'Don't Panic ... We Have Bannock!': The history — and future — of B.C.'s pit stop cafes

In the summertime, Ladysmith's Old Town Cafe goes through about 1,500 eggs a week to make its famous cinnamon buns.

"I never would have dreamt we would have a staff of 47 … that's pretty amazing as a small town," said owner Kate Cram.

Six hundred kilometres to the east, the city of Greenwood has around 650 people, but in the summertime about that many people buy a butter tart each week from the Copper Eagle Bakery.   

"Just a whole lot of love in it. It's a simple pastry," said Joanne Marien, who estimates about 70 per cent of her customers are regular visitors travelling through town to get somewhere else. 

Across the world, there are cafes and diners that cater to people making a pit stop on their way to a bigger city, campground or lake. In its own way, the stop for a piece of pie or a special sandwich becomes part of the vacation.   

But is there something that makes British Columbia unique? 

Something that makes it so when you ask where the best ones are in the province, you get nearly a thousand replies? 

Plenty of hope for good food beyond Hope

A University of Northern British Columbia history professor says they occupy a particular place in this province. 

"They've become particularly iconic in many instances precisely because the road network of B.C. is relatively thin," says Ben Bradley, who has written a book about the development of the province's highway system and is now writing another on B.C.'s history of fruit stands.

Bradley points out the province's mountain ranges create a limited number of roads that everyone has to take to go from Point A to B — and, outside of the Coquihalla, those highways all tend to pass through smaller communities and developed at a time when small businesses were much more likely to dominate the road than big franchises. 

"In a way that seems almost like a retro road trip around Route 66 in the United States, that was actually the norm in British Columbia," said Bradley. 

That creates a limited number of choke points where there's a need to fuel up both the car and the stomach, where both nostalgia and indulging the sweet tooth are powerful forces. 

"We like to keep it mostly the same as you remember it," said Jessie Maclean, the general manager of Okanagan Falls' Tickleberry's, which, in the summer, goes through nearly 100 giant tubs a day of its 80 ice cream flavours.

"If it's not broken, don't fix it."

Embrace the old and new

But pit stops also need to adjust with the times in ways big and small.

Tickleberry's now sells vegan ice cream, and its top flavour isn't vanilla or chocolate but caramel sea salt. Copper Eagle Bakery now does more wraps than ever before. Sicamous's D Dutchmen Dairy used to have a zoo next to its ice cream, cheese and milk store, but now has a tractor farm for kids to jump on instead. 

"The demographics of our customers have changed completely, and we just try and keep things modern," said Dutchmen Dairy owner Jake DeWitt, who says their original customer base used to be people on tour buses. 

And the demographics of pit stops owners has changed as well. 

"We offer that authenticity to the public that doesn't get offered as much as your typical McDonald's or Tim Hortons or Starbucks," says Elijah Mack, owner of Kekuli Cafe's Merritt franchise. 

The Indigenous owned and operated company has the tagline "Don't Panic ... We Have Bannock!" and Mack will also be running a new location just announced in Kamloops.

"I'm from Bella Coola, our biggest food is salmon, so we included that … but I grew up in Merritt, we harvest wild game, and now we have venison on the menu," said Mack.  

End of highway culture? 

Operating a small town cafe can be a key part of the local economy, offering employment opportunities for younger workers, but it's not a career likely to make you rich. 

"It's definitely a lifestyle. I live upstairs, so I can roll down the stairs and I'm ready for work," said Marien.

"The advantage is I can work for 10 months of the year and take two months off."

And after several years of wildfire seasons shutting down highways and a pandemic drastically reducing tourism, you could wonder about their long-term future. 

"The culture of motoring around the province, there are still pockets of enthusiasm but I think that gradually it's sort of lost some of the romance and excitement that really captured a lot of people," said Bradley. 

"A lot of British Columbians are just inclined to hop on an airplane to visit their family."

At the same time, there are plenty of families still driving to cabins or campgrounds, up through the Cariboo or east through the Crowsnest. 

Which means as long as people continue to get hungry every four or five hours, there will always be pit stops on the side of the highway, ready with a slice of pie and a side of warm memories.

"People do come from far and wide, and it is sort of funny," said Kram.

"It's a basic recipe, really."

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