the frame, then covered the top with 15 year old oak veneer. A late 1800s tin ceiling tile was placed on top covered with recycled ¼ inch thick plate glass.

Everything was prayed for that we needed with us not soliciting anything from anyone. We simply prayed for what we needed and it was delivered to us.

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News on the Bean, June 14, 2013.

Thank You Friends With Our Higher Power and your help we together as a team are making a positive impact in our community. We are now serving for free or at a reduced cost over 100 meals a week, plus distributing fresh food for families to cook at home. We now are receiving fresh food to stock the pantry, from some grocery vendors, to give away to those in need. God Is Good. So you know, we are not a 501 C3 corporation. We do not offer tax deductions. We receive no government grants or funding. We pay no accountants, attorneys or staff. Our business model is new testament and was invented and taught by my Guru, Jesus the Christ. It is simple and it works.Take care of what you can with what you have today and trust that God will supply what you need tomorrow. We don't let our left hand know what our right hand is giving away. What good is money sitting in an account when it is needed to take care of peoples needs today. My Guru teaches that you can't give more away than He will supply and that until you give it away He isn't going to give you more. We pray everyday that Our Higher Power will send in believers and humanists alike to supply us with what we need to be able to obey His call of taking care of those in need. As a pastor and with the covering of the church we are legally able to use this business model which is a true separation of church and state. What does this mean.... we are what can be called No profit since our mission is to give it all away! Thank You Again for helping us to help others.

Sincerely,

Tom Manke, Founder / Director / Facilitator

Tags: Restaurant,Nightlife,Mission