Cafe owner Krissy White will offer art classes, fair-trade coffee and a family-friendly atmosphere.
A family-friendly cafe with a mission to encourage creativity is coming to Somerset Street.
Founded by former art teacher Krissy White, The Daily Grind will feature two menus – one for gluten-free food and one for crafts.
“It’ll be a hub of eventfulness,” White says, excited about the opening scheduled for this weekend.
“You can definitely come here and read a book, but people are going to be painting and stuff will be going on.”
The 34-year-old mother of three will provide “art kits” from $2 to $20 for patrons of all ages that can be completed in-store or taken home.
White planned the kits herself, and they include pastel drawing, bracelet-making and watercolour painting, all with step-by-step directions included.
One week before opening, The Daily Grind was a canvas of its own. She and her husband Mike White and 11-year-old son Solomon oversaw the first seats being installed: an old-fashioned church pew.
The side door reveals an alleyway where street artists are invited to paint and sell their work. White plans to host art workshops upstairs and cooking classes downstairs.
“I want it to be an energetic place,” she says of the converted house the cafe calls home, “like a type of community centre.”
White brewed the idea 10 years ago after noticing cafe crowds repeatedly gave her children dirty looks whenever they visited coffee shops.
“When I’d go to a coffee shop,” White says, “you could taste the resentment from some of the customers at the sight of my kids.”
Former Starbucks barista Veronica Litt says youngsters aren’t compatible with coffee shops.
“The most common things kids do in cafes is get upset and loud. Most people are there to relax with a latte and soothing music. Kids don’t figure into this equation.”
White grew determined to start a family-friendly cafe on her own and soon incorporated her art-teacher experience into a vision of a place that would also encourage creativity.
White’s philosophy is that people’s creative instincts are repressed as they get older. They become afraid to be creative because they don’t think they are or they fear judgement.
“I want to reverse the fact that we don’t think we’re creative. Everyone is,” she says. “It’s something we’re born with . . . and you don’t have to be Picasso.” She’s arranged to host a local homeless centre’s art program and workshops with a developmental disabilities group and plans to give free art lessons for low-income families.
Because family is important to White, The Daily Grind will run art workshops for children with themes such as Halloween and Christmas where parents can sit, eat, drink and socialize.
It will also have workshops for parents in photography, water colours, weaving, sustainable gift-giving and cooking.
But White’s vision didn’t come easily. After securing the location, she says she struggled to pay for upgrading the wiring and plumbing and for cleaning the grease left over from the kitchen’s Korean BBQ days.
White will do all the baking and most workshop instruction until more volunteers or staff are recruited. For now, there are four full-time workers, including White and her husband.
The cafe has some local parents pleased with the idea of a child-friendly place for them to socialize.
“I like the idea of being able to bring my two-year-old and have something for him to do and somewhere he is welcome,” says Tori Murray, a parent of two. “It’s nice to be able to sit and be doing something at the same time and get a chance to meet new and like-minded people.”
The Daily Grind, located at 601 Somerset St. W., will be one of the few places in Ottawa where people can get food that is entirely gluten- and dairy-free, which is important, White says, because people have autoimmune disorders that result in gluten and dairy products sensitivities.
Gluten is a protein found in rye, barley and wheat. One in 100 people have gluten sensitivities, according to Health Canada. A gluten intolerance is also known as celiac disease.
The menu will also feature sugar-free products and fair-trade coffee.
White admits the concept of an art cafe in a city full of civil servants and lawyers is foreign, but she says The Daily Grind is exactly what Ottawa needs.
“Ottawa isn’t open to new things, like Montreal and Toronto,” she says. “I want to be part of that revival here.”