Shannon McKinney and Brian Doyle are both graduates of the Culinary Institute of America. In 1986, they decided there was a great need for an Old Fashioned bakery that still made everything from scratch using only the finest, freshest ingredients. They opened the "Corner Bakery" in May of 1986 and the response was overwhelming! McKinney & Doyle were featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine Section later that year and customers from all over the tri-state area began to crowd the small shop. Homemade soups and entrees were added to the list of offerings over the next few years and the need to expand to a restaurant became abundantly clear.

In 1991, McKinney & Doyle moved the bakery two blocks into Pawlings' Village and opened the Fine Foods Cafe. A 120 year old brick building was chosen as the new location to house both shops. Booths and benches from an old Pawling Pub were restored and became the storefront dining room. Their philosophy of serious cuisine in a not so serious atmosphere, transformed the restaurant into a true destination. M.H. Reed of the New York Times reviewed the cafe and rated it "Excellent". see our reviews. Accolades from the New York Times, Zagat Survey, Food & Wine Magazine and others, pushed the small cafe into the lime light and in 1997, the cafe was honored by the Wine Spectator Magazine as having one the finest wine lists in the world, a distinction it has kept ever since. Success however, did not come without a price and after loosing most of his hair, Brian Doyle decided to retire from the business in 1998.
Shannon McKinney assumes full ownership now but is backed up by an incredible staff of dedicated, hard working people.


THE REST OF THE BIG CHEESES!!!

Jose Antonio Vertiz (Tony), is the executive chef and has been on staff since the business inception in 1986. Tony is truly gifted in the art of food preparation and maintains incredibly high standards in all menu preparations and staff supervision.

Cruz Cabanas, our head dinner chef, maintains equally high standards and assures perfect consistency in all of our signature dishes. Cruz has been behind the cooking line since the Cafes' creation in 1991.

Lynn Cassels, (our resident jack of all trades since 1995), is our catering manager and runs all of our off premises caterings. Lynn plans menus, meets with clients, coordinates clients' tent and rental needs and supervises staff at our larger events. In her free time, Lynn keeps busy managing all office operations, assists in the dining room and can be seen from time to time, waiting on customers in the bakery.

Juan Perez, is one of our pastry chefs since 1994 and Graciano (Chany) Vertiz, our other pastry chef since 1995, handles the daily production in the bakery. Juan arrives at 4:30 am each morning to bake the morning supply of fresh breads, danish, muffins, cobbler and piping hot rolls. Chany arrives at a more normal hour and continues the bakery production throughout the day.

Andrew Sarubbi is our restaurant manager since 2005. Andrew supervises all "front of the house" operations and is also our resident wine sommelier. He can be seen nightly in the café and also during Saturday and Sunday brunches. When he is not running in 50 directions at the same time, he can also whip up the most incredible martinis you have ever tasted.

Christina Schurr is our most recent acquisition to the management team. "Chrissy" (a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America Baking and Pastry School) manages the bakery since November 2006 and is in charge of all things bakery related.