By Wendy Bayes
It has always been my hope that our café would be a symbol of hospitality, a great cup of coffee, good food, good friends and a couple of laughs. Located in the heart of historic, downtown Fayetteville, Cathedral Café customers come from all walks of life—law offices, students and tourists, as well as locals. The bookshelves are stuffed with used books to browse or to buy, and the children’s books are always free. Large stained-glass windows splash colorful light on the hand-painted tables.
The building that houses the café was originally a church built in 1905 that continued to operate until circa 1985. The building was then used as a storage facility for about 10 years until the café opened in April of 1997. My husband Rick and I bought it a few years later, in June 2000. The learning curve has been amazing. My only restaurant experience prior to purchasing the Café was working as a server here for six months prior to becoming an owner and I had to lie to get that job.
Rick and I were raft guides for 16 years and decided we wanted to become more involved in the community. After our children—Cassidy, now 13, and Kyle, now 10—were born, I wanted to become more involved in the community that my children would be growing up in. In a few short years, I went from knowing hardly anyone to knowing more than not, and I love it. I love walking down the street and knowing almost every single person, stopping to chat, seeing what’s going on with their family and so forth. I truly believe it’s what we all crave in this way-too-fast world—time to connect. Time to share.
In addition to breakfast, lunch, homemade desserts (including award-winning carrot cake and cheesecakes) and used books, the café offers WiFi and has a public computer for customers to use. We have customers that come in here every single day—some just for their morning coffee, some for breakfast (they claim that this is their kitchen) and others for breakfast and lunch.
When I moved here from Ohio, I was happy about my choice of location to raise a family. I mean, look at the New River Gorge—why would anyone choose to live anywhere else in the world? I was also sad, though. I missed my family, missed those connections. Over the past 15 years, I have embraced the largest, craziest, most thoughtful and loving family that anyone could ever wish for. Sometimes I picked them, sometimes they picked me, but the most important thing is that we have each other, and for this I am truly thankful.
2 Comments
Please, please send me your recipe for carrot cake. We all loved it when my son and his family lived down the block, but they moved away and still talk about Cathedral carrot cake. Does it have pineapple in it? They even talk about the time you made bread pudding with it. Birthdays are coming up!
Hi Anne,
West Virginia Executive magazine is not directly affiliated with the Cathedra Cafe. If you contact them directly, I am sure they would be happy to answer any of your questions. Thanks for visiting our site!