Monroeville native to open restaurant, catering business at William Penn Place

When Debbie Hoffner was 16 years old, she started a job in the dietary department at Forbes Regional Hospital. She’s worked in the food-service industry on and off for four decades, and has been told often that she should start her own food business.

Next month, with the help of her family, Hoffner will be able to realize that goal when she opens Ebbie’s Craft Kitchen & Catering on Old William Penn Highway in Monroeville.

“My grandmother raised us for a while and everything was homemade,” said Hoffner, who grew up in Monroeville. “And with my mother it was the same.”

Four years ago, Hoffner left the workforce to take care of her mother full time.

“She was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, the same thing Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with,” said Hoffner’s sister, Colleen Hall of Plum. “It’s a progressive form of dementia.”

Hoffner and Hall said it was heartbreaking to watch.

“She lost her ability to write, to read, and the last year was just very, very sad,” Hoffner said.

After her mother died in mid-December 2022, Hoffner said her sisters were there to support and encourage her.

“They both said, ‘It’s time for you to worry about you,’ ” Hoffner said.

As she and Hall began putting a business plan together, they started scouting locations and discovered they’d grown up in the same neighborhood as the landlord who owned William Penn Place on Old William Penn Highway. When they heard that the former restaurant, Giavisto, was moving out, they jumped at the opportunity.

With plans to open shortly after the Fourth of July, Hoffner said she will employ a staff of about a half-dozen and offer catering as well as lunch service at the restaurant.

“We have a full menu of options, and we’ll do walk-in service for lunch to start out,” she said.

Catering can be done in-house or by delivery, and the menu includes some of the recipes Hoffner grew up with in her mother and grandmother’s kitchens.

“We have something called a ‘Crabbie’ on the menu,” Hoffner said. “It’s an English muffin with a mix of crab meat, English cheddar, butter and garlic that’s toasted. It’s so simple but everyone really loves it. And I had to put my meatballs on the menu, so many people have loved them over the years.”

Hall said she and her husband wanted to invest in her sisters’ talents, and they made the decision to form a limited-liability corporation to open the restaurant.

“We’ve long felt that catering options in Monroeville and the surrounding areas weren’t sufficient,” Hall said. “As we were talking about making the leap, I kept using the phrase from (the film) ‘Field of Dreams’ — ‘If you build it, they will come.’ That’s how we got our tagline for the website, ‘If you cook it, they will yum!’ ”

Hoffner said it’s exciting to watch contractors coming in to work on various aspects of the new interior.

“It’s amazed me how many people have reached out, helped spread the word, and said they’re waiting to try the food,” she said.

For more, see EbbiesCraftKitchen.com.