by Wolffy

So you’re working the night shift and can’t take your sweetheart out to dinner for Valentine’s?
The solution to your dilemma is tucked away on Glacier street, up from Joyce and conveniently near a dentist, whose attentions you may need if you gobble too many of the amazingly well named Robalin Bakewell’s wonderful cookies, buns, pies and tarts, which she will bake up for you on order, all year ‘round.

It takes something for Wolffy, who loathes sweets and eschews bread, to admit this.
‘Twas the meringues that got me.

I’d wandered lonely as a cloud (a storm cloud) one beastly morning, exiled from my can-less, kitchen-less house, just another typical burned-out, morose Powell Riverite questioning one’s sanity after buying a badly built but undeniably cute geriatric wooden box masquerading as a house, and growling like a bear needing that first breakfast after hibernation, when I stumbled on Bakewell’s Restaurant.

Breakfast served all day, 7 to 4. A clean, well lighted place. Espresso for a buck. Omelets, crepes, latkes, quiche. Sweet-natured service. Eggs Benny—several kinds. Toad-in-the-Hole—my secret eggish sin. Fresh fruit instead of canned with breakfast. Sausages almost too good to share with the wolfdog (who gets a share of everything—he’s the second opinion in this column). A bathroom so clean it betrays the owner’s Dutch heritage. Daily specials. Small-appetite meals for a dollara-fifty discount. Gluten-free bread. A sandwich called an Ouchmater, which just has to be a version of the Dutch uitsmijter. Comfort food, every day.

And meringues. A glorious, six-inch, personal, banana-crème meringue for six bucks, hot from the oven. Not too sweet. Robalin will do coconut, lemon, and maybe even strawberry ones on order for you in an hour. Just park yourself on the sofa and relax.

I’m hooked. Going for a hearty meal at Bakewell’s beats running home to Mama in her kitchen after a fight with your sweetheart.

But you’re not going to fight with your sweetheart. You’re going to pick up the phone to reserve one of those five tables for your romantic breakfast at Bakewell’s, or lunch, and practise a little wooing with Robalin’s Valentine’s Platters for Two.

I dread the day the versatile Ms. Bakewell finishes her degree in Education and leaves us for more academic climes. But for now, Powell River has Bakewell’s Restaurant. Love this place.

Location:7053-C Glacier Street
Phone: 604 485-0509
Hours: 7am–4pm Tues.–Sun.