The Buttercup Cafe
The highly anticipated opening of Barnstable Village’s newest place to meet, eat, smile and stay-a-while couldn’t have happened at a better time. Just when we were all settled into the fact that 2020 was going to be as cold and unforgiving as a cement slab, up through its cracks bloomed The Buttercup Cafe. Opening in late September, owner Melissa Jankowski has created something every village in America could use right now: comfort on a plate. Her menu isn’t trendy, and it isn’t overly fancy, but every item on the menu features two main ingredients: memories and Melissa.
“Most of the time I can’t separate good food and good feelings,” Melissa tells us. “I just wanted to create a menu of food that made me feel good over the years — tastes that brought back childhood memories, or transported me back to a special place, or across the table from a special person. Basically, this is me on a menu!” A perfect example of food with feelings is the featured breakfast sausage link, which Melissa remembered having many years ago at another restaurant, and it left an impression. When the cafe was about to open, she tracked down the same sausage. Does turkey roasting in the oven bring back any memories for you? Same with Melissa, which is why the turkey in her Avocado Turkey Wrap is roasted and carved on premises, and then crowned with house-made cherry pepper aioli. The good vibes just don’t come from the menu, they’re throughout the building, within the buttercup colored walls and buzzing all around the bee-themed artwork (Melissa in Greek means “honey bee.” Who knew?).
Melissa Jankowski’s hospitality background started at Siena restaurant in Mashpee Commons. Under the tutelage of owner Graham Silliman, Melissa worked her way up over 18 years from dishwasher to server, to bar manager, and eventually to Siena’s general manager. In early 2020 it was time for Melissa to spread her wings and leave the hive, and with a blessing from Graham, her cafe was born. When Covid hit in March, Melissa couldn’t open, so as the weather warmed up she apprenticed with her friend Natalia Lima, who was cooking at the Kalmus Beach snack bar, and learned techniques and tips from Natalia. Coincidentally, Natalia owned and operated The Village Landing years before in the current Buttercup Cafe spot, and since Natalia knew her way around that familiar kitchen it was natural that she would become Melissa’s lead cook. “It truly takes a village,” Melissa says with a warm smile, “I also could not have done it without the guidance, mentorship and wisdom of friends like Bob and Susan Calderone (formerly of the Barnstable Tavern and The Blue Plate Diner — also in the same location as The Buttercup Cafe) and the generous folks at EforAll Cape Cod who helped me create the business.” EforAll, or Entrepreneurship For All, is a non-profit group that offers a free one-year Business Accelerator Program that helps turn dreams into actual businesses.
On the family side of things, Melissa’s husband Nicholas (who happens to be the executive chef at Siena), lends a hand in the kitchen sourcing fresh ingredients, creating recipes and helping manage costs. Melissa’s father helps out in the back office. Her two sisters, Mayra and Barbara, drop by most mornings to help prep, make sure the coffee is hot and the potatoes are chopped, before heading out to their “real jobs.” Melissa’s Mom, who spent many years baking for six hungry kids, often steals the sinful spotlight with the “Case of Temptation,” also known as “Bessie, the Glass Pastry Case” — a case packed with homemade sweets that lives right inside the entrance door (it’s no accident that Mom’s famous carrot cake cupcakes can often be spied from the parking lot). But it’s Melissa’s two children, Avery (11) and Atticus (7) who are most likely her greatest motivators for creating a space that features wholesome, honest, feel-good food. It should also be noted that when Melissa could not come up with a name for her cafe it was future marketing guru Avery who said, “Mom, you like the color yellow, flowers and bees. How about Buttercup?” Brilliant!
The breakfast menu has many highlights that include inventive breakfast bowls, Belgian waffles, a crispy Monte Cristo sandwich, and an avocado Benny with poached eggs, grilled tomato, scrumptious hollandaise and slivers of Parmesan. But if you really want to go for it try The Commissioner’s Plate with two pancakes, two eggs, sausage, bacon, toast and home fries (late morning nap not included). For lunch, wrap your choppers around a juicy burger or a Reuben or a tuna melt or a hearty lunch bowl like The Big Apple (a spinach salad with fresh apple and copious amounts of pecans, dried cranberries, thick cut bacon and creamy blue cheese). Just craving a snack? The parmesan fries come with a garlic and cherry pepper dipping sauce, but our intensive research demands dunking them into the best creamy tomato soup the village will ever taste. Regardless of what you order, pace yourself — you’re still going to have to get by Bessie on the way out.
3226 Main Street
Barnstable Village
OrderButtercup.com
