Food Guy: WV Coffee Festival; In search of Humphrey's Pine Room, Ray's Deli recipes

There are few things in life I enjoy more than a hot mug of good coffee. No milk. No sugar. No double-pump of brown sugar-dusted pistachio crema with matcha cold foam. Just a cup of fresh-roasted black coffee, so you can taste all of the nuances and terroir from where those beans were sourced.

So I perked up when organizers told me the 2026 West Virginia Coffee Festival is moving to the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center after previously taking place in Hurricane last June.

"Your impact on the Charleston food scene has been influential on me," wrote festival committee member Alexander Durand, co-owner of Mountain Table in Renick, Greenbrier County. "We would be honored to have you attend."

This caffeine-fueled celebration will offer three different public sessions featuring 17 specialty coffee roasters offering free samples and coffee for sale, plus artisans, brewing demonstrations and tea vendors from around the state.

Coffee roasters on hand that day will include Aroma of the Andes, Aubade, Bean Theory, Black Dog, Cherry River, Coal River, Cultivate, Good Vibes, Hill and Holler Herbal, Hill Tree, Java Bean, Mountain Folk, Mountain Table, River Roasters, Sibling, Silver Bridge Coffee Company and Vaniks.

Additional exhibitors will be selling everything from macarons, fudge, chocolates, pastries, jams, maple syrup and beer syrup (what?!) to mugs, candles, textiles and prints.

You can buy tickets for any session or an all-day pass, both of which include entry to the festival, a program with all event details, access to live demonstrations and a mug you can use to sample more than 50 beverages expected to be offered that day.

Reader Donna Chambers needs help tracking down a beloved local recipe that predates my time here in Charleston.

"While talking with my brother Steve Veltri recently, he was reminiscing about his younger days and his weekly visits to Ray's Deli in Kanawha City," she recently told me. "He said he so wished he would have kept a menu, which was very detailed about every sandwich offered in the deli."

She said her brother's favorite sandwich at Ray's was the Yachtsman, which he enjoyed with a Stroh's beer back in the mid-to-late 70s.

"Do you have any idea where I could find the ingredients for the Yachtsman sandwich? I'm a little younger than him, but I remember Ray's Deli well. The Reuben was my favorite."

Although I didn't live in Charleston when Ray's Deli was still around, I've heard from several readers who loved the place. I've only been able to track down a rough recipe for their Almost Heaven sandwich so far, but nothing for the Yachtsman yet.

"I'm reaching out with a seemingly impossible request," Vicki Schafer wrote to me this week. "For some reason, Humphrey's Pine Room restaurant keeps coming up organically in my recent conversations and posts from friends on Facebook. This has stirred so many happy memories of eating there as a child with my granny and mom."

She said the restaurant's spaghetti and homemade rolls were their particular favorites from that old Charleston hotspot that opened on Bigley Avenue in 1946, where it operated for decades before closing.

"Is there any way you could reach out to your readers to see if anyone happens to have recipes for those two comfort foods from my childhood," she asked.

Based on previous reader requests, I've only been able to track down a recipe for the Pine Room's stewed tomatoes and dumplings, which I shared back in July 2024.

But I know there are still a lot of Humphrey's fans out there. Does anyone else have a connection to any of those beloved dishes from the past?