New Kensington's Knead Community Cafe set to debut fall, winter menus

Some “heavier” items are featured on Knead Community Café’s fall and winter lunch menu, which the New Kensington restaurant will roll out Tuesday.

The new seasonal breakfast menu will debut Oct. 29. Knead serves breakfast only on Saturdays; it is open for lunch Tuesdays through Fridays.

The menus will be in effect until April, when they will change again, chef Carlo Cimino said.

Cimino has been with Knead since March 2019. His menus, developed with assistant Chef Chris O’Shell, are always looked forward to, Knead general Manager Paula Langer said.

“There’s always something that makes you go, ‘Huh, I would’ve never thought of that,’ ” she said.

“What we always try to do is offer an array of sandwiches, mains and salads that appeal to the diverse community we have,” Langer said.

On the lunch menu, prices range from $6 to $14.

The new fall/winter menu starts today at Knead Community Cafe in New Kensington. My first try is the Beans & Greens salad. pic.twitter.com/4MliSBoZD1

— Brian Rittmeyer (@BCRittmeyer) October 11, 2022

The only items carried over from the spring and summer menu are the Lodge 881 burger, which Cimino said is their top seller and named for the Sons of Italy post previously in the building, grilled cheese and the popular wedding soup.

The new sandwich offerings feature liverwurst, beef brisket, pulled pork and boneless chicken thighs.

Cimino puts creative names on Knead’s offerings to stir interest. He anticipates the pulled pork sandwich, Good to Be the King, to be a good one, along with the beef brisket, Take a Dip.

“Everybody loves a French dip,” he said.

For those looking for more flavor than the basic grilled cheese, the “Monte Rosa” has marble rye, gruyere cheese, bacon, fried onions and raspberry amaretto jam.

Main dishes feature a center cut sirloin, rare sesame crusted tuna, a cauliflower crust pizza and seafood tortellini with shrimp and salmon.

Some of the menu offerings — such as the tuna, sirloin and brisket dip — were previous daily specials, Cimino said.

Among the salad offerings, Just a Salad is a basic offering with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and black olives. The others are a bit more involved.

The Trailhead Arugula features arugula and baby spinach with shaved vegetables, cinnamon granola clusters, yogurt-covered raisins, bleu cheese crumbles and almonds topped with a honey lemon poppyseed dressing.

Beans & Greens is baby spinach with hard egg, bacon crumble, onions, grape tomatoes, cannellini beans and shaved parmesan topped with a balsamic ranch dressing.

Cimino said the spring and summer lunch menu, on which he provided lighter offerings for warmer weather, had been very well received. The salads and vegetarian choices were big hits.

“People just loved it because no one really caters to that,” he said.

Breakfast is ‘huge’

While Knead is open for breakfast only one day a week, Cimino said it’s huge for them, with the restaurant often full and people waiting.

With breakfast prices ranging from $8 to $14, the menu includes eggs, pancakes, waffles, French toast and oatmeal.

Five breakfast offerings — the Eye Opener, Sunrise on the Allegheny, 5th Avenue Platter, Knead Something Sweet and the All American Breakfast Sandwich — are menu mainstays.

There are echoes of the lunch menu among the new items on the breakfast menu. Carrying over items from one menu to the other and using them in different ways helps Knead lessen its inventory and keep prices in check, Cimino said.

That use of ingredients is seen on the breakfast menu with the steak and eggs, a King’s Crown that uses the King’s Hawaiian rolls used with the pulled pork lunch sandwich and a brisket hash.

Founded in 2017, Knead is a nonprofit where customers can pay the suggested price, pay what they can afford or “pay it forward” by donating extra to support the mission. People also can volunteer their time to receive a free meal.

Knead is staffed by a roster of about 125 volunteers who perform all the tasks a paid restaurant staff would do, Langer said.

“They’re the backbone of Knead Community Café,” she said. “There would be no Knead without our volunteers. It would just be an idea.”