Okatie’s Corner Perk location is reopening in 2022 with a new name, owner. What to know
After 2 1/2 years, Okatie’s Corner Perk location has a new owner, and in a few weeks it’ll reopen with a new name.
Longtime Corner Perk employee Mia Birklebach bought the store and is transforming it into Tangerine’s Cafe and Bakery.
Birklebach said she was considering leaving the food and beverage industry altogether before she decided to talk to Corner Perk’s founder Josh Cooke about buying the location.
“But I’ve always loved cooking and baking and all the people, the regulars that come into that location,” she said. “So I was just thinking, and I got really sad, because I wouldn’t be able to see these people and do what I actually really like to do.”
For the past four weeks, Birklebach and her boyfriend Fernando have been hard at work figuring out their menu, filling out paperwork and coming up with a new name for the store.
They landed on Tangerine’s after the song by Led Zeppelin, one of Birklebach’s favorite bands.
The fare will be a mix of Corner Perk classics and new items. Birklebach is paring down the breakfast menu to a few simple items, like the egg and cheese biscuit and the bacon avocado sandwich; she’s adding in pastries, scones, specialty teas and lemonades.
Tangerine’s will use Corner Perk coffee and keep some of the store’s specialty drinks, including the caramel macchiato and vanilla latte, alongside new latte flavors.
And fans of Daddy O’s, the beer, wine and spirits store that shares the building with the cafe, don’t need to worry — nothing is changing there.
The café closed Dec. 23 for remodeling. Birklebach hasn’t set an exact date for Tangerine’s grand opening, but she’s planning for mid-January.
“We’re trying to do it as soon as possible,” she said. “I’m going crazy. I want to get back to work. I want to start seeing people again.”