Pickles Cafe

 We ate breakfast yesterday (Friday) in Columbia City at Pickles Cafe.

It is located across from the county courthouse. On Saturdays there is a farmers market around that building; we will go back in the fall to shop. Probably we will eat breakfast at Pickles also. It is about a 25- minute drive for us.

The decor is hodgepodge. My husband commented that except for the metal window counter stools, there were no two chairs alike in the cafe. The dishes, silverware, and mugs are also an assortment. 

We had been here previously for lunch, but this was the first time for breakfast. The hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. except currently on Wednesdays they reopen for dinner. They are closed on Sundays.

There are specials on a blackboard. The back side of the menu also lists different omelets. Notice the gimmick of pickles coming with your meal. Not the kind of pickles I like and very strange with French toast casserole. The casserole changes periodically. Right now, it has blueberries, strawberries, a few blackberries.

My husband ordered Morning Mingle which came with biscuits with gravy and a portion of the French toast casserole. The gravy had lots of chunks of meat, but he said it was too thick. 

It was a cool morning or we might have sat outside since the streets were not yet busy at 8 a.m.

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.

Out and About

 This morning we headed northeast to a woodworking sale in Churubusco. Because so many craft shows have been canceled due to the corona virus, Fred Inman organized a sale at his home/workshop as well as at several other studios including pottery.

It was a pleasant drive through the country to the sale site. 

Mr. Inman's property had a nice pond.

He turns on the lathe extremely large pieces compared to what my husband can turn on his mini-lathe.

His wife does scrollsaw work. Two other ladies (Shelly Bice and Doris Geiger if I remember right) also had items for sale.

Mrs. Bice shares shop space with Mr. Inman. She was demonstrating turning. She sometimes teaches classes at Oak Tree woodworking supply shop; right now those classes are not allowed because of social distancing problems.

Pieces in progress. She does a lot of segmented turning.

When we finished browsing, we headed for Columbia City. Around two sides of the courthouse square a farmers' market was taking place. We were unaware of that until we arrived. Our purpose was to eat lunch in Columbia City.

We bought this blueberry and lemon zest jam to try. The label says blueberry zing jam.

Pickles Cafe formerly was situated near Fort Wayne. It relocated this year to Columbia City.

It sits across the street from the courthouse.

It's decor is eclectic; few matching chairs or tables, no matching plates nor silverware.

We had pink lemonade.

The grilled ham and cheese sandwich came with a light applesauce/butter to spread on the toasted bread or use as a dip for the chips. My husband and I had the 1/2 sandwich, cup of soup combo. The thick spicy tomato and artichoke soup was interesting. We ended the meal by splitting a piece of pumpkin pie. The crust was not pastry, but crushed walnuts baked into a pie shell. Topped with whipped cream, it was delicious.

It is quite warm today (soon to be near 80) but very windy. A beautiful but atypically warm October day.