Made in Baltimore: Kitsch Cafe owner shares what happens behind the scenes at the local eatery

Jacqueline Mearman is the owner of Kitsch Cafe, which recently opened a new location in Gilman Hall. In an interview with The News-Letter, Mearman shared first-hand insights into running a small business in a post-pandemic restaurant industry along with behind the scenes stories and facts about Kitsch Cafe. 

The News-Letter: Can you share the story behind how your business got started ?

Jacqueline Mearman: We started in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. Before that, I was a corporate pastry chef — managing 18 restaurants across Texas, Florida and Maryland — so I was flying all over. When the shutdowns hit, we were out of the restaurants for about nine weeks. Coming back, things just weren’t the same; people kept getting sick, and I had to do layoffs and make a lot of tough changes.

I found a small spot at The Carlyle Apartments and decided to lease it. I figured I could afford a sandwich shop, and that’s how it started — just a few pieces of equipment, and we’ve been figuring it out as we go. We’ve been at Carlyle for almost four years now, and, last November, Seawall Development approached me about moving into R. House. We signed the lease in July 2024.

N-L: What challenges did you face when first launching the Cafe, and how did you overcome them?

JM: It sucks, but it's true for almost every business: 100% of the time, it's about the money. It takes a long time to recover your investment and start paying yourself. The hardest part was learning how to leave that financial stress at home and not bring it into work. For this project, I put over $30,000 of my own money into it, so every penny counts. It’s tough when others don’t understand that because they’re just here to do their job. I think living with that reality has changed me as a manager.

An even bigger challenge was unlearning the toxic habits I picked up over 20 years in other jobs. I realized the way I had been treated wasn’t how I wanted to treat others. The way I was taught to think about how to be a chef back in college doesn’t work anymore.

N-L: How does your small business contribute to the local community, especially at Hopkins with the new Kitschenette location in Gilman?

JM: Kitschenette is obviously our for-profit business on campus, and we are loving it there. Since we opened, there's been a lot of requests from Hopkins for donations, like the one we've done for Camp Kesem. That's for children of cancer patients. We always make an annual donation to them and to anything that is education-related, cancer-related and involves a crisis in our community. A great example of that is, when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, we were actually on the scene the next day to serve breakfast to all the rescue workers because they needed to eat. We got the news at like 6 a.m., and, by 8 a.m., I was there with breakfast. 

Another big partnership is Hampden Elementary/Middle School near our first location. We do Free Coffee Fridays with them every month; we give out free coffee in the schoolyard and sell sandwiches. All the money from those sandwich sales is donated to the school. Overall, we try to commit 1% of our revenue back to the community in time, money or product. 

N-L: What are some of the most popular products or services you offer, and why do you think they resonate with customers?

JM: One of the biggest reasons we moved into R. House is their garage space that fits 450 people. We’re the primary caterers for that space. We throw great parties! We’ve done weddings, proms, galas, fundraisers — you name it. We love hosting really big parties, and I think that’s what we do best. 

On a day-to-day basis, I think our coffee program isn’t anything you can get anywhere else. We're very knowledgeable about coffee, and we're always happy to educate our guests. We try to offer coffee products that are low entry; you don’t need to be a barista to understand our menu. We name our drinks in a fun way, like after songs. And we try to take the snobby side of coffee out of it and just make really good coffee for people that they actually want to drink. I always call it “pedestrian coffee,” so it's coffee for everybody.

N-L: How do you stay connected with customers and keep them engaged with your brand?

JM: Normally, I’m on Instagram all the time, posting nonstop. Our loyalty program is really important for staying connected; we have about 5,000 subscribers, and I usually send out a monthly email. I always like to post about specials that the employees come up with. 

We also have some really dedicated regulars. One of them keeps a list of all the staff members’ names and where they work. And then, when [someone] leaves, he will cross out their name and ask them for their email, so he can email them once a month and be like, “I hope you're still doing well.”

We have regulars who put notes on their tickets saying, “We love you,” or bring us birthday presents. Some even go overseas and bring us back cookies. I think we're a part of a lot of families’ lives around here.

N-L: What are your future plans for the business?

JM: I live closer to Annapolis. That's also where my whole family is, so I really hope to open one in Annapolis in 2025. That's my next goal, but I don't know yet. Even with the R. House thing, that was totally random. They’d asked me, like, three times before, and I was like, “no, no, no.” 

Sometimes, the stars just line up. One of my employees just asked me this [question] the other day, and I was like, “I don't know. I don't know what's next.” And they're like, “Well, how do you not know?” I go, “I just wait for the right opportunities to come to me.” I'm patient. We opened one [location], and then we waited almost three and a half years to open a second one, and then we opened a third one immediately. I didn't plan for that.

N-L: Any exciting developments, namely with the new Kitschenette? 

JM: As soon as we get an oven installed (we're waiting very patiently), we'll be doing breakfast sandwiches. So, hopefully people will stop asking us for bagels — I'm trying to let [Daily Grind in Mudd Hall] do their own thing since they do bagels.

We can do different things. But, right now, that's the next step: breakfast sandwiches finally being live! Also, we'll also offer opportunities for people to pre-book coffee and pastry pickups, which I think will be really helpful for a lot of departments.

N-L: What has been the most rewarding experience as a business owner?

JM: Watching my employees [and] my coworkers grow up right before my eyes. It's crazy. I have a woman who’s been with us since Oct. 29, 2020. On day one, she was a line cook. She left twice to do her own thing but came back both times, and now she's our culinary administrator, the second highest position in the company! She started at around $15 an hour, and now she’s on salary, setting her own hours and writing her own schedule. She's just coming into her own. 

For me, watching people have the opportunity to grow in one company without having to move around, that's a big deal. It’s really nice.