Shops at the Sanctuary and The Church Cafe

I saw in the Fort Wayne newspapers that a new shop was opening in Columbia City in August. Actually this is a location for multiple vendors to sell their wares in an old church.

 The Shops at the Sanctuary has one major drawback. It isn't navigable by those who have mobility issues. Even the cafe whose door opens at sidewalk level has 6-8 steps down into a basement. I wonder if this might be the reason that the Presbyterian church that formerly occupied the building moved elsewhere. Perhaps an aging congregation found the steps too hard. 

The items to purchase range from handicrafts to furniture to decorative items to clothes. Some are "antiques"; I found most of those to be priced rather high. 

I would describe most of the furniture, signs, decorative items as Farmhouse style. In fact, one of the side rooms was named the Farmhouse. 

I did find one booth whose items I liked and thought were reasonably priced. 

Some of this decor can probably be purchased at Hobby Lobby or big stores like that. The pillows were mostly homemade though.

In the store there was a plate with a rooster for $2.50 to a raw-edged table for $3,500. 

There were unique items like the barn.

It was a lovely setting with the high ceiling and stained-glass windows of the sanctuary. 

The Church Cafe being in the basement did not have the same pleasant ambiance though efforts were made to spruce it up a bit with flowers on the table and some easy chairs in front of a "fireplace".

Most of the sandwiches were $9. My husband had a blackberry jam and bacon panini that included cheese and jalapenos. He said it was delicious. There were various entree salads. My slice of quiche was $4 and very tasty. Eating a smaller main dish meant I had room for a piece of peach custard pie.

The crusts of the quiche and the pie were flaky lusciousness. There was a whole page of the menu which was just specialty coffee and chai drinks plus smoothies. Stopping in for a piece of pie or cake with a hot drink would be fun.

It is only about 20 minutes from our house. Just a few blocks away is the county courthouse which has a farmers' market on Saturdays. A nice little outing.