A new coffeehouse and ice cream shop lands in Cheat Lake.
There’s a new spot in town to get a fancy cup of java or sweet treat: Annie’s Coffee & Creamery, located on Fort Pierpont Road near Planet Fitness. We caught up with General Manager Kevin Hinderliter to find out more about the place. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Tell us about Annie’s.
Kevin Hinderliter: Annie’s Coffee & Creamery is a concept developed by the owners of Apple Annie’s, Patrick and Peter Padula. The idea originally was to create a new ice cream shop. But ice cream is fairly seasonal, so they expanded it into a coffee and ice cream shop. The team wanted to create a cozy cabin feel and included a focal point, a 16-foot-tall fireplace with an intimate seating area inside the cafe. My daughter, an interior design senior at WVU, helped with many of the decorating decisions.
Annie’s Coffee & Creamery serves just about any coffee or espresso drink you can imagine and takes advantage of Apple Annie’s in-house bakery just across the interstate to supply fresh-baked goods to customers. And after painstaking ice cream sampling, the crew believes they’ve settled on the best dipped ice cream in town. We also have soft serve and are expanding our menu to include some grab-and-go items like soups, salads, and wraps.
Q: Tell us about deciding to open a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic.
KH: Opening a restaurant at any time is a major undertaking, and the pandemic has certainly been difficult on the entire restaurant business. Annie’s Coffee & Creamery is perfectly suited to deal with the restrictions, since most of our business is to-go. And with our drive-through, we are able to serve customers without them having to enter the shop. People need to eat, people need coffee, and people want ice cream.
Q: What makes you different from other coffee shops in town? Tell us about the creamery part.
KH: We want to support other local businesses, so we get our coffee beans roasted by Stone Tower Joe in Fairmont. Our loose leaf teas come from The Tea Shoppe at The Seneca Center. Apple Annie’s makes our baked goods fresh daily. And we don’t have automated espresso machines like the major chains—our baristas handcraft each and every drink to your exact specifications.
The creamery refers to the fact that we also serve ice cream. We have hand-dipped and soft-serve milkshakes, sundaes, and “Annielanches,” our version of a frozen ice cream treat with candies mixed in. We will even serve you ice cream in your coffee.
Q: What should we drink first?
KH: Our most popular drink is a latte, and a perfect seasonal beverage would be the
White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha Latte. And for tea drinkers, a London Fog Earl Grey Tea with steamed milk. Kids will love our hot chocolate.
Q: What should we snack on with it?
KH: All of our baked goods are homemade, so you can’t go wrong. If you are here early a cinnamon roll, later in the morning try a white chocolate cranberry scone, and in the afternoon a chocolate chip cookie is a must.
An Italian market is also coming to Annie’s Coffee & Creamery. The team hopes to unveil it in the coming weeks.
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