I was walking downtown near the Cedar Tree Café. I wanted coffee but instead stood outside and held the door open for a man with long hair tied in a bun. He had a pencil behind his ear, but a MacBook was peeking out of his bag.
It seemed like invite-only, so I closed the door behind him and walked on.
Four months later, I opened the door and finally took the plunge into a world that I was afraid might be intimidating or pretentious or – God forbid – full of hipsters.
“The work he did between when he started and what he’s doing now isn’t so appealing to moi,” a woman said to a waiter.
She turned her laptop around so he could take a look at a Chuck Close painting. Her fingers stroked the feather that was hanging in her knotted blond hair.
She had fur around her shoulders and was wearing a sweater too big for her small frame. When the moment overcame her, she swayed to Xavier Rudd playing over the speakers. “It’s a relaxed environment, and I get inspiration from talking to people,” the woman said. “It’s hard to create art when you’re sitting alone in an apartment. The feedback I get from other people sitting around is a big reason why I come.”
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The Cedar Tree Café moved from its York Street location to downtown in August. Lisa Wilby owns the small restaurant, now located on Queen Street.
The Fredericton native moved to Toronto when she was 27. She’s returned 15 years later with more business experience, and a love for anything local.
“I’m not offering burgers and fries with a big yellow M out in front,” Wilby said. “Everything here is made from scratch using local ingredients. We’re licensed and we have something for everyone, like all ages’ shows and game nights.”
Wilby describes the crowd at Cedar Tree as eclectic. She designed the cafe with herself as the target customer, keeping in mind how she likes to be treated.
“There are a lot of cafés downtown where people sit down at the tables with takeout cups. I never understood this. I want to sit down with a mug.”
Black and white photos line the walls. They contrast colourful paintings done on big canvases. All the art that hangs in the cafe is done by local artists.
Wilby said the café has become a meeting place for her regulars, but thought business would have picked up when they moved downtown. She has her fingers crossed that it will get better.
“It might be that it’s unfamiliar, or people look in the windows and think, ‘Oh those hippies,’ and walk by. I don’t know if that exists, do you think it exists?”
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Ryan O’Toole is a local filmmaker and often brainstorms ideas for his upcoming films at the Cedar Tree Cafe.
O’Toole is aware of the world in which he lives in and realizes that to some it can be daunting.
“I went to the Silver Wave Film Festival two years ago and everyone knew each other. It was kind of intimidating as a new filmmaker to think like, “Oh my God, I’m never going to get into this crowd.’”
O’Toole said he feels like he’s now broken into the crowd. He looked at me through thick, black-rimmed reading glasses and fiddled with a button on his plaid shirt.
O’Toole’s film, That Cowboy Kid, was shown at the cafe along with three other Silver Wave Film Festival short films last month. O’Toole suggested Cedar Tree as the location for the showing.
“It’s weird because you would think Fredericton would have more of these places. There is a pretty big arts community and even if we don’t get enough recognition, or enough government support, there are a lot of creative people here. There are a lot of artists working.”
***
In the 60s and 70s, Andy Warhol and Janis Joplin would sit at the round table of Max’s Kansas City in New York. It was a place for artists, even if they could rarely pay for their coffees.
The round table was invite-only. If you looked and acted like an artist, there was a chance you’d be invited. If you actually created art, well that was a bonus.
The woman with the feather in her hair was staring at her computer. On the screen was a Campbell’s soup can, Andy Warhol-style.
“Some of us were just born in the wrong time,” she said.
