As Seen in the Times News
Vegetarian Fare with Mediterranean Flair
by Al Zagofsky, Times News Correspondent.
Jim Thorpe’s newest restaurant serves Vegetarian fare with Mediterranean
flair—Come because it’s healthy – return because it’s delightful.
Vegetarian fare with Mediterranean flair is what’s for dinner at Café Origins, the newest restaurant in Jim Thorpe’s Historic District. Lovers of freshly-made heart-healthy cuisine will be more than satisfied at the creative menu, delightful presentations, savory flavors and bistro atmosphere which is sure to please both visitors and native Chunkers.
Al Zagofsky/Times
News |
The restaurant, located at 107 Broadway in Jim Thorpe, was converted over a four-year period, from an abandoned parking garage for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company by owner and chef Denise O’Donnell.
O’Donnell, whose father was a native Chunker, lived in Jim Thorpe as a teen-ager. After years of overtime as a nurse, she managed to save enough money to start her own business and has returned to the town she loves to start her first restaurant.
Actually, O’Donnell had no intention of starting a business when she returned to Jim Thorpe to visit friends.
Here’s the way she explained what happened. “I walked by the building. It was for sale. The owner happened to be here and showed it to me. By the time I left the building, I envisioned the way it looks now.”
When O’Donnell walked through the building, all that most people saw was exposed brick walls, broken elevator equipment that was once used to take cars to the upper floors, and literally tons of debris. She required a flashlight to inspect the building because there were no lights.
Yet, she loved the feeling of the exposed brick, the open space of the layout and its location to the historic district. Perhaps it had the feel of the restaurants in New York’s Little Italy where her parents loved to take the family to dine.
O’Donnell learned to cook by helping her mother and grandmother cook for their large Italian family. Though there were only four in her immediate family, on weekends, “there were always twenty or thirty people at our house for dinner. Cooking was almost commercial in our home,” she joked.
Many of Café Origins’ signature recipes come from her mother and grandmother. Their use of roasted vegetables gives a Mediterranean influence to many of O’Donnell’s dishes. In one variation, she offers a classic Italian dish - penne pasta with sun dried tomato pesto and roasted red peppers or roasted asparagus with freshly grated parmesan cheese and a side salad and in a second, she created a roasted red peppers hummus that is served with broccoli florets, carrot sticks and pita chips. All items are freshly made and attractively presented.
For salads, one of Café Origins specialties is an Oriental salad with tofu and water chestnuts marinated in a Szechwan dressing, served with marinated peanuts, carrots over romaine lettuce and spinach and, for extra zest, a side of horseradish flavored wasabi peas.
On the sandwich menu, you’ll find a roasted vegetable wrap—another medley of Mediterranean roasted veggies wrapped in a spinach tortilla and served with a side salad, basil mayonnaise and home-made vinaigrette dressing.
That’s just a sketch of the entrees. There’s hot carrot and ginger soup for warming a chilly evening and chilled strawberry soup with chunks of fresh strawberries for refreshment on a warm summer’s afternoon.
Come at an off-hour and you’ll probably find O’Donnell doing double duty in the dining room or at a sidewalk table, taking your order. Ask if you have special dietary needs. Most foods can be prepared without dairy ingredients.
Café Origins phone number is 570-325-8776. Hours are Thursdays - beginning June 10, Fridays & Saturday 12-11 p.m., Sunday 12–5 p.m. and Monday 12-4 p.m., and open after Opera House events. Seating capacity is 32 indoors and 8 outdoors. The restaurant is BYOB and no smoking.
|
|
|
