A central Pennsylvania small business that has been selling homemade frozen meals for five years, first through delivery and then at local markets, is opening the doors of its first brick-and-mortar storefront in State College.
Kathryn’s will open at 7 a.m. Friday in the former Brewsky’s Bottle Shop location at 1665 S. Atherton St. (behind IHOP), offering its frozen meals for the family as well as several ready-to-eat items to go.
Hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Though that may expand in the future, owner Kathy Fisher told StateCollege.com in January that the reason for the limited public hours is because the rest of the week she is using the shop for production.
Online and phone orders are, temporarily, not available.
Kathryn’s specializes in meals that Fisher described as comfort food, drawing on recipes handed down from her mother and grandmother. Its offerings have included frozen, family-size trays of main dishes like lasagna, baked mac and cheese, beef stroganoff, breakfast hash and cheddar biscuit chicken casserole, to name a few, as well as soups, vegetables and other sides and desserts.
“It’s kind of an old-fashioned style, if you will, which is comforting,” owner Kathy Fisher told StateCollege.com in January. “You’ve got your chicken noodle soup and you’ve got your lasagna, mac and cheese, meatballs, …things people are all familiar with. It’s just down to earth kind of food.”
The meals are inspired by the Pennsylvania Dutch style of cooking, which Fisher said is best illustrated by the ham balls (ham loaf rolled into balls) with sweet and sour sauce.
“It leans toward the PA Dutch style of cooking,” Fisher said. “Ham balls is probably one of the best things to describe PA Dutch cooking. Ham balls, I have found, some people are just like ‘What is that?’ Ham balls is known to be a central PA item and part of that PA Dutch cooking comes in the ham balls.”
While the store has no customer seating, it will have grab-and-go salads, coffee and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls — Fisher’s signature item that she began selling as a way to draw people in when she started selling her frozen meals at local farmers markets.
Kathryn’s also will be offering Friday dinners — hot meals for one to go — from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“This allows people to try the meals that we have frozen before they go all in and buy a whole lasagna,” Fisher said. “This kind of gives people the opportunity to taste test, as well as there are people who just want to have a meal hot and ready to go.”
Fisher plans to grown Kathryn’s offerings over time, including additional ready-to-eat items.
While it no longer offers delivery, Kathryn’s will continue to sell frozen meals at Centre Markets in the Nittany Mall, Mexico Market in Port Royal and the Boalsburg and North Atherton Street farmers markets.
Fisher said she believes the appeal of Kathryn’s is being able to provide a home-cooked meal for yourself and your family, even when you can’t make it yourself.
“I like to tell people it’s more than just good quality. It’s experience,” she said. “I think that, especially as a mother of four kids, when we can pop something in the oven and the house smells good, you feel guilt-free that you didn’t do any work but you got dinner in the oven. There’s really something about that, especially for mothers, it feels like you cooked a good meal for your kids and the house smells good.”
