Wheatberries: Welcome to the Sechelt Safe Haven

When you walk into the Sechelt Wheatberries, you get the feeling that this is the nice cafe in the small town that locals take all of their guests to. It is probably listed as one of the top three places that visitors can go to if they are staying in a B&B nearby. It is still a locals cafe. It just happens to be conveniently located along the tourist route. The clientele is the real tell tale sign of the place. Everyone from the young college students on a study break to the spunky seniors in the neighbourhood seem to flock here. Everyone is friendly and is willing to talk to you about the sites that you have to be sure to check out nearby. Because the clientele here is so friendly - almost to the point of being a little bit too Stepford for my liking- the place has an instant homey feel which just reels in the tourists.

As the name of the place states, Wheatberries is a bakery. They make all of your many of your baked goods needs. On the display table, the food is packaged up and displayed in only the way a small town can: cellophane wrapped goodies tagged with raffia and a hand script font printed label or freshly baked loaves in baskets or on shelves carefully displayed. All of the furniture has that honey waxed rough pine look and there is a bright golden hue that seems to take over the place. It is in a sense the safe haven for those tourists who do not know any better after they have lost sight of the last Starschmucks or Timmy's. It has country style details with the artisan flair, and the clean cut teens working the counter could not intimidate even the shyest of shy violets passing through town.

The coffee here is from a Sunshine Coast local roasting company called Straight Coffee Traders. I thought the americano was decent with a tasty deep roasted initial flavour but then the flavour seemed to fall flat in the finish. The baked goods were tasty and the fact that you could get a panini or a slice of pizza for a little lunch break makes the place that much more inviting. There is plenty of seating for people to come on in for a cuppa and enough space for the line up of people who want to get there caffeine fix to go.

As much as I think this cafe fits the small town of Sechelt very well, and is great sanctuary for the weary coffee deprived traveler, I feel like it is a great place to visit, but I certainly wouldn't want to permanently drink there.

Out of 5 Tourists

Grub: 4 You can't beat freshly baked goods. The fact that they offer something outside of baked goods to fill the travelling lunch void, makes what they have to offer even better.

Scene: 4 To clarify, I would give it a four as a tourist. It is a great little place and is conveniently located for the people. It has a few locations I believe (Sechelt, Gibsons and Langdale) and it seems to have a neighbourhood following. If I was a resident, I'd give it a 3. I would still go there, but because I feel there is no edge to the place or that the design is just too country cabin with no other real option, I think I would be convinced to start roasting my beans at home and drink my coffee in the solitude of my own dwelling.

Coffee: 3 The coffee was good. It wasn't great. It didn't blow my mind away. It did however, fulfill my caffeine fix and it was a notable step above utilitarian coffee.

Not a Fair Trade: Tim for Jim

Once again it has come up in conversation: The UnFair Trade of Main Street. Which trade am I talking about? Timmy for Jimmy. This past November, a fire broke out in Kishu Island Restaurant on Main near Broadway and took out the neighbouring businesses. These businesses included Slickity Jim's, a hipster hangout where we enjoyed lovely breakfasts like the Mean Teen Queen and the Cheesy Fungi, Zokalo's, The Militant Penguin and our Canadiano mugs at Lugz.

Whenever this fire is brought up, the banter usually begins with, "I hear a Wendy's and Tim Horton's is going into the old Bank space on the corner." This is usually followed by groans, disgruntled protests and a whole lotta cryin' shames. No, it's not fair that our choice of coffee houses will be traded from our beloved Jim and all of its eclectic mounted collectibles to sterile fluorescent backlit signs with all of the calculated packaged consumables from Tim. We will be going from being called darlin' at Slickity Jim's or being given a coffee inferiority complex by obnoxious service from the coffee freak at Lugz to being called sir or madam with indifferent service by the 15 year old who is anxiously waiting to get back to texting her friend under the counter. Sure we will be able to access all of the food we expect on a cross Canada Road trip right in our own backyard, and yes we will include it on the coffee rotation when you really only have time to get a double double, and perhaps we may be able to have some indie Main street movie maker come up with their own hilarious version of a warm hearted Sidney Crosby commercial. However, the fact that we are trading all of that for places that helped make Main Street the cool part of town seems like a major rip off. Having Tim and Wendy move into town is like having a gateway from the westside where timid kids from Kits pop out to see what it looks like on the other side of Ontario Street.

Perhaps that is the real crime. The dilution of cool from a place where a coffee doesn't come in the form of an espresso, but rather a drink that is an express-on-the-go.