When I interviewed Jacqueline Powers, the owner of Orange
Glory Café, I successfully refrained from asking, “What’s the story, Orange
Glory?” She doesn’t deserve that. Dad joke omission is the least I could do
since throughout my 10 years in Rochester, I had seen the café dozens of times
while strolling up East Avenue on the way to The Little Theatre, and had not
set foot in it once. I made plenty of excuses as to why not: It looks too
small, it’s kind of dark in there; there are only a few tables, and they are
all full; they closed two hours ago.
Well, I have
no excuse now. Orange Glory Café has moved from its small spot on East Avenue
to 480 East Main Street. It is a mere three blocks from the old Little Theatre
location, but the short distance makes a world of difference. The glass façade
facing Main Street allows the restaurant to be bathed in daylight, so it feels
like you are outside on a spring day no matter where you sit, which is much
more in line with the café’s motif. The Main Street location garners more foot
traffic from students, patrons, and employees of neighboring Eastman School of
Music, the YMCA, School 58, and the other businesses along Main Street. The location
change is so fitting that, though it has only been a few weeks, it feels like Orange
Glory Café has resided on Main Street this whole time.
Relocating the
café is the latest step in a long journey for Powers. She didn’t go to culinary
school, but she has always loved to cook and bake. Her day jobs were not
satisfying to her, so 15 years ago, she started her own catering business, and
rented kitchen space to fulfill orders. She also bought a small, 12-inch orange
tree. Then the opportunity arose for her to rent the restaurant space next to
The Little. She says she enjoyed her time there, and her catering business and café
gained popularity. And that orange tree continued to grow.
The Little’s most recent round of renovations meant that
Powers’ café space would be phased out the theater’s expansion, so she needed a
new place to house Orange Glory. The 480 East Main Street location was
available, and she snatched it up. That orange tree is now four times its
original size, basking in the sunlit space.
Much like
everything on her menu, Powers got to build her new kitchen from scratch, which
is more spacious and brighter than the basement kitchen she had on East Avenue.
The bulk of her work is still in catering, but Jacqueline says she enjoys
creating food for the café, and she has more freedom to diversify and expand
her menu.
On a given
day, Orange Glory offers a wide range of sandwiches, salads, wraps, and soups,
and there is a good amount of vegetarian options on the menu as well. I had a
hearty chickpea eggplant patty with mozzarella on a whole wheat bun, grilled
($8). For $2 more I got a side of sesame noodles and a lemon cookie. “Patty”
understates the size of this sandwich, but I gather “a fist of eggplant and
chickpea” would not sound as appetizing to most people.
The
mozzarella melted evenly over the patty, so with every bite I experienced the
dueling sweet-savory taste of roasted chickpeas and eggplant, mellowed out by
the mozzarella. The noodles are served cool, tossed with fresh red peppers and
light amounts of soy sauce and oil. And the lemon cookie was the perfect
post-meal treat. The zesty taste of lemon married nicely with the white
chocolate chunks in the cookie, especially when paired with a dark brewed
coffee, provided by Fuego Coffee Roasters.
The whole
meal was like a dream, and I look forward to trying the other items Orange
Glory offers. Also on the menu is a mushroom artichoke sandwich with avocado
and cilantro dressing, a spinach burger, and a chicken salad wrap that all looked
like they needed to be mine. And that is just the regular menu. The specials
board boasts as dynamic a list of choices as the regular menu. This week there
was a tomato basil soup and a black bean wrap that stuck out to me. I look
forward to seeing what Jacqueline will make next week.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2019.
