Trails End Café Looks Back At Successful Year Of Serving Main Liners

BALA CYNWYD, PA – After opening its doors to Main Liners in May 2016, the Trails End Café in Bala Cynwyd is looking back on a successful first year, as well as forward to its future.

“We have focused on supporting our community and they have responded with enthusiastic encouragement," owner Tracy Katz said. "For this we are grateful.”

Since it opened in May 2016, the café situated at the Cynwyd train station has expanded its offerings.

In addition to serving up local coffee from Green Street Roasters and pastries baked and delivered daily from High Pointe Bakery, menu items such as the house-made egg sandwich, quiche, always-changing panini menu, homemade soups, and more have become favorites for patrons.

The café has even introduced a local cheese plate with cheeses from Merion Park Cheese, Valley Milkhouse in Oley, Birchrun Farms in West Chester, and jams from Fifth of a Farm in Philadelphia. In addition, all breads are baked locally by Baker Street Bread Company.

Not only has the café been a staple for transit riders, it has become a center of community gathering and activity.

The café has been organizing community events since the first soup dinner in December.

“We chose December 21st to bring neighbors together on the shortest day of the year as a sign that we will only grow together from there," Katz said.

The sellout Solstice Soup Supper was the beginning of many more successful community gatherings. The café has hosted private parties, an open mic night, local musicians, a Q&A with Lower Merion Township Commissioner Brian McGuire, games nights, workshops on knitting and writing, and many local groups’ meetings.

To support writers in our community, the café hosted a 7-week local author series this summer that brought in new and seasoned writers who shared their work. The series featured Gaby Kaplan-Mayer, Jim Saunders, Simone Zelitch, Connie Garcia-Barrio, Roz Warren, Diana Holquist, and Anndee Hochman.

The weekends at the café include events such as book launches, art openings – with all of the art in the café rotates and is by local artists, seed exchanges or plant swaps, and even pickup bridge games.

Each month there is a Community Charity Chat where a local organization is invited to share the work they do and the opportunities they offer for individuals and groups to become involved.

The café has hosted Cradles to Crayons, Penn Reflect, Ronald McDonald House, LiveConnections, The Starfish Project, and The Calliope Joy Foundation. The rest of 2017 will bring presentations by The Village of Arts and Humanities, The Ulman Fund, and Child Advocates to the café.

Tracy says that the most exciting part about owning the café is “growing collaborations with and supporting other businesses in the area.”

This story was adapted from a press release from the Trails End Café

Image by Casey Robinson, courtesy of Trails End Café