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LUZERNE — En route from Connecticut to Cleveland on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Steve Fisher-Jones and his 17-year-old daughter, Mikaela, searched online for a vegan restaurant and soon found themselves at Nucleus Raw Foods on Main Street, Luzerne.
“We’re excited,” Mikaela said as she and her father settled into the cozy cafe, decorated with living room furniture, book shelves, and a piano and accordion that patrons are welcome to play.
The family drives through Pennsylvania whenever they visit relatives in New England, her father said, and usually the only animal-free fare they can find is a beverage at Starbucks.
But Nucleus Raw Foods had many possibilities to delight a vegan or anyone looking to try something new — ranging from nori seaweed wrapped around veggies “Sue-She” style, to Nucleus Burgers made from walnuts, to chocolate smoothies made from organic bananas blended with cacao.
“I created the cleanest eating experience you can have,” said owner Danielle McGrogan, who embraced a healthy diet several years ago and wants to help others do the same from her headquarters in this 0.7-square-mile borough of 2,853 residents.
Main Street is a great place to do business, she added.
“I love Luzerne,” said McGrogan, who lives “500 steps” from where she works.
Gaining enthusiasm with each sentence, she explained, “People are always walking around. The Back Mountain Trail starts right here in the downtown. We have a waterfall one mile from here.”
Even if they don’t walk or bike along the wooded trail that once was a railroad bed, visitors to Luzerne will find much to explore downtown, an area with many specialty shops.
Here, Inland Water Sports Inc. will outfit you with scuba gear, while Sea the World Travel can plan your next trek or cruise, and Costumes by Barbara will help you become anything you might want to be this Halloween, from a 1920s-era flapper to a rugged cowboy to a yellow-feathered bird.
While Albert Sweitzer will make your dog look spiffy at American Tails, Jim Lane can whip up something tasty at The Main Bean coffee shop, perhaps a breakfast sandwich with locally produced eggs and some coffee sweetened with local honey.
The House of Nutrition can supply you with items ranging from organic produce to vitamins to environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, and Kernal Moonie’s Bootleg Kettle Corn has dozens of flavors of gourmet popcorn, both sweet and savory.
The popcorn gets popped early in the morning, owner Justin Taylor said, and “you can smell it all the way down the street.”
Main Street offers so much that if you live and work in the borough, you almost never have to leave, McGrogan said.
“If you want to mail a letter, we’ve got a post office. If you want new clothes, you can get a whole new wardrobe for $100,” she said, pointing out that consignment shops offer gently used clothing for men and women, boys and girls.
Luzerne is a friendly, neighborly kind of place, according to Barbara Gavlick-Hartnett from Costumes By Barbara.
“I’ve told customers, if they’re coming to return a costume and I’m not here, they can just leave it with one of the nearby merchants.”
“It’s a nice, small town, a personal kind of place,” confirmed Jeff Mullen, a Main Street optician who also heads the Luzerne Merchants Association.
Last spring Mullen started a project to remove Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant, from the banks of Toby Creek, which runs behind Main Street.
“We want to revitalize it, make it more people-friendly and connect it to the Back Mountain Trail,” he said, adding that 15 or 25 volunteers have come out to pick up litter and clear debris on at least four occasions.
“We get a ton of donations, as far as manpower,” he said.
Mullen, who also owns a small excavating company, has used his bulldozer to help rid the area of the invasive plants. He said he’d like to have the creek project completed by June, in time for a Farmers Market he expects to begin in Luzerne.
McGrogan also said she is eager to see the creek project complete, envisioning the creek bank as a place where families might want to picnic.
Another Luzerne destination already familiar to many families is the Harris Conservatory for the Arts, where parents drop children off for all sorts of lessons in what once was an elementary school on Charles Street.
When you hear that the conservatory puts on stage productions such as last year’s “Coppelia” ballet, with close to 500 participants, you realize dance is a major component.
But a visit to the conservatory on a typical mid-week afternoon found youngsters studying not only ballet and tap but guitar, piano and karate.
In one room, Sensei Amy Wall led Dragon Tale Karate students in an exercise in which they assumed a crouching position and leaped sideways, four times, never standing until they were done.
“Ichi! Ni! San! Shi!” the sensei cried, counting to four in Japanese as she and the students jumped in unison.
In another room, 12-year-old Grace Reed, of Nanticoke, showed other young dancers the Irish step routine that had helped her win honors in competition.
Just down the hall, teacher Patrick Temple gave a guitar lesson to three boys who ranged in age from 8 to 11. But you don’t have to be a kid to pick up a new instrument, Temple said, mentioning he recently gave lessons to a student in his 80s.
Upstairs, in a room Harris Conservatory manager Jim Harris said he believes once was the school library, Doreen Ignatovich gave a piano lesson to 9-year-old Dallas resident Olivia Zawatski.
And in a room still adorned with chalkboards, young dancers pulled on shiny black tap shoes and took obvious delight in stamping their feet.
Addressing a class of 3- to 5-year-olds, teachers Emily Coolbaugh, of Tunkhannock, and Theresa Gawlas, Mountain Top, demonstrated a shuffle step, kicking one foot frontward and backward before stepping down on it hard.
“How many sounds does it make?” Gawlas asked the aspiring hoofers.
“Three,” one of the tiny dancers ventured.
“That’s right,” Gawlas said with a smile.
Perhaps someday, thousands of shuffle steps from now, the girls will be on Broadway.
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For now, dance class in Luzerne seems to be a fine place to start.
