The Olpe Kaffeehaus

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

THE OLPE KAFFEEHAUS

In Olpe, German chocolate truffles are a big seller. And that’s where the Sweet Granada makes truffles now, at their production kitchen in downtown Olpe.

A few weeks ago, I ran into Dan Markowitz here in Emporia and he invited me to visit the Olpe Kaffeehaus. He told me he bakes muffins and cinnamon rolls for the shop and that I should drive down to sample the pastries.

So, I did. I headed Olpe on a recent Sunday morning.

cranberry-apple muffin

As I drank too many cups of coffee from a china teacup and enjoyed an orange-walnut muffin, and then a cranberry-apple muffin, Markowitz gave me the short version of the history of Olpe. He showed me photos, including a shot of Olpe’s 1885 Golden Lion Hotel, and explained a bit of the history of the settlers and the churches and schools, and about the community of Maydale south of town, which no longer exists.

Markowitz gets up early to do the baking and then he serves customers at the coffee shop at 203 W. Bitler, which is open Fri.- Sun. from 7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. A countertop with stools and a couple of tables fill the small front room of the building.

Dan Markowitz packages chocolates for a customer.

He serves coffee from the Granada Coffee Co. along with the muffins and cinnamon rolls. And, of course, there’s chocolate available.

Sweet Granada Chocolate Café started business in Emporia in 2004, but it wasn’t until this past March that they opened their production kitchen in Olpe. With more space to work, they’re now able to provide chocolates to other retailers, such as the Sweet 120, a chocolate store in El Dorado which had its grand opening recently.

“They opened on Thursday and sold five times what they expected to on the first day,” Kim Redeker said. And their next two days had great sales as well.

Redeker co-owns the Sweet Granada along with her mother, Toni Bowling. Both were in El Dorado for the Sweet 120’s opening.

Kim Redeker visits with a customer at the counter.

The Sweet Granada also supplies their high-quality chocolate products to other out-of-town businesses such as Patrick Dugan’s Coffee House in Garden City, Oz Winery in Wamego, and Pages Books & Coffee in Newton.

Redeker said that truffles are the best-selling of their wholesale items.

Truffles are made from milk or cream, chocolate (milk, dark, or white), and flavorings. They are rolled into balls and dipped twice in chocolate. After the second dipping they get the signature, such as nuts and coconut for the German chocolate truffles.

Other truffle flavors include café ole, cheesecake and prairie fire. Ingredients in the prairie fire truffles are dark chocolate, a bit of cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and chipotle pepper. They are rolled in powdered cocoa.

Pop-choc (popcorn drizzled with white and milk chocolate) is a local favorite. “Until we had the production kitchen, we’d make a batch and then we’d be out for two days,” Redeker said. “We couldn’t keep up.” And even now, she said, they make five batches a week and still sell out.

I like a good crunch, so for me, personally, I’m crazy about the chocolate and nut-covered pretzel sticks. I like that crunchy mix of salty and sweet.

While I was in the Olpe Kaffeehaus, Dorothy Blaufuss came in. She and Markowitz talked about an elderly resident, a person who was having health issues and might appreciate a visit. Conversations like that makes me feel good, knowing that people still watch after their neighbors.

And, somewhere in the morning’s conversation, I heard about Blaufuss’s skill at baking pies. Apparently, she’s known in the community for the pies she makes for neighbors and funerals and fund-raising events. She had recently given Markowitz several pieces of a coconut cream pie and he raved about the crust.

Hearing about all the small-town friendliness, I suggested that I’d like to live in Olpe.

“I’ve stayed around forever,” Blaufuss said, “And you came back,” she said to Markowitz, who had once worked in Budapest, as well as in Overland Park.

“Yes, I came back,” he said, “And I’m glad I did.”

Copyright 2010 ~ Cheryl Unruh

Olpe Kaffeehaus, 203 W. Bitler, Olpe

Open: Friday, Saturday, Sunday – 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Sweet Granada chocolate suckers to be decorated later.