Detroit: Jolly Old Timers & Cafe Sous Terre

It’s week 3 of Black History Month and this week we are featuring 2 of Midtown Detroit’s best kept secrets: Jolly Old Timers and Café Sous Terre. What makes these places cool is that they aren’t big and flashy. Honestly, if you aren’t aware of them, you would walk or drive right by without a giving it a second thought.

We will start with Jolly Old Timers, which we will refer to JOT.

JOT is located at 641 W Forest Avenue, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, in Midtown Detroit. It is a bar located in the basement and they DO serve food. We have known of the JOT for 6 or 7 years now and we love to introduce everyone to it. People often ask us how we found out about JOT. Well that’s a simple one. We received a book, as a gift, which features all the “dive bars” in Detroit. JOT was one of the bars featured so we made sure to check them out. Over the years we have gotten to know the people who run JOT and while they seem like a dive bar, their story goes much deeper.

To start, they are not technically a bar. They are a Social Club that was founded on August 3rd 1958 by 51 men at the Gotham Hotel in Detroit as a means keeping in touch with one another, cementing old friendships and creating new ones. There was a reason for this need, back in the 50’s, since black people were not allowed to just go into any restaurant or bar they wanted. While this seems unconscionable today, sadly it was the way of the world back then. The name JOT came from their motto. J – Justice for All, O – Obedience to God and T – Truth and Loyalty to All Mankind. The JOT continued to meet at the Gotham Hotel until 1968 when they acquired their current location on Forest Ave.

The JOT is no longer a private Social Club for men. Membership in the club became multi-racial and consisted of men and women from all walks of life. Today, 66 years later JOT is still going strong and membership is not required for entry. JOT is a non-profit organization that does a lot of charitable work and is a big part of Dally In The Ally held every fall in their neighborhood.

JOT is only open a few days a week. Mondays, from 6PM to 11PM and Thursdays and Fridays from 6PM to 1AM. While it is open to everyone . . . there is a secret to getting in. When you find 641 W Forest, it looks like any other house on the block except there are big block letters on the front door that say JOT and a neon “open sign” in the window. If the sign in on they are open. All you have to do is ring the doorbell and they will let you in and escort you downstairs. In the past you had to be invited by a member to get in but today everyone is welcome. You will likely meet Judy Daniels, the manager, who goes out of her way to get to know everyone who comes in. She may go as far and introducing you to the rest of the crowd and even get your number o she can text you about upcoming events. Yes we are on that list.

JOT does have a full bar and kitchen but they don’t always offer food. All the staff is volunteer so if they cant get someone to cook, they don’t serve food. But the bar is always open.

Let’s talk about Café Sous Terre. To start, this place is adorable. It is located at 445 W Forest Ave in the basement of a 4617 sq ft 1890’s built multi-family house. The space used to be home to The Detroit Bridal House which moved out in 2020 due to the pandemic. Café Sous Terre is a French-inspired, European style café whose name means “Coffee Underground” in French.

Their location is perfect, being located so close to the Wayne State University Campus. The thought was to create a non-pretentious place for students and local residents to be able to grab a coffee or a glass of wine at an affordable price. They even made sure to include outlets under every seat for remote workers and students during the day.

As a coffee shop, they serve the traditional lattes, espressos, teas and drip coffees sourcing their coffee from the Detroit based Coffeehaus and small bites like quiches and tarts from Birmingham’s The French Lady and Italian specialties form Midtown own Rocco’s Deli.

While they offer everything on the menu all day, they are a coffee house by day at night they shift into more of a “screen free” bar atmosphere serving French wines, cocktails and Mocktails. The General Manager is Joel Jones, who bartended and helped create the coffee menu at Midtowns prestigious Mad Nice. He has created a coffee and cocktail menu that you would not expect to find in the basement of an old house. They have beer starting at $5, wine starting at $9 and 25 craft cocktails ranging from $10-$17, which are affordable prices in today’s craft cocktail world, and coffees and lattes are in the $3-$5 range. The cocktail menu is broken down into Seasonal with drinks like The Snow Maiden and Scotch Coffee. Signature with drinks like The Cardamom Highball an Floral Mojito. And Classic featuring an Espresso Martini, Old Fashioned and The Last Word.

They wanted to have a place where somebody working part-time or going to school can stop in and enjoy a drink or coffee, maybe more than one, and not break their budget.

In the evenings, you may find live jazz or a DJ spinning vinyl records.

It is a great place for a date night or to meet up with friends. Their menu include French specialties like Croque Monsieur and Mushroom Quiche on the savory side and Clafoutis and berry tarts on the sweet side. They also have fresh bagels and varieties of other pastries for $2.50 to $4. We tried the Mushroom Quiche and it was delicious. Light and fluffy with the perfect buttery crust. We were there during the day so we didn’t try a cocktail, only coffee which was delicious. We will definitely be back to try one of their signature cocktails