Country Charm and Fantastic Food

Located just a few miles off busy Interstate 79 near Eighty-Four, Pa., the SpringHouse offers a quick escape from the bustle of the highways and nearby shopping plazas. A one-stop shop of delicious food items, it’s nothing like the one-stop big box stores dominating the suburbs.  Instead, the SpringHouse – a restaurant/deli/ice cream parlor/bakery/gift shop – is all things country.  

“We’re an old-fashioned country kitchen,” says owner Marcia Opp, who runs the business with her siblings, Jill Miles and Sam Minor.  Their parents, Sam and Bev Minor, started the SpringHouse 31 years ago. “We’re a real family farm,” Opp says. 

Situated on a dairy farm where 200 cows are milked twice daily, the farmhouse exudes a quaint coziness. The warm, sugary scent of homemade pies wafts through the air. Wallpaper made of antiqued advertisements coats the walls. Every corner of the store is stuffed with interesting curios, whether it’s a display of Swan Creek scented candles, homemade Hog Wash soap or whimsical candies such as white chocolate deviled eggs.

Wooden tables and chairs are scattered throughout the space, some in the shop area and others in a back room overlooking a small outdoor garden. Guests order food at a counter cafeteria-style, and they have a lot to choose from. The menu changes daily, but some staples include the SpringHouse baked chicken, homemade applesauce and mac and cheese. Daily specials range from hot roast beef sandwiches, to Reubens, to fried cod.  There is a salad bar, as well as a deli, where a variety of specials are handmade daily.  Here, an array of meats and cheeses also are for sale.

But the real highlight is the desserts.  Homemade pies include apple crumb, strawberry rhubarb and coconut crème and pastries like banana bread with butter cream frosting are available. Ice cream dishes, like mud-covered dirt balls and strawberry shortcake, are big sellers, and the made from-scratch peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies are also in high demand.

In the center of it all is a large table stocked with fresh produce such as corn, tomatoes, peppers and peaches. And all that milk from the 200 cows is homogenized and pasteurized on-site and sold in the shop.

Opp prides herself on its quality, calling the chocolate milk the official drink of the SpringHouse. “It’s great when we get the 84 Lumber fellows in here telling new customers that they have to try the chocolate milk,” she says with a laugh.

With all this to offer, the SpringHouse staff stays busy all day long. But they always make an effort to get to know their customers, regular and new, Opp says. “Even though it’s busy behind the scenes, people tell us that when they come here, they feel like they’re coming home,” she says.

The SpringHouse also offers catering, which has become a popular part of the business. They might have up to eight orders on any given day, Opp says. And during the holidays, they smoke hams for customers in their old-fashioned hickory smokehouse.

Fall is a festive time at the shop, with Great Pumpkin Weekends every Saturday and Sunday in October. Visitors can take hayrides, walk through a pumpkin character patch, listen to live banjo music and, on Sundays, enjoy a hog roast, complete with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. The SpringHouse also offers group events, like bonfires and hayrides, which require reservations.

“We like to offer memory-making experiences,” Opp says. “It’s a really important point to make it fun for families.”

The SpringHouse is located off Route 136 in Eighty Four. Call 724-228-3339. Hours through Oct. 31 are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. From Nov. 1 through March, hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, Sunday noon to 7 p.m. 

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