Boathouse Row’s only eatery has a mission to nurture workers with disabilities

Peg Botto and her husband, Jerome, had a clear vision but no name for their proposed catering company back in 2000.

They knew it would serve healthy fare, help sustain local farmers and purveyors, and provide on-the-job training for people who have developmental and intellectual disabilities — as they’d been doing for years as a prepared-food vendor at the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market.

“We knew our company would be out of this world,” said Peg.

So they decided to call it Cosmic Catering. The business went so well that in 2011 they opened the Cosmic Cafe just west of the Azalea Garden on Kelly Drive, under a concession arrangement with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.

The cafe is located inside and outside the Lloyd Hall recreation facility. It is an unofficial Fairmount Park welcome center and the sole dining spot along Boathouse Row. Its patio, roof deck, and other amenities have a laid-back but lively vibe that attracts runners, rowers, cyclists, dog walkers, and tourists. The staff of 25 has a range of talents and includes 18 individuals with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

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Botto and her crew “treat everyone who comes in as an individual,” said rower Judy Kaplow, who lives in Center City and is a cafe regular. “They’re interested in your story. You feel part of the community.”

Botto, 64, grew up in Norristown and earned a degree in human services administration from the University of West Florida. She worked as a manager of group homes for people who have developmental and intellectual disabilities but eventually found those jobs “too paperwork-y” and “all about state and federal regulations” rather than the clients themselves.

In the 1980s, after returning to the Philadelphia area and attending the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in West Philly, she worked at a number of local restaurants. The paucity of healthy foods at outdoor rock concerts inspired Botto and her husband, a carpenter and gardener, to begin making and selling veggie wraps and other options at events in the city.

Nonetheless, hiring, training, and nurturing people who have developmental and intellectual disabilities “was still my thing,” said Botto.

She began working at group homes for recently discharged clients of the Pennhurst State School and Hospital while a student at Montgomery County College in the late 1970s.

“I saw some of the clients become able to be more independent after just six months, and it clicked with me,” Botto said.

“My son has special needs, so I appreciate Peg’s mission,” said Darlene Martin, the cafe’s office manager. “Working here really works in my life.”

In June, Cosmic Cafe will be among the recipients of a Brighter Future Award from the city’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.

Jerome Botto, 75, said he was always confident that his wife would be a successful restaurateur. The couple lives in Conshohocken, where he tends a vegetable and herb garden that helps supply the cafe.

“I just knew that Peg would be the one who could put it together,” he said. “I knew she could do it, because she can deal with people. And they all like her.”

Prospective employees are referred to the cafe by local agencies such as SPIN, a Northeast Philadelphia nonprofit whose clients include people who have autism.

“It’s unusual for business owners who work with the agency to have professional backgrounds in serving people” who have developmental and intellectual disabilities, said Kate Schultz, SPIN’s director of employment services.

Botto said her earlier career taught her the value of patience, as well as willingness to meet a client or a new employee, where they are. Some of the job seekers SPIN or South Philadelphia’s PEP (Programs Employing People) refer to Cosmic Cafe have difficulty reading.

For most new workers, sweeping floors, clearing tables, and washing dishes are generally the starter tasks. Others can gradually become proficient at inventory, food preparation, and table service.

“I like to keep busy,” said Amelia Wells of Northeast Philadelphia, who has been at Cosmic Cafe for four years and loves her job.

Botto “demonstrates that it’s good business to hire people with disabilities, and hopefully that will influence others to do so,” SPIN executive director Judy Dotzman said.

Deja Hill, of Southwest Philadelphia, started as a Cosmic Cafe dishwasher nine years ago and said she now does “mostly everything” in the house.

“I’m a prep cook, I run the register, I make smoothies, breakfast, lunch … parfaits and all that,” she said. “I do the bakery, too.”

Tyheed C. Roane, 31, who lives in West Philly, has worked at the cafe for seven years. “My boss kept on saying I’m an assistant manager,” he said, adding that juicing is his specialty.

“We never run out of juice, ever,” Botto said.

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Martin said people often observe that Cosmic Cafe’s location “must make it a gold mine.” But business is seasonal and weather-dependent.

As spring gets underway and summer approaches, Botto said she’s looking to hire four or five high school or college students for part-time positions to handle larger crowds. The sunny skies last Sunday helped draw about 1,000 customers, she said.

However busy the cafe gets, “if it’s not fresh, we’re not serving it,” said chef Harrison McInnis, who lives in King of Prussia and has been best friends with his boss for 30 years.

“We could do things differently,” assistant manager Adam Moldover said. “But there are no compromises, and I have no problem with that standard. Peg puts her heart and soul into everything.”