Day 195 - Welcoming the Cedar Tree to downtown Freddie

The Cedar Tree Cafe is rapidly becoming Fredericton's go-to place for lunch, especially for people with a taste for something a little out of the "New Brunswick" ordinary.

Offering great tasting Lebanese dishes, the Cedar Tree earned a dedicated clientele while operating out of a tiny location on York Street, about a ten-minute walk from the downtown core. And when I say a "tiny location", I mean tiny. The place held maybe six two-person tables crammed into a T-shaped space that was clapped onto the side of an old house.

The Tree recently moved to a more spacious location on Queen, right in the middle of the downtown core, and, even though it has at least triple the seating, it's still packed over an extended lunch-hour period.

This picture doesn't capture the place at all. For one thing, the extended dining room is actually situated behind where the Olympus sat on a side table to take this picture. This is just the rear area of the establishment, where the cooking gets done. The photograph required a long exposure under the low light conditions, meaning I had to set the camera down on a stable surface to take my hand away after depressing the shutter release.

I went to the Cedar Tree twice for lunch this week and expect to become a semi-regular as time goes by. The food is good, the service friendly and the atmosphere, though quite loud with the excited patrons, pleasant and inviting. A nice addition to Freddie's downtown dining menu.