First founded in 2010 by Jennifer Parent and Johnna Christianson, J Catering is a stalwart of Humboldt events. Known for a diverse menu and local sourcing, the catering business expanded to include a café in 2023. At that point, the former Café Dolce had gone up for sale, and J Catering jumped at the opportunity to open J Café. The café is located on the Whitethorn Construction campus, a well-known community hub in South Humboldt.
The campus is full of artisans who are inextricably linked through the legacy of Humboldt legend Bob McKee, a skilled carpenter and stalwart if controversial supporter of the back to the land movement. Thankfully, since McKee’s passing in 2022, the construction campus has lived on, with three craft wood and hardware focused businesses preserving what he started over 50 years ago.
On its face, the J Café is a format that feels familiar. The physical café is small, with just enough space for people to order, and most of the seating is on outdoor wooden benches. The standard menu is intriguing but also clearly in the usual café category. What separates the J from its peers is the quality of food and the uniqueness of the businesses that surround it.
Our first foray into the J Café was this past summer, when my husband and I came to the campus to look at handcrafted wood furniture. Seeing the small café, we stopped for lunch, not expecting much of it. I ordered a BLT off the menu, one of my go-to sandwiches when a place is unfamiliar.
What arrived is now my platonic ideal for what a BLT should taste like. Being a very simple sandwich, every ingredient has to stand out — here, it was the quality of the greens that took me by surprise. It’s not something I’ve thought about often, as sandwich greens are usually half decent or, on the cheaper side, a sad mess of pre-shredded goo. But my immediate reaction was to the freshness and flavor of the produce. An impressive accomplishment for any ingredient served with bacon, usually the star.
That first experience proved to be the norm, and the freshness of the café’s food is consistent across its menu and multiple experiences. There is also a keen sense of whimsy in some of the J Café’s special items, often uploaded to their Instagram. One remarkable special this past fall used fresh pancakes in place of bread for a meat, egg, and cheese; another is simply referred to as the Bourdain, a play on the late travel show host’s favorite mortadella and provolone sandwich.
The regular menu is no slouch either, with a curated array of both standard and unique sandwiches along with salads and soups. Prices for sandwiches currently range from around $12 to $15, and all are very filling. A focaccia-based sandwich called the Magnifico stood out, with a savory interior full of ham, provolone and pepperoncino, along with local greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette.
When asked about ingredient sourcing for the café, Jennifer Parent credits J Catering, saying, “The relationships we cultivated with local farms during our years of catering enabled us to provide high-quality local foods at the cafe.” Local farms like Pepperwood’s Flood Plain Produce and Ettersburg’s French Ranch Farms help supply the business.
J Catering had seen its own products do well when Café Dolce was still open. According to Parent, the catering business “initially saw demand for our Bleu Cheese Dressing when we began selling it to Café Dolce …. This progressed to retail distribution throughout the North Coast, which proved vital during the COVID-19 shutdown as people supported local businesses by cooking [their products] at home.”
Now the J Café is returning the favor and helping support local farms and culinary enterprises with its supply chain. On a campus full of back-to-the-land history, it’s quite apropos.
Our successive visits have always included a visit to Whitethorn Construction’s gallery, and it’s clear both the café and local woodworkers aim for a high level of craft. There’s always something to see, whether that be newly made furniture or events like the recent holiday market. It’s lovely to find food that expresses its community and space so well.
April Louis (she/her) is a Southern Humboldt-based journalist. A veteran of wine industry publications, she now focuses on the culture and people of Humboldt County.
This article appears in After the Flooding.