Though downtown Greensburg has plenty of restaurants, Caffe Barista owner Lisa Hegedus still sees the area as a kind of food desert.
That’s because it lacks a market where shoppers can pick up milk, bread and other food staples, she says — something that should change in the spring when her cafe adds a farmers market.
Her vision is to partner with local farmers to stock the market, and to include their products in a new line of farm-to-table meals. She also has trademarked the name “Cloud 9 Coffee,” with plans to become the first downtown shop to roast its own beans.
Along with local produce, Hegedus hopes to offer eggs, milk, cheese, bakery products and pre-made salads.
Renovations will start over the holidays in the cafe at 7 W. Otterman St., with the year-round, indoor market corner projected to launch in March. The cafe also will extend its hours and be open seven days a week.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Hegedus said.
The project got a boost with a grant from the Main Street Jump-Start Program of the Greensburg Community Development Corporation.
With funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the GCDC was able to offer area businesses grants of up to $10,000 “for things the CARES Act didn’t necessarily cover,” said GCDC executive director Ashley Kertes. Those areas include marketing/advertising, human resources, legal, accounting/finances and information technology.
“It’s nice to see a business expand during (the pandemic), instead of closing down,” Kertes said. “I’ve been saying for years that we need some kind of little market downtown.”
“This is really great — unique and much needed,” said April Kopas, CEO of the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, which owns the building in which Caffe Barista is located.
Hegedus said she hopes that the expansion of her business will benefit other downtown businesses, too.
“If people come to shop one downtown business, maybe they will shop with everyone,” she said.
With the addition of local produce, the cafe menu will be structured seasonally around what the farmers have available, Hegedus said, “instead of on a whim, because right now it’s on my whim.”
She plans to add bakery items like bagels and bread sticks that aren’t found now in downtown eateries and to insure that the produce is affordable, to be able to serve low-income residents of the downtown area.
The cafe will be rebranded as Caffe Barista Marketplace. Hegedus is working with Chrissy Leithliter, owner of CML Media Consulting, to develop new logos for the marketplace, the coffee and the cafe’s catering business.
The expansion also will require the addition of about four full- and part-time employees.
Farmers interested in selling their produce in the new market and prospective employees can contact Hegedus at 724-837-8873 or cbcloud9.com.
