Blue Barn reborn as pottery store, coffee house
DAMASCUS — C&P Imports Mexican Pottery and Blue Barn Coffee House opened last March at 15518 Alliance-Salem Road and owners Christopher and Pat Kruegel said the store is the ninth in a franchise but is wholly owned by the couple.
It might be part of a franchise, but for around here, it is definitely unique.
There are plans to open a bakery in December that will be operated by Brian Barrios, a culinary arts chef in Louisiana, but it won’t offer an ordinary menu.
The bakery will offer homemade bake shop goods but will serve plate lunches and offer beignets recipes, which is a French term for deep-fried choux pastry.
The coffee house will feature 21 selections of the family-owned Community Coffee brand ranging from select to private reserve styles.
Christopher Kruegel said while the coffee house gets up to speed in December, C&P Imports can “sell bags of coffee but not cups.”
He added, “We have 21 coffee flavors — not bitter like others — of Community Coffee by “Cap” Saurage. Once you taste Community Coffee, you’ll buy a bag.” K-cups are also available.
For example there is a Southern Bread Pudding blend and Evangeline blend and each bag has a small aroma hole where the customer can get a scent of the blend by gently squeezing the bag.
The red bag coffee uses the top 10 percent of the bean while the gold bag uses the top one percent of the coffee bean.
The bakery will offer a daily menu but coffee is the first priority.
The store has a wide variety of Mexican food condiments like Panola Habanero mustard, jalapeno mustards, chipalta and hot sauce ranging up to extra hot Vampfire.
There are also a number of items like a Cajun Cream Cheese dip kit, Gator pickle relish, Oak Grove Smokehouse Creole Gumbo Mix with the rice included and much more.
“We’re ready to go for the holidays per say as far as gift baskets,” Kruegel said.
The business is located in the old blue barn just east of Damascus on U.S. 62. The barn dates to the 1880s and all three floors have been turned into showroom display areas that are filled with hundreds upon hundreds of pieces of handmade Mexican pottery.
“We’re Ohio’s largest Mexican rustic pottery barn,” Kruegel said, adding the nearest business that even comes close is located in Zanesville.
There is a wide selection of chimera pottery that burn wood for cooking or heating, along with imports from Indonesia like komodo dragon grills.
“It’s owned by my wife and I,” Kruegel, a former Washingtonville resident, said.
“We deal with a couple of private dealers — none of this stuff is available anywhere unless you go to the border and buy it.”
He added, “Our prices are competitive,” and pointed to a showroom filled with large pottery pieces.
C&P Imports is open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday. The coffee shop hours, when it opens in December, will be from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m.
C&P Imports Mexican Pottery and Blue Barn Coffee House is on Facebook.
lshields@salemnews.net