Soup, coffee and a secret recipe: Meet the new Canaseraga diner attracting crowds
It’s hard to find anyone with more experience in food service than Josie Kozlowski and Jason Milburn.
Kozlowski, 44, has spent much of her career in the industry, including nearly a decade at Alfred University as the director of catering and the general manager for residential dining. Milburn, 49, said he’s “held every position you can think of” in the restaurant business since starting off as a dishwasher at 16. He was a chef at AU for the last seven years.
Just one ingredient was missing from their resume: business owner.
They took on that challenge this year and opened the Canaseraga Soup and Coffee Company at 64 Main St. in the village.
“We had a lifelong desire to do this and the opportunity finally came along,” said Kozlowski. “We’re very excited.”
What’s on the menu at the Canaseraga Soup and Coffee Company?
As the name suggests, Canaseraga’s newest eatery specializes in soup and coffee. Mondays feature pastries and coffee only from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Breakfast and lunch are offered Tuesday through Saturday with summer hours extending later into the afternoon.
The tomato basil bisque is a top seller, and the seafood bisque has also drawn rave reviews.
"We always have four soups on the menu and our soup flight option gives customers the opportunity to try three of them," said Kozlowski. "It is by far our most popular item and it gives us that gastro style feel to our coffee shop."
The shop carries a variety of coffees as well as lemonades and other beverages. Soup and coffee are just where the menu begins, though. The business also features a revolving assortment of meals. Breakfast sandwiches and poached eggs are popular with the morning crowd.
“Every week there’s brand new items,” said Milburn. “We do have a couple core items we keep, like our tomato bisque and our four-cheese panini, but then we create daily chef’s specials and utilize fresh produce when we can. It’s seasonal. We try to make it as close as we can to right out of the field. It’s never the same thing twice.”
The soups and bakery items are scratch made, and the kitchen sources fresh ingredients from nearby businesses like Wilson Beef Farms and FitzPatrick Farm Market. Kozlowski said the business even grinds its own breakfast sausage using a special recipe gifted from another Canaseraga staple, Mastin’s Food Market.
"That recipe has been in that building since the 40s, and Dave Mastin actually shared it with us," she said.
Kozlowski makes Paczki, a Polish donut, from scratch every Wednesday, while Milburn’s creations often inspire diners to take a photo before digging in.
“Jason’s forte is to plate it as artistically as possible,” said Kozlowski. “If you get a salad from us, it’s going to be a piece of artwork on the plate.”
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New business attracts customers to Canaseraga
The duo is happy to bring some vibrancy to the village’s small downtown. Kozlowski, a Canaseraga Central School graduate, said the building had been vacant for around two decades before they took on a full renovation of the space.
With Canaseraga sitting at the corner of Allegany, Steuben and Livingston counties, the business is attracting diners from Hornell, Arkport, Dansville, Nunda, Alfred and beyond. Open mic nights are held every third Thursday of the month.
“We’re getting a lot of folks visiting as more of a destination,” said Kozlowski.
The menu isn’t the only attraction. Kozlowski and Milburn aim to create a special atmosphere in an intimate setting. Kozlowski said the venue has an artistic, steampunk flair.
“It’s really our place. There’s a lot of our attributes in there,” said Milburn. “Our family’s artwork is donning the walls. It’s a laid back place for the community to congregate and hear stories, all over some nice food.”
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What’s next for the business?
The Canaseraga Soup and Coffee Company also offers catering, though currently only pickup or in-house. Kozlowski and Milburn hope to expand their footprint with additional outdoor seating. The venue currently has around 10 outdoor seats, but they are applying for a microenterprise grant through the county to build a covered deck.
Kozlowski and Milburn are also planning to host cooking classes starting in October, and they anticipate offering dinner hours as they get more established and can hire more help.
Kozlowski’s daughter, Hannah Young, currently heads up the beverage bar and has been “a huge help” for the young business. Kozlowski and her daughter took an entrepreneur accelerator course through IncubatorWorks last fall that helped set the business plan in motion.
“Your thoughts can be all over the place. Ours were a little bit,” said Kozlowski. “We’ve been operating for years but we’ve never owned our own business so it was like okay, now let’s hone in on the idea, how are we going to execute to make it the absolute best it can be? The program really helped us with that.”
This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: What you will find at new Canaseraga Soup and Coffee Company
