“All these years of him telling me how good my cooking is—we’re putting it to the test,” said Andrea Barr of her husband Rob. The Barrs just opened the Stagecoach Café last weekend at the corner of Jefferson and Church Streets, offering breakfast and lunch items, where everything is homemade.

Andrea said they were considering purchasing a food truck when the opportunity to purchase the restaurant arose. Rob works with the father of the former Cupcake Cuties owner Bonnie Gantt, and told Andrea after learning the location was up for sale.

The Barrs, who live in Park Layne, truly embrace the family business style of operations, as their daughters and Andrea’s mother showed up for the grand opening days last Friday and Saturday.

“A lot of our stuff is my mom’s recipe,” Andrea said, adding: “My mom makes the best coleslaw in the world.”

Offering breakfast and lunch as well as daily specials and dessert, the café is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. Andrea said it was very important for her to offer home-cooked meals, saying burgers and fries were strictly off-limits on her menu.

While she was working in Fairborn for a few years, Andrea said her only choices for lunch were fast food, fast food, or more fast food—something she quickly tired of. Sick of eating greasy burgers and fries every day, she started carrying in her own recipes to make for herself and her co-workers, and pledged never to even consider adding anything even remotely fast food-like to her menu.

When asked about the source of the café’s name, Andrea said she was first tempted to go with something more mainstream like “Corner Café,” but then learned that the building was once an old stagecoach stop, so her husband suggested naming their business in honor of its roots. Built in 1856 as a stagecoach stop, Andrea said the room next door to the restaurant still has two old fireplaces by which stagecoach travelers would stop and warm themselves. She said she’s been in touch with local historians in search of old photographs of the building to display on the mantel.