An old café has closed, but a new one is eager to take its place on River Street.
Elim Café officially opened in January at the Rusty Owl’s former location in downtown Prince Albert. The café offers breakfast and lunch options, and aims to create an atmosphere of contemplation.
Manager Cass Guise said that the name of the cafe comes from a word in the Bible meaning place of rest or oasis. They hope it will give people a place to rest and relax, along with a good meal.
“We wanted it to be a place where people can come to reflect, to think, to be quiet with their thoughts and just have comfort,” Guise explained.
“We wanted a place for people to come and think and ponder and reflect, where they can come for comfort food.”
The menu is entirely soups, salads and sandwiches. The café is open for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“We are just playing with the hours and at the same time, I can only be here so many hours a day until I get staff going and trained and everything,” Guise explained. “We plan to open in the evening for some grilled sandwiches and salads and soups.”
Guise and the Elim Café relied on social media to get the word out about their new location. She said that they did not want a hard opening, so instead they went with a smaller more intimate opening when they started in January.
“We went with a soft open,” she explained. “We didn’t do a grand opening. We didn’t pump everybody up and say, ‘come in and try it on our first day.’ We simply turned the lights on and then after a couple of days I started posting on Facebook.”
Guise said the reception has been a good one. The people of Prince Albert welcome having another café option downtown.
“It has been amazing,” she said. “People are coming in and they are loving the space. They are looking at all of the decor and they are thinking.”
Guise said that there was a lot of decor to look at to help people reflect. That includes a copy of the Lord’s Prayer up on our wall, along with a mural of ironworkers from the 1930s.
“(The artist) wrote underneath, ‘just like iron sharpens iron, so friends in their discussions sharpen the minds of each other,’” she explained.
They have a different menu concept working with combinations of the three menu items. Guise said they wanted to have a “quick menu” that allows people to mix-and-match.
“It changes, but right now I have all combos (at) $10.99 and you make two choices, whether it be a soup and salad, or a salad and a sandwich, or a soup and a sandwich. It is kind of open to you to make your own decision what you want your combo to be,” she explained.
Guise said kindness is an important part of Elim Café, but so is sustainability. The restaurant has signed up with The Backyard and Compost, and will compost as much unused product as they can instead of sending it to the landfill.
“That means all of our table scraps, all of our napkins, all our waste food, all of our coffee grounds, everything gets picked up and composted,” Guise said. “That is something that is important to me.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca