Miller’s Market Café opens
Rhonda Pelliccio picks up a take-out order from Ronnie Miller at the new Miller’s Market Cafe on Monday morning, Jan. 10. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The cafe ushers in a new chapter in the longtime history of restaurant ownership by the Miller family in Clinton.
Owners are Ronnie and Wendy Miller. Ronnie Miller is part of the family that owned and operated Miller’s Restaurant for more than two decades.
For now, Miller’s Market Café is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, serving breakfast and lunch. But Ronnie Miller said he hopes to begin opening perhaps two evenings a week for dinner probably beginning in March, and later on might also open for lunch on Sundays.
Miller’s for now is offering some breakfast items such as cinnamon rolls, biscuits and gravy, and waffles, and hamburgers and sandwiches for lunch.
Later, the restaurant will add daily home-cooked specials, such as meatloaf, and chicken and dumplings, Miller said.
Among the first-day customers Monday was Rhonda Pelliccio of Clinton, who showed up for breakfast – then came again to buy lunch for some of the employees at Dutch Valley Elementary School, where her daughter works.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be a regular customer,” she said.
She picked up some fresh-baked cinnamon rolls and some chicken salad sandwiches to take to the school.
The new business replaces the Jerry’s Market & Deli that was opened just over two years ago by Nate Ferguson, his wife, Ashley, and Nate’s dad, Vern Ferguson, after they bought what was originally known as Jerry’s Market.
The restaurant has no plans to open on Saturdays, however, which mimics the practice of the current owners of the former Miller’s Restaurant in downtown Clinton, which is now known as the Apple Blossom Café.
“We also plan on adding more tables, and making the building available for small gatherings of 20 to 30 people,” Miller said of the new restaurant.
Miller, who has been the football coach at Clinton Middle School and an assistant football coach and teacher at Clinton High School, said he’s changing careers to take on the restaurant.
“I’m leaving teaching to do this full time,” he said. “I may continue with some coaching. But we were in the restaurant business about 25 years. My parents started Miller’s Restaurant, but sold it in 2003.”
Wendy Miller said she will continue her fulltime job as a funeral director, but will help out in the café when she has free time.
Vern Ferguson is staying on to help get the café started, at least through February, Miller said. Ferguson had been the chef at Jerry’s since it opened, and had built up a following for his daily specialties, many of which came with a Southwestern accent.
“He does a great job, and hopefully we can carry on with what’s he’s built up,” Miller said of Vern Ferguson.
Jerry’s Market & Deli closed Nov. 30.
Miller said he also plans to set up a food truck as a “mobile café to sell some of the food we prepare at the café.”
Initially, there will be two employees helping Miller in the café, besides Vern Ferguson, he said.