The idea seemed simple enough: open a coffee shop, and offer a daily soup with freshly baked bread for lunch. In the chaos of the weeks before the grand opening, however, I saw myself for what I really was-a baker who mistakenly thought he could throw together a soup in between mixing up muffins, shaping loaves of bread and pulling scones out of the oven.
In a small Hoosier town where people were puzzling over the article in the local newspaper about the new espresso bar, wondering how to pronounce the word barista, I was beginning to see that the shop couldn't rely solely on coffee to bring in customers. We were going to need better soup than whatever the baker could throw together.
That's when Katie showed up. In her late-twenties and wearing stylish glasses, she introduced herself as a full-time mother of three from down the street. As we sat down in the midst of the chaos of the soon-to-open shop, Katie was calm and soft spoken. She mentioned some cooking experience and wondered if we were looking for anyone to help out for a few hours a week. I asked, "Do you make soup?" The next day she brought over some Cream of Wild Mushroom to sample-caramelized wild mushrooms simmered in a homemade vegetable-mushroom stock with cream, white wine and fresh thyme. My mouth watered. She was hired.
As Katie and I worked out the day-to-day details of serving lunch, I explained my hope to make the soup with the seasons, featuring locally grown food whenever possible. This was a desire that had grown lukewarm, pushed to the back burner in the busyness of opening a new business, but Katie brought it back to a rolling boil.
Soon the doors were open, the sound of coffee grinders and steaming milk spilling out into the street, and Katie got to work in the kitchen. Creamy fennel with bacon and goat cheese. Sautéed dandelion greens pureed with pasture-raised chicken stock. Red and yellow tomatoes simmered with ham hocks, collard greens, okra and topped with a round of crispy fried polenta. It wasn't long before word began to spread about the new coffee shop and its flavorful soups.
As Katie sought out local ingredients, she quickly got to know the growers in and around town. Now she is a familiar sight at the local farmers market. Every Saturday morning, she arrives early, often pushing her two sons in a double stroller with one hand and holding her daughter's hand with the other, while giant, cloth grocery sacks swing from the crooks of her arms. Her daughter runs ahead into the crowd of milling shoppers and her boys reach for colorful vegetables and beg to be released from their stroller seats. But Katie remains collected as she visits every booth. The farmers smile when they see her, filling her bags to the brim with whatever is ripe that week.
As the gardens around town swell with vegetables, Katie's soups burst with flavor. She works effortlessly, without recipes, allowing the ingredients to inspire the soup-tasting, making changes, tasting again. Often, in the morning, I'll ask her for the name of the day's soup so I can write it on the big chalkboard behind the coffee bar, and she'll respond, "Just a minute. I'm not quite sure yet."
The summer stretches on, and the produce at the farmers' tables changes from green to red to orange. The gardens are hectic with harvest, the coffee shop kitchen is crazy with a lunchtime rush, but Katie is calm, thoughtfully concentrating the flavors of all the activity around her. Creamy broccoli with butternut-orange puree. Smoked sausage and pumpkin gumbo. Free-range chicken, apples, red onions, squash and freshly picked sage simmered in homemade broth with a touch of curry.
Like the sound of migrating birds or the sight of leaves turning red, Katie's soups taste like the time of year-the perfect culinary culmination of sunlight, rainfall and the sweat of our local growers. Katie stirs together the flavors of our corner of Indiana, a place where the simple idea of a simple lunch is made exquisite by the work of local hands.
Zachary Hawkins, manager of the KenapocoMocha Coffee Shop in North Manchester, was inspired by the recent ILG article about Saucy Flavors to share his experiences using local foods in his fare. The shop is owned by Well Grounded LLC.
