At the Yellow House Cafe on Eva Street in Montgomery, success is not measured in dollars and cents but the number of empty plates sent back to the kitchen.

“What I like to see most of all is when the plates come back from the table,” said Cindy Peirce, co-owner of Yellow House Cafe. “They’re clean. I never see any leftovers. If there are any, they’re taken home. I pride myself on that; it means [my customers] are enjoying the food.”

Cindy and her husband, Jim, have worked to bring fresh salads, piled-high sandwiches and homemade soups to the city since 2013. Cindy runs the kitchen of the family-owned eatery while Jim works on delivery and catering for parties, weddings and private events.

The restaurant only has a few tables in each of its dining rooms, which makes for a more personal experience, but the meal portions outweigh the Yellow House’s stature, Jim said.

“I try to make everything in the restaurant big,” he said. “I try to make our sandwiches thick. I want our customers to leave [full].”

As self-taught cooks, the couple said the menu is based on their own recipes, but the cafe relies on its customers for input on new items and specials.

“I like to give my customers samples [of new dishes] to see how they like them,” Cindy said. “I want to introduce them to different things and ask them, ‘What do you think?’”   

The Yellow House Cafe’s best-selling item is the turkey, avocado and cream cheese sandwich. However, the cafes soups and stews have also become very popular items. Each soup is made from scratch and varies from week to week.

“We try to make different soups all the time,” Jim said. “The other day we made split pea and ham soup, and I had several people tell me, ‘My mother made this 20 years ago when I was a kid.’ I like hearing stuff like that. It’s more unique than run-of-the-mill chicken noodle soup.”

The restaurant also stocks a case full of handmade dessert items, including cupcakes, cobblers, pies  and their cakeballs and cakepops. Each cakeball is shaped and dipped in icing by hand.

Beginning in June, the cafe hopes to open on Sundays to serve brunch and lunch customers, Cindy said.