The Details: Skylark To Become JohnnyCakes

If there's a café that offers what the Skylark Café—soon to be JohnnyCakes—offers, I want to know about it and go there.

The 80 seats here are a combination of counter, booth and table seating. And it's the home of the $1 coffee, JC Sliders, and, now, "Diner Art"—a showcase of patrons' doodles.

Skylark Café is currently owned by Chef Ben Lising, as well as Brian Moran and Mike Solicito, and is managed by Blauvelt and Corinne Pierre-Petido. The owners before this crew ran Skylark for 43 years—and now Lising and crew, who also own 132 Main Street's Bourbon Street, are set to renovate the facility.

"We've never done a diner," Lising explained when asked if this type of eatery was new to him. "[But] there has been a warm response. It was something the town needed."

Ben Lising's father also lends a hand.

"I used to have a coffee shop, and when Ben was younger, I told him to come to my shop and cut onions and potatoes after school," he said. "He'd wave his hand and want nothing to do with it."

"Now look at him," he chuckled.

Deep down for Skylark is the connection to the Nyack community, Lising noted. It appears on the walls of the café, and is written—or rather, drawn—on the tables... literally. Once the group took ownership in August, the décor was changed to feature the work of 15 local artisans. Soon, an official exhibition will take place.

And if that's not sufficient to bring you by, stop in to check out your own—or your child's—art work.

"Our café is good for kids," Lising said, pointing out tables covered with sheets of paper as tablecloths. The kids draw on the paper with crayons, and it eventually gets hanged up displayed in the back, Lising added.

Skylark also has a large blackboard for kids to doodle on while their parents finish coffee, Lising explained, and video games will soon be added to the back room, as well.

But that's just the non-food stuff.

"We've got great food, and we're casual," Lising said.

Obviously the locals agree—Skylark was so busy on my visit that David Blauvelt ("I only stopped in for a cup of coffee!") and Corinne Pierre-Petido were pressed into duty, him working the counter and her serving food.

I enjoyed a sausage patty, scrambled egg and cheese sandwich on hard roll while admiring the artwork. Also on the menu: egg, omelet, pancake and waffle choices, along with side orders and snacks, salads, soups and sandwiches. They have breakfast specials (Johnnycakes' southern cornmeal cakes with melted butter and maple syrup) and lunch specials (JC Sliders and Subs are ever-popular).

And on the side—daily newspapers, stocked daily for customers to peruse while dining.

Skylark is open 7 a.m. to midnight Sunday to Thursday, and 24 hours on Friday and Saturday.