Cafe Ro-Ann

Back in high school I had a friend who made me crazy with her habit of being late for everything.  I, on the other hand, drove her nuts with my obsessive punctuality.  Well, that punctuality went down the tubes once I had my three children.  For some reason, regardless of how early I got started, I never seemed to be able to get anywhere on time.  Now, as an empty-nester, I'm back to the old "if you're not early, you're late" mindset......until this week.  My daughter, Liz, arrived in PE this past Wednesday evening and will be here visiting us for about five weeks.  I love having her here, however, Thursday morning, despite getting up earlier than usual for the coffee crawl, Liz and I ended up leaving for the crawl very late.  Heading down Main Road in Walmer I received a call from a group of crawlers who had already assembled at Cafe Ro-Ann wondering where I was.  I reassured them that I was on my way and silently resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't be on time for anything (including this posting) for the next five weeks......thank you, Liz!!!

I was very excited for this week's crawl because I'd heard so many great things about Cafe Ro-Ann ever since we moved here about a year ago.  I decided that it would be the perfect choice for Liz's first crawl.  Cafe Ro-Ann is located at 144 Villiers Road in Walmer and is open every day for breakfast and lunch.  Upon passing through the gate at Cafe Ro-Ann, patrons enter an outside garden area with numerous picnic tables along with a small play area for children.  Indoors, the shop includes three rooms, the green room, the orange room, and the smoking room, all of which have plenty of available seating.  The cafe offers free wireless internet for all patrons!!!

Our Waitress and the Owner
Alicia and Lynda Davies

Lynda Davies has owned Cafe Ro-Ann for three years.  She chatted with Liz and me after this week's crawlers departed, and introduced us to her staff.  Lynda's top priority is that she and her staff are all "doing it right" to ensure satisfied customers.  Well, Lynda, you all certainly "did it right" on Thursday morning as all of this week's crawlers, Fran and Keith de Beer, Les Baldwin, Nomusa Nkomo, Beryl and Stella Dawson, Gail Darne, June Nash, Beth Vieira, Margaret Zoetmulder, my husband, Lou, and my daughter, Liz will definitely be return customers.  As for the Ciro brand coffee, all the crawlers enjoyed their beverages prepared by barista, Melonisha Arends, and served by Alicia, but Liz especially liked her latte.  Nice job, Melonisha and Alicia!!!

This week's thirteen crawlers met in the orange room around a large table with three smaller tables pushed together to accommodate all of us.  After introducing Liz to everyone our initial conversation revolved around accents, and with South Africa having 11 official languages, there was much to discuss!  Everyone then took turns teaching my baby girl inappropriate, rated PG words and phrases in Afrikaans.  The geography of Africa then had everyone stumped but Liz came to the rescue and impressed all present by hand drawing a map of the African continent and labeling all the countries.  I cross checked it with the world map when I got home....she nailed it!  We discussed our plans for Liz's five week visit here....she's certainly looking forward to exploring South Africa.  Lastly, all the crawlers agreed that Liz must be the favorite child since Lou joined us for her first crawl but was nowhere to be found for Jeff's!  OUCH!

Thank you to Lynda and staff...I did make the perfect choice for this week's crawl...and thank you for the biscuits!!!  (sorry so late with the post)
Happy Birthday to Prudie Brown who shares her big day with Nelson Mandela on Monday, July 18.

Finally, to my high school friend, Karen.....I'm still waiting for my Christmas card!!!

Until next week (actually, later this week),

Ellen

This Week's Crawlers
Lou, Liz, Keith, Margaret, Beth, June, Stella, Fran, Gail, Beryl, Les, Nomusa

Meet the Barista
Melonisha Arends

My Husband and Daughter
Lou and Liz