PHOTO BY OLAF STARORYPINSKI
A CONVERSATION WITH LYELL SCHERLINE, owner of Jay’s Local in Allentown, is full of lively interruptions. His son crawls across the carpet and slaps the table with his tiny palm. Customers ask about upcoming events and stay for a chat. Visiting friends stop for a goodbye hug on their way out.
It’s a window into the way the café was meant to be: open, collaborative, and family-friendly. Nestled on the corner of Liberty and N. 23rd Streets in Allentown on the edge of Muhlenberg College’s campus, Jay’s is community. From weekly story times for kids to cooking classes, Scherline is open to hosting just about every kind of event possible.
“I was recently reading about this idea of a third place,” Scherline says. “In sociology, it’s a term for a place that’s not where you work and not where you live, but a third place where you go for recreation, for conversation, for enjoyment, to build community. I want Jay’s to be a third place for people.”
The café is named after Lyell’s father, Jay, and was founded on his legacy of bettering the Lehigh Valley.
“My parents moved to Allentown in the late ’70s to start a law practice and they just loved this area,” Scherline explains. “My dad was very involved in the community and did a lot of philanthropic work, so it was really important for us to be good to our neighbors.”
“Part of our original vision was supporting the small businesses and local farms around us. That vision has continued and grown over our last six years in business, and we currently source from around 50 local vendors.”
—Lyell Scherline
This neighborliness started before Jay’s even opened its doors. The community was involved in crafting the vision for the space from day one. With the shop’s proximity to Muhlenberg, Lyell knew his best chance at success and maximized community impact was to consider input from the customers he hoped to serve.
So, a partnership with Muhlenberg’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program was born. Several classes in the program completed surveys among the student body to determine what the students would like to see in that space.
“One of the things we were doing in my introductory course was customer discovery,” says Rita Chesterton, who directed the entrepreneurship program at the time. “It’s the idea that before you build something, you have to know what your customers want. We made it into a project where the students gathered data and presented their ideas for the space.”
The results showed a desire for a casual spot to study, chat, relax, and enjoy good food at a reasonable price. Thus, Jay’s came to be.
“When Lyell first opened Jay’s, I could see the places where he had clearly taken feedback from the students,” Chesterton says. “He’s a great example of an entrepreneur in our community.”
The café’s menu features all-day breakfast and lunch options, sweet treats, and coffee concoctions, all sourced locally from dozens of vendors. The beef for their burgers, for example, comes from Gauker Farms in Fleetwood. The cheese and bread for their Liberty Street Grilled Cheese come from Conebella Farm in Elverson and Lusitania Bakery in Bethlehem, respectively. The coffee is roasted in Kutztown at Four Monkeys Coffee.
“Part of our original vision was supporting the small businesses and local farms around us,” Scherline says. “That vision has continued and grown over our last six years in business, and we currently source from around 50 local vendors.”
During the Covid pandemic, that vision became even more expansive. Scherline saw a new way to support the efforts of small businesses: hosting pop-ups for burgeoning entrepreneurs. With Jay’s open only for breakfast and lunch, the kitchen sat dormant in the evenings. Why not rent it out? So, Jay’s became an incubator.
“We thought it would be a good opportunity for people to introduce their businesses to the Lehigh Valley and do a little bit of research and development to see what the customer base is looking for here,” Scherline says.
These would-be restaurateurs could get a glimpse of the challenges of paying rent, managing staff and inventory, and more.
The space also allows entrepreneurs to take chances and innovate. This can be difficult when you have a lot of overhead to worry about. Since early July, Thursday nights in Jay’s kitchen have featured Chopsteaks, an authentic Philly cheesesteak venture from the minds behind Chopfin, a go-to for Poke bowls and tacos in Allentown.
“My partner and I had been talking about trying out [starting] a Philly cheesesteak place for a while, and starting out with a night at Jay’s seemed like the perfect intro,” says Stephen Kilroy, co-owner of Chopsteaks. “This is something new for us, and being able to see if we can get a following before opening instead of going all in right away is great.”
The experiment seemed to work from the jump—Kilroy and his team sold out of everything during their first pop-up. They even got a visit from the mayor of Allentown, Matt Tuerk. He also happens to be a serious food lover.
Scherline seeks out potential vendors that will enhance the food scene. Take Sophistiqué, for example—the French bakery opened by chef Sophie Vandecasteele in Allentown last fall. The first iteration of her business started at Jay’s. It sells out regularly, a favorite for croissants and other pastries.
Scherline considers these to be some of the pop-up program’s success stories: those who took what they learned from their time at Jay’s and transitioned to successful full-time gigs.
Rebekah Doyle had been running occasional pop-ups throughout the region until Scherline approached her about using his space last spring. She ran her business out of Jay’s two nights a week from April to August 2024.
“I learned so much about back-of-the-house procedures,” Doyle says. “Things like overhead, inventory, and even passing a health inspection. It was a huge help to be prepared for all those things when I went out on my own.”
Doyle opened her brick-and-mortar Café 23 in Emmaus in December. She serves breakfast and lunch for the health-conscious food lover six days a week. She says Jay’s is “vital” for food entrepreneurs.
Jay’s has also been a saving grace for established businesses in the face of hardship. When the Bethlehem storefront of Paranormal Pizza was damaged by a fire in February 2023, owners Marc and Joey Kubushefski weren’t sure how they’d keep serving their vegan slices while searching for a new home.
The Paranormal team began running occasional pop-ups at Jay’s last summer. They can be found at Jay’s on Friday and Sunday evenings while they finalize plans for their new shop.
“It’s a great family running Jay’s and a great space, and we’re so happy to be working with them and thankful that they gave us this opportunity,” Marc says. “It’s been allowing us to pay our bills—our rent and our loan payments—for the place that we’re building out now. Without this kind of opportunity, we would have been pretty screwed.”
SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
Is your favorite business connected to Jay’s?
AROI Mango
Known for its mango sticky rice, AROI is currently a staple at farmers markets in Easton and Bethlehem. Lehigh University graduate George Awad founded the biz after he tasted mango sticky rice for the first time on a backpacking trip in Thailand. He held pop-ups at Jay’s from June 2024 to April 2025 before transitioning to the farmers-market model. In addition to half a dozen varieties of sticky rice, the menu features classic milk tea creations. Awad can also develop custom menus for catering and events. Instagram: @aroi.mango
Panchita’s Kitchen
Panchita’s is a catering service and local eatery that serves up Latin fusion dishes at vineyards and farmers markets across the Lehigh Valley. Owner Frances Quinones-Mullen combines Latin dishes with American influences to create a diverse menu from pastelitos to pernil, a classic Puerto Rican pork shoulder dish. Panchita’s started with pop-ups at Jay’s from February to May 2023 before shifting focus to catering and setting up shop at local events. Instagram: @panchitasllc
Peretzel’s Treats
Easton-based Lesli Perez specializes in chocolate-dipped treats and baked goods at Peretzel’s Treats. She hosted a spooky-themed pop-up at Jay’s last October. Perez is now a licensed home baker taking orders months in advance for custom goodies. Instagram: @peretzelstreats
From Lino Panadería
You may recognize the name Melanie Lino, as her baked goods have been popping up everywhere in the past 10 years, including in the form of a floral focaccia workshop at Jay’s in May 2024. The pop-ups have been an interim measure since Lino ended her partnership at Lit Coffee Roastery in Bethlehem. (Full disclosure: She also wrote about her entrepreneurial journey in our magazine last year). Lino’s menu celebrates her Afro-Dominican roots, and she’s opening a long-awaited brick-and-mortar shop in Bethlehem this fall. Instagram: @from.lino
