The longstanding local food nonprofit DC Central Kitchen has been selected to operate the new café at D.C.’s recently reopened central public library.

The new menu will include input from one of D.C.’s leading culinary personalities: Chef José Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup has signed on as the menu and operations consultant. A preliminary menu features mostly standard coffee shop menu items like an egg and cheese bagel, buffalo chicken salad and a gluten free ham and swiss wrap. There are, however, a few more mysterious menu items, including cookie dough (!!!) and something called a “Sweet and Salty Spectacular.”

Occasions Caterers will lead catering services for the library’s other event spaces.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Gallery Place reopened in September after a three-year, $211 million modernization. Though the outside remains the same as ever — an architecturally significant but imposing black cube — the inside boasts new features like a basement dance studio and M.C. Escher-style stairwells.

The library also features two entirely new spaces: The 4,300-square-foot café on the ground floor, and a rooftop garden, which the library’s leadership plans to rent out for events.

The new café, Marianne’s, owes its name to Chef Marianne Ali, the leader of DC Central Kitchen’s lauded culinary job training program who passed away in 2017. More than 1,500 D.C.-area locals who experienced homelessness, incarceration and drug addiction have graduated from the program.

Many of the café’s employees will be part of the job training program, marking what DC Central Kitchen calls one of the first “hospitality sector apprenticeship in the District of Columbia.” A spokesperson for the nonprofit says the library café will create “up to 25 new jobs.”

DC Central Kitchen also runs a similar café-plus-job-training-program at THEARC in Ward 8.

Adding a food and beverage vendor to the central library’s slate of services is part of a concerted effort by library leadership to attract visitors. “Having a café where customers can purchase snacks or beverages gives them more reasons to spend time in their library, which is a crucial part of our goal to make the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library a hub of activity downtown,” Richard Reyes-Gavilan, DC Public Library’s executive director, said in a press release.

The café hasn’t yet released a clear timeline for its opening — due to the pandemic, the public still can’t patronize the café. Because of the pandemic, only certain sections and services at the library are currently operating. Visitors can pick up hold materials, drop off returns, access public computers and videophones for 45-minute sessions, apply for library cards and use the printers.

The library is open Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with an hourlong daily closure at 2:00 p.m. for cleaning.