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Crazy Café is a unique restaurant experience

Young staff members cooked and served up a storm for appreciateive patrons
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Order up! Kitchen staff at Crazy Café deal with the lunch rush (chef Ayla Mykyte at centre). Photo: Barbara Roden.

Restaurant Review

Crazy Café, 711 Hill Street (Ashcroft HUB)

Casual dining, friendly atmosphere

Reservations not required

Price range: $

Many new restaurants make the mistake of being too ambitious right off the bat, presenting diners with a daunting menu several pages long. Choice is good, but can challenge back of house staff still learning the intricacies of each dish, and front of house staff who have to keep everything straight. This can lead to a less-than-stellar dining experience for patrons, and bad word-of-mouth spreads fast.

Fortunately, Crazy Café avoids this rookie mistake by keeping its menu stripped down. Limiting itself to no more than five dishes in each category—appetizer, main course, and dessert—means much of the focus is on customer service, and the young staff, under the keen eye of restaurant manager Vicky Trill, have this nailed.

The tone is set as soon as you approach the front door, where hosts enquire how many people are in your party and escort you to your seat. A server immediately appears with a menu, and each course order is handled by a different person. There were three dozen patrons in the restaurant the day we were there (August 15), along with 20 staff members, and while it was only the second day of operation, there were no obvious hiccups: the sign of a well-drilled team.

Service is swift but not rushed, dirty plates are cleared quickly and efficiently, and no one has to ask for a drink refill, because one is offered as soon as an empty glass is spotted. When we say the staff is young, we mean it quite literally—everyone is aged between six and 12—but the level of service they provide would put many of their more experienced elders to shame.

The menu is, as noted, pared down, but what it might lack in variety it more than makes up for in its playful tone. Banished are such run-of-the-mill name choices as veggie platter, soup of the day, fruit plate, and spaghetti; diners instead find stick monsters, dead plants, multi-coloured monsters, and worms in blood respectively. The dessert menu is equally colourful, featuring squares of squishy (rice krispie squares) and wibbly wobbly (Jello with whipped cream), along with cuppies (cupcakes) and the decadent dessert sandwich: two homemade chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in between. Beverages on offer include Mom’s wakeup (coffee; someone clearly knows mothers), pinky finger (tea), and cold pinky finger (iced tea).

Ambience is provided by Austin Husa, a self-taught guitarist and singer whose accomplished playing skills suggest a bright future for this young musician. There may well be Crazy Café patrons who, in years to come, will hear his name and say only a little smugly, “Of course, I first heard him before he was famous.”

The Journal was able to speak with Trill during a rare break in the bustle, and learned that Crazy Café prides itself on the fact that all the dishes are homemade and baked or cooked from scratch. Not only that, but the multi-talented staff members were also in charge of the interior decor, the designing of the menus, and the naming of the dishes, which were chosen by head chef Ayla Mykyte.

“I chose the food and did the shopping, and took charge of the cooking and baking,” says Mykyte, who does not look in the least flustered after only day two. Explaining how she chose what menu items to feature, she says “I tried to think of cute, easy things for kids to make. I remembered that when I was a kid I liked to make things like that.”

Mykyte heads back to work—orders are still coming in—and Trill explains the spark behind this new venture. “Last year the Kids’ TRYathlon camp was cancelled because of the smoke, but people had paid, so we did Camp Dine and Dash, which was wildly popular. This year we got United Way funding, and did it again.”

She notes that staff members learned more than food preparation and service skills. “HUB summer students [Cole McKay, Ayla Mykyte, and Austin Husa] prepared a budget and costs, and the others planned the schedule and learned entrepreneurial skills and how to run a business. They all did lots. We debriefed after the first day, talked about what went well. Today has been much smoother.”

Trying to put my finger on what makes Crazy Café stand out, I recall a remark of Mykyte’s as she spoke of her colleagues: “I think they really enjoyed it.” They certainly seemed to, and that feeling was reflected in the faces and voices of the contented customers, making for a truly memorable dining experience.

Alas for those who did not make it to the restaurant: it has closed for the season. However, Trill says that there is a good chance it might become an annual event, so watch these pages this time next year for the return of Crazy Café. And don’t miss the dessert sandwich: it’s five stars all the way.



editorial@accjournal.ca

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A server answers a customer’s question about the menu. Photo: Barbara Roden.