Davis Center cafe now offering new, healthful fare under Friends Specialty management

YOUNGSTOWN

Mill Creek MetroParks is now bringing the experience of Fellows Riverside Gardens right to your plate.

The Garden Cafe, now operated by Friends Specialty, a coffee-and-tea business with locations in downtown Youngstown and Salem, features a new menu and look that are intended to reflect what’s outside the cafe.

“They really wanted an emphasis on the garden. So they wanted a more healthful, green approach” to the food, explained Patricia Tinkler of Salem, who owns Friends with husband Mitch Lynch.

Friends was awarded the contract to run the cafe in the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center in December, taking over after the park system’s leadership decided to make a change after 13 years under The Georgetown.

“We were asked to do more local, more sustainable, healthier, fresher fare,” Tinkler said.

“Everything we do at Fellows Riverside Gardens has to connect people with plants,” Keith Kaiser, MetroParks horticulture director, said.

The lunch menu, which changes daily, is crafted primarily from fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

Friday’s menu, for example, featured line-caught tuna and cannellini salad with roasted red peppers, cilantro, red onion and preserved lemons over a bed of local spring greens; a roasted turkey, red pepper and Jarlsberg cheese panini; and homemade potato and leek soup, among a few other options — all for less than $10.

Read more of the changes in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.