For a delightful dining experience with a décor that hints back to a simpler time, a visit to Sandy’s Market Café is sure to charm and delight. You can dine in the memorabilia room on tables made of bowling alley wood, or have your breakfast or lunch outside on the Marketplace.

When asked how she got into the restaurant business, owner Sandra Schmidt replied “I worked in banking quite a few years, and decided that I wanted to open a business where I could be in close contact with people. When I saw this place advertised in the paper, I knew I had found what I was looking for.” It had been a real-estate office, so she had to do some major remodeling to bring it up to code for her new cafe.

Located in the center of downtown Lake Wales between East Stuart Avenue and East Park Avenue, it is within easy walking distance of any point in the National Historic District. Sandy’s Market Café has been in the same location for eleven years. “I must be doing something right,” she says. A wide selection of breakfast sandwiches, omelets, and hot coffee starts at 7 a.m. The food is carefully prepared and the low prices will please the most frugal pocketbook. A Sausage or Bacon Biscuit or Fried Egg sandwich starts at just $1.35. Bacon Egg & Cheese on Toast or Biscuit is only $1.95, and the one Egg, Bacon or Grits, Toast or Biscuit is $2.15. You can also change your breakfast order to include a Croissant, Bagel, or English muffin. Stacks of Pancakes or French toast, Biscuit & Gravy, and Chipped Beef/Gravy are also available.

Sandra offers two meals a day, and plans to keep her operation as it is. “With me, I like things small and comfortable, and having a third meal would make things much more complicated,” she says. “I strive to keep the menu prices affordable as well, so that my regular customers can eat at my place a couple of times a week and not spend a fortune doing so. I am a firm believer in the old fashioned way...for instance, my low-sodium Soups and Salad Sandwiches are all made from scratch.”

Under Soups and Salads, Soup of the Day is $1.95 (cup) and $3.25 (bowl). Salads start at $2.59 for Tossed Salads, a Chef Salad is $5.95, and the Chef Salad with Mesquite Chicken Breast is $6.95. Sandy’s has delicious homemade Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, and Cole Slaw at $1.95. There are also choices of Tuna, Chicken, Broccoli, Ham, Egg, and Macaroni Salad Plates that are priced by the scoop...from $4.95 to $6.95.

The selection of sandwiches at Sandy’s Market Café is equally impressive. Starting with the Toasted Cheese for $3.50 and the Broiled Cheese & Tomato for $3.95, there is Beef, BLT, Broccoli, Egg, Ham, Chicken Salad, and Corned Beef sandwiches, priced under $5. Also in that price range is the Swiss- Ham-Bacon-Lettuce & Tomato, Tuna Melt or Salad, and Turkey.

Priced between $5 and $6 is the Turkey Reuben, Turkey Melt, or Club, Rhythm & Blues Philly, and Meatloaf. The Western Club, and Broccoli Salad-Chicken Salad sandwiches are great favorites of her customers and are both under $6. For a sandwich with a western flare, try their Mesquite Chicken Club on Texas Toast for $6.25. All of the sandwiches are made to order and are made fresh each day by Sandra, Misty, and Kathy. Sandra says “people like it that way and depend on it.”

Sandy’s also has Croissants for $5.95 (any one meat), Subs from $4.25 to $5.95, Hot Dog Baskets priced from $2.95, and scrumptious deserts from $2.95.

Sandy’s Market Café is located in Lake Wales on the Marketplace. The phone is (863) 676-2818. Their hours of operation are from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.