LIVERPOOL, NY - A new cafe offering breakfast, lunch and dinner and specialty coffee and tea drinks is now open in Liverpool.

Hope Cafe Coffee and Tea House, at 305 Vine Street in the Village Mall across from The Retreat, specializes in food from Peru, Venezuela and Argentina.

The cafe raises funds for The People Project, a local charity that raises money for families in need here and overseas.

Specialties at the cafe included Peruvian empanadas, Venezuelan arepas filled with Italian, Peruvian or pulled pork barbecue filling and Liege waffles (which are Belgian waffles made with Belgian pearl sugar.)

Also on the menu are Italian sandwiches - known as sangwiches - in varieties such as pulled pork, prosciutto and pesto, ham off the bone and breakfast choies.

Coffee drinks include French toast lattes, emoliente (a soothing drink with medicinal herbs on a bed of toasted barley with flax and aloe,) and mate (an herbal mix from Argentina with energizers.) Mate, usually served in a gourd or gourd-shaped cup, is designed to be steeped several times and consumed slowly.

Matthew Cullipher is People's Project board chairman, and also runs the cafe with his wife, Mary.

Ingredients are imported, and Cullipher said the aim is to be eclectic. "There are a lot of cafes around, so we have to be very unique,'' he said.

The cafe has seating for 40 people.

After the bills are paid, all profits go to the charity. Cullipher said volunteers staff the cafe, and no one earns a salary at this point.

Currently, only about 10 percent is directed to the charity as there are start-up and operating costs, Cullipher said. After about six months, the goal is to devote at least 25 percent of profits to the charity and pay a small salary to employees, he said.

Entrees range from $3 to $7.50. Hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The cafe is closed Sundays, although Cullipher said that may chance in the future.