Back to the old grind for a Mount Airy coffee shop
by PAMELA ROGOW
When Meg Hagele opened the High Point Café on Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy a month ago, she thought of the place as a coffee bar. Her plan was to build on her success in Seattle, where she co-owned a popular coffee bar with a top pastry chef.
Indeed, Meg is a coffeemeister. As technical as a scientist and as dedicated as a den mother, she selects her beans, trains her roasters, designs her formulas, stipulates her steam — and cultivates her customers — like the barista she trained to be a decade ago.
She is also a pastry maven. Indeed, her partner in the coffee bar she co-owned in Seattle was a master pastry chef. Not surprising then that High Point Café daily serves a freshly baked range of scones, biscuits, pies, cakes, tarts, cookies, buns and more, according to the seasoned whims of pastry chef Robert Baldwin.
Talking to Robert, it is not hard to share the idea that he was born for this work. “I love this job. It is the perfect opportunity for me to use my creativity, fusing all kinds of batters and seasonal fruits every day,” says Robert enthusiastically. Indeed, he is pleased that he can walk to work between 3 and 4 a.m.
The café is designed so that customers can see Robert at the back of the space, working nimbly and gracefully. In fact, he works like a dancer, using his whole body to bake as well as keep very clean surfaces.
Robert trained at his aunt’s side. Lillian Jackson owned a catering company in Richmond, Virginia, where he worked for many summers. “And my mother, Lillian E. Hammond, is a master cook too,” he adds. But it was at Café Baci in Millburn, New Jersey, where he was master chef, that he finessed his pastry making.
Since opening in early August, the café has rewarded Robert and Meg with plenty of good news.
“What I didn’t count on,” Meg says, “is that we would take off right away. Or that the crepes we sell would be so popular. Even the crepes-to-go are walkin’ out the door. Summer was supposed to be a slow season, but we took off right away.”
The café is located near Lincoln Drive, by the intersection of Carpenter Lane & Greene Street — across from Weavers Way Co-op, Henry School and the Moving Arts Studio.
