It’s time to say goodbye to that familiar coffee-cat, with his little graphic smile and nighttime goatee. As of last Tuesday, Coffee Cat in Easton was sold to Justin Ewing, and you’ll soon see a whole new look.
The Red Hen Coffee House and Café is open now, and will close for renovations for one week in February. Yes, it’ll still be a coffeehouse, a great place for meetings, and Mark Mangold will continue to handle the music, so the main elements are still in place.
But Ewing intends to bring new energy and vision to the corner of Washington and Goldsborough, and you can expect a change in food, with more offerings including fun breakfast foods, a full lunch menu, salads, soups and naturally-fermented breads made on-site.
Justin Ewing and his wife Sara will both be in-house managers of the new Café, and with some of the existing staff (“we inherited some great people”, Ewing says) and new kitchen staff, you’ll see an expanded menu in upcoming months. Expect to see occasional wine or beer dinners associated with First Fridays, and a Farmer’s Market Saturday brunch.
A member of the family that owns Holly’s Restaurant on Kent Island, Ewing has been involved in restaurants since he was 10. Once a student at the Baltimore Culinary Academy, Ewing is a baker at heart and plans to bake many of the Café’s breads. He’s partnering with Joe’s Bagels now, and using Ceremony Coffees, and will have more coffee choices brewed to order.
The Ewings watched the flow of traffic, the morning and evening crowds, the tempo of Coffee Cat for months, and have a plan in place to create something more unified and one step up. They’ll keep and improve some old favorites on the menu, but in the months ahead you can expect that the Red Hen Coffee House and Café will offer a new twist to downtown Easton.
Visit the Red Hen Coffee House and Café at 1 Goldsborough St. in Easton.
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