"Local Harvest" Plentiful in Northern Suburbs

Summer has arrived in Pittsburgh!  

My husband Mark and I opened Passport Cafe last fall with a commitment to using products from local farms as much as possible.  In the fall we enjoyed a lovely harvest of different varieties of squash and corn from Kaelin's and Shenot's for as long as they lasted.  We also bought dozens of chickens and dozens upon dozens of eggs each week from Eichner Farm, just a couple of miles down the road.

Over the winter, we researched additional sources of local meat.  We found delicious ground beef, pork and steaks from Penn's Corner Farm Alliance.  We also convinced our friend Joan Spaulding from Shelter Farm in Greene County to sell her lamb to us instead of sending it off to New York restaurants.   Like our other products, we can only get it "in season" and there are two lambing seasons a year at Shelter Farm.  We are not offering it on our current menu, but ask anyone who had our lamb spring rolls, lamb pasta, leg of lamb, or our lamb mini-burger "sliders" and they will tell you it was off-the-charts delicious.  We may have some again in July.  Watch for its return on our menus on=line.

Now that it is summer we can offer a rich and varied local harvest, so that you are assured of the freshest local greens, vegetables and fruits.  You may run into Mark doing his rounds at the Wexford farm markets, picking up oversized bags of mixed greens at Kaelin's or local tomatoes at Soergel's.  There is always a good chance of seeing him at Eichner's collecting chicken and eggs, as well as ham and bacon for our Sunday Brunch and 80% lean hot dogs for our Summer Kids' Lunches.  

We waited with some impatience all winter for the time when our guests would be able to enjoy lunch, dinner or brunch on our patio.  Thanks to the gardening skills of our friend Hazel Pruckner we have been able to offer our guests a lush setting since early May.   Additionally, on Fridays when Northway Christian Community has a car cruise, we grill on the patio and offer special fresh-from-the-grill appetizers and entrees -- plus a dollar off all beers on tap!

Our community is a marvelous blend of homes, retail, places of worship, workplaces, and farms.  We feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place.  Mark and I hope that you will enjoy many delicious meals at Passport Cafe.  Even more, however, we hope you will find it -- as many already have -- to be a place where people in the community gather to catch up with friends and to celebrate special occasions, all the while knowing they are supporting our local farms and other businesses.