By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 31, 2012
9213 Glover Road
Fort Langley, BC
604-888-6464
Hours: Open daily 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. except Mondays
Price: Lunch up to $12.95, dinner up to $24.95
Did you ever have that grandmother whose house would envelope you in a hug as you sipped on some soup and nibbled on a sandwich she threw together at the drop of a hat? Even if you didn’t, you may have had friends whose grandmothers you adopted or family friends who offered the same sentimental surroundings.
If ever you long for the days when you got to sit on furniture that didn’t quite match or be surrounded by so many random frames of faces you’ve never seen or places that have changed you wouldn’t know where to look, then take a trip to the Lamplighter Gallery Café in Fort Langley.
This quaint little restaurant overlooks the main road and echoes so well that feeling of grandmother’s house that I was almost tempted to look for a bowl of Werther’s.
I wasn’t quite sure when I first walked in because one of the first questions the hostess asked was if I had a reservation. It was Sunday at 1 p.m. I hardly thought this place would be hopping enough to require a call ahead and the collection of empty tables made me wonder why she was being so hesitant, but all was well and I was promptly seated. Despite the fact that the cushioned wood chair was too high for the lower table and my thighs had difficulty finding room, it was just the right amount of quaint to justify it.
The front door opens in between two store-front rooms with windows that span the sidewalk. The tables and chairs look like a wooden collection from years of antiquing. Little glass oil lamps adorn each table and stained glass windows show the character of the building.
The Lamplighter has both lunch and dinner menus – lunch includes soups, sandwiches and hot entrées; dinner has a variety of entrées and appetizers as well as an option for one of each at $24.95.
Despite the variety of sandwiches named after different locales in BC, the specials board was what caught my lunch-starved attention. After all, how could I resist French toast with bacon, poached apples and a side of bacon? No one can turn down bacon. My friend ordered the soup of the day – split pea and ham sided with a baguette.
The food, which was quick to arrive, was placed adorably on mismatched chinaware and doily-lined baskets. The French toast was thick, fluffy and all kinds of delicious, just like a grandmother would make them. My friend’s split pea and ham soup even caught my attention. I, for one, am not a fan of traditional split-pea soup. The off-green colour and questionable texture reminds me more of something one would want to get rid of rather than ingest, but the smooth, squash-coloured soup in the china bowl across the table from me looked delicious. I was greeted with a variety of vegetable flavours in that one spoonful she offered me. It was complemented by the split pea and ham instead of bombarded with the baby food flavour.
Lamplighter offers comfort food classics with a slight variation so it’s not quite something you would make at home, and yet it’s exactly what you need. If the homey quality of their lunches is any indication, though, I will definitely have to return to try their dinner menu, especially with such tempting options as prosciutto-wrapped Fraser Valley pork tenderloin and seven-hour lamb shank.
