A new Aurora cafe is blending signature brews with history out of its heritage-designated property on Wellington Street.
Sandy Farran, a retired journalist from Toronto, was eyeing a move out of the city to Aurora when she decided to start looking for a spot to open her own cafe. After searching for a location for six months, she found 42 Wellington St. E., a designated heritage building built around 1862 for shoemaker Joshua Hunt, with a saltbox roof, a distinctive style of Atlantic Canada.
Farran, who studied history at university and is a self-confessed Canadian history buff, said she saw the perfect opportunity to combine her passion and her East Coast heritage within this new venture.
“It's a saltbox, it was designated historical because of its saltbox design, and I just went, ‘Oh, bingo, that's my name,’” said Farran.
“I loved it because I have close relatives (out East). My mother grew up in the East Coast, and as you may know, the saltbox is very prevalent down in Newfoundland. So I was thrilled with the name.”
While the outside showcases the distinctive saltbox, inside is a bright, colourful re-design with ornate chairs painted bright pink and a wallpaper mural brought in from Sweden, with the tagline, “Don’t Rush Me."
“Pink is my favorite colour, and blue, and I just took it from there,” she said. “I like quirky things. And I would say 60 per cent of the stuff in here is secondhand.”
Farran worked in the service industry while studying as a history student in Kingston, and said she thought it was always something she would return to.
But she said the industry has changed a lot since her student days, so Farran underwent training as well as tasting of coffee from a wide array of local roasters before settling on a company in Vaughan.
“The whole barista thing, no, no... There were espresso machines in Italy and in Europe, but really in Canada, there was nothing near that, just the old coffee shops with the Mother Parker coffee that you poured.”
The cafe is also serving up pastries from a bakery in Maple and will be offering breakfast sandwiches, as well.
Saltbox Cafe marked its grand opening on Saturday, Nov. 30, and is located at 42 Wellington Street East.
