Small businesses are around the corner on Saturday, and whether you are looking for gifts for your favorite cats or cat lovers, a new mom-and-pop shop in Emmaus is the perfect destination.
Purr Haus provides the "best things" for cats and those who love them, and opens on Saturday at 27 S. Seventh St. (opposite CVS Driveway).
Shoppers can find carefully selected cat supplies such as beds, bowls, carriers and toys; cat-themed clothing and accessories such as T-shirts, leggings, dresses and winter hats; and other cat-centric items such as Coloring book, glassware, greeting card and umbrella.
There are also natural cat foods such as dried sardines and tuna flakes, as well as cat care products such as total anti-flea solutions and shampoos.
The owner Laurie Mason (Laurie Mason) is a lifelong lover of cats. She and her husband Tim Schroeder attended their first meeting in Asbury Park, New Jersey. After the cat conference, she started planning for Purr Haus in 2018.
Mason said: "There is a long line outside the conference hall, people are eager to enter, and all the suppliers are booming." "I realized that there is a market for the small quantities of cat supplies sold there, for'cat lovers' like me. I like shopping with like-minded people and buying products that are not only cool but also support a certain cause."
Mason owns four cats and has raised several other cats through the non-profit Animal Rescue Organization (SOAR) in Lehigh Valley. She also set up a special room to hold cat adoption activities. She plans to meet with SOAR and others on weekends. Animal rescue organizations organize these activities together.
Since meeting a pregnant cat and her three kittens in her yard in 2011, Mason has had a soft spot for homeless cats.
"Even though I have kept cats all my life, I don't know how big the problem of stray cats is," Mason said. "I called all these cat rescue organizations and heard that their shelters are full and their bank accounts are empty."
Mason is a former crime journalist. Before retiring from the industry in June, she worked for the Morning Post for six years. She transferred her new interest in cat rescue there, often writing about the Lehigh Valley animal welfare organization. article.
"I often joked that when I wrote an autobiography, I would name it'From Murder to Meow'," Mason said. "When the reporter was stressed, for a few nights, especially after reporting a homicide trial of a child victim, the only thing that made me decompress and fall asleep was to hold a purring cat on my lap."
She said that Mason is not trying to compete with pet chains or large online companies, but to provide "a unique combination of cat supplies-most made in the United States-you won't find it anywhere else."
Unique choices include blankets for your cat and you; cat-print jumpsuits, scarves and handbags; organic toys filled with catnip decorated with popular TV shows such as "Golden Girl" and "Hit Creek" Image; and a backpack cat cage with windows to make your cat look like an astronaut when you go to the vet.
Some suppliers, such as Kittees, a T-shirt company based in California, donate part of their proceeds to animal rescue organizations.
The store also plays cat-themed songs such as "Kitty Kat" by Beyonce and "What's New Pussycat" by Tom Jones. It is open from Wednesday to Friday from 11 am to 7 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to pm 5 o'clock and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Information: purrhaus.com.
About half a mile east of Purr Haus, a senior stylist opened another new company in Emmaus.
Jessica Lang, a hair stylist with a 16-year license, opened the Alter Ego Salon and Spa at 500 Broad St. across the street from Volpe Sports Bar.
For more than a decade, the corner space has been the location of another salon, She Salon & Day Spa. Before that, it was the location of Broad Street Market and the historic Gabby's Market.
Alter Ego has eight styling stations and provides various hair care services, including haircuts, hair coloring, perms and buns.
The company sells hair care products from top brands such as American Crew, Biolage and Redken, and plans to expand its range of services to include nail art, facial care and skin care products in the near future.
Lang joined Danielle Fritchman, another experienced stylist who has 11 years of experience in the hair care industry, and several other stylists will start working in the coming weeks. Friitchman and Lang recently worked together at the local holiday hair salon. Information: 610-421-8585.
Two companies-glasses retailer Warby Parker and pescatarian cafeAlmost Vegan-will open in Lehigh Valley Mall in early 2022.
Almost vegetarian, serving wild seafood, plant-based dishes and organic smoothies, originally opened in July 2020 at 627 W. Liberty St. in Allentown.
Nadia said that the husband and wife's co-owners, Anthony and Nadia Alexander, plan to move the restaurant to a shopping mall in order to "hopefully have more space and traffic by February."
Nadia said the couple will continue to operate the restaurant outside of Allentown, a refurbished place that used to be a Yocco hot dog shop until the relocation is complete.
Menu highlights include breakfast items such as quinoa flour, avocado toast, and wild blueberry pancakes; lunch options such as vegetarian pizza, Maryland-style crab cakes, and grilled shrimp skewers salad; and vegetarian desserts such as vanilla walnut cake and apple caramel cheese cake. Tortillas feature grain-free and soy-free hulls, and come in two varieties: salmon and fennel beans.
In the second-floor mall space that previously had Subway, the Alexander family plans to update the menu to include more vegetarian and seafood dishes. Staples will continue to be provided.
Warby Parker will "provide high-quality glasses, sunglasses, contact lenses and eye exams at affordable prices" and will open the first Lehigh Valley store in the outdoor lifestyle center of the shopping mall. The space used to be Coach, a brand of handbags and accessories.
According to a post on the company’s website, the upcoming Whitehall store is hiring more than a dozen positions, including opticians, eyewear supervisors and sales managers. The online listing also indicates that the store will open in "Spring 2022".
Warby Parker was first launched online in 2010, and has since expanded to more than 150 locations in the United States and Canada, "expanding ideas, designing products, and developing technologies that help people see"-from designer-quality prescription glasses (starting with A message on the company’s website ($95) and contact information for eye exams and vision tests available online and in stores.
The owner of a once popular restaurant in Hellertown found a new restaurant in Lehigh County to serve diners.
Husband and wife Russell and Kim Lebkuecher, who ran the now-closed Kasey Lynn's restaurant on the main street of the borough for more than 15 years, opened Kasey Lynn's at 1305 Broadway, Fountain Hill, Broadway on Wednesday.
The building used to be Marty’s famous steak and pizzeria. Owner Michael Marty closed last month after 33 years of business to focus on his booming frozen pizza business, Marty’s American Pizza Company.
Lebkuechers serves familiar Kasey Lynn favorites, including peppers, macaroni and cheese, patties, rice pudding and omelets. New products include pizza and ribeye ultimate cheese steak.
During the trial operation, only breakfast and lunch will be provided, but starting this week, dinner services will be launched on specific dates and times: Sunday and Tuesday from 7 am to 2 pm and Wednesday to Saturday from 7 am to 7 pm.
After the original Kasey Lynn closed in the mid-2000s, Lebkuechers ran a number of other business iterations named after their daughter, including Kasey Lynn's Sweets & Catering on Main Street in Hellertown, a few blocks away.
Recently, they sold Kasey's, an upper-floor family restaurant in Bucks County, Delaware, which operated in Tinicum from March 2017 to August this year. Under the new ownership, this restaurant is called Amanda's Riverside Cafe.
From 1991 to 2017, Lebkuechers was also the co-owner of The Meadows banquet facility in Lower Sokon, and their children continued to run the sister company Paragon Catering. Information: paragoncater.com.
Another delicious addition: the ice cream lounge opened at 1800 Sullivan Trail in Foxtown in May 2019, and its sister company Ice Cream Lounge & Caribbean Grill was opened on Friday in the same space near the Park Plaza Shopping Center.
This fast food restaurant serving Caribbean-style dishes, such as bastard chicken, curry goat and oxtail, will occupy a corner space that was previously used by other food-centric businesses, including Dickey's Barbecue Pit, Red White & Que Smokehouse, American Heroes Smokehouse and most recently, stone soup.
Husband and wife owners, Ricky and Cindy Smith, have Jamaican background and are happy to share some popular dishes in their culture with the Lehigh Valley community.
The platter, which starts at $16, comes with a choice of plantains, white rice or rice and peas, and another side of your choice, such as steamed cabbage, potato salad or West Indian style macaroni and cheese.
The couple plan to continue operating their independent ice cream shop, but in the winter months, they are considering closing the venue temporarily and offering a slightly more streamlined menu-including Nielsen’s hand-dipped ice cream, ice cream made on-site, and refined ice cream. Choose sundaes and milkshakes-in the restaurant. Information: 484-544-4694.
Final food tidbits: Wayback Burgers, which claims to be "America's most popular hometown burger restaurant", announced on Wednesday that it will sign a lease to open a new restaurant in Lehigh County in mid-2022.
The restaurant is located at 5585 Hamilton Blvd. According to a press release, Wayback Burgers in Lower McKenzie will become the 16th store owned and operated by a local franchisee in Pennsylvania, and is expected to add about 30 new jobs to the local economy. It will complement the other two areas of Bethlehem and North Whitehall.
Wayback Burgers was established in Newark, Delaware in 1991. It is a fast food chain in Connecticut. It is famous for its burgers cooked to order. It offers single patties or classic double patties, as well as thick Hand-soaked milkshakes, served in an environment that recalls a simpler place and time-"When customer service is meaningful and everyone feels the warmth of the community," according to the company's description.
The chain also offers cheese steaks, chicken sandwiches, salads and more.
Retail Watch appears every weekend, tracking retail and restaurant news in Lehigh Valley. Contact Ryan Kneller at 610-820-6597 or retailwatch@mcall.com.