A new café for both adults and children is set to open this month in downtown Orillia.
Marlow Devine is the owner of Paper Planes Play Café, a play place with wooden toys where parents can take their children to enjoy coffee and some time to relax.
“I was in Vancouver for a while, and because so many people have apartments and don’t have yards or big spaces, there are a few play cafés there,” Devine explained.
While there are other play spaces and classes for children in Orillia, Devine says it was important to have a place where adults can enjoy themselves while watching their children play.
“A lot of play places are wilder with climbers and slides,” she said. “They have a lot of blind spots that make it so you have to follow your kids through tunnels.”
Devine, 34, is a mother of a three-year-old and a one-year-old. She says moving back to Orillia in 2019 and experiencing harsh winters again is what inspired her to start the business.
“It was very isolating being on maternity leave,” she said. “There weren’t a ton of places to go to get out of the house, and my son and I don’t really like being out in the snow.”
Paper Planes Café will be located at 178 Mississaga St. E., Unit A, which used to be the home to the Brownstone pub.
“We’ve redone the floors because they were in pretty rough shape,” Devine said. “I don’t think you’d want your kids crawling around on tiles that were still stuck to the floor with old beer.”
The café has undergone a full cosmetic renovation and it now looks completely different.
“I have such an attachment to the Brownstone,” Devine said. “It’s where I always went growing up.”
She hopes the same people who went to the Brownstone as young adults will bring their kids to her new café.
“I am licensed, so they can still have a drink,” Devine said. “It’s a totally different space now that you can enjoy with your kids.”
The café will also feature espresso-based drinks, and Devine will be connecting with local businesses that may not have storefronts to offer baked goods to customers.
“I really want to use this space to be community oriented,” she said. “I would also like to have some workshops led by local professionals who are nutritionists, pediatric dentists, lactation consultants, or anything that can relate to parenting that can help inform and build that community.”
She is aiming to open the café by mid-December and says people are already expressing excitement about the business.
“A lot of people have been reaching out,” she said. “Especially now that it’s colder out and snowy, people are looking for things to do.”
