Cardinal Cafe set for new era in Sharbot Lake

Jeff Green | Aug 25, 2016

You would think Rob and Nancy Moore would be looking forward to a reprieve after Labour Day, when their first frenetic six weeks as owners of the popular Cardinal Cafe in Sharbot Lake.

With the end of summer and the return of the cottage population to their homes in the City, they will have chance to take a deep breath. But it will also bring them to their next, big challenge, the challenge that all retailers in the area face, maintaining a thriving business through the fall and winter seasons.

It's a challenge they are ready for.

“When we found out that Sylvie Smith and Nicole Tarasick [the former owners of the business] were planning to sell the cafe, we knew right away that we wanted to buy it,” said Nancy Moore when interviewed during a late afternoon lull on the Cafe patio last week. “We've been talking about something like this for 20 years, and we even looked at buying this property at one point.”

The Cardinal Cafe is located in the former Sharbot Lake Catholic Church, just north of the cause-way at the foot Sharbot Lake, across Road 38 from the Sharbot Lake Country Inn.

It sat empty for 23 years after the St. James Church was opened up the road. A former owner of the Country Inn used it for storage for a number of years. The Tarasick family bought it two years ago and carefully renovated it in order to create an inviting public space. Smith and Tarasick decided to call it the Cardinal for the points of the compass and the logo for the Cafe is based on the stained glass window at the centre of the building, a window that lets in beam of light on summer afternoons at about 4:00, coffee time.

They decided to sell the café for personal reasons in late June and when the Moore’s jumped at the chance the entire deal was arranged in a matter of a couple of weeks.

The changeover took on July 16th, and the Cardinal Café 2.0 opened for business four days later. During those four days a few changes were made, including putting in a new preparation counter and some equipment so Rob could prepare breakfast sandwiches and burritos, and daily soup, salad and sandwich specials for lunch.

When the new Cardinal opened on July 20th at 6:00 in the morning, it was a breakfast and lunch café and restaurant. The new opening coincided with the peak of the summer season in the Sharbot Lake area, and with a new food menu in addition to the well established coffee and drinks menu that the café already offered, Rob Moore recalls the first couple of weeks as a bit of a learning experience.

“We were working long, long hours, and depending on the our two summer staff members, Maddie Field-Green and Shane Steeves, quite a bit, especially for the way the place operated and how the espresso based coffee drinks are made. I was developing our breakfast and lunch menu on the fly and just trying to keep up” said Rob, a former tea drinker who has taken to knocking back a double espresso once a day.

The first few weeks were certainly a blur for the Moore’s, with Rob coming in at 4 or 5 in the morning to get ready, Nancy stopping in at 7:30 before going to her full time job at Lake District Realty, helping out at lunch and after work. Rob, who had been working as a contractor but was looking for a change, is full time at the café.

The couples two school ages sons have somehow been folded into the mix, with a lot of help from family.

With the menu coming together and the operation of the café becoming easier, the Moore’s are settling in for the long haul.

Aside from getting more deeply into serving meals, the other change they have been working on for the café has been to broaden its appeal.

“It is a beautiful place,” said Nancy Moore, “and it brought the kind of coffee and pastry that was new to this area. We just want to make it the place for everyone, we need to do that.”

Opening early for people who leave early in the morning for work on construction sites or in Kingston and Perth is one way to do that. Another was to start selling butter tarts and pies from Gray’s Grocery up the road in addition to the croissants and pain au chocolat from Fieldhouse in Perth.

The Wednesday evening music nights that started up in June are being carried forward, and the café also has its liquor license again, which took time to arrange because of the change in ownership.

In the fall the hours will shift, but the café is gearing up to serve the office workers, teachers, and all other local residents in the Sharbot Lake area.

“We take orders in the morning for pick-up at lunch, our space is available for small meetings, we are committed to being here year round Monday to Friday for sure, and on weekends as well,” said Rob Moore. “While we compete with the other restaurants in town, we work with them as well. Our goal is to bring something to the community, to make it stronger, and so far we have had tremendous support. My sense is that people want us to succeed, and we are working hard to serve good food, fine coffee, and be a place people enjoy going to.”

The Cafe is open from Monday until Friday froim 6:00 am until 4:30 pm, Saturday from 8 am until 4:30 pm and Sunday from 9:00 until 1:30 pm. The phone number is 613-279-3734