Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/130547
sagging ceilings and modernized the building's four kitchens. They replaced all 18 windows with double-paned wooden ones. Original fireplaces, one ornate and another surrounded in exposed brick, now operate with gas. "I prefer mixing strong antiques and older pieces with modern styles; and an earthy, natural colour palette brings everything together. It looks very European," says Janaki, a former film-set decorator. Here, a reupholstered Edwardian settee and an antique Chinese armoire easily mingle with a modern metal and wooden kitchen table and contemporary paintings by Janaki's mother, artist Patricia Larsen. An ornately carved French table sits near a large rustic block of wood with a hole in the middle – originally from a grain mill or ship – reborn as a coffee table. Above, ceilings add the element of surprise: decades of wallpaper layered in brown, green and turquoise were partially removed to create a rustic look. An antique medallion and chandelier add the jewelry. "Recently, a couple from San Francisco married here – they had the ceremony in the café, the reception in the backyard catered by our Italian neighbour, and stayed in the suite for their honeymoon," says Janaki. "We were their witnesses at the wedding." Specializing in the old-fashioned and hard-to-find Downstairs, products lining store shelves promote artisans who seek meaning from their work, even if small-scale production and deliberate inefficiencies make them pricier. Carefully chosen packaging unobtrusively sells everything from wild-foraged fruit jams and free-range, grass-fed beef jerky to hand-loomed table linens and all-natural soap – items that every general store in the country used to stock. "I wanted to create a beautiful, oldfashioned experience to make it a special neighbourhood place to shop," explains Janaki. Walls downstairs got an unusual finish: paint and drywall compound were layered overtop of embossed wallpaper, and then Ovaltine, coffee grounds and soy sauce were ground in. The café's linoleum floor was replaced with heavily distressed fir, a vintage industrial work table (with old can opener still attached), and wood bar and stools were added. Chalkboards feature the menu items such as pain au raisins, Walnut Misch and calzones, and refrigerated items like a local chef's tourtière, sausage made by a local third-generation sausage maker and yogurt from a small farm that raises pasture-fed cows. Housewares include hand-knitted June 2013 BC HOME & garden | 21 p18-25_Le Marche/ForagedFood.indd 21 13-05-01 3:53 PM