Introducing our newest column: Shining a light on Portage County local food

I love the relationship between a locally owned restaurant and its town. The purpose they serve is deeper than just feeding their customers, but meeting them where they are, remembering their name, having the drink poured before they walk through the doors. 

I grew up in Portage County’s restaurant kitchens. My parents owned a few places here, and I spent more evenings than I can count bussing tables, running food, cleaning bathrooms and eventually cooking on the line. I watched firsthand the work that goes into feeding a community. The experience made me fall in love not just with food, but with the people behind it. This column is dedicated to sharing those two loves: exploring the food I love to eat and highlighting the local chefs who love to make it. 

This regular column will be my chance to explore these places with you. Join me to learn about spots here in Portage County that may have flown under your radar. And maybe even find a new favorite.

I knew immediately that the Cellar Door Coffee Company had to be the first stop for this column. I chose to feature them first for a few reasons. They opened in my hometown of Garrettsville during my high school years, becoming the backdrop for countless after-school study groups. But it holds a deeper significance for me, too: it was the setting of the very first date I had with my wife.  

Cellar Door Coffee Company

Starting a business in a small town may seem simple. From my experience working in a small kitchen, fewer competitors and the loyalty of local customers in a village can look like advantages at first glance. But in places like Portage County, I’ve seen that opening your shop can make you a one-of-a-kind store for your town: a pressure that a big city can’t recreate.

This particular small-town story takes place in Garrettsville, where Cellar Door Coffee Company opened in 2016 as the village’s first and only coffee shop. Stepping inside, I found myself in a renovated carriage mill. A barista behind the counter welcomed me as puffs of steam twisted around her. Before joining the line, the large windows facing Main Street called my name. I slipped over to save a table, then hopped back in line. The smell of coffee drifted through the air alongside the warm scent of cookies, and I was told they were fresh.

Derek and Whitney Podboy opened Cellar Door with plans bigger than coffee or food. In fact, when they first unlocked the doors, they had no menu at all. What they wanted was to build a hub for the community. Today, the shop hosts Bible studies, weekly chess clubs, book clubs, daily business meetings and has even held multiple weddings!

A few days before my interview with Whitney, I stopped in for a coffee and to write some notes. Sitting at a table near the line was a customer with a chess board in front of him.

“Hi, Simon,” he said.

The last time we spoke, he was kicking my butt in a game of chess back when I was in high school, “studying” for a math test at the shop. I was shocked to see that he remembered my name so many years later. And pleasantly surprised that his name came up when I asked Whitney if she had any stories about her regulars.

“That’s the good stuff,” Whitney told me. “I love the way people’s flight patterns have
changed because we exist.”

Before opening the shop, Whitney and her husband’s lives looked very different. Whitney, who wasn’t a morning person, spent her days flying around the country for her job in the nonprofit sector, often stopping at coffee shops to finish up some work. When the Podboys opened their shop, she took on a donor development role in Cleveland, working just one day a week. Derek, meanwhile, works as an engineer for NASA and still somehow finds the time to contribute to the café. Before Cellar Door opened, he decided to build all the dining room tables himself to save money. Whitney laughed as she told me this, admitting that he had barely built anything before. You wouldn’t know it by looking at them; the tables are beautiful.

The building that now houses Cellar Door was once a dilapidated carriage mill perched above Main Street. Even in its run-down state, the community loved it. In 2014, owner Mike Maschek began the process of renovating the building to restore and allow it to continue serving the community. After seeing the renovations for the first time, the Podboys pulled their car over to call Maschek, immediately.

Whitney told me she thinks it’s incredible that Garrettsville is so self-sustaining for a town its size: grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, a bowling alley, a roller rink, the boardwalk, laundry mat — the list goes on. 

“Anything you could want, it’s here, it seems,” Whitney said. “Except the coffee shop.”

As anyone who would consider themselves a regular at their local coffee shop will tell you: it’s never just about the coffee. For busy townsfolk, Cellar Door quickly became the place to stop on the way to work for a latte far better than anything they could make at home. And for others, the renovated mill offered something they didn’t even know they were missing: a warm space to sit, meet, linger and feel connected. 

To become the true gathering place they envisioned, Derek and Whitney knew they had to listen. The community would shape the shop just as much as they did. 

“We didn’t wake up one day and decide to be in the food industry. … We made a decision early on to listen and respond,” Whitney said.

Adding a lunch and breakfast menu came as a result of customers simply asking for it.

“Now food is equal to, if not bigger than, our coffee,” she said. 

Whitney didn’t always know where the menu should go, so she leaned on her team.

One of the managers helped put together a great menu of options for breakfast and lunch and keeps the pastry case full with homemade cookies and muffins. Baristas contribute on the drink side, shaping specials and helping create long-standing favorites like the Old Mill or Buckeye Block mochas.

“We tried to meet people on the customer side, but also on the employee side. We’ve had some amazing people come through the team,” Whitney said. 

Whitney told me that the regulars, especially those that stop in nearly everyday, are the foundation the shop is built on. 

“There are so many things to get right,” she said. “We don’t take it lightly that someone would choose to spend their dollar here.” 

They do their best to build rapport with the customers that they see, and try their best to earn the trust of the people coming in for the first time. Whitney still meets people in town who have never stepped inside.

“Getting them inside is the hardest part,” she said. “Just getting them to give us a shot.”

When I asked about what’s ahead for Cellar Door, Whitney shared something she and Derek have been working on quietly for a while: they’re opening a new store just a few doors down on Main Street. The new restaurant, called Podboys, will focus on breakfast and lunch and carry forward the spirit of the original cafe, which will remain open as the town’s go-to coffee shop. Podboys is set to open January 2026. 

“It will have the essence of this place. You’re gonna see little nods on the menu to Cellar Door,” she said, hinting at a Buckeye Block waffle. 

These are the kinds of businesses that make Portage County what it is. I encourage you to take a chance on a place you haven't tried yet. Step inside the shops that are trying to make your day better. You might just find the spot that changes your flight pattern.