Kicking Glass

Glass City Café owner, Debbie Crouse, prepares to serve her homemade baked beans and a River Wrap in front of vintage Toledo concert posters

New café celebrates Toledo's history and good food

by Jason Webber

published October 25th 2006

Hanging on the wall of the Glass City Café sits a framed poster of a Dr. John/Captain Beefheart concert at the Toledo Sports Arena. The year isn't given, but it was clearly a long time ago: the ticket price is advertised as $4.50 in advance, $5.50 day of.

Located just above that is – Omigod, no waaaay – a framed flyer for the 2001 Gathering of the Juggalos, the infamous Insane Clown Posse festival that caused thousands of dollars in damage to the SeaGate Convention Centre (our apologies to Jim Donnelly if he just read that and his blood pressure jumped).

Glass City Café is nothing less than a history lesson of Toledo, with all of our fair city's sometimes crazy history represented. That's just what owner Debbie Crouse had in mind when her and her husband Steve (who works as vice-president of Erd Specialty Graphics) bought the building (formerly the location of Café on Jackson) last December.

"Steve is an avid Toledo enthusiast," says Debbie. "He collects anything and everything related to Toledo and everything you see in here is from his own personal collection. Everything in here is related somehow to Toledo."

A small sampling – vintage signs from Toledo-area companies such as Libbey, DeVilbiss, Almondina Cookies and Buckeye Beer. A dog-eared paperback book titled "The Blade of Toledo" sits on a shelf, and a wooden hutch sits in a corner of the cozy dining room, filled to the brim with small, antique glass pieces made in the Glass City, and all pieces are for sale. Steve has so much stuff, Debbie says the couple are thinking about opening a small antique store at some point in the future.

That's another story. For now, the Crouse's im-mediate goal is great food and service, at which they are doing a superb job. A quick read of the menu reveals just how passionate and dedicated a family they are to this project (son Daniel helps with cooking and Matthew is the Webmaster of www.glasscitycafe). While deciding what sandwich to order, you can read various trivia facts about Toledo, as well as how the Crouse's chose the logo for the Glass City Café. Quite a tale.

The food? Brace yourself, because you're in for a treat. Nearly everything is homemade, right on down to the coconut cake ($1.50) and Debbie's baked beans ($1.95). Those beans are something else – Debbie rises at 5 a.m. to make them fresh every morning and she exclusively uses bacon from House of Meats and Amish brown sugar. Sweet, tangy with just the right touch of spice, this is a perfect accompaniment to a sandwich.

If you're stymied as to what to order from the menu (which includes 13 types of snadwiches), give the River Wrap ($5.95) a day in court – tender roast beef, a sauteed mosaic of summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, and peppers, all slathered in Thousand Island dressing. You even get your choice between flour and wheat wraps. Too cool.

The Café offers breakfast items from 7:30-11 a.m., with choices ranging from eggs-n-bacon/sausage ($3.25) to breakfast wraps and sandwiches. Even the beverage selection is an eclectic mix, offering energy drinks such as Von Dutch, Rockstar and Full Throttle in addition to the usual Coke-family products.

Plus, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more gracious hostess than Debbie Crouse. Chatty, amiable and quick to refill your water, she'll remind you of that sweet aunt that always let you have an extra slice of cake when you went to her house. The entire Glass City Café project is a labor of love and Toledo optimism, which we need now more than ever.

"Thanks for stopping," says Debbie. "We appreciate your business."

And this is a place that Toledo should appreciate.

Glass City Café
1107 Jackson St.
419-241-4769

Mon.-Fri.: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Closed weekends
Cash only (credit cards coming soon)