PAOLI, Penn. — For some customers, a visit to Cafe POM is about more than finding a favorite Armenian dish; it is an opportunity to reconnect with a culture. For Anita Torcomian, the cafe’s owner-operator, those encounters are among the most meaningful parts of running the business. Together with her husband, Tory (Toros) Torcomian, Anita built Cafe POM around a simple idea: preserving the foods and traditions they value while creating something their family and community can carry forward. The idea began as a joke between the couple over drinks. While driving past Armenian Delight, a longtime Armenian food business, they began discussing the possibility of buying it. What started as a passing thought gradually became a serious consideration. Anita (left) poses with her husband, Tory, and their three children, whose family is at the heart of the story behind Café POM. When they shared the idea with Tory’s father, they expected him to dismiss it. Instead, he encouraged them to pursue it. Anita began working at Armenian Delight to become familiar with the business and the women who prepared its food. Although the original owner ultimately did not sell the business to them, Anita’s experience there helped lay the groundwork for what would eventually become Cafe POM. The connection between the two businesses remains central to Cafe POM’s identity. “We were fortunate enough to be able to use Asik’s [the late owner Asdghig Kazanjian] recipes, along with the women who brought those recipes with them,” Anita said. “The choreg, lamb dishes, yalanchi, and many other items came from her recipes.” The cafe’s name also reflects Anita’s connection to Armenian culture. Inspired by the pomegranate and its symbolism of fertility and family, the owners chose a name and visual identity that would reflect their heritage while welcoming a broader audience. Gathering Place for Community Cafe POM’s vision extends beyond its menu. While working at Armenian Delight, Anita noticed that many customers wanted somewhere to sit down and enjoy their food rather than take it away. She and Tory carried that observation into their own business, creating a space where people could share meals and spend time together. “One advantage of having an area where people can sit down is that someone might come in for lunch or dinner, and then somebody else who hasn’t been part of the Armenian community for a while will walk in,” Tory said. “They haven’t seen each other in ages.” These unexpected reunions have become one of the cafe’s defining features. For some customers, visiting Cafe POM offers a way to reconnect with people and traditions that have become less present in their lives. Interior of Cafe POM The business also reflects a broader Armenian tradition of entrepreneurship and mutual support. Tory’s father and uncle John helped guide the couple through the challenges of establishing a business, while restaurant owner Tavi Murray offered practical advice about opening and operating a restaurant. “Having someone with that specific experience was really big for us,” Anita said of the guidance they received. That support extended into the wider Armenian community. When Cafe POM first opened, customers arrived in such numbers that the owners struggled to keep up with demand. “Once we opened, people came in droves,” Anita recalled. “The first week was packed, and we could barely keep up with the demand. As soon as we made something, it was out the door.” The response demonstrated the community’s appetite for Armenian food and its willingness to support a business dedicated to preserving it. Sharing Armenian Food with New Audiences Situated on Pennsylvania’s Main Line, Cafe POM also serves customers who may be familiar with Mediterranean cuisine but have never encountered many specifically Armenian dishes. To encourage customers to explore unfamiliar flavors, the cafe introduced Palm Samplers, allowing visitors to select five items from the refrigerator to create a sampler plate. The menu combines recipes passed down through Armenian Delight with dishes from the Torcomian family’s kitchen. The gata recipe comes from Anita’s mother, while the vospov kofte and eetch recipes reflect Tory’s mother’s cooking. Although she is Puerto Rican and Spanish by heritage, her recipes have also become part of the cafe’s culinary repertoire. The family’s experience illustrates how food traditions can be preserved and shared across cultural backgrounds without losing their connection to family history. Cafe POM also hopes to accommodate customers with different dietary preferences. Anita has expressed interest in experimenting with gluten-free versions of traditional Armenian foods, including lahmajoun , as well as exploring additional vegan options. Balancing tradition with changing customer expectations is part of the cafe’s ongoing evolution. More than a Restaurant Beyond its kitchen and dining area, Cafe POM provides space for community gatherings and artistic expression. The cafe has hosted exhibitions featuring Armenian artists, including Mania Arabalian, Gary Altunian and Monique Sarkisian, as well as events involving the Armenian basketball community. Rather than charging artists to display their work, the owners ask them to make a donation to the Armenian Sisters Academy, helping support the wider community while giving artists a place to share their work. The cafe’s communal spirit is especially visible in its kitchen. Women and other community members sometimes volunteer their time to prepare traditional foods, help make yalanchi or clean parsley. “They’ll come and they’ll make Lahmajune or help with the yalanchi or just cleaning parsley,” Anita explained. “They just like to come and hang out in the kitchen with us.” Some volunteers refuse payment, accepting food in return for their help. Their involvement has helped create a family atmosphere that the owners say developed organically as the business grew. For Anita, this sense of connection is inseparable from the cafe’s purpose. “Our community has been absolutely amazing,” she said. “I truly believe we have one of the most unified Armenian communities in the entire country.” Looking ahead, Cafe POM hopes to extend its reach beyond the Main Line through nationwide shipping, making traditional Armenian foods more accessible to people who cannot easily find them in their local communities. The initiative could offer another way for Armenian families across the country to maintain connections to their culinary heritage. The post Cafe POM Offers Like to Armenian Heritage Through Food and Community appeared first on The Armenian Mirror-Spectator .