Sit yourself down on the patio at Feeding Your Soul Cafe and you immediately have a choice to make.
"We are so fortunate to have Carson Beauregard helping with the garden, which is located right out our door. When you are sitting at the outdoor patio, you can pick what greens you would like in your salad - kale, Swiss chard, romaine, spinach and three other types of greens, fresh parsley, radishes, green onion, soon our tomatoes and beans. Many of our customers leave with fresh parsley and chives," said Mary Greenwood, who opened Feeding Your Soul Cafe in September of 2017.
The cafe started when Chris Cooper purchased the multi-unit building on White Oak Drive and was looking for someone to open a cafe, Greenwood said.
"I have always worked in the food industry from kitchens to day cares,” she said. “I draw my inspiration from my customers. They always have great suggestions and feedback. My granddaughter is Celiac, so she inspires me to cook gluten free.”.
From the patio in the garden to the conference room that holds 18 to 20 people it's very apparent that, true to its name, the space exudes brightness, life and all aspects of healthiness.
"It's important to be able to eat healthy, fresh, support local and help other small businesses. Here at 'Feeding Your Soul Cafe' we can go from our vegetable patch to our kitchen to the table within 20 steps. The patrons can pick out the greens they would like for their salad from our garden assortment. Presently we are serving our salads with fresh Strawberry Vinaigrette, made with fresh local strawberries. Seasonally we are able to build our sauces and dishes around what we have to harvest in our garden or purchase locally grown. During normal times we supply other businesses with ready made items and will be picking back up once things go back to fully open." said Greenwood.
"We do gluten-free, vegan as well as regular dishes. One of our features is a flight of soup, which allows you to taste three different soups,” Greenwood said. “We generally make three soups a day. Our features change daily. We have a variety of choices: salads; black bean burgers; falafel wraps; grill cheese - our two most popular are the dill pickle/bacon grilled cheese on our homemade dill pickle bread or Brie/Cranberry/Granny Smith Apple grilled cheese. Desserts vary from pies, cookies, cheesecake with a lot being gluten free. Homemade ice teas and homemade strawberry ice cream round out the menu."
All the cooking and baking is done by Mary who, along with husband Deane, has been managing the business alone since the shutdown began.
"The shutdown was very stressful. If we weren’t thinking of ways to manage take out to delivery, it was always how many people today? What should we serve? You could never predict the amount of food to prepare. My husband and I worked thru it. He did everything from help prep deliveries to shopping for groceries, which we all know was not the easiest task."
"Before the pandemic, I was bringing fresh soup and gluten free biscuits to Country Way every Wednesday. Also, last winter I was supplying Hiawatha with soups, chilli, and deserts for them to sell out there in hopes people would stay longer on the trails. Last summer we were providing Water Front Centre with baking." Greenwood said.
Check out Feeding Your Soul Cafe on Facebook.
