About the Happy Nun Cafe & Music

The Happy Nun Cafe & Music was born from our mutual desire to create a third place (somewhere outside of work and home) where people could gather to share the important things of life.

We are local
Whenever possible we use local produce, meat, and ingredients.  We try to use seasonal produce as much as possible to support local producers.

We are fresh
Our menu changes weekly and our can opener is rarely used.

We are flexible
We are happy to accommodate your specific dietary needs or allergies - just give us a call in advance.

We are aesthetic aficionados
We embrace a broad horizon of arts including visual, performance, literary and culinary.

We are versatile
We are always open to new ideas and ways of serving the community.  We offer cooking classes, meeting space, unusual celebrations (e.g. Big Lebowski Night), and the usual celebrations (e.g. weddings, anniversaries, birthdays). 

Our Values
We believe in the future of rural Saskatchewan.
We are committed to feeding your soul as well as your body.
We believe that the act of dining is a communal human experience that involves all of the senses.  The climate we dine in is as important as the taste of the food we eat.

Is there really a Happy Nun?
Well, depends on who you ask.  If you asked one of the seven sisters who originally came to Forget from France at the turn of the last century as they stepped off the train in the middle of a prairie winter with nothing but their linen habits for warmth...I wonder.  If you asked one of the students who sat under their tutelage, you would probably be told that they were strict, not so much happy.

These Sister's of the Cross raised the funds and built St. Joseph's Academy & Convent in three stages, culminating in the large chapel erected directly across from the Our Lady of LaSalette Church.  When we put in our vegetable garden we were told that the nun's had their garden in the same spot (surely a good sign!), and that a Sister Augusta was the chief cook and gardener.  We haven't discovered anything else about her, but in my mind she was the happiest among them all. 

When we decided to open a cafe, we were going to call it the Alma Street Cafe, and for good reason.  Our marriage proposal happened at the Alma Street Cafe, a quaint little jazz place, in Vancouver, B.C. (flying back to Vancouver to celebrate an anniversary several years later ended in disappointment that the Alma Street Cafe had been paved over into a parking lot).  Forget was originally called Alma for the first postmaster's daughter.  Alma was located a couple of miles north east of the present village of Forget until the rail line came through precipitating the change in location and name (Forget is named after Saskatchewan's first Lieutenant Governor, Amadeus Etienne Forget).  The street north of the Happy Nun Cafe running east and west is Alma.  Good reasons indeed. 

Then Shannon had a dream about the cafe.  It was full of people laughing, clearly enjoying the food and wine.  It seemed like a delightful place to be, the decor, the food, the conversations―all were animated and joy-filled.  The name of the place in the dream was the Happy Nun Cafe.  And that was that.

Who knew, when the local farmers built a huge granary (a drive-thru at that!), which got moved and turned into the parish hall (students at the convent remember movie nights), which got moved and turned into the community hall (wedding dances, Christmas concerts, parish lunches, more dances), that we would be entrusted with carrying on the legacy of this building providing our best offering of food, drink and entertainment?  I think Sister Augusta would have been happy to know that we are here still gardening and cooking.