Pretty much every other year, and always at the start of summer, I make my way to Johnstown for dinner at the Back Door Cafe. I look forward to these visits because I so much like the couple whose restaurant this is.

		More information Consider visiting historic Johnstown before dinner at the Back Door Cafe. For a free copy of the Official Visitors Guide to Johnstown and Cambria County, call 1-800-237-8590 or visit www.visitjohnstownpa.com. The most popular sites include Johnstown Flood National Museum in nearby South Fork; the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center; and the Windber Coal Heritage Center.

We met some eight years ago at Sandhill Berries, a fruit farm in Mount Pleasant. Tom Chulick was catering an event there. He didn't have a restaurant of his own at the time, but he was looking for one. Having enjoyed the lunch he served, I made him swear he would let me know when he found his own place. But he didn't wait long.

The following spring he invited my friend Nancy Hanst and me on a hunt for wild mushrooms. In the woods near his Johnstown home where he had foraged for years, he stood at the top of the hill, spread his arms wide and shouted, "Mushrooms, come to me." They did. We found chanterelles and oyster mushrooms everywhere. Nancy found a bear claw mushroom bigger than her fist, and she took it home to cook for her husband, Jim.

Buoyed by our success, we went looking for wild watercress, and we harvested enough to fill a pillowcase. We took our bounty to Tom's house, and he and his wife, Denise Thompson, cooked us lunch. Denise had made a grape pie for dessert, the wonder of which I have never again experienced. For the filling, you must slip the skins off the pulp of Concord grapes, then cook the pulp until the seeds loosen. After pressing the mixture through a colander to remove the seeds, the pulp is combined with the skins and a mixture of sugar, tapioca, salt, orange juice and lemon rind is added. The filling goes into a pastry-lined pie pan and is topped with a lattice crust before baking. In amazement, I put the flat of my hand against my forehead when I think of how much work this pie involves. Denise rarely makes it now that she's busy doing all the desserts for the Back Door Cafe.

Visiting recently, my friend Gene Deskins and I sampled three of her six offerings: a New York-style cheesecake with an exceptional sauce of fresh strawberries from the couple's home garden; a ginger bread pudding with fresh Bing cherries, chunks of white chocolate and apricot Amaretto sauce; and her signature chocolate truffles flavored with rum.

This most recent visit was prompted by a mention in the Back Door Cafe newsletter of The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, Va., fabled for its food. At a flea market a friend of Denise had bought a box of books and discovered some cookbooks among them. These she brought to Denise, who was most impressed by "Patrick O'Connell's Refined American Cuisine -- The Inn at Little Washington."

"You can't be in the food business and not have heard about The Inn a gazillion times" she says.

She and Tom pored over the recipes. Tom chose a few of the surprising ingredient combinations and garnishes to give them what he calls a "Tommy twist." When this is the case, the source is identified on the Cafe menu.

Having dined at the Inn and recently written about it, I decided to make the trip to Johnstown and see how this melding of talents worked.

The Back Door Cafe menu offered eight starters. Two of my favorites were on it: Tom Chulick's Wild Oyster Mushroom Soup and his Caesar salad. I ordered both while Gene chose the House Salad complete with asterisk indicating that the pickled red onions were inspired by the Inn at Little Washington cookbook.

With the salads and the soup, Tom sent along a Barbecued Turnover. The Inn at Little Washington was also the inspiration here, but Tom used puff pastry for his turnover while Patrick O'Connell used pie dough. Tom used guinea fowl; Patrick used rabbit. Tom charged $7.95. At the Inn at Little Washington, dinners are fixed price: $128, $138 and $168 per person, depending on whether it's a weekday or a weekend. The food at the Inn is exquisite and the prices reflect it. For anyone open to being inspired, O'Connell is the mentor to choose.

From the Johnstown menu offering five entree choices, Gene chose salmon and I selected roasted rack of lamb accompanied by a concasse of tomato, cucumber and mint garnish, an asterisk calling attention to the Inn's influence. The lamb was wonderful and came from Pennsylvania, where we have several world-class purveyors.

Our dinner, with one glass of wine to share and delicious Kona coffee for two, tax and tip, came to $110.06.

At the end of the meal, we met the lovely Daisy Brown, Denise and Tom's granddaughter. She comes for a few hours several times a week to work where she is needed, serving food or clearing tables. At 14 she is learning the family business. Denise revises the dinner menu every two weeks, and Daisy works with her for the six to eight hours it takes to choose the entrees carefully and then integrate the rest of the menu around them.

Back Door Cafe, 402 Chestnut St., Johnstown, PA 15906. 1-814-539-5084; thebackdoorcafe.com; bar opens at 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; dinner reservations are accepted from 5 to 10 p.m.