Josh Robayo, his mother Amy Delfin-Torres and stepfather Willie Torres own Town and Country Kafe, a coffee shop that will serve Spanish-inspired cuisine when it opens.
“When we started noticing that there just wasn’t enough different food, there wasn’t enough cuisines out here — we needed some variety,” Robayo said. “So then, we came up with this.”
They have plans for a soft opening at the end of this month and a grand opening in early December at 9 Callaway Drive in Crawford. Regular hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
With a basic coffee menu and all food priced under $10, the owners plan to highlight unique food options, including homemade pastries, four types of empanadas, Venezuelan arepas and more traditional Spanish cuisine.
“Imagine a pita bread, smaller in size — you can stuff stuff in it,” Torres said. “So we are going to stuff meat and other food inside those arepas.”
“In Venezuela, you can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Robayo said.
Empanadas are half-moon shaped sweet or savory dough pastries. They are traditionally filled with meat and other ingredients and fried.
Delfin-Torres, who is from Venezuela, but has lived in the U.S. for 46 years, runs Reflections Beauty Boutique in Crawford. She will be the primary chef.
Robaya said his favorite dish is his mother’s empanadas filled with guava and cheese, which will be on the menu.
This family connection is also part of the vision for the new restaurant, which will not have a drive-thru or an online ordering system. The food is fresh-to-order with locally sourced ingredients. There are also plans for store merchandise.
“We want people to come in. We want to know who is coming in. We want to meet the people who are coming here,” said Torres, who is originally from Puerto Rico, served in the U.S. Army for eight years and then worked in border security until his recent retirement. “You won’t enjoy what is in here if you are online.”
In the beginning, Town and Country Kafe was only a coffee shop.
“We found the building, we re-zoned it, we did everything we possibly could from the ground up,” said Robayo, a Florida native who worked in the automotive industry for 25 years before moving to Oglethorpe County to join his mother.
Robayo and his family have escalated the menu and their ideas for Town and Country Kafe.
“There just isn’t a place where there is social gathering, and there are a lot of things we could bring here,” Robayo said. “It sits on three acres of land. And so, with the decks, inside and upstairs, we’ll have events and all these sorts of things we have created in our minds.”
Robayo hopes to bring music activities, movies on the lawn and even bigger events such as weddings, receptions and car shows to the Kafe.
“Once (Oglethorpe County residents) love you, they will take care of you,” Delfin-Torres said. “And that is what I like about this community. They really love you. And the people around, they are the best. And this is the same thing I want to do here. For them to feel welcome, for them to feel like family.”