New Café to Open in Pleasant Gap

A new coffee shop serving breakfast and lunch is set to open soon in Pleasant Gap.

Owner Dustin McCartin said he hopes to open Warren’s Kitchen in mid-February, pending permit approvals, in the former location of The Cakeshop by Tati at 113 E. College Ave. The Cakeshop closed its storefront in December for owners Derek and Tati Polay to focus on their wholesale bakery business and other culinary endeavors.

Warren’s will offer coffee drinks such as espresso, cold brews and drip coffee as well as breakfast sandwiches — “kind of regular, easy, quick breakfast food,” McCartin told StateCollege.com. It will also keep The Cakeshop’s legacy at the location alive, selling its croissants and a rotating selection of other baked goods.

For lunch, he’s planning “five, 10-minute, in-and-out type food,” he said.

“Chopped cheese, chopped Italian, some chicken cheese steaks, stuff like that,” McCartin explained.

A native of the area, McCartin has operated Warren’s Catering, specializing in food service for Penn State fraternities, for the past four years, a business that he plans to grow with the opening of the new coffee shop.

“I was working in restaurants my whole life and got burned out pretty bad and decided to check out that line of work, realized I liked it and started out on my own,” he said.

“We do breakfast, lunch and dinner down there for 10 fraternities right now. So we were looking to get into some more traditional catering and, as a result of the spot we found, decided to do some coffee, breakfast, lunch stuff as well…. We’re going to kind of use this as home base now and hope to expand [the business] more.”

The cafe and catering company, which currently has 12 employees, are both named after McCartin’s grandfather, he said.

“He worked for himself as a painter his whole life and I was inspired by his making his own schedule, and really wanted the opportunity to do the same,” McCartin said.

Warren’s Kitchen will be open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.