NOW SHE’S COOKING
NETHER PROVIDENCE >> For as long as she can remember, Loubna Lemgard was passionate about cooking. When she was only sevenyears-old, she remembers helping her mother, grandmother, and three sisters in the kitchen. By the time she was 9 or 10, the native of Morocco says, she was making her own cheese and jams and later as a teenager and young adult, she crafted her own wines.
“We had a lot of cooks in our kitchen,” Lemgard smiled proudly. “So it was only natural that I developed a passion for highquality food and culinary arts.”
After coming to America in 2005, Lemgard earned a degree in biology from Horry Georgetown Technical College in Georgetown, South Carolina. Not long after Lemgard graduated, she found herself immersed in a career of which she is most fond – in the restaurant field surrounded by food, always dreaming of one day, owning her own restaurant. She and her husband, Abdel, who is an accounts manager, soon left the South and moved to Bala Cynwyd. Loubna worked for the Silver Spoon in Wayne and then White Dog Café for five years. Three years ago, Loubna and Abdel and their two sons, ages 2 and 7, made another move, to Wallingford.
After her arrival in Delaware County, in an effort to meet others in her new community who enjoyed fine food, Lemgard made a brave move. Replicating the international “eat with” culinary platform, she posted a dinner invitation in Nextdoor, the social neighborhood network, and then began cooking. She set up her dining room table for a pleasing, formal dining experience, cooked a seven course dinner and then held her breath until the doorbell rang at 7 p.m. Five guests arrived, locals whom she had never met before, to enjoy the fruits of her labors. They came as strangers and left as friends.
“I am still friends with all five of them today,” Lemgard said, chuckling at the memory.
Never giving up her dream to own her own restaurant, Loubna was taking her sons to school one day last year, when she passed the small strip mall on Providence Road in her township, where the Pantry store is located. She noticed that the dry cleaners was empty and the convenient location seemed ideal for the realization of her dream. Never looking back, she took the plunge.
“If not now, maybe never,” Lemgard said she told herself.
Lemgard did a full overhaul, taking eight months to oversee the creation of a small café with a large kitchen. The ambiance is simple and quaint, yet cozy. Lemgard named her new place, La Cannelle Café, using the French word for cinnamon, which she uses often in her cooking. She person
ally created all of the recipes and menus for the restaurant.
La Cannelle Café opened in April for breakfast and lunch. After seven months of success, the restaurateur recently opened the new dining destination for dinner in October, Thursday through Saturday nights. La Cannelle also offers catering and can host events and parties at the restaurant, for up to 35 guests. Lemgard works with customers to tailor catering orders to fit each customer’s budget and needs.
The BYOB restaurant is currently operating with twelve on staff. Everything on the menu is freshly made, in-house on the premises, from sausages and breads to desserts and iced tea, most with locally harvested ingredients. Most offerings are farm to table, with fresh cheeses, honey and other organic ingredients in the nutritious entrees. The restaurant is family friendly and offers a wholesome children’s menu.
In addition to some traditional breakfast options, the breakfast menu offers some gourmet choices, like Pumpkin Bread French Toast, Lemon-Lavender Pancakes, Duck Bacon and Egg and Roasted Mushroom Omelet, with caramelized onions, herb goat cheese crema, house potatoes and mix green salad.
The lunch menu is equally gourmet, with selections like lamb and brie toast with dried apricot, and candied pears and balsamic reduction apple and Brie Melt with caramelized onions, baby arugula on a grilled brioche. There is also a weekend brunch menu available.
The dinner menu offers a superior culinary selection to please most palates, with entrees that include choices such as Alaskan Wild Salmon, with braised lentils, celery root puree, preserved lemon relish; Caramelized Chicken Breast with roasted grapes, duck bacon, crispy feta and fresh thyme; and Goat Cheese Gnocchi, with Shiitake mushrooms, wilted arugula, grana padano cheese, and sage brown butter sauce. Side options include choices like Charred Cabbage, with hazelnut romesco, parmesan and parsley; Warm Kale and Sweet Potato, with grana padano cheese, pumpkin seeds and tahini-soy; and Moroccan Lamb Kofta, with caramelized onions, tahini and apple zhong.
While diners peruse the menu before ordering, servers bring out a small selection of dates, stuffed with goat cheese, to “warm up the palate” prior to appetizers or dinner. The dinner entrees, all artfully presented, are served tapasstyle on small plates so diners are encouraged to order a variety of dishes. Special pricing is available to dining couples for them to build their own tasting samplings.
The local Delaware County community has been very supportive,” shared Lemgard. “I couldn’t have opened in a better place. There is nothing that makes me happier than preparing food for dining guests who have come here for a good meal.”