Biting into hand picked and hand made rhubarb pie has probably been the highlight of this writer’s week.
The $3 slice of heaven may be worth a daily trip to the Old School Cafe in the East Coulee School Museum, where Ruth Digby, 18, is offering a delectable alternative with a quick wholesome bite in the tourist haven.
“I love it,” says Digby, who has taken complete management of the restaurant which opened for the first time in four years this summer.
“Before, parents visiting the mine or museum would stop to ask if there was something to eat in town, but with only a bar around, I would have to send them back to Drumheller.”
The Old School Cafe offers a tasty reason to get visitors inside the museum.
“They come in for the food and say it’s such a cool building,” says Ruth.
“The cafe used to be the epicenter of town, a place where people came to have a coffee and talk. I’d like bring it to a place where it can run without me.”
Along with the desserts, the cafe offers sandwiches: the Atlas Roast Beef Sandwich, B.L.T.’s, Hoodoo Dogs, Miner’s Minor (grilled cheese), Peanut Butter Pony sandwich, floats, and baking.
All home made, of course.
The rhubarb for the pie is picked down the street from historic rhubarb patches that were once a staple food for hungry miners working at the Atlas.
“I’ve had someone tell me it tastes like I’d been baking for 50 years... It’s only been 17 or something like that,” she laughs.
Maybe it’s the decade old rhubarb plants that give the pie its old time taste.
Or maybe it’s just the amazing baking skills of an East Coulee resident dedicated to keeping her home alive.
