- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

The Bus Stop Café in downtown Owen Sound invites you to its first birthday Saturday, June 17 with free cake and popcorn and balloons. And there is lots to celebrate here.

A brand new licence lets you enjoy a beer with your lunch, or a glass of wine with your homemade Italian meals on Friday and Saturday nights, and the bright blue patio sets bring you out to watch the world go by on sweet summer days.

Owner Doris Waite is a woman after my own heart. After what anyone would consider a full career of thirty-four years as a dental hygenist, she started something brand new from scratch. Her son Ryan had graduated from the culinary program at Georgian College here in town, but full-time hours are sometimes hard to come by at our small restaurants. So Doris opened one herself.

We recently talked about the café's first year over a full breakfast, with eggs just right, grilled tomatoes and a bottomless cup of coffee.

The café is open seven days a week for all-day breakfast and lunch – custom omelettes, daily specials, homemade soup and pie.

A few months ago, Doris brought her fond memories of wonderful meals around her Italian grandmother's table to life at the Café.

In 1919, her grandparents emigrated from Italy to Canada and raised their five sons in Little Italy in Toronto. Doris learned how to make her grandmother Maria's Italian dishes, and uses her recipes for the homemade pasta, gnocchi, sauces, meatballs and veal and chicken dishes at special "Taste of Italy" dinners every Friday and Saturday evening from 5 to 9. Take your time – there's hand-rolled canolli and traditional tiramisu to come, and the espresso bar.

The whole café is available for a celebration of your own - just ask Doris.

The bright south-facing café is in a heritage building at 1023 2nd Ave. East in downtown Owen Sound. Built in 1945 by the Ontario Motor Ways out of London, it was indeed our bus station, where Doris' husband remembers waiting for his ride to Toronto. The Art Moderne style includes a unique curved front with glass block, and a canopy to protect you from the sun or rain while you watched for your bus.

But you can relax and enjoy another cup of coffee at the café. You have no bus to catch.