Big Boat Café makes a splash in local culinary scene

Longtime Tompkins County residents Penny Westbrook and Jay O’Leary, owners and operators of the Big Boat Cafe at the Lansing Harbor Marina, are riding a wave of success and community support.

The two Lansing residents serve tasty breakfast and lunch sandwiches and coffee, with nutritious smoothies and plant-based options to boot, out of a remodeled houseboat at 44 Marina Rd. Hungry passersby can find the vessel open every weekend from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Big Boat opened its doors earlier this spring, overlooking Cayuga Lake, to tremendous community support. Westbrook, who recently retired from her job in the health care field, remodeled the boat and has always been conscious of healthy habits and exercising, said marina operator Greg Mezey. His family and other boat owners have been extremely encouraging. 

“That is first and foremost: they’ve all been incredible,” Westbrook said. “We’ve had a boat in the marina for almost 15 years, a sailboat. But as soon as we started remodeling [the houseboat], people started taking interest in what we were doing. We’ve met so many more people that didn’t know us.”

Now, after promoting Big Boat on social media and receiving some media coverage, Westbrook said the cafe has finally gotten its sea legs. 

“All of those folks have been coming to see us,” she said. “We’re starting to get folks coming over from Myers Park. On Sundays, we have this huge influx of people coming from downtown just to come to the cafe for breakfast. So, the response has been absolutely overwhelming and super positive. Very supportive and patient.”

Westbrook’s dream of serving delicious food to her community didn’t start out in the shape of a boat. Her lifelong dream was to have an ice cream truck.

“I just love them,” the Dryden native said. “People get excited when they hear the music and it just makes people happy.”

Westbrook said her husband always pointed out the irony in being a health-conscious person who also wanted to deliver sugary delights. After all, Westbrook worked in the healthcare industry and was an aerobics instructor for years.

“My husband said it didn’t seem quite right,” Westbrook noted. 

Shortly after retirement, and with her dream of an ice cream truck still in mind, Westbrook had orthopedic surgery, which sidelined her for weeks. But her determination would not waver – she persisted and would look at ways to make her dream a reality. Eventually, Westbrook and O’Leary pivoted to a bagel boat, where they would serve bagels and coffee in the mornings to other boaters in the marina.

“But the house boat we found was small and my husband couldn’t stand up in it,” she said. “So, I started looking at other boats, and we did find another house boat. The more I told people about it, the more excited everybody got. They also started offering suggestions. ‘You should do this and you should do that,’ they said.”

After a while, Westbrook started spending time with the owners of MoMo’s Cafe, a food truck turned pontoon cafe during the pandemic. That was a time when Westbrook felt she had found a new drive.

“I love making breakfast. That’s my favorite meal of the day,” Westbrook said, noting that her love for “the most important meal of the day” inspired her to craft a menu that reflects her preferences. Westbrook follows a plant-based diet, which has sometimes made it difficult to find choices that work for her at food trucks and local restaurants.

“It was important to me to be able to offer that for others,” she added. 

The current menu features several options that allow for Beyond Beef substitutions, such as the First Mate hamburger, which includes smashed tater tots. There are other creative plant-based options, like the Scuttlebutt Sliders, a play on bbq smoked-meat sliders, using a more fibrous soybean protein known as tempeh. There is also the Pdub Special, a breakfast sandwich made out of a plant-based egg substitute, plant-based sausage and plant-based cheddar cheese.

While most of the menu has proved to be very popular with town residents and boaters, Westbrook and O’Leary highlighted their fresh Smooth Sailing smoothies as the stars of the show.

As the couple looks toward the future, Westbrook said she wants to perfect her craft with Big Boat. A second boat, however, could very much be in the cards, she added.

“I need to master this first, make sure people are happy,” she noted. “We need to make sure we’re putting out good products first and foremost, and it’s also really all about the experience. It is fun, it is different and it is unique.”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on Twitter @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

Rock the Docks returns for second run at Lansing Harbor

The annual concert series kicked off June 10, with one show every weekend until Sept. 1. Big Boat Café will be on hand, selling food and refreshments. The next show will take place July 1, from 4-7 p.m., featuring the funk and psychedelic rock band Feed the Fire.