Owners of The Couch Tomato Café
Our names are Craig Mosmen and Michael Cassano, and we graduated from the University of Delaware in the year 2000. We spent our senior year in college working together as we watched and learned from a small business owner relatively new to the restaurant industry. We found ourselves fascinated and excited at the prospect of one day owning our own restaurant. After graduation, it didn’t take us long to realize our dream.
After some extensive brainstorming we decided to call our business The Couch Tomato Café. We then chose our great location in Manayunk, Pennsylvania. We renovated that 1st floor apartment into what would soon become our restaurant. The Couch Tomato Café opened its doors in the Fall of 2003, with much help and support from both of our families.
Now in our seventh year, we have far exceeded our goals and are in the process of expanding our current location upwards into the 2nd and 3rd floors of our building. This expansion will include the addition of a liquor license, expanded menu, and approximately 75+ additional seats. A comfortable and trendy atmosphere will offer customers a very enjoyable formal dining experience in addition to an expanded lunch and dinner menu. The additional booth and table seating will be offered on the second floor of the existing café, with high ceilings and fireplaces adding to the décor. We plan to host our Grand Re-Opening in the Fall of 2010.
Our focus has always been on providing our customers with a fresh and tasty product. Our menu offers a thin-crust New York style pizza, topped with our top quality tomato products and Grande Mozzarella cheese (awarded the highest quality cheese on the market). In addition to offering the basic traditional thin crust pizza selections, we also offer wheat crust and a variety of gourmet, vegetarian, and now vegan options to appeal to our growing number of health conscious customers. To keep things exciting, we frequently introduce new items into our menu, such as our new grilled panini sandwiches which have been a huge hit. Along with the great feedback we have received about the quality of our food, keeping the menu continuously updated with the latest trends and ideas has proved to be a large part of our success.
Our menu also offers a large variety of specialty salads and wraps, all made to order with loads of freshly prepared toppings, homemade dressings, and accompanied by warm homemade rolls. Our produce is ordered and prepared daily, helping us grow a great reputation for freshness across the board. By limiting our menu mainly to specialty pizzas, salads, wraps, panini’s and homemade soups, we are able to maintain our focus on our endless goal of perfecting the food that we serve.
Set just outside of Center City Philadelphia, Manayunk has become the hot spot of the city. This Native American word means “A place to drink by the river,” and has fulfilled that definition by offering the area a wide array of upscale restaurants and night clubs, accompanied by a variety of boutiques and salons. Manayunk has offered The Couch Tomato Café the location it desires.