Joan Loring serves a grilled pork chop with fruit sauce at the 40th Street Bakery and Bistro she recently opened in Nitro.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A stop at the 40th Street Bakery and Bistro feels like stepping inside the home of a friend's mother who loves to cook.
"Are you hungry? Sit down. I'll make you something," owner Joan Loring might say.
Loring really likes to feed people. She welcomes each guest to her newly opened restaurant in a cozy home on 40th Street in Nitro and tells them what she's baked and cooked that day. People say they stop because they're intrigued by the sign in the residential neighborhood.
They usually leave with some of Loring's reasonably priced, freshly baked cookies, cupcakes, cannelloni, cakes or pies, or they sit down and try the daily special.
Loring has loved to cook since she taught herself during her childhood in Nitro. Her mother didn't enjoy preparing meals, so she took over. Later, she cooked for her own children, always seeking new recipes and techniques.
When she worked as a receptionist for a state agency, her co-workers benefited from her passion. She brought cinnamon rolls, cakes and pies, creamy macaroni and cheese and her famous spaghetti sauce into the office.
"I always wanted to be a chef," Loring said. "When my children were grown, I thought I should do what I wanted to do."
Eventually, she opened Joannie's Home Cooking, a restaurant on Eighth Avenue in Nitro, where she served basic comfort food. An Italian woman helped her in the kitchen.
"She made the best goulash," she said. "She taught me so much. I wrote it all down and keep it in a book."
She closed the restaurant, then opened again on 40th Street four years ago. Just as she settled into her new location, Loring had a stroke that forced her out of the kitchen. Fully recovered, the "sixty-something" Loring is back at her stove, simmering her hot dog and spaghetti sauces, baking lasagnas and cooking eggplant Parmesan.
A tireless learner, Loring takes cooking lessons with Charleston chef Luisa Di Trapano, where she hones her Italian cooking skills. She also learned from former Gratzi chef Simon Pesusich and consults the more than 400 cookbooks in her collection.
She's especially fond of Italian food, although her ancestors aren't from there. Her daughter Tera married Ben Salango, who is Italian, and he sparked her interest in the cuisine.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A stop at the 40th Street Bakery and Bistro feels like stepping inside the home of a friend's mother who loves to cook.
"Are you hungry? Sit down. I'll make you something," owner Joan Loring might say.
Loring really likes to feed people. She welcomes each guest to her newly opened restaurant in a cozy home on 40th Street in Nitro and tells them what she's baked and cooked that day. People say they stop because they're intrigued by the sign in the residential neighborhood.
They usually leave with some of Loring's reasonably priced, freshly baked cookies, cupcakes, cannelloni, cakes or pies, or they sit down and try the daily special.
Loring has loved to cook since she taught herself during her childhood in Nitro. Her mother didn't enjoy preparing meals, so she took over. Later, she cooked for her own children, always seeking new recipes and techniques.
When she worked as a receptionist for a state agency, her co-workers benefited from her passion. She brought cinnamon rolls, cakes and pies, creamy macaroni and cheese and her famous spaghetti sauce into the office.
"I always wanted to be a chef," Loring said. "When my children were grown, I thought I should do what I wanted to do."
Eventually, she opened Joannie's Home Cooking, a restaurant on Eighth Avenue in Nitro, where she served basic comfort food. An Italian woman helped her in the kitchen.
"She made the best goulash," she said. "She taught me so much. I wrote it all down and keep it in a book."
She closed the restaurant, then opened again on 40th Street four years ago. Just as she settled into her new location, Loring had a stroke that forced her out of the kitchen. Fully recovered, the "sixty-something" Loring is back at her stove, simmering her hot dog and spaghetti sauces, baking lasagnas and cooking eggplant Parmesan.
A tireless learner, Loring takes cooking lessons with Charleston chef Luisa Di Trapano, where she hones her Italian cooking skills. She also learned from former Gratzi chef Simon Pesusich and consults the more than 400 cookbooks in her collection.
She's especially fond of Italian food, although her ancestors aren't from there. Her daughter Tera married Ben Salango, who is Italian, and he sparked her interest in the cuisine.
She asks lots of questions, and never hesitates to ask someone for the recipe of a dish she enjoys, although she doesn't share her own recipes. During a recent cruise she took with her family, they attended a cooking demonstration for Jamaican food. The chef/instructor asked if anyone in the audience liked to cook. Loring's hand shot up.
"I do," she said. "I cook all the time."
She hurried to the stage where she made jerk chicken with the chef. She asked for, and received, the recipe.
The everyday menu at 40th Street Bistro and Bakery features a hot dog special (dog, chips and drink for $2.49), barbeque or spaghetti dinner for $5.99.
She rotates hot ham and cheese, pastrami, hot bologna, and fish sandwiches, for $2.99 to $3.99. Daily dinner specials are baked steak on Tuesday, meat loaf on Wednesday, roast beef and eggplant parmesan on Thursday and fish in a wine sauce or grilled pork chop with fruit salsa on Friday, all for $5.99. Loring offers an Italian dish every day in addition to the special. She uses her homemade meatballs in her lasagna.
She serves her house salad of greens, berries and pecans dressed with her house dressing, a slightly sweet and tangy mixture.
"I want to keep my prices low so everyone can come and it," she said. "We have lots of repeat customers."
Her bakery cases hold cookies she sells for 50 cents and cupcakes for 75 cents. She rotates a menu of $10.99 pies including coconut cream, raisin, blackberry, cherry, lemon cloud, pecan and strawberry. Three-layer cakes like red velvet or black walnut sell for $17.99.
"I hope people will order them ahead of time to place orders, because I like to make them fresh," she said. When the weather cools, she'll introduce soups such as bean, cream of broccoli, potato and salmon, chili and a Thai soup.
"When people tell me my food is good, it makes me want to cook more," she said. "Even if I didn't have this place, I'd still feed people."
The 40th Street Bakery and Bistro, 4017 40th St., Nitro, is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call 304-769-5953.
Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.
