— Maggie Gordon

ALTAMONT — MaryEllen Cline, 49, searched for the perfect location for her café and country store for three years before finding her spot on Maple Avenue in Altamont.

After a few months of preparations, the Sidewalk Café and Country Store opened yesterday, less than a block from Main Street.
Cline, a single mother who grew up in the Capital District, fell in love instantly with the look, location, and set-up of the property. She referred to Altamont as a "beautiful town and a nice community," and a place that would offer her business great potential to thrive.
While there have been two short-lived businesses at that location within the past few years — an ice cream shop and an eatery — Cline is not intimidated. "I think that everybody has unique ideas and I hope that efforts will enhance the community and help bring more people in here," Cline said.
She also hopes to attract people from surrounding areas. "People should be coming up here on Saturdays and Sundays," Cline said.

This is Cline’s first business venture, although she has been in the food service and retail industry for a number of years.

Cline earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Miami in 1979, and a culinary degree as well as a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Schenectady County Community College in 1997.

Cline is the full proprietor of the business, though she has some family helping her out.

The café’s hours are from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.. Lunch will be served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and the menu will be mainly comprised of soup, salads, and sandwiches, which will be made on fresh-baked bread.

Lunch prices vary, depending on the order. A cup of her freshly made soup costs $1.95, while her sliced beef tenderloin sandwich costs $8.95. Cline said generally the cost is between five and seven dollars.
Dinner will begin at 5 p.m., giving Cline time to clean up after lunch and prepare her entrée. "I’m going to have a selection of one dinner entrée each evening," Cline said.

The small selection of entrées is due to the limited amount of kitchen space available.

Cline plans on putting a board on the sidewalk to list her evening specials for her customers. In the summer the board will list the two soups she will serve per day, which will be upgraded to four per day when the colder weather arrives in fall, she said.

Cline is also keeping the hot-dog bar intact, as well as the soda bar and ice cream window.
She is also adding a country store to the building, which will carry fresh produce each day. "This way people won’t have to run down into town for potatoes," she said.
The store carries jams and jellies, small gift items, flower arrangements, and "other things that catch my eye," Cline said.

Cline said the business differs from other businesses in the community not only because of the country store, but because of other personal touches as well.
"I’d like to hear from the community about what they’d like to see on the menu and the hours they’d like to see it open," she said. She is making notes for recommendations available for her customers.

The café features a full-service soda fountain in the back. This soda fountain, combined with the 16 flavors of Hershey’s hard ice cream she has in stock, provides customers with milkshakes, sundaes, and banana splits on top of the other desserts she plans on creating herself, such as her homemade bread pudding and strawberry shortcake.

While dinner ends at 7 p.m., when the café and store close, Cline plans on keeping the ice-cream window open until 8 p.m.. She said there is a possibility that the window’s hours may be extended after school ends if there seems to be a high demand for ice cream after 8 o’clock.
Cline also plans on taking advantage of the side patio, where her patrons can sit down and eat lunch or ice cream. "It’s an old-fashioned café kind of a deal," she said.