Smoking Water is hot

This Fairmont Hot Springs eatery is highly favoured by locals and visitors alike

Smoking Water café employees and owner/operator Cynthia Levagood (far right) are ready for the breakfast crowd. — Marie Milner photo

A warm, wood-accented interior with black leather parson chairs, a fireplace and views of the Rocky Mountains makes Smoking Water Coffee Co. café and bistro a place that invites you to stay a while. Owner Cynthia Levagood, a former customer service trainer for WardAir and an accomplished caterer in Vancouver, is enthusiastic about having returned to Fairmont Hot Springs, where she and her family summered for many years during her youth.

“I didn’t want to live in the city anymore,” Levagood said, “and I was able to buy Smoking Water in September of last year and move out here.”

A welcome addition

The community is happy to have her. After just eight months in business, Levagood received one of Kootenay Business magazine’s Influential Women in Business Awards, and now the publication's readers have voted Smoking Water their overall favourite breakfast spot in Fairmont Hot Springs.

Bestsellers at breakfast—which is available from 7 a.m. to noon or later, depending on demand—are the fluffy Belgian waffles served with fruit compote and whipped cream, and the eggs Benedict with fresh, made-from-scratch hollandaise sauce.

The café’s reputation is spreading beyond the local area. People travelling from Calgary, Alberta, have been known to call ahead to Smoking Water, asking to have fresh cinnamon buns reserved for their group.