Lansing — Students and professionals moved steadily past a black and white dog clock, its tail ticking down the remainder of their lunch hours on Tuesday.
Customers chose from a vast amount of salad and sandwich choices at the Spotted Dog Cafe, 221 S. Washington Square.
Located in the bustling business district a block away from the state Capitol, the cafe specializes in a variety of sandwiches, soups and especially salads — made fresh every day. This month there are 24 salad choices, either on the permanent menu or being featured as specials.
Dog portraits hang on the cafe's brick walls, and a Dalmatian mobile swings over the salad line where employees prepare orders fresh. A half-neglected cappuccino machine is layered with photos of customers' and employees' dogs. But the customers seemed to be more interested in the food than specialty coffee.
"A lot of people don't realize we have smoothies, coffee and cappuccino," said Sarah Confer, 20, a Spotted Dog employee.
Confer has worked at the cafe for two years and said customers not only return for the salads, sandwiches and chili, but also for the service.
"People have said they come back because we're so nice to them," she said.
Among the June specials are Congo cinnamon chicken, passion pear salad and broccoli cherry pasta. One of the most popular permanent items is the everyday chicken salad, which combines chicken, dried Michigan cherries, celery and mayonnaise.
Customers can create sampler plates, which are combinations of two or three different salads. They can also purchase a petite combo — two items, such as half a sandwich, small salad or side of fruit.
Cooley Law School employees Chrissy Jenkins, 27, and Susan Oliver, 44, said they come to Spotted Dog about once a month for the salad combinations and healthy choices.
Jenkins said the Asian coleslaw is one her favorite items at the cafe.
"It's low carb, it's healthy, and I love the artichokes they put in it," she said.
There are some specials from past months that were too popular to discontinue, such as October's sunset salad, which is a mix of baby spinach, dried mango, pineapple, cashews, mandarin oranges and mozzarella cheese.
Cafe co-owners Cher Kiesel and Carol Edmunds created the cafe 10 years ago. It was originally located inside the Young Women's Christian Association of Lansing with the name Townsend Cappuccino Company. The cafe was the first coffee house in downtown Lansing, Kiesel said.
After the association closed two years later, the business moved to Washington Square and the owners changed the name to Spotted Dog Cafe, she said.
"We wanted something people would remember, and we love dogs," Kiesel said. "This is a fast place to get food you can't get anywhere else."
Kiesel said 95 percent of customers arrive on foot from jobs at the Capitol or Cooley Law School.
"We didn't want to just buy things and thaw them," Kiesel said. "We wanted to be more creative with it."
Many of the salad ideas Kiesel and Edmunds took from recipes in magazines, including one of their most popular items, the Asian coleslaw. Kiesel said people frequently ask for the recipe.
"I say 'We can't tell you what it is, but it appears in some magazine or another every summer,'" she said.
