A small Sylvan Lake cafe used the quiet of the temporary closures brought on by the pandemic to re-brand and relaunch the cafe.
Located in Cobb’s Block on Centennial Street, the small cafe that greets patrons as they enter the doors has shifted from El Amor to Main Street Eatery.
Cindy Norell, who is in the process of purchasing the former El Amor Cafe, said that re-branding to Main Street Eatery better suited what she wanted from the space.
“I had given it a lot of thought, and just felt that El Amor didn’t fit what I wanted to do. The girl who ran it before had a lot of chocolates and sweets, and el amor I think means love in Spanish, so the name suited it,” Norell said.
Norell said she wanted to focus on cooking and making food for others, and liked the idea of including Main Street in the new name.
“It just seemed right,” Norell said of the cafe’s new name.
For fans of the former El Amor, Norell says there are still a number of items that have been kept.
For instance, the coffees, cinnamon buns, cheese cakes and freezer means are all still available.
What has changed, she says, is an expanded menu of soups and sandwiches and freezer meals, all of which are homemade which fresh ingredients.
“Before people really like our bread and asked if we would sell it by the loaf, which we did. Now we have a few different types of breads that we are making and selling, not just the white sandwich bread,” Norell said.
Norell says she loves to cook, and can remember doing so from a very young age.
One of her favourite foods to make is actually soup. She says it is because there are so many different soups and way to make each one unique.
“I would happily cook for 16 hours a day if I could,” she said.
Main Street Eatery reopened at the beginning of July, after public health restrictions began to lift, and many patrons reached out asking when they would be opening again.
The shop is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and specialized in lunch and midday meals.
For more information, check out Main Street Eatery on Facebook.