Mount Gretna kicks off summer season with new coffee cottage, community events

Mount Gretna launched what locals call “the season” with weekend events including a ribbon cutting for the latest business addition, the Mount Gretna Coffee Cottage.

Besides porch sales on Saturday, Mount Gretna held its fourth annual Summer Kickoff that showcases all of what Gretna offers to visitors and residents from Memorial Day into mid-September.

Rain forced the kickoff into the Mount Gretna Playhouse where there was ample room for organizations to provide information about their upcoming events. Music was provided by local groups as well as by performers with Gretna Theatre and Mount Gretna Summer Concerts.

The weekend also marked the opening of several Gretna attractions that are shuttered during the “off season” – the Community Library, Historical Society, and Mt. Gretna Lake and Beach.

“The Summer Kickoff has become Mount Gretna’s community invitation to discover what local organizations are planning for the season ahead,” said Deb Simpson, vice president of the Mount Gretna Arts Council which sponsors the annual event. “More than a single afternoon event, it serves as the starting point for everything that unfolds in Mount Gretna throughout the summer months.”

While more and more people live year-round in Gretna, the area started as a summer or seasonal community with the Pennsylvania Chautauqua and the Mount Gretna Campmeeting. Both held their first seasons in summer 1892, bringing thousands to the area, according to local newspapers.

Today, the Pennsylvania Chautauqua continues to offer a host of educational programs from book reviews and lectures on history, art and poetry to yoga for kids and movie nights – and the Campmeeting’s Bible Festival sponsors concerts on Sunday evenings that feature sacred music performed by big band, jazz and chorale musicians.

Over the decades,  other arts organizations including Gretna Music, Gretna Theatre, and the Mount Gretna Cicada Music Festival have found a home in Gretna.

“The kickoff is truly a community-wide celebration of Gretna’s jam-packed season of arts and events,” said Suzanne Stewart, executive director of Gretna Music that kicks off its season with Telegraph Quartet on Sunday, June 14.

This year visitors and residents got an early taste of the Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show with the opening of the Mount Gretna Coffee Cottage, a second location of Desserts, Etc., located in Hershey but well known in Gretna as it sold many of its signature baked goods in the art show’s food tent for years, said Kerry Royer, art show director, who was on hand for the ribbon cutting.

Even before its grand opening, the coffee cottage was packed inside and outside with demand high for chocolate croissants, savory scones, cookies – and of course, coffee.

“We’ve been selling a lot of coffee,” said Reney Bartolomei, who is managing the Mount Gretna enterprise and who created a specialty Gretna coffee with vanilla, maple syrup and cinnamon. “It’s been exciting to meet people in the community.”