Craftsman’s Café

Today, I want to share something truly beautiful with you — a new coffee shop here in Cornwall that instantly touched my heart.

The moment I walked inside, I felt this wave of peace. It’s one of those rare places that lifts you right out of the noise and the busy routines of everyday life… and gently places you in a space of calm, comfort, and quiet joy.

I am so grateful to have The Craftsman’s Café located at 35A Second Street East, in our community. I honestly couldn’t stop myself from smiling — that’s how happy this place made me. And of course, I asked the lovely couple who owns it if we could host events in their beautiful space.
And right there, without hesitation, they said yes. Another safe, warm space for everyone to feel welcome. A place to connect, to create, to bring more happiness into Cornwall. They truly want to open their doors to the community, to the arts, and to everyone looking for a moment of peace.

In their new home, as we talked more, they shared their story with me — a story full of heart, courage, and love for this community.
What a blessing to witness. What a gift for Cornwall.

Co-owner, Rahat Vilkhu said:

My husband and I have been college sweethearts in India where we did our Bachelors in Hospitality together. We moved to Canada in 2017 and went on to study further in the field. We have lived in Ottawa and studied at Algonquin while also working in the field of hospitality including helping to start up new restaurant kitchens, to working at Fairmont which is iconic because of its history and location in Ottawa.

We had always wanted our own restaurant to bring our experience and unique concepts to life. Little did we know that we will end up starting a cafe before a full fledged restaurant. When we visited the space, we already had a vision about how we would like to transform the space. Hence began our journey towards our first business after almost 15 years of experience of working in the industry.

The cafe was always my idea and my husband stood by me like a rock and supported me. The space feels so calm and peaceful probably because we have put so much heart and soul in the space after we rented it. Everything from sanding and refinishing the floors to painting the walls to even making the furniture is done by us. Everything in the cafe has a story of how we ended up making the space as how you see it today and everything has been done with a lot of love and fondness.

We have been grateful for the warm welcome we received from the community. We have some regulars and still meet new people everyday. We are grateful for everyone who comes out to support us. We understand it could be hard in today’s economy, but we truly value everyone who walks through the door and always strive to make every visit memorable and unique. We want our guests to feel like they are just visiting their favourite local neighbourhood cafe. We try and remember our guests’ names so they don’t feel like strangers on their next visit. We want everyone to feel our happiness of having them at our place and to take back positive energy. It’s like a spa for the brain. Even if you are sitting and working at our cafe, we want the space to relax and calm our guests so that work doesn’t feel like a load. Our cafe is a social space and everyone is very warmly welcomed.

So much has happened at the cafe ever since we opened. We celebrated the birthdays of our guests, hosted 2 big Indian festive parties and started Afternoon/high tea for our guests, became members of the Business sisters organization and so so much more. We would love to continue this – staying true to providing new memories at every visit to our guests, we continue to offer newer things like new menu items that are either limited edition or seasonals. We also love hosting private events – which reflects on so many that we are actively hosting. We offer custom curated menus as well to accommodate unique needs of our guests. We are looking forward to creating a warm and cozy space while the weather gets colder outside so our guests can either sit by the window to enjoy the snow while sipping on a hot drink from our menu selection or even relax by the fireplace which turns on in December while enjoying the soothing music. You can read a book, bring a friend or just enjoy a calm space to recharge yourself here !

We recently moved to Cornwall from Ottawa and have great plans for Christmas and are planning a New Year Eve’s theme party to ring in our first ever new year celebration in Cornwall. We are looking forward to celebrating with our new community and continuing this beautiful bond with the city.

Yaffa Goawily | Art Specialist / Art advisor – community development through art Yafa Arts & Crafts www.yaffa.ca