In case you didn’t already notice, coffee is once again being served at 720 Quentin Road, Lebanon.
Sydney Roasting Co. shut down in June, but its replacement resumed sales at the site in September. And the cafe’s new owners, Seth and Mary Martin, say the Clay House Cafe is ready to welcome new customers with its new and expanded menu.
The site reopened on Sept. 3, Mary Martin told LebTown. And the first month, she said, has “gone well.”
“We’re getting a lot of great feedback from the locals. A lot of repeat customers, which we love,” she said. “We’re still trying to get the word out. A lot of people don’t realize that we’re serving food. We serve breakfast and lunch, but it’s not your typical cafe menu. More gourmet, a little upscale.”
For breakfast, for instance, that means your sunny-side-up eggs are topped shaved parmesan, garlic, and black-peppered-bacon on homemade white oatmeal bread. Or try the strawberry oat pancakes with toasted pumpkins seeds, cinnamon-whipped cream, and honey. Or maybe the spicy pesto waffle melt with scrambled eggs, cheddar, mayo-pesto, and red peppers flakes, pressed between a crispy waffle.
“We make all of our own waffles. They’re gluten-free, but you wouldn’t know it,” Mary added. “We also make our own pancake batter, which is gluten- and dairy-free. But you wouldn’t know it.”
For lunch, selections include the Clay House BLT, with whipped goat cheese and pepper jelly, and the citrus pork sourdough panini with white Alabama sauce and havarti cheese. Want something a little lighter? How about a strawberry goat cheese salad?
Mary and her husband also run Clay House bed and breakfast in Stevens, Lancaster County, and a catering business with mobile coffee bar that does events mostly in Lebanon, Lancaster and York counties. That’s why customers on Quentin Road are more likely to find site managers Josh and Alisha Shuman behind the counter, rather than Seth and Mary.
As for the coffee, Clay House is still serving the Kitty Town brand made by Kenny and Zanetta Kok, former owners of Sydney Roasting Co. “We are just as focused on the coffee,” Mary explained, “and we serve the same coffee as they did before. We know their coffee is good.”
The Koks shuttered the cafe over the summer, after the birth of their daughter Aly, to concentrate on their family and roasting business, according to a LebTown article in June. They announced then that they were selling the cafe to the Martins, whose Stevens B&B and mobile coffee bar was Kitty Town’s first wholesale customer.
Read More: Lebanon city cafe closes on Sunday, replacement coffeehouse announced
So, the coffee is the same. The food menu is different. The address is the same. The owners are different. How about the ambience?
“We completely redid the interior,” Mary said. “It’s more of a sit-down cafe. … The aesthetic is very bohemian. Very rustic, with a lot of neutral colors and plants.”
They also offer high-top tables and sofa chairs, book shelves and games, as well as table service. But, even with all of the changes, they managed to hold onto some Sydney Roasting Co. regulars. “A lot of people who hit us in our first month … said they used to come in every morning,” Mary said. “It was great to get them back. We’ve had a lot of new faces, too.”
The Clay House Cafe is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. They’re closed on Sundays.
Mary said they hope to expand their hours to 4 p.m., and they’re also promoting the space as an event venue in the evenings.
“We’re trying to get the word out,” she said. “The space is available in the evenings for baby and bridal showers, corporate events, Christmas parties … anything up to 40 people.”
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