Juniper Cafe - The Heartbeat of the Tett

Juniper Café 

The Heartbeat of the Tett

If you love your community, eat local food. That's the message from Juniper Cafe's founders, Jamie Hodges and Amber Thom. The couple, themselves passionate about local food, are the owners and operators of the cafe, located at the waterfront on the first floor of the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning.

Juniper Cafe, which includes Kingston's only patio with an unobstructed view of the waterfront, offers products that are at least 70% locally sourced year round (higher in summer months). You can choose from a diverse selection of healthy baked goods like bread or a panini, as well as soups, sandwiches and salads. Everything is baked and created on site. The coffee is as fresh as possible, made with beans provided twice weekly by Pilot Coffee, famed for its Direct Trade model, sourcing all their beans from growers they've met on farms they've toured in person. Juniper's alcohol selection will be sourced from small craft beer makers and local wines.

"We want to be the heartbeat of the Tett," says Amber. "We live in a beautiful waterfront city and we want Juniper Cafe to do it justice. We are in a state-of-the-art building that sits in an ideal waterfront location."

Given that there isn't a good restaurant anywhere near the Tett Centre, Juniper Cafe is a welcome addition to the arts hub. Open to the public, the cafe serves the local Kingston community, as well as the Tett Centre artists and the students, faculty and staff of Queen's University's Isabel Centre for the Performing Arts, located adjacent to the Tett. The cafe offers a unique opportunity to enjoy a healthy meal at the same time as meeting and mingling with on-site artists, who range from dancers, musicians, and actors to writers, painters, photographers, and other visual artists. Stop in and visit the city's new go-to location for drinks, meals, and snacks on the waterfront.

Juniper Cafe at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning 

370 King Street West - Lake Level

Opening Hours: 8 am – 5 pm Monday to Saturday