Small Batch Kitchen Opens Cafe-Market on Lansdale's Main Street

Lansdale gave a big welcome Saturday to its newest small business.

Visitors and officials alike said hello to the Small Batch Kitchen Cafe & Market, which held its grand opening this weekend at its new borough location, 711 W. Main Street, the former site of Swirled Peace Frozen Yogurt.

The colorful combination café, market and production facility is serving up, among other items, soups and grilled cheese sandwiches – surprisingly popular on opening weekend despite triple-digit heat indexes outside – as well as making and selling its signature spreads and "small-batch” products.

"We have been making jam for five years, working in a kitchen on my home property in Harleysville, and we outgrew that production space,” says Sheila Rhodes Delp, Small Batch Kitchen owner. Vending at a number of farmers markets and wholesaling to about a hundred retail locations, she says, "We needed to move into a new commercial kitchen. And we found this space in Lansdale that had space for a commercial kitchen, for a café where we could make grilled cheeses using our spreads, and also for a market where we could sell our products and other locally sourced products.”

The commitment to local sourcing extends into the café, where a chalkboard proudly lists the fresh ingredients in the sandwiches and salads, with their origins – mostly from Pennsylvania. "We want to be as transparent as possible. We think it’s really important to know where your food is grown and how it’s grown,” she says. "We really try to be committed to our local farming community, which means that our menu will rotate pretty frequently.”

And that commitment includes the market area, where fans of the Lansdale Farmers Market will recognize a number of the products for sale, alongside other sustainably produced area goods. "These are products that I love, or that other people who work here love; we get everything local,” she says, adding they intend to stock eggs, milk and other fresh staples. "We won’t be a full grocery store, but you’ll be able to get all the staples here and some unique other items.”

You’ll also find gift and kitchen items for sale, "things to help make cooking fun again,” she says. Cooking is "something I really enjoy doing, so I’m trying to include a lot of the products I use in my home kitchen. I find myself in the kitchen more when things around me are beautiful and sustainable.”