Orange Glory Cafe

Orange Glory Cafe & Catering is a lunch-focused cafe at 480 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, NY, situated kitty-corner from the Eastman Theatre. Founded by Jackie Powers in 2005, the cafe originally opened in a small storefront at 240 East Avenue beside The Little Theatre before relocating to its current East Main Street address. Powers trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris before launching the business, and the cafe has grown over two decades into a staple of Rochester's downtown lunch scene. A second location inside the Constellation Brands building opened in 2024.

The cafe menu centers on sandwiches, soups, salads, and homemade baked goods, with a strong lineup of vegetarian options. Sandwich selections include:

• Spinach burger with feta, asiago, and house-made honey mustard
• Mushroom and artichoke burger with buttermilk chive sauce
• Lentil burger with Mexican spices and chipotle mayo
• Eggplant and chickpea burger with sundried tomatoes and roasted red pepper mayo
• Chicken salad with dried cranberries on cinnamon raisin bread
• Tuna melt, ham and brie on croissant, and a breakfast sandwich

Orange Glory also operates a full catering division handling events from small parties to weddings and corporate functions. Catering menus go well beyond the cafe offerings, with options like braised short ribs, pan-seared salmon, herb-marinated pork loin, and a selection of appetizers including bacon-wrapped dates and crab cakes. Corporate box lunches start at $15.

Orange Glory Cafe has built its identity around scratch-made vegetarian burgers and sandwiches served in a compact, weekday-lunch format. The chicken salad sandwich on cinnamon raisin bread and the house-baked cookies are signature items that have remained on the menu throughout the cafe's history. Powers has pursued wholesale distribution of the veggie burger patties, reflecting how central those items are to the cafe's identity.

The East Main Street location sits in Rochester's East End, directly across from the Eastman Theatre and within a few blocks of the Eastman School of Music, the Little Theatre, and the Memorial Art Gallery corridor. The surrounding blocks mix cultural venues, offices, and residential buildings, drawing a steady weekday lunch crowd. The cafe is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Saturday serving as brunch day. Street parking and nearby garage options are available in the area.