Meet Stephanie Perry | Cafe owner and graphic designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Perry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My husband, Ammon, and I moved back to the city of Harrisburg in PA in 2010 from the suburbs. I’m a graphic designer and had been working at Messiah College in the Marketing and Public Relations department. My husband was a freelance illustrator. We both love to host and create fun meals for our guests and had learned to cook and bake by reading books, watching cooking shows and a lot of experimenting. I love cooking and him baking. At the time, I was ready for a career change and had started dreaming about starting a cafe. He said “let’s go for it!” As we got to know our neighbors, we realized the Midtown community, where we lived, did not have places to go for breakfast. We wanted to create a space that was warm, welcoming and served great breakfast and lunch foods and coffee. We found a location in May 2012 and our landlord let us renovate and create the space into what we had envisioned. I created the menu, designed the logo and promotional materials as well as the layout of space and hired employees. He took care of renovations, building tables, shelves and the pastry case as well as figuring out the licensing, codes and ordering all of our equipment. We opened our doors in February 2013 to lines out the door. It was both terrifying and exhilarating! The community gave us their full support and has been amazing over the years. We said we’d see how it went for a year and here we are, almost at 10 years!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I graduated from Messiah College in 1999 with a degree in Marketing and a concentration in Graphic design. I got a job as a junior graphic designer for Neiman Group in Harrisburg, PA. I learned the ins and outs of all the design programs and made some great professional friends during my time there. During this time I started my freelance design business, Stephanie Perry design, and have been doing that until the present. Some of the connections I made at NG, I still work with today. I left Neiman Group and went to work for Messiah College in the Marketing and Public Relations office in 2001. Throughout the years I honed my graphic design skills as well as picked up a lot of editing and photography skills. I had some great co-workers who were willing to share their knowledge in their fields. I also shared a space with many work study students and was put in charge of hiring all of the student photographers that worked with our office. I left my position there in 2012 right before opening Yellow Bird Cafe.

I’m so thankful for all of the people I crossed paths with over the years. Their lives have impacted mine greatly! Some have become wonderful friends and have been great encouragers. My years as a designer weren’t always easy, but I think the challenges I experienced pushed me forward, helped me grow and learn more about who I am. They also pushed me to pursue my dreams. While I love graphic design and creating beautiful work, I think I found my niche with cooking and make delicious food for people. There is something so rewarding in brightening someone’s day by making them a good meal. One of my most favorite things at the cafe has been hearing someone say how relaxing the cafe space is and how it brightened their day by coming in. Another thing I’ve learned is that I really enjoy teach our young employees how to cook. It’s been very rewarding. All that to say, I think one of the big lessons I’ve learned is that if you fail at something, get back up and try again. Keep pushing forward and giving it your best, no matter what. My husband and I do not have a culinary background. We are self-taught and had big hurdles to jump over in learning the restaurant business. At the same time it was rewarding learning all the pieces and being able to share that knowledge now.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Dining/Food: Nick’s 114 Cafe in New Cumberland, PA – our friend is General manager and the food is housemade and wonderful!

Troegs Brewing Company in Hershey – they have great beer and scratch made foods and a fun space to hang out. It’s right next to the Hershey Outlets, so we’d definitely stop there too.

Millworks in Midtown Harrisburg make their own beer and has a wonderful farm-to-table kitchen. They have a dining room, a rooftop patio and many artist studios. You can make a night of it walking around in there and eating a meal.

3Bs Ice cream – they have a few locations in the area and we love them!

Evanilla donuts in the Broad Street Market – Eva and her husband make delicious donuts!

Zeroday brewing company has recently opened a restaurant that has an outside area with fire pits, a cozy inside dining room and wonderful Mexican food and beer.

Hang out:
We would go for a long walk along the Susquehanna River make sure to walk across the walking bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge that crosses the river over to City Island. It’s lit up with white lights and is picturesque. (We live a block from the river and it has a beautiful river walk and pretty views.)

Fort Hunter State Park – it’s also on the Susquehanna river and there are chairs to sit and enjoy a picnic.

Go see a Harrisburg Senators baseball game on City Island – it’s our local team and it’s just fun to get hot dogs and watch a game in the cheap seats.

Lake Tobias Wildlife Park – it’s a local zoo with safari rides and is wonderful!

Gettysburg or the Civil War Museum – My husband loves both and enjoys taking anyone that is game (when we aren’t eating :))

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our friends, family and community have been our biggest supporters. They cheered us on, showed up when we needed help with renovations – by helping to paint, put chairs and shelves together, tear down walls and put new ones up, load and move all of our equipment into the building, wash dishes, clean and be a listening year. They helped us advertise and spread the word about what we were doing. They were our guinea pigs when we need to test our our menu. And when we opened our doors, they came in to enjoy the food and bring their friends. Without our community of people we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Website: yellowbird-cafe.com

Instagram: yellowbirdcafe.hbg

Facebook: Yellow Bird Cafe