Broad Ripple has a new spot for coffee and sandwiches. Perk Up opened on August 1st, just north of 65th Street on Cornell Street. Some readers might recognize this location as one of our Where in the Village? features. The picture was of the small windmill with Broad Ripple USA painted on the fins. That windmill is still there.

Perk Up is another example of a great re-use of an existing house in the Village. In this age of developers tearing down our old houses to build new structures, it is important to congratulate a business owner who cares enough about Broad Ripple to make the business fit the building instead of the other way around.

The front room at Perk Up has several marble-topped tables and comfy wing chairs. Owner Kim McManama pointed out that each of the table bases are different. "The bases are made by Kirk in Atlanta, Indiana," explained Kim. "They are hand-made in his blacksmith shop using presses from the 1800's." The front room also has a TV, which was important to one customer during the interview so she could keep an eye on the Iowa vs. Iowa State game while she worked on her laptop computer. Perk Up offers free wireless internet to their customers. Through the French doors is an outdoor deck with tables and chairs, where customers can enjoy the weather and watch passersby on the Monon Trail. Kim told me that music groups sometimes drop by to perform on the deck.

The menu lists five panini sandwiches, bagels with toppings, muffines, biscotti. and Ritter's famous custard. The biscotti is made in the Perk Up kitchen using their own recipe, as are the scones and pumpkin bread. (I had a couple of bites of a panini and it was yummy, but I will leave the food reviews to the Gazette restaurant review section. Yes, it really is coming. Really.)

The focus of the back room at Perk Up is the hammered copper La Victoria Arduino espresso machine. "We waited six months for this machine," said Kim. "It is made in a little shop in Italy. I wanted the manual lever model. There are no smarts inside the boiler system, no buttons to press, everything is done by hand. This allows our baristas to control the consistency of the water through the hand-tamped grounds. There's a romance to it - a beauty about it." Kim explained that her baristas trained for two weeks on the machine. She also mentioned that Perk Up roasts its beans right in the store. "I don't like over-roasted beans," said Kim. "That's why we named our coffees bold, bolder, and boldest. None of our coffees are overpowering."

Next time you are walking up the trail, stop in for a cup and say hi to Kim. You will quickly become part of the "family" at Perk Up.