"At the Kiwi Café" says proprietor Lynda Flinn, "we're seriously passionate about good food and good coffee.

"We offer a menu blending international themes with interesting flavours and the freshest of ingredients." A delicious selection of home made foods from scratch and you're hooked for a return performance.

The Kiwi Welcome

Step into her establishment for the first time - and every other time - you'll see - and feel - The Kiwi Welcome.

A fine selection of magazines for leisurely browsing, a basket of toys for the youngsters, a popular deck taken over by hungry, soggy-clothed junior sailing students on summer days, an outdoor hitching post and freshly poured bowl of water for the dogs, all demonstrate the Kiwi Café's whole-hearted pleasure in our arrival.

The colour scheme alone lifts our mood to a happy, expectant level. Lynda, a transplanted New Zealander, copes with Nova Scotia's sometimes lingering grays, by turning to colour.

A bright, bold Kiwi green sets the stage for the juiciest orange, the most regal royal blue, terrific tropical turquoise and the sunniest of yellows.

Specialty coffees - using fair trade java!

Sit at a rainbow splashed table and chairs and you might be surprised at the Kiwi coffee menu's full bodied selection. It's encouraging you to pause a while. At the first smell, sight, and sip of a specialty coffee you know you made the right choice!

Happily for Kiwi Café enthusiasts, not only does the eatery look good, it serves delicious, satisfying food and beverages. "I have 50 gazilian cookbooks," Lynda admits. " She's also dedicated to exploring glossy food magazines and Internet food sites.

Baking from scratch

"We do baking all from scratch with natural ingredients. We use butter". For special dietary needs there are delicious spelt flour choices. "If we don't have brownies, we'd get in so much trouble, it wouldn't be worth it," she confides. "Some won't share it with their spouse! "

Pecan squares and chocolate chip cookies have a loyal following as well. At a recent catering event, a self-described connoisseur of chocolate chip cookies declared Lynda's were "Very, very good." One enthusiast begged for her oatcake recipe, promising she wouldn't open a restaurant in Chester. As for the hummingbird cake, a tantalizing cross between a banana-carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, its claim to fame is not even making it through the cooling-off stage before one table of customers devoured it from start to finish.

"Lynda was worried it wouldn't sell," says employee Sandy Reid, laughing with delight.