Main Street Eats: West Middletown welcomes first restaurant in decades
Courtesy of Marsha Cassel
Though Kitchen on Main in West Middletown is her first restaurant, Marsha Cassel has spent decades cooking for others; she even penned her own cookbook. Cassel is looking forward to serving the community fresh, locally sourced and nutritious – but tasty – meals in her space along East Main.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Roasted red pepper and carrot soup served with a dollop of sour cream is one of the many menu items that can be prepared vegan at Kitchen on Main, which opened along West Middletown’s East Main Street Friday.
Guests to Kitchen on Main are invited to come for the fresh, healthy menu items and leave with local organic honey, handmade soaps and natural facial scrubs crafted by Marsha Cassel. Cassel said homemade chocolates will also be available in the retail section of her quaint new eatery.
Katherine Mansfield/ Observer-Reporter
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Detail of the placements at Kitchen on Main, which feature the work of renowned West Middletown artist Nat Youngblood.
West Middletown Borough boasts a population of less than 100 and, at about a mile from one end to the other, if you blink while driving through you’re apt to miss it.
But a small, enthusiastic group of locals is spearheading the borough’s comeback. Poor Johnny’s antiques and coffee shop opened in 2020, and Marsha Cassel is dishing up every foodie’s dream from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11:30 to 4 p.m. Sundays at Kitchen on Main, the borough’s first dine-in restaurant in years.
Kitchen on Main, which opened its newly renovated doors Friday, is an elegant step back in time. Diners entering the 200-year-old home are greeted by original hardwood floors and thick wooden ceiling beams, brick fireplaces whose mantles are tastefully decorated in historic relics, and bright walls dressed in encouraging words and dried botanicals.
“It’s different, intimate,” said Cassel, who, as founder, owner and head chef of Kitchen on Main, worked diligently to cultivate a warm, welcoming dining space.
The cozy dining rooms open into Kitchen on Main’s general store, a retail space offering homemade chocolates and candies, local organic honey, Cassel’s handmade soaps and skin care products, and other natural remedies.
“The farm-to-table movement is getting stronger,” said Cassel, noting she and her husband, Mitch Cassel, grow many of Kitchen on Main’s ingredients in their 14,000-square-foot garden, and source from local farms.
“We’re going to keep it as fresh as possible. It’s what I’ve always done in my home. This is now just an extension of me,” Cassel said. “I think people get intimidated with cooking. I want to show people that … when you eat better, you fuel your body with real ingredients, you’re bound to feel better.”
Kitchen on Main offers to-go meals, but its focus is full-service dining. Cassel invites folks from near and far to enjoy tasty, healthful eats prepared in the presentation kitchen, where guests can watch as their orders are crafted with care. While waiting for food to arrive, Cassel encourages customers to make new friends, lose themselves in old books (Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys are live-in guests!) or play board games.
When warmer weather arrives, folks will enjoy eating on the outdoor deck, where meals will be served with a helping of live music. Expect performances by Cassel’s husband and other local artists to jazz up the dining experience.
“It’s going to be a blast,” Cassel said, smiling.
Kitchen on Main is Cassel’s first foray into the restaurant world, but the energetic foodie who pours her soul into everything from projects and causes to relationships has worked industry-adjacent for years.
She enjoys cooking for – and sending treats home with – loved ones. Before the pandemic Cassel owned a catering business and launched the personal chef service “Marsha Will Cook for You.”
“That was pretty popular during COVID,” said Mitch Cassel. “She … prepared meals at people’s homes. That became a testing ground for a lot of her recipes. It has been kind of a natural progression.”
Cassel shares her food philosophy in her cookbook, “My Healing Cook Booklet,” published in 2020, and is excited to bring that philosophy and her passion for serving others in the form of freshly made food to West Middletown.
“I think we are in the infancy of something really important here,” said Cassel. “There’s nowhere to eat around here. I think it’s exciting. I think it helps the businesses and just the town and everybody in it.”
After a meal at Kitchen on Main, Cassel hopes visitors will stroll down Main Street, explore Cross Creek Park, pop into Poor Johnny’s for an afternoon coffee or antiquing and enjoy West Middletown Borough’s burgeoning renaissance.
“I have been able to envision this whole place filled up, people laughing and meeting and greeting. This, I think, is really going to become the gathering spot for all kinds of things. It’s not just about the book club or the ladies garden club. We really want to make this a destination, and I really want to be part of it,” Cassel said.
For more on Marsha Cassel’s Kitchen on Main, visit https://marshawillcookforyou.com/marsha-cassels-kitchen-on-main/.