Roland and Kathleen own Charlotte Lane, a charming little restaurant in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Roland is Swiss, trained in Paris and met Kathleen in Banff, Alberta, when they both worked at the Banff Springs Hotel. His family has been in the restaurant business for three generations so cooking is in his genes, although always in Switzerland. Part time jobs for Roland all through high school and college were always in the Family establishments. Kathleen is Canadian and has a degree in the management of hospitality, so when they married, they moved to Toronto, where hospitality was alive and well and jobs were readily available. After a few years working at a fancy restaurant in Toronto, they decided to move to Nova Scotia and open a small restaurant where Roland could cook and Kathleen would run the business. The plan was to open only during the late Spring and Summer months, closing in October, then visit Roland's family in Switzerland helping out if necessary, and travel around in Europe. The plan has worked out well. and they now celebrate twelve years in Shelburne.
First they renovated the small home they purchased for cash, doing all the work themselves. Their home was the second floor of the restaurant. The first room you enter is a gift store, so while you are waiting to be seated and when paying your bill, all these objects are enticing you to buy. Kathleen has wonderful taste so the gifts for sale are unusual and interesting. The restaurant itself seats twenty eight, with a small deck out the back for use when the weather is fine. The town os Shelburne is small, about two thousand souls, and the restaurant is not inexpensive, but this restaurant is full all the time. People come from all over Nova Scotia to eat at Charlotte Lane. Even the noon hour lunch time requires reservation. Roland and Kathleen are lovely people, hard working and pleasant. Just last year they bought the house next door to the restaurant and re-did the place into a show home, where they now live. I love the idea of getting an idea and carrying out the plan and then watching the success grow. Now they stay open in the Fall right up to the American Thanksgiving, then re-open in June. It is a nice life. But I still can not imagine cooking every day for six months of the year. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Roland is a wonderful cook, and I hope they stay in place for many years, because I love eating there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment