Foodie Friday: Together Cafe

May 12, 2023

Hannah Cechini,

SALISBURY, Md. – Together Cafe is a go-to spot if you’re looking for a tasty bite to eat for breakfast or lunch; it’s also the perfect place to soak up all the love that goes into everything the team does.

Made With Love, Together

If you’re a regular at Together Cafe, you’ll be greeted by owner Vicente Hernandez with a smile and a friendly “Hey, hey!” as soon as you walk through the door. And, if it’s your first time visiting, the treatment is no different.

Vicente’s philosophy: family, faith, and loyalty are the most important ingredients to any recipe.

“It’s funny. People, all the time, say ‘I bought the same ingredients you bought, I made it at home and it didn’t taste the same.’ It tastes different when somebody’s made it with love,” Vicente told Foodie Friday host Hannah Cechini on their visit.

Making Muffins

While Together Cafe offers a host of delicious coffees, teas, breakfast offerings, soups, and sandwiches, the focus was on their homemade, fresh-baked muffins.

“Blueberry muffins. Super easy to make. A lot of ingredients, but it’s good to go, and it’ll be easy,” said Vicente with a smile.

Vicente starts by mixing the dry ingredients first; flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and brown sugar. Hannah got to add in a little love, helping to mix the ingredients alongside Vicente.

“Come on now. If the news thing doesn’t work out, we always need a back-up baker!” Vicente joked to Hannah.

Normally, Vicente says, one would use butter in a blueberry muffin recipe. However, Vicente uses Greek yogurt, explaining that it makes the muffins healthier, and protein-packed. Next, avocado oil, milk, an egg, lemon juice, and what Vicente calls “the magic” – vanilla extract – are gently mixed in.

“Just lightly mix everything. You don’t want to overmix your batter,” Vicente said.

And, of course, what is a blueberry muffin without fresh blueberries? While most everything is made with love at Together Cafe, sometimes it’s tough love.

“We need to be generous with the blueberries. [We’ll] put them in. The fun part for you, is we’re going to punch these,” explained Vicente.

“Punch them?!” replied Hannah.

“We’re doing this to break up the blueberries so that they’re not just hot fruit,” said Vicente. “I actually got the idea from my wife. She does not like hot fruit. So, as we were making these muffins, she’s like ‘I’m just eating hot fruit.’ And, I was like, ‘Alright, I’ve got to change that.'”

The blueberries are also folded into the batter, and each muffin is topped with even more blueberries before the baking tin slides into the oven. It’s not long before the muffins start to rise to perfectly pillowy, golden-brown scrumptiousness.

Sharing Blueberry Bliss

As Hannah and Vicente sat down to tear apart, and dig into their blueberry muffins, steam rolled out of the centers.

“Vicente., these are so good,” Hannah sighed. “So soft and airy, and sweet. The fresh blueberries are sweet, too. But, they add a nice little bit of tartness, too, which is exactly what I want out of any kind of muffin, really. You’ve got to have that balance between the two.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. It took me so long to get this recipe down,” Vicente replied. “Trial and error, because I’m not a baker.”

“You wouldn’t think that eating this!” Hannah said.

Foodie Photog Mike’s blueberry muffin didn’t last long, at all. “The muffin is so pillowy and soft,” Mike said in between bites. “This is just such a nice batter that I think Vicente could put anything in this, and it would shine. These other eleven muffins are going to make the folks at the library very happy, though.”

And, that they did. After the Foodie team wrapped up with Vicente, they hand delivered the fresh-baked muffins to the folks at the library.

“We can decide who gets to get blessed today,” said Vicente.

“We’re going to go over to the Wicomico County Public Library and share these muffins with them, just to show some appreciation. And, also, who doesn’t love a nice, fresh blueberry muffin?” Hannah replied.

Together Cafe

Together Cafe is located at 120 N Division St, Salisbury, Md. You can call them at 410-251-5236. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.