Messages like “memories from the past” and “family owned” are sprinkled along the wall of a popular Lake Country cafe.
The Wooden Nickel Cafe has been operating for nearly 30 years off of Highway 97. When undergoing a redesign, co-owner Diane Solski said she and her husband, Rick Wiley, couldn’t come up with an idea for a wall. They have owned the cafe for the last 15 years.
It wasn’t until one of their customers, named Mal, chimed in that the restaurant shouldn’t be telling people what they do, but instead asking the customers for their opinions, that the couple turned to Facebook.
The messages are words the community has used to describe the cafe gathered from the restaurant’s social media page. The cafe bustles on the weekends, and in the mornings the seats fill with regulars who come to enjoy a sandwich made of their speciality sourdough bread.
Solski said people keep coming back because everything is made in-house, with no preservatives and the community trusts that.
“We love it and we have a passion for our food and our people,” she said.
The cafe takes requests from seniors in the community, sometimes delivering their favourite meals if they’re unable to drive to the cafe. A 97-year-old Kelowna man once couldn’t find a raisin pie anywhere, so Solski said they made one for him.
The cafe’s first owner, Sharon Hein, opened the cafe in 1990. She continues to visit the restaurant as a customer, enjoying a meal with her friends on a Friday afternoon.
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There was nothing in Winfield when she first opened the restaurant, Hein said, adding “if you put out a quality product, they’ll come.”
Customer Barb Ross said she and her husband will often split a meal, and they enjoy an Andy Omlett and sourdough bread.
With a fresh coat of paint to accompany the wall, server Cheryl Wilson said the business is family oriented, with both staff and its customers.
“We get a lot of regulars every day, hence why the sign says ‘see you tomorrow’ because we see the same customers,” she said. With about 10 staff members, they’re a tight-knit family.
“If you haven’t tried it come on in,” Wilson said.
The Wooden Nickel Cafe is open from Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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