At Cachet Supper Club, you get a heaping spoonful of kindness with every purchase made through its walk-up food window.
Billed as the Cachet community window and open seven days a week from June to October, the Water Street restaurant with a patio that offers picturesque views of Fairy Lake serves up not only nibbles suitable for noshing as you walk around downtown, but financial support and a marketing boost for a variety of local causes and events.
Since taking over the helm of the restaurant in 2017, owner Jenn McLachlan built into her business plan a giving-back component she has branded as ‘Cachet kindness’. That included converting the former small ice-cream window into a bonafide job for her now-retired father, Ted McLachlan.
Don’t miss out on any local news, sign up for our daily headlines email
“He was a truck driver and he took the summers off to stay at home with us kids while we were out of school and ran a little chip truck,” McLachlan said. “I said to my dad, if you’re interested, I’m going to make this little french fry truck thing at the window, and you can run it.”
“We built it for my dad, and he loves it. People just stop by the window now to chat with him,” she said.
Everytime a patron orders french fries, onion rings, coffee, or the just-released fried-dough pastry known as turtle shells (similar to Ottawa’s renowned beaver tails), for example, 20 per cent of all sales go to support Newmarket residents who are making a difference in the community.
“When you order stuff through the window, you’re contributing to local causes. And my dad is going to hand over a cheque every month. It’s like a win-win-win,” McLachlan said.
McLachlan, a longtime Newmarket resident who is also a member of the Main Street District BIA, said people walk into Cachet nearly every day of the week looking for support for various causes and events.
Just in July, Cachet’s first charity golf tournament helped raise money for a Newmarket organization known as Wishing Forward, which grants local children their wish under the broader Children’s Wish Foundation.
“It has to be local and attached to Newmarket, specifically,” McLachlan said of the process for selecting causes and events to support. “Somebody comes in and tells me the story and something touches our hearts, whatever really motivates the two of us locally.”
This year will see eight events and fundraisers supported through a cash donation from Cachet’s community window, including the Newmarket Food Pantry, and an event billed as Newmarket’s first hugathon, Hugs4Hope, that aims to set a Guinness World Record for the most hugs on Main Street in 60 minutes in support of youth in Newmarket and Africa on Sunday, Oct. 27.
“When I heard about Hugs4Hope, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s shut down the street and make this a huge event. Hugs is a perfect pairing with what my brand is,” she said.
Cachet Supper Club and the Cachet community window is at 500 Water St., in Newmarket.
For more information, visit here.
