Morrison Cafe

If you’re not yet a regular at Surrey’s Morrison Cafe – which serves a tasty lineup of waffles, sandwiches, burgers and soups every day of the week – husband-and-wife owners Matt and Lindsay Hammond have a neat way of easing you in.

They’ve teamed up with chalk artist Martin Hayes to present the cafe’s offerings on funky chalkboards, lending the place an extra creative edge. Meeting Martin was a bit of serendipity, as he walked in one day when the cafe was in need of rebranding. Portfolio in hand, Martin started chatting up Matt and Lindsay and the rest is history.

“He’s done restaurants all throughout the Lower Mainland,” says Matt. “But it was funny because we basically gave him free reign. We just said, ‘This is our idea; this is what we want,’ and overnight he produced some pretty unreal chalkboards. He really is that incredible of an artist. The stuff he does with chalk is amazing.”