A Little About
Us
The California Café opened its doors in 1984
at 127 South Hanover Street in Carlisle. The new restaurant occupied a
highly visible but dark and charmless location,
and featured colorful lunches and a short prix-fixe
dinner menu that changed daily.
It was love at first sight between Carlisle and the
Café. Soon, the good people of Carlisle couldn't
get enough freshly baked French rolls, aromatic paté
and crème caramel. After 3 years, just as the original garden
chairs were starting to break down en masse, original owners Tom and
Oliver were able to move the restaurant to more engaging quarters.
In 1988, the CALIFORNIA CAFÉ relocated in
adjoining townhouses at 48-52 West Pomfret
Street. Cosy dining rooms and
a full liquor license were added attractions.
However, the kitchen facilities were progressively
overwhelmed by the increased business and some of the solutions to
storage problems wouldn't have been out of place
in a French farce.
When the Empire, Hook and
Ladder vacated the firehouse next door, Tom and Oliver realized that,
within that large structure, an attractive dining area could be achieved
concurrently with a spacious and functional kitchen.The
work started on the firehouse in the fall of 1996. The Café was only closed for 2 weeks and reopened in the former
firehouse in April 1997.
Among the dedicated California Café crew that
assembled after the move to the firehouse, there was a talented and ambitious
young chef named Gregory Clark. After studying for years what makes the
California Café such an institution in Carlisle, Greg and his
mother-in-law, Darlene Seitz, bought the Café from Tom and Oliver
in May, 2005. Darlene and Greg intend to keep serving
the good people of Carlisle for a long, long time, and offer them the
great food and friendly atmosphere they deserve.
A Little About
You ( a reverse suggestion box )
We will do all that is possible to please you during
your time with us. Many of you have been so kind to us for such a long
time that we are terribly afraid of disappointing you. Sometimes we envy
restaurants at, say, Niagara Falls, where the commitment is short-lived
and the crowd always renewed. The familiar and welcome faces that we see
week after week mean that we have to always do
better than the day before.
Here is what you can do to help:
- If something is
wrong, tell us right away. We'll do our
best to fix it.
- If you are time
constrained, or in a leisurely and contemplative mood, tell your
server. Weekday lunches have taught us to rush, rush, rush, and
while many people appreciate it these days, not everyone does.
- If you like it
busy and bustling, come on Fridays and Saturdays around 7:00.
If you like it calmer or you need extra-special attention, come
earlier, or later, or on a weeknight. Similarly, special requests can be more easily accommodated by the kitchen during
off-peak hours.
- Please make
a reservation. It will
not only ensure a table for you, but it helps us predict the size of
the serving staff on a particular day. Call us with changes in your
plans, especially with cancellations or with increases in the size
of your party. If you request a special table, we will do all that
is possible to have it available for you. On some nights, assigning
tables constitutes a veritable chess game. We ask you to trust us as
we balance the amount of tables a server has. The balancing act is
what provides you better service. Specific wishes about tables
are much more likely to happen if reservations are
made well in advance.
- If
you place a take-out order, remember it will take us as long to
prepare as if you were sitting at a table. So, if you're
treating the whole office to lunch, give us plenty of time to
prepare the goodies.
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