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The Coffee Mill

Feels like home

By Gina SolomonPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Photo by Creative Headline on Unsplash

Fredericton New Brunswick, Canada is a friendly little town consisting of a north and south side, separated by the St John River. Both sides of the river have shops and houses and various businesses and attractions. The population is just under 60, 000 and although it sounds small we make up for it with big hearts and artistic energy.

Today I was running errands for the day with my best friend and as we are walking down the aisle in the dollar store I realize I am seeing small packets of food and it is making me hungry. “What time is it?”

“12:22, why?”

“That explains my hunger when I see this food. Let’s grab lunch next before we hit anywhere else. My treat.”

“Sounds great, I can always eat if someone else is paying.” She says with a wink.

So we finish at the dollar store and head to a fast food place down the road but realize when we get there, it is drive through only. We really wanted to sit down to eat and not in the car. So we got back into the car and drove across the bridge to the southside of town and straight up the hill to a restaurant I knew had a menu I could eat from. I am one of those annoying people who is allergic to a large number of foods and although my reactions are not life threatening, they can still put me in the hospital if I am not careful enough. Even too much spice can cause me hours of pain and other symptoms. So I am kind of glad we didn’t do the fast food and choose to go for a better menu.

The Coffee Mill is a family owned and locally operated restaurant that has been here since 1971. They serve breakfast all day, home style food and more. I have always loved bringing the family here. With four children it is hard to find a restaurant that caters to kids in a way that lets them enjoy the time and not feel like everyone is annoyed by their presence. They have a book full of colouring sheets and each child is given a small box of crayons to use and keep. The kids can choose colouring sheets and enjoy them all through the meal. The variety of sheets made it easy to please them all and the meals always made my kids thrilled to be there.

We parked the car and make our way to the front doors which split in the middle and are marked one entrance only and one exit only. We mask up and walk in to be greeted by a sign asking us to wait to be seated. We are then quickly greeted by a masked employee with a clip board.

“Can I see a piece of id and get a phone number please?” I show her my driver’s license and she writes my name down correctly and I then give her the home phone number. Most restaurants with seating do this for contact tracing and it has worked so far. The pandemic has made some changes that at first felt daunting, but now I think are fine with me if they stay after everything settles down.

We follow the employee to a booth and sit down as she tells us the waitress will be with us shortly. Which was not even 4 minutes. She gave us a menu and asked if we wanted drinks to start. We ordered pop and when it was brought to us we were given a glass with ice and a cold bottle of pop. This meant if we didn’t finish it we could carry it home with us.

We ordered wraps for each of us and fries for my friend and onion rings for me. I knew I would not be able to eat very many of them but I love onion rings as a treat once in a while. They were perfectly crispy and hard to resist eating too many. The wraps came in our choice of white or whole wheat and were stuffed full of fresh ingredient that tasted so good. We enjoyed the meal and conversation and noticed the tables around us were all separated by clear plastic dividers. So we could see other patrons, but were safely distanced and protected. Even the ladies washroom had a 2 person maximum capacity sign and it was easy to tell when you first looked in if there were already patrons inside. It was clean and easy to be in and out quickly.

I paid the bill and left a generous tip and still only spent $50 in total. It was well worth the drive across the bridge.

“Now, we are fueled up for more shopping. So, let’s get the groceries now as we have saved ourselves the worry of extra buying due to hunger.”

“That worked out pretty good. Thanks, I haven’t been in there for a long time. I always forget how great they make you feel in there.”

“You mean full and at home?” I grin as I ask.

“Exactly!”

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About the Creator

Gina Solomon

Life is an adventure and sometimes the adventure is figuring out who you are and why you have learned so many odd skills years before. I think it is time to share my adventures in stories my imagination has been aching to create.

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