Sweet Lemon Kitchen is located in a historic house at 812 S. Church St. in downtown Georgetown. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Rachel Cummins has been baking from scratch since she was 4 years old. Now, a decade after opening Sweet Lemon Kitchen in downtown Georgetown, she's taking the brand to a new entertainment destination.
The background
Located at 812 S. Church St., Sweet Lemon Kitchen has been a fixture of downtown Georgetown since Cummins converted the historic home into an inn in 2014 and then a breakfast-and-lunch cafe in 2016, she said.
In 2020, Cummins added dinner service, now offered Wednesday through Saturday from 4:30-8:30 p.m., per the restaurant’s website. In 2022, she expanded again with the opening of The Little Lemon at the Library, a grab-and-go cafe inside the Georgetown Public Library.
Rachel Cummins, owner of Sweet Lemon Kitchen, outside her Georgetown cafe at 812 S. Church St. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
This summer, a third location is on the way. Cummins is bringing another Little Lemon to The Junction, a 60,000-square-foot entertainment and dining complex under construction at 210 Blue Springs Blvd. Like the library location, the concept will offer espresso, house-made pastries and grab-and-go fresh fare, she said.
"We don't want to be in a shopping center—we want to be part of a community," Cummins said. "That's what Sweet Lemon is about."
On the menu
The menu is built around organic ingredients, house-made pastries and locally sourced coffee.
Sweet Lemon Kitchen's house salad can be topped with a scoop of chicken salad, grilled chicken or seared salmon. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Breakfast and lunch staples include cinnamon rolls, kolaches, scones and quiches alongside sandwiches such as the turkey club croissant, chipotle chicken and the Venezuelan street-style pepito sandwich invented by Chef Darwer Ozuna.
Dinner features family favorites including Mediterranean salmon, beef bourguignon and chicken pot pie, along with starters, such as baked Brie and queso compuesto.
Sweet Lemon Kitchen's menu spans breakfast, lunch and dinner, with house-made pastries, fresh salads, sandwiches and seasonal dishes. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Specialty drinks include a signature cream latte—which can be sweetened with honey or syrups, including lavender, maple and raspberry white chocolate—and the Sweet Lemon Shandy, a house lemonade and Rentsch hefeweizen blend.
Zooming in
For Cummins, the expansion is a family operation in the truest sense. Her youngest daughter is now head baker, running the production kitchen housed in the basement of City Post Chophouse—the upscale steakhouse her husband Kevin Cummins opened two blocks away in 2021.
The bakery supplies both Sweet Lemon locations, and Cummins said a standalone, larger bakery facility is her next goal after The Junction opens.
The interior of Sweet Lemon Kitchen at 812 S. Church St. in Georgetown, which Cummins converted from a historic home into a cafe in 2016. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
The cafe's roots run deeper than the square. Cummins attended culinary school at Escoffier after years working in restaurants, and traces her baking instincts to her Scottish mother—a pie maker—and her grandmother's annual Fredericksburg peach cobbler. The menu she built reflects that lineage.
"I just want people to feel like their day got better," Cummins said.
Latest update
Developed by Cooley Capital Companies, The Junction is set to open in August and will include bars, a live music stage, pickleball courts and flexible office space.
The Junction, a 60,000-square-foot entertainment and dining complex under construction at 210 Blue Springs Blvd. in southeast Georgetown, is set to open in August. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Little Lemon at The Junction joins Dough-Go Pizza, King's Chicken Wings, Taconmaye, JABS Smashburgers and Shawarma Point as the development's dining tenants. Cooley Capital partner Matt Marshall told Community Impact the site sits within a mile of roughly 6,000 workers currently without a single food or beverage option nearby.
