Meet the Deli Detail: Asha Smith, Front of House Manager
We’re introducing you to our passionate team of experts. Today’s featured Deli crew member is Front of House Manager, Asha Smith!
Meet Asha
Asha is a Michigander, growing up in Inkster in the Metro Detroit area, but they’ve been all over! They are the youngest of two, and their older brother is a musician. Their parents were both food lovers, their father a chef with his own catering company that he ran for years, and their mother a home baker. Asha lived in Plymouth for several years and has worked there as well, along with Detroit and Dearborn. Asha spent their early teen years working for their father’s catering company, and has been in the hospitality industry ever since. Food really runs in their family! One of their favorite food memories is having cooked lechon (spit-roasted pig) for Thanksgiving, a classic Filipino dish that takes 10 hours to cook.
Before coming to the Deli, Asha worked at their fair share of coffeeshops and other roles in food service. Most recent was their role as Director of Hospitality at James Oliver in Detroit, where they help set up new stores and manage operations. They’ve also worked at Plymouth Coffee Bean, which claims to be the longest standing independent coffee shop in Michigan! Their background in communications-based English (which involves not just verbal language communication but non-verbal and interpersonal communication styles) set them up for major success in the hospitality industry. They were able to learn so much about how to read people and gauge what they need with just a few sentences of conversation.
Outside hospitality, Asha has worked in theater, taught high school English, ran a social emotional after-school program, and even worked in a bank! What brought them to Ann Arbor was a managerial position at Cannelle, then called The Great Commoner. When the company was sold, Asha followed the business to Dearborn, but they loved the community in Ann Arbor and were looking for a way to come back when they found a job opening in the Next Door Café in November 2025.. From there, Asha quickly moved up the ranks and took on new responsibilities pretty quickly and earned the Front of House Manager position in July 2026!. In fact, they had JUST finished their orientation and barista training when the position opened up. It was meant to be!
Asha at the Deli
In their role, Asha keeps the Front of House moving smoothly, ensures proper communication across departments, and makes sure folks stay on track even when things get hectic. Their favorite part about working here is the rapport and camaraderie between the staff and guests. Only a few months into their Front of House position and they’re already recognizing regulars and feeling the joy and excitement in our community. They’ve loved learning about the Ann Arbor community and the inner workings of Zingerman’s after hearing about it their whole life. To both guests and fellow staff, Asha is best known for their incredible morale, encouraging and cheerful attitude, and their adaptability. Asha’s favorite thing to tell guests about is the #272 Otho’s Masterpiece, specifically for the cold season, and they’re always yelling to anyone who will listen about the Bakehouse’s Obama Buns. They also recommend the Golden Age Latte to anybody struggling to decide on their drink order.
5 Fun Facts:
Asha is a multitalented musician! They’re a vocalist in addition to playing guitar, drums, and piano. They also enjoy painting and sculpting.
Outside of work, you can often find Asha in a coffee shop. (You can also find a LOT of coffee in their pantry! They have an impressive collection of roasts from different places.)
They’re learning Arabic as a second language. After working in Dearborn for a few years, they picked up some conversational pieces and vocabulary, but have started studying it more seriously over the past six months.
Asha has an evil (Asha’s words, not ours!) 9 year old cat named Beans, and a poodle-spaniel mix named Josie that they took in after their grandmother passed.
Their dream Deli meal is a #27, no honey mustard, add avocado, and the challah extra grilled. But if they had a sandwich named after them, it would be a sea salt bagel with goat cream cheese, blood orange slices, cappicola, hot honey drizzle, and a bunch of microgreens. Yum!
