JOSEPH — In an effort to continue pleasing the palettes of former customers, one of the former owners of the Old Town Café has compiled a recipe book so people can have a taste of Old Town at home.

“When people found out we were closing, they asked if I ever would do a cookbook,” Olivia Losby said. “I didn’t think I would and then people kept asking so I considered it more. I figured it would be a nice signoff gesture that I could do for people so they could have Old Town in their house.”

She and her husband, Jacob Losby, owned and operated the small restaurant that served breakfasts and lunches for eight years until closing in October 2021. Now, she works a couple of doors down at Arrowhead Chocolates and he’s the supply-chain manager for Terminal Gravity in Enterprise.

“We’re both still in the community and really active in it, we’re just not in the restaurant,” she said. “It’s nice to not be the face of something.”

The fareThe recipes in the book are ones both the Losbys prepared at the cafe, but Jacob was eager to turn this project over to Olivia.

“He recognized that this was my project,” she said. “He was ready to not be involved in it.”

One of the favorites at the café was its large selection of soups.

“I took the summer off to not really think about it and then I buckled down in the fall,” she said. “I took a lot of recipes and turned them into home recipes — that were originally three gallons of soup and made sure they were reasonable for two to four people.”

Some of the 16 favorite soups include broccoli cheddar, zuppa toscana (creamy potato and Italian sausage), hearty lasagna, curry sweet potato and New England clam chowder (a recipe carried over from the previous owner).

They even had a soup calendar to inform customers what would be served when.

Lunches included favorites like the the Almighty Alpine Sandwich that was served the last week of each month. Although the recipe is included in the book, it might be difficult to obtain some of its ingredients. At the café, the Losbys got some of the more unique ingredients in bulk from Sysco Corp., a food-service distributor. They made their own pickled cabbage used in the sandwich, but Olivia said she has yet to be able to find the pretzel buns at a store.

The lunch menu also includes Old Town’s tuna salad and chicken salad.

Olivia said she even includes breakfast recipes.

“I didn’t know how to write a breakfast recipe — some of the things we made like the breakfast potatoes … there was never a recipe written down,” she said. “And it’s different from when we had a flattop grill from someone who has a frying pan at home.”

She said she had to try out all the recipes in the book for home use.

“French toast is another one that we never had a recipe written down,” she said. “I tried the recipes at home and wrote them down.”

One of the differences is the quantities.

The cafe also was known for its baked goods, such as chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, millionaire bars and the ever-popular sugar cookie bars.

“Some of these I didn’t have to modify the sizing,” she said.

But other items did require modification.

“The salsa went down from a 5-gallon bucket to maybe 2 quarts,” she said. “There are a lot of things people will be happy to see in there,” she said.

The book

Olivia said that while Jacob left the cookbook to her, she didn’t do it all herself. She credits Ali Garrett of Moonlight Graphics in Joseph with both urging her onto the project and, as a graphics designer, offering practical help.

“She helped me a ton with the layout,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. It wouldn’t have worked nearly as good without her helping me.”

Olivia’s first order of 100 books sold like hotcakes.

“I ordered 100 thinking that would be enough, but then within a day, they were all gone,” she said.

As of Friday, Jan. 27, she had sold at least 170. That day, she ordered another 200. She said she expects them to be available by Feb. 10.

Olivia said she has gone to selling via the online site Shopify rather than trying to personally sell or keep track of the sales of her self-published book with email and social media.

“It was a little nuts,” she said. “It was hard to keep track of messages and payments. Shopify makes it easier.”

Olivia said the future will be determined by how sales go. In addition to Shopify, the books will be available at Arrowhead Chocolates and Copper Creek Mercantile in Joseph and at the Bookloft in Enterprise.

“We’ll see what happens after this next batch of 200,” she said. “I can order them and it takes about two weeks. I’ll probably just keep circulating them until it seems like everyone has one. … I’ll just see where it takes me. … People are excited about it.”

What: Old Town Café Cookbook

Who: Olivia Losby

Where: The book is available at Arrowhead Chocolate and Copper Creek Mercantile in Joseph, and the Bookloft In Enterprise

Order at: https://olivialosby.myshopify.com/

Cost: $20