Jan. 18, 2023

A popular downtown coffee shop and cafe reopened today after a two-week kitchen remodeling project with the bonus of a dozen new menu items.

Tom Pepper, who owns Josiah’s Coffeehouse, Cafe and Bakery at 104 W. 12th St. with business partner Kibbi McCormick, has been crafting the additions for a long time.

The contender for staff favorite – a cheer filled the dining room Tuesday night when it came out during a final test-run — is The Cure. It’s a croissant bun with maple brown sugar butter, ham, bacon, sausage, hash browns, over-hard egg and cheese.

“I wanted that Saturday morning food for a bachelor party that had a long night the night before. You know what I mean?” Pepper said. “That’s why I called it ‘The Cure.’ I just made it on a whim one day. I love just making stuff and feeding it to the staff. They have been begging me for months. They’re like, ‘You need to have this on the menu.’”

He promised them it would happen with the second phase of their remodel – the first, almost a year ago, focused on the dining area.

Now, with the removal of the kitchen’s small flattop grill and the addition of two larger ones, two new hamburgers and a bacon cheeseburger wrap – McCormick’s favorite and one of Pepper’s – made their way onto the menu.

“The amount of food pushed out on that one flattop was insane,” Pepper said.

There’s the Mushroom & Swiss Burger and the Bacon Benny Burger with two smash burgers, bacon and egg with hollandaise. The grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Wrap has hamburger, bacon, cheddar cheese, tomato, red onion, pickles, mustard and bacon aioli in a flour tortilla.

“We’re so used to a burger,” Pepper said. “When I made this, I thought ‘Have you ever had a bacon cheeseburger pizza?’ It’s got the ketchup and mustard and everything; that’s this in a wrap. It’s got that right balance.”

Several items joined the breakfast menu. The new Breakfast Quesadilla is filled with scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, chorizo, cheddar cheese and pico de gallo. It’s served with sides of sour cream, salsa and sausage gravy.

House favorite Eggs Benedict is joined by Southern Eggs Benedict with barbecue pulled pork, eggs, hollandaise and green onions on a buttermilk biscuit.

The Breakfast Burrito is stuffed with marinated steak, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and salsa verde.

New lunch items include two salads: Asian Chicken and Bruschetta Chicken.

Joining the flatbreads is the Bruschetta Steak Pizza.

Other new sandwiches are The Cuban and Chicken Caprese.

Josiah’s raised its menu prices “just a little bit” to reflect rising costs for labor, food and supplies.

While work was underway in the kitchen, staff took the downtime to do a deep-cleaning in the dining room. One of the team members, Morgan Hermanson, added chalkboard-like drawings of the Arc of Dreams and Falls Park.

Sydney Lees of Odessa Design updated the menu board above the counter where customers order.

All the favorite baked goods remain, along with the coffee from Caffe Vita Roasting Co. in Seattle.

“It’s one of those things that people if they like it, they just don’t want to change it,” McCormick said.

But the changes that have been made in the past year are improvements for customers and staff, the owners said.

“We have amazing regulars that we see almost every day,” Pepper said. “This is a second office to most people. And we’re totally OK with it. Come in and sit down during the week and have a meeting.”

And the team will see the benefits from the latest behind-the-scenes project.

“We have a great staff, and we wanted to give them the best tools for their job,” Pepper said.

Josiah’s, which is a dog-friendly restaurant, is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.