By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Everyday People Café, the newest eatery in Bowling Green, has deep roots in the city’s culinary culture.
The proprietor Pat McDermott has a long history with the Corner Grill, Cohen and Cooke’s, and other restaurants in the area, and he wants to bring the skills honed in those kitchens to his own operation at 309S. Main St.
At the Grill, where he worked third shift for 15 or so years, it was cranking out diner favorites quickly and simply. At Cohen and Cooke’s he got to see the adventurous side of the culinary enterprise. What was on hand, he said, is what went into that day’ menu selections.
He wants to blend those two approaches. “I want it to be classics, just trumped up a little bit,” he said.
He’ll have plenty of help in that with his fellow cooks out back. Steve Bishop was McDermott’s mentor at the Corner Grill from the time McDermott was a dishwasher. Chris Parratt is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has worked locally at Reverend’s and the Oaks on campus as well as in Portland, Oregon.
McDermott has been wanting to launch his own place for a while, and the opportunity popped up when Andy Halleck and Ammar Mufleh bought the building that formerly housed the Falcon Market and Café Havana. Finding financing proved difficult, then McDermott was approached by local bar owners Nate Cordes, Michael Wahle, and Troy Myers. They were looking for a home for a liquor license they’d recently acquired, and suggested a four-way partnership.
So Everyday People Café was born, a place you can have a mimosa or Bloody Mary with your hash in the morning.
True to McDermott’s concept that Bloody Mary will be concocted with the café’s own mix.
“We’re going to put as many items on the menu as we can that we make from scratch,” he said. “That extra bit of love, extra bit of labor, makes everything taste better. That’s something I’ve learned from 20 years of slinging hash.”
Those items include muffins and cupcakes baked by his wife, Shaina. Because she and members of her families have had issues with tolerating gluten, she’ll offer gluten-free versions of all of them.
McDermott said they looked around for the best gluten-free flour from King Arthur, rather than settling for the most accessible and cheapest.
The cafe will source as many of its ingredients locally as possible. For produce, McDermott is using Vinchar. He’s also making weekly trips to the downtown farmer’s market to find inspiration and ingredients for specials.
For meat, he turns to the Belleville Market, for all the café’s beef and almost all of it pork.
Even here, though, the do-it-themselves nature of the business comes through.
They bought a quarter side of beef from Belleville, and he and Parratt cut it themselves into brisket, ground beef, steaks and whatever else they needed.
“It was sloppy, but fun,” he said.
The café makes its own corned beef. It also buys ground pork and has developed its own sausage seasoning “with a bit of a kick to it,” he said.
“It makes best gravy I’ve ever had. My dad (Tom McDermott) likes the gravy. That’s good enough for me.”
The café is open six days a week (closed Mondays) from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Breakfast is served all day with lunch served starting at 11 a.m. “If someone really, really, really wants a Reuben at 10:45, I’m not going to argue with him,” McDermott said.
The café offers four or five brunch specials on Saturdays and Sundays.
And in keeping with the menu the atmosphere is simple and congenial with family photos decorating the walls.
True to diner culture, it’s a place to gather with friends at a table, or sit alone at the counter with your thoughts, maybe trading observations occasionally with your neighbor, about, say, how spicy the sausage is.
