Gourmet take-out food business is tonic for empty-nest syndrome

There is no food in Angela Cohen’s refrigerator at home anymore. All the good food is now in a renovated house on North Main Street in Shavertown where she runs Angela’s Everyday Gourmet, a gourmet food take-out and catering business.

“I thought I’d have a terrible time with empty-nest syndrome,” Cohen says. Her two remaining high-school-age children, Mitch and Morgan, now stop by the business on their way home from school to hand-pick their dinner selections.

Joining them are Cohen’s mother, Alice Serratore, who answers the phone and takes orders and her brother, Brandon Serratore, who makes the fudge.

The effort of the business has been very popular with the Back Mountain community since its opening on Nov. 3. One “Sticky Bun Sunday,” 14 dozen sticky buns sold out in 30 minutes.

The whole family is engaged in the effort, including Cohen’s husband, Rich, a Kingston chiropractor. The renovation of the building itself, a 1922 four-square home previously owned by Kay Warden, kept the whole family busy this last year.

The family expects to add al fresco dining on the large wrap-around porch in the spring.

Cohen imagined that many people were, like her, tired of cooking at home and their children were tired of “Mom’s supper selections.” She used that as her business plan.

“A woman came in with her whole family and each child picked out what they wanted for supper and how much,” she noted, recalling how the woman squealed with delight at the thought of not having to cook that night.

Cohen’s theory also works for busy commuters going back and forth to Wilkes-Barre, two-person households and, she hopes, people going to Harveys Lake.

Success comes with a price, though, and she finds herself ready to call it quits some nights. The feeling doesn’t last long, however.

“I turn on some music in the kitchen and start baking,” she says, speaking of a passion she’s had since she was a child growing up in Mountain Top.

Cohen sometimes works 20 hours a day to fill take-out orders and then bakes her homemade specialties like vanilla pear tarts in nutmeg crusts, cherry cream scones or butternut tarts with whiskey in oatmeal/wheat crusts. She also makes an oatmeal cranberry white chocolate cookie. Raspberry white chocolate scones are coming soon.

In addition to the assistance she receives from family members, Cohen has talented and home-grown help in Brian O’Donnell, a 1995 Dallas High graduate who lives in Shavertown and mans the kitchen. His training in French cuisine and seafood preparation fills the deli-like take-out cases with weekly specials like Salmon Bake, Chicken Francaise and Lasagna Bolognaise. Many may remember O’Donnell from his past positions at Irem Temple and the Beaumont Inn.

“I hired Brian immediately,” Cohen said, admitting to never having tasted his food before he went to work for her. “He has character.”

All of Cohen’s food is prepared from scratch, from natural and fresh ingredients with no additives.

“Nothing is out of a can,” she says, proudly. A case of butternut squash bought from a neighboring farm recently became a big hit as butternut squash soup.

A woman came in and went through the counter case, carefully selecting individual items. She said, “I’ll have one of these and one of those and I’ll have some of the soup to see how my butternut squash tastes.”

“And that’s how I met Mary Darling,” Cohen said of the Darling Farms’ matriarch.

Meeting people is what Cohen likes most about her new role. The community has been enthusiastic with one customer sending more than 8,000 e-mails to support the business.