“Our mom had a food business when we were growing up,” Katherine Alexander tells us. “The Wood’n Teahouse”.

“She served tea,” Nicole adds, “baked goods and lunch, and was open for dinner as well.” 

Their mom’s teahouse was in Kippens where the Alexander sisters grew up. Kippens is a small community on Bay St. George just west of Stephenville, N.L., on the way to the Port au Port Peninsula that stretches out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nicole now lives in the house that was that teahouse, with her family, and Katherine lives nearby with hers. And the two are surrounded by their parents, aunts and uncles.

“Nicole’s house,” Katherine says, “is on land where our Nan, Dad’s mother, used to teach at when the school was here.”

The teahouse, and the experience of growing up around it, was clearly inspiration for the sisters’ foray into their own café business. Community was another. 

Both were working at the regional hospital in Stephenville when they saw a need for a local café.

“There was a café in Stephenville for about five years,” Katherine says, “and then it closed and we didn’t have a café, and that made us sad.” When their favourite café  (Killick Café) closed post-pandemic, the sisters started to explore the idea of filling the new gap themselves. “We hummed and hawed,” she says, “and decided to give it a try.” 

Nicole’s husband, Josh Penney, a nurse practitioner, had a building downtown with an empty space next to his office that offered the perfect spot. They all set to work to renovate its interior and add a small kitchen. Serendipitously, the owner of their once-favourite café was selling some equipment and found a new home at the new café.

In July 2023 Nicole, Katherine and Josh opened the Wild Strawberry Crêperie and Café with a small team of skilled bakers and baristas.

Today, in the kitchen, Alaina and Carol are busy making sandwiches—think generous portions of pickled beets, cucumber, feta, and onion jam on a ciabatta bun or grilled aged cheddar and ham on generous slices of sourdough bread.

Yuliana rings in a customer’s order and then turns to brew a cappuccino, with local Gros Morne Coffee Roasters coffee. The roasters in Deer Lake have been supportive of the new café from the start. “David and Laurie from Gros Morne Coffee Roasters are wonderful,” Nicole says. “They go out of their way to try and help us solve any issues we have.” 

Yuliana tips the pitcher of steamed milk into the espresso to artfully finish the cappucino. She has been working at the café since she moved from the Ukraine three years ago. Irina, also from the Ukraine, is one of the bakers here at the café and has been part of the team since the start. Stephenville has long had a strong Ukrainian community, one that has also created a new home for refugees over the past three years, during the war. 

Alaina, Carol and Irina have all taken culinary arts courses at the local Bay St. George campus of the College of the North Atlantic. The Alexander sisters suggest that their partnership with the college has been pivotal to their success while also providing for hands on learning for students.

“It’s great for cross training,” Katherine says. “For a small community, we are lucky to have access to trained bakers. It’s an excellent resource for us.” Several program graduates are part of the Wild Strawberry team, with some continuing to work with local instructor and Red Seal pastry chef Aaron McInnis. Carol and Alaina helped Aaron with batch baking for Roots, Rants & Roars, a weekend-long food festival in Elliston, NL, that welcomes hundreds of people to enjoy the best of Newfoundland's food culture.

The Alexanders attribute the success of their café to their skilled and enthusiastic staff and their community. They opened their café at a particularly busy time in their lives. Nicole and Josh had a newborn and Katherine was on maternity leave with her nine-month old. “Nicole was stuck at home,” Katherine explains, “and I was running back and forth between breastfeeding and the café.”

They both manage the café, work at the hospital and raise their young families. Katherine returned to work full-time at the hospital when her maternity leave ended, and Nicole returned to work part-time at the hospital as an Xray technician and she does supply runs for the café. Josh runs his practice next door and also does supply runs and “helps with the dishes”, Nicole adds cheekily.

In addition to family, staff and college ties, the café partners with the Bay St George Mountain Bike Club on a trail project where walkers can find tags along the trail that they can then bring to the café for a free coffee. The initiative is meant to encourage people to walk and cycle on the trails. They also partner with the Bay St George Disc Golf Association and the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Association as well as the Newfoundland Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs (NLOWE). “The Long Range Small Business Committee has been really supportive,” the Alexander sisters add. Their café won the organization's best new business when they first opened in 2023. 

Staying attune to community needs and navigating the challenges of operating a small business on the West Coast of Newfoundland have been part of the learning process for the café owners. When Nicole and Katherine first opened, their menu included crêpes. Due to space and capacity they had to make a change. “To do both sandwiches and crêpes was too much,” they explain, “we have a small space and sandwiches was a bigger seller so we had to make that hard decision. Crêpes were part of the business we loved, when mom had her restaurant she had crêpes. We had to make that decision but we do offer dessert crêpes on Saturdays.”

Supply costs also factor into their decision-making. “The cost of ingredients as everyone knows has gone up astronomically,” Katherine says, “so that’s been a challenge to keep things affordable. Especially in the Bay St George area where people have less buying power than in a more urban centre.” 

Heading into winter brings challenges into even sharper focus. “Because we do rely heavily on tourism in this region,” Nicole says. “So this time of year coming into winter can be a struggle.” 

In winter, “we're just trying to cover costs,” Katherine adds. But staying open year round is important to Nicole and Katherine and to their team.  They do close briefly in January to give staff a break but apart from that remain open. “It can be a challenge to get people out in the weather and a drive-through does tempt people when the winds are at 80 km/hr so we appreciate our customers.” 

Despite the challenges, they prioritize offering the best experience. Their scones, for example, are a class apart, with a flaky, layered texture and just the right combination of salty and sweet. 

“We do a laminated scone,” Nicole explains, “it’s a bit more involved to make, and we use real butter because that is important to us.”

Customers are rewarded with delicious, handmade goods in a cozy space with the warmest of welcomes. 

“We are so fortunate to have such wonderful staff,” the sisters agree, “and we couldn’t do this without our husband, our families and our wonderful staff and community.”