At Hanging Mountain Farms in Westhampton is a unique breakfast café that has a dedicated following year-round, and draws customers from near and far during the six weeks of maple sugaring season.
Owned by Leo and Anita Aloisi, the Strawbale Café was recently recognized by Yankee magazine as one of the five best maple experiences in New England.
“I was amazed when they contacted me,” said Anita, 63, noting that the magazine emailed her after one of its editors had eaten at the café. “They sent me an email last August saying they wanted to do an article. They got back in touch at the beginning of this year, and the story was in the March issue.”
The other four maple experiences cited by the Yankee story “Maple Mania Destinations” are Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick and Portland, Maine; Maple Adventures Ride in Woodstock, Vermont; Hickory Ledges Farm in in Canton, Connecticut; and Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness, New Hampshire.
Leo, 64, said the publicity has produced new customers.
“It’s been great. We just had people come up from Manchester, Connecticut, who said that they heard about us from the article,” he said.
The Strawbale Café is the centerpiece of the over 150-acre farm, which produces maple sugar products, Christmas trees, fruits, berries and vegetables.
Unlike the typical sugarhouse, the café is open year-round, with a special menu during the sugaring season.
Open Fridays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. throughout the year, the café accommodates up to 40 guests at a time and serves about 250 customers per weekend.
Those hungry for a hearty breakfast can find omelets, scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, French toast, waffles, breakfast meats and homemade bread, with a selection of items that are gluten-free.
“I am gluten-free, so we have a pretty good gluten-free menu. I think we are the only restaurant with gluten-free benedict,” Anita said.
Westhampton resident and retired schoolteacher Ginny Brown said that she and her family frequently enjoy eating at the café, which is just down the road from their home.
“My granddaughter is 7, and we often bike down for breakfast,” Brown said. “The food is very good and we like the atmosphere. It is a friendly, homey place.”
While the café offers a wide variety of breakfast fare for most of the year, from the end of February to the first week of April it transforms itself into traditional New England sugarhouse. During that period, it exclusively features pancakes, waffles and French toast, with some eggs and meat available.
During the sugaring season, the café serves 550 customers per weekend.
Visitors can see the sugaring process in action and Leo is always available to explain how the system works.
“We have 30 acres of maple trees with 1,200 taps and produce on average 200 gallons a season,” he said. “You never know how it is going to go though. This year it was about 160 gallons.”
According to the Aloisis, the sugarhouse on the farm was built in the late 1800s, making it one of the oldest in the Valley.
“It hasn’t changed much since then. It still has a dirt floor,” Anita said.
While she is the head cook, and Leo oversees sugaring and maintenance, the couple has six part-time employees that they are quick to praise for helping to keep the place running.
Their daughter Jennifer Black, 40, of Westhampton also works in the kitchen, and Anita’s sister, Judy Trzcienski, is the café’s hostess.
“We have three college students – Cassidy Bridgman, Carley Davis, Rose Carragher – and they are very conscientious. I always know I can count on them,” Anita said.
Rounding out the crew is Tania Colletta, 68, who is also an artist and potter.
“It’s is definitely a family affair,” Anita said. “Without one another we couldn’t function very well.”
The Aloisis purchased the farm in 1983 from Leo’s father, Leo Aloisi Sr., who had worked there in the 1930s and then bought the property in 1947. The farm has now been in the family for three generations.
At the time of purchase, the couple both worked other jobs, Leo as a database analyst at Dow Jones and Anita at Dark Horse Photographics in Florence.
“We wanted to do something with the farm and we had to bring customers here for more than just maple sugar,” Leo said. He noted that the cattle on the once-thriving dairy farm were sold off in 1971.
In 2002, the family received a grant from the Massachusetts Farm Viability Program and began building the Strawbale Café on the weekends. Designed and built by their youngest daughter, architect Missa Aloisi, 38, now of Burlington, Vermont, along with a squadron of volunteers, the structure took four years to complete.
True to its name, the café is a “post-and-beam strawbale wrap around” construction, using reclaimed wood and 400 bales of straw that is covered in earthen plaster. Non-toxic, annually renewable and abundant, straw provides excellent insulation, making this café both energy-efficient and eco-friendly.
The Aloisis also try to use locally sourced foods.
The family is now celebrating the café’s 10th year in business.
“I had never owned a restaurant before. If somebody told me 10 years ago that I would be cooking for the public, I would have said you’re crazy!” Anita said.
Often asked if she went to culinary school, she explains that her only training was years of cooking for a large family.
“My mother started working second shift at the hospital when I was about 12,” Anita said. “I was the sixth of seven children and I was elected to do the cooking and my father was very particular.”
Anita credits her first employee, Virginia Inman, who no longer works at the café, with teaching her how to run a restaurant.
While the Aloisis sell products farm their farm, Anita says it is the café that is the bread and butter of this family-run operation.
“Without the café, the farm would be nothing,” she said.
The Strawbale Café has a small outdoor dining patio and new this year is a gift shop that sells locally and U.S. made products including jewelry, T-shirts, cards, bags, maple products and handmade items.
Longtime customer Eric Gustafson and his wife Joanne of Southampton say they are regular patrons at the café.
“We are big fans. I usually get the cheese omelet but I am also a fool for the pancakes with blueberry and coconut,” Eric Gustafson said. “It is a nice, one of a kind place that we really enjoy. Places like this are a dying breed.”
Hanging Mountain Farms is at 188 North Road, Westhampton. Further information is available on their website at hangingmountainfarm.com, or by calling them at 527-0710.
Fran Ryan can be reached at Fryan.gazette@gmail.com.