August 12, 2016

Somewhere Else Café Diner Truly Canadiana




It happened on two occasions.   I was asking myself  “Is it worth it?  The time.  The gas.  It was out of my way, about 14.2 km, a 12 minute drive from the town of Hope on TransCanada Highway 1 towards Yale and Boston Bar.  

Twice, hesitatingly I decided I should.  And you know what, twice (so far) I was glad I took the detour.


Somewhere Else Café is one of the best diners, truly Canadiana, in British Columbia.

Run by Gail Marlatt, and assisted by her 90ish mom Louise, they make and serve their food with that special touch that makes you want to go back again and again.  No wonder the truckers love them.


Once you see on your west side (if coming from Hope) a very nondescript (and I mean NonDescript) red and white building/gas station, veer left towards the potholed spacious parking lot.


Somewhere Else Cafe used to be at the trucker’s gas station on TC 1 Flood Hope Road Exit on the way from Hope to Vancouver.  But the owners of the refilling stop had other business plans.  And Gail and mom had to move their popular diner somewhere else.  Hence the name.  That place was in the Dogwood Valley between Hope’s town center and hamlet Yale proper.  They took over what used to be the Dogwood Cafe with its 1960s retro diner booths.


The Farmer’s Breakfast with Perogies CAD$ 12.49 was for a hungry man who has a discerning palate.  Those perogies were good.  And in my most recent quest, the Swedish meatballs with gravy carpeting a sumptuous bed of spiral pasta had a twang that made the special of the day special.  The meal came with choice of soup, crackers, biscuit, green salad, garlic toast plus dessert (a tasty butterscotch pie with ice cream) for  CAD $12.99.  That is a deal, a delicious dsteal.


Grandma Louise hand makes the pie crust – so you are really getting home-made pies.  There are a set of pies made by a local – Mary is her name.  I didn’t  get to try Mary’s.  But Gail and Louise’s apple crumble pie (which I had a slice to go) was like being transported to a farm in the 1800s: lumpy, crumbly, voluminous like a hilltop, and downright Johnny Apple.  With cold vanilla ice cream – it was home sweet home.

Somewhere Else Cafe has a facebook that intermittently tells the special of the day.  See https://www.facebook.com/Somewhere-Else-Cafe-366178380241963/

If only I live 14.2 kilometers away.

Contact Details:  7 am – 8 pm every day except some holidays
27153 Dogwood Valley Road
                                Hope BC V0X 1L3
                                Tel: 604 869 7082
                                m.gail11@yahoo.ca

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