Westchester resident Jane Carroll has combined all of her businesses into one with Jane Foodie, which opened Sept. 30 in Port Chester.
The new space brings food production, dining, coffee, flowers, art, design, entrepreneurship and community together through a multifaceted concept that's part café, part florist, part co-working space, part incubator kitchen and part workshops and events.
At its core, its the home of Jane Foodie Flash Frozen Meals, the business she started in 2013. It's also what she went on ABC's "Shark Tank" for last April, ultimately getting a deal with Lori Greiner. Though that ultimately fell through, the idea of micro cafés, something Mark Cuban suggested she do, stuck. Which is how she ended up completing the Goldman Sachs
10,000 Small Business Program. Doing so led her to concentrate her business — and combine her passions — into her new Jane Foodie spot.
And that means flowers. The longtime chef, who at various points had cafés in Pearl River, Yonkers and Tarrytown, started her career creating arrangements in out-of-the-box containers with flowers, foliage, berries and vines from her Bronx basement while raising her young son. Word spread as did her success – thanks, in part, to her Boxed in Blooms retail product that landed her on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
With her new space, she's gone back to her roots offering four to six fresh flower drops, which she'll showcase weekly on social media, arranged in vintage vessels and/or other one-of-a-kind pieces. She'll also offer fresh floral design services for individuals, celebrations, corporate needs and events. That said, she's in no way a traditional florist.
Jane Foodie is not your traditional café
Nor is she a traditional café. While there's certainly an abundance of breakfast, lunch and dinner options, all menu items are from her flash frozen line, displayed in freezers to the right of the register.
Diners will find soups, stews, salads, pasta bowls, sandwiches, rice sides, veggie platters, stuffed peppers and mini cakes in coconut, lemon or caramel along with entrées such as sliced chicken breast (sliced and topped with house-made sauce), baked beef Irish empanadas (with lean ground beef, bell pepper and salsa baked in an all-butter pastry) and gluten-free meatloaf, another lean beef creation, made with onion, pepper and gluten-free oats.
Among the breakfast choices are Carroll's trademarked poptonics, fresh-pressed wellness tonics, served hot or cold and designed to soothe and restore, along with panaffles, her trademarked hybrid pancake-waffle, available in plain, blueberry, chocolate chip or apple cinnamon. There's also a variety of coffee drinks, fresh-squeezed orange juice, smoothies, wine, beer and cider along with croissants, mini sourdough boules, mini bread loaves, cinnamon rolls and honey biscuits.
It's all real food made from scratch with no preservatives, stressed Carroll, who's all about "heat and eat." She's also all about no waste, which is why she leans toward individual servings. Convenience is also key with kraft tray containers that go from freezer to oven with no thawing, no prep and no extra pans.
Flash frozen is the heart of the business
The concept of flash freezing, which prevents ice crystals from forming on food, ensuring it retains its flavors, textures and nutrients, is a relatively new concept for people to grasp, explained Carroll, who said her food is made with premium ingredients fully cooked at their peak and flash frozen. "When you heat it up, you'll never believe it came out of your freezer," she said.
This isn’t frozen food as you know it, said Carroll who uses "fresh from scratch" on her packaging.
Aside from the flash-frozen education, which is part of the learning curve at her café, her goal is to create a micro-café model that can be replicated, either through other locations she owns or through franchising. The beauty, said Carroll, is that you don't need a kitchen, often a business owner's biggest impediment.
As this is the flagship property, Carroll was particularly thoughtful about designing a space that served not only multiple purposes, but catered to the community. Having an open kitchen, which sits at the long end of the space, was of utmost importance as she plans to host cooking classes, entrepreneurial workshops and other events. She also wanted a place that could serve as an incubator kitchen for other food entrepreneurs, offering them a rentable venue to further scale their business.
Her other goal was to create a "home away from home" environment. As someone who's long dabbled in design, that meant filling the light-filled warehouse space — located in a former century-old linen factory — with vintage furniture and artwork, all of which is for sale and all of which will rotate so the space always feels new. She's also hoping to feature local artists' work for sale.
As part of the living room vibe, she's hoping folks will use the place for co-working and gathering. To that end, she's offering a $25 a day daily pass with unlimited coffee and 20% off food including items to go.
If you go
Address: 6 N. Pearl St., Port Chester, 914-429-9880, janefoodie.com.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
Good to know: Eventually, the café will extend its hours until 8 or 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Jane Foodie is also a Vinted shop meaning it acts as an official drop-off and pick-up point for packages from the secondhand marketplace.
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Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @jeannemuchnick or via the lohudfood newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Multi-purpose cafe opens in Port Chester with frozen food, flowers, events
