Downtown Newport is a small town hub of activity surrounded by gorgeous Perry County farmland. Sitting on the corner of Market and Second streets is a well-loved eatery that brings a variety of local food under one roof for eye-catching and delicious plates of café-style meals.
For more than 10 years, Cheryl Miller has operated Espresso Yourself Café, the popular breakfast and lunch spot on the Newport square. With a personal passion for healthy cooking and eating, Miller set out to bring her delicious, from-scratch recipes to her hometown.
“It’s what I eat, and I wanted to have something healthy available in this town, because this is where I grew up,” she says.
Miller works with a variety of local farmers who use sustainable practices, raise animals humanely without the use of antibiotics or hormones, and produce food without using pesticides or other chemicals.
While sustainably sourced food is a high priority for Miller, so is showing people that healthy eating can be delicious. She has often heard people refer to healthy, organic food as flat or uninteresting.
“Sometimes people think that health food is all tofu,” she says.
When she set out to craft her menu, she was sure to create recipes that would prove this assumption wrong. Her menu options show that eating for health can be flavorful and familiar.
With a nod to her grandmother’s Perry County cooking traditions, a love of from-scratch cooking, a respect for individual dietary needs and a flair for exciting ingredient combinations, Miller offers imaginative, yet recognizable flavors to her loyal regulars and those traveling through town.
“I love coming up with different kinds of food,” says Miller, explaining that her eclectic repertoire combines old recipes with modern flavors.
Menu Adventures
What makes Espresso Yourself’s menu so inviting is that you can order restaurant standards with a twist, often with vegetarians, vegans and gluten-free eaters in mind.
You will find artistic flavor combinations on the specials board, which recently have included a fig and goat cheese quesadilla with fresh fruit salsa, cream of asparagus soup, fresh blueberry mint salad, cilantro and avocado grilled cheese, and dandelion and bacon pizza.
Adventure is readily available for thrill-seeking foodies via Espresso’s specials menus, but the main menu is full of popular standards.
One customer favorite, the Waldorf sandwich, includes natural turkey breast, mozzarella cheese, apples, lettuce, mayo and maple-glazed walnuts, and also can be ordered as a wrap. Menu staples like the Reuben and BLT are also offered at the café. Of course, kids’ fare is available too, with grilled cheese and organic peanut butter and jelly as perfect standbys for the little ones.
Another prized menu item is served during breakfast hours and pairs deliciously with a cup of coffee. The grilled oat cinnamon swirl, with a side of maple syrup or honey and the option of maple pecan and fresh-fruit toppings, is a regular crowd-pleaser. Other breakfast items include make-your-own omelets, breakfast sandwiches, a breakfast quesadilla and fresh fruit yogurt parfaits.
Coffee & Danish
Of course, what would Espresso Yourself be without great coffee?
Serving organic, fair trade coffees, in decaf, regular and flavored varieties, the café offers patrons a pick-me-up at a self-serve coffee station, where refills are free if dining in. Specialty café menu items include espresso, cappuccino, latte, café mocha, hammerhead (coffee with a shot of espresso) and hot chocolate. Customers can also enjoy a loose tea bar where they pick their own flavors for brewing. During the hot summer months, iced coffee, iced chai latte, herbal mint iced tea and Italian sodas are refreshing options.
Delectably displayed baked goods sit in a beautiful wooden case at the register, making the café experience extra sweet. Chocolate ginger cookies, blueberry muffins, Danishes and cupcakes are among the regular offerings. Lucky for vegan and gluten-free customers, many of these are created with dietary restrictions in mind.
“I have always had access to vegetarian and vegan food,” says Miller. “I have always been open to that kind of diet. It’s a fun challenge to make something vegan that tastes good.”
Dining in allows patrons to enjoy the café-style décor and local art, as part of the Perry County Council of the Arts’ Traveling Art Exhibit. A private lounge area makes for a great private workspace, where customers can use the complimentary WiFi, and it’s a perfect play space for kids, complete with cooking toys and food-themed books. Large groups or business meetings often gather in a dining room adjacent to the main café floor.
For those stopping in for a quick bite on their way to work or through town, all of the menu items and beverages can be ordered to-go. Miller also stocks refrigerated cases with organic produce and prepared foods for mini grocery trips or to stock up for lunch.
If it seems like Miller has covered all of her bases, you can credit it to her passion for all things food. She works hard to ensure that she keeps bringing her customers back for delicious and satisfying small-town café experiences.
Farm to Table
Over the last year, Espresso Yourself has hosted farm-to-table dinners to showcase delicious recipes made with food provided by local farms. Creative dinner menus can be expected, as well as an evening to get to know people in the local community.
“Most of the time, we put all of the tables together so people can mingle,” says Miller. “For some dinners, we serve individual plates and sometimes we serve family-style, depending on the meal. People listen to live music, talk and have a lot of fun.”
The farmers who supply food for the dinners often attend, giving patrons the chance to meet the people who produce the food they will be enjoying. Handpicking the farmers allows Miller to be selective about the food she uses. Not everything has to be certified organic, but she insists that the farms follow organic farming practices and treat their animals ethically.
“Serving local food, instead of ordering food products out of a book, takes a lot more time and effort, but it is definitely worth it,” she says.
Last month, Espresso Yourself hosted a donation-based pig roast, in a portion of Newport square’s parking lot in front of the café, with local act Rough Edges String Band providing accompaniment for the outside meal. Miller opened her farm-to-table dinner up on a pay-as-you-can basis for a meal that generally costs about $35 per person. Diners enjoyed pulled pork, quinoa, beef or vegan chili, polenta, potatoes, roasted vegetables, pepper slaw, homemade breads, bread pudding, apple crisp, local ice cream, and of course, teas and coffee.
Miller was motivated by the desire to share healthy, delicious recipes with a broad audience.
“I wanted to hold this dinner so that the community would be able to attend to get to know what we do and to taste our food,” she explains. “I saw some people that I know couldn’t afford the regular price and that made me very happy that they could share in the experience.”
To help pull off the donation-based dinner, some of the participating farmers and local businesses donated food for the event. Farms that generally participate in Miller’s farm-to-table dinners include Edible Gardens, Mountain View Organics, Newport Natural Foods, North Mountain Pastures, Perry County Land and Cattle and Wayside Acres, all from Newport; Chicano Sol and JuJu Acres, of Blain; and Talking Breads, of Duncannon.
While hosting a pay-what-you-can dinner could be risky, Miller believes many of her loyal farm-to-table diners threw large bills into the canning jars that served as the donation vessels. “It was a risk, but we covered our costs and had some extra money,” she says.
But, for Miller, this dinner was all about the people, and she was visibly thrilled with the true community event that the Espresso Yourself team pulled off.
Espresso Yourself Café is at 8 S. Second Street, Newport. Hours are Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 717-567-9882 or visit www.espressoyourselfcafepa.com.
