Ellis’ Riverside Cafe offers home cookin’, all-day breakfast

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

ELLIS — A new restaurant has opened in downtown Ellis, the Riverside Espresso & Cafe, 814 Washington.

Owner Jade Baalman said she tries to focus on dinner-style home cooking in addition to all-day breakfast.

The cafe also offer wraps, burgers, sandwiches, homemade bierocks and salads. Baalman offers regular comfort food specials on Thursdays and Fridays, such as meatloaf, casseroles, Salisbury steak and cordon bleu. Every other Saturday night, the cafe is open from 5 to 8 p.m. for a prime rib special.

A mixture of egg and sausage for breakfast burritos on the grill at the Riverside Cafe.

Baalman, who opened Riverside in September, bills her cafe as family friendly. She will even make your kids pancakes in fun shapes on request.

The cafe has an espresso bar and also offers smoothies.

If you are in a hurry in the morning, you can grab already-prepared 12-ounce breakfast burritos or sausage and cream cheese bagels. Baalman offers homemade cinnamon rolls, scones and breakfast cookies and hopes to eventually offer made-from-scratch pie.

Baalman managed Oscar’s Cafe in Hoxie before opening the cafe in Ellis. She also has a background in catering and gourmet food.

Baalman, 34, became interested in cooking when she became a mother. She has four children, a 14-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter, 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.

“I love food,” she said.

The Riverside Cafe offers espresso and smoothies.

At home, she focuses on paleo and whole 30, which is a diet free of dairy that focuses on whole foods rather than processed foods. Initially, she introduced some of these concepts at the cafe, but found many of her diners preferred more traditional American foods.

Baalman chose to open the restaurant in Ellis to be closer to her family. She believed the community needed another dining option.

Baalman is renting the space on Washington, which is the former home of the All in a Day’s Grind. The space is available for rent for parties.

She says she hopes the restaurant can be a community gathering place.

“That is one of the things that I had hoped for this place — that it is small enough and in a small town that people would feel they could come in here and drink their coffee with their groups. We definitely have the mom-and-pop, small-town feel that you could just come in and sit down and enjoy,” Baalman said.

The Riverside Cafe is at 814 Washington in Ellis offers a mixture of homemade comfort food and all-day breakfast.

The restaurant is open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

You can follow the cafe on Facebook.