“That would be her spot, right there,” says Helen Inniss, nodding to a quiet corner table at the sweet café she opened earlier this year on Evernia Street.

She’s talking about her late mother, Victoria, who helped nurture her dream of opening this neighborhood coffee shop, but didn’t live to see its debut. Still, somehow you get the sense Victoria, a regal, lovely woman, is ever present in this cozy place where her daughter has created a soothing space for tea and conversation, healthy breakfast and lunch, or bites worthy of an afternoon break.

There’s a lot of love at Café Toria, the coffee shop Inniss named for her mother, who passed away a year and a half ago. I sense this on a recent afternoon as I sip the “London Fog” tea (Earl Grey with vanilla and foamed milk) that Inniss’ daughter, Alana, whipped up for me. Alana, a 20-year-old student at Florida International University in Miami, was just helping out at the café that day. Still, she could describe menu items in such detail that one might believe she created them.

In the gaze of her grandmother’s photo, which sits atop a shelf by the front door, here was a West Palm vignette of pride and ownership: one strong woman inspiring another.

It’s the quiet lull that settles after the local lunch rush, after the locals and new regulars have shuffled through for their specialty pressed sandwiches, like the “Apricot & Jam” that’s stacked with turkey and brie and fragrant with rosemary, or their flank steak and Havarti wrap, or pear and gorgonzola salad.

It’s not fancy-pants food, but it’s delicious and honest. Helen Inniss serves her customers in the style she serves her family: mostly free of additives, preservatives, nitrate, MSG and growth hormones. At home, she eats chicken that tastes like chicken, cooks with fresh organic herbs, good extra-virgin olive or grape seed oil, and the steady inspiration of her family’s Trinidadian roots.

And while she has yet to bring her island cuisine to her coffee shop, she has brought the same attention to freshness, this healthy creed she follows at home. So, on any given day, a customer can peer into the glass cooler by the counter and find freshly prepared cups of a mixed drink she makes with carrot juice, soy milk and just-grated nutmeg.

“It’s all a reflection of how I eat,” says Inniss, a 52-year-old mother of three. “My turkey has no nitrates. My bread has no preservatives. My cheeses are all my favorites: Parmesan, brie, sharp-aged cheddar.”

Quite the home cook, Inniss stirs up heady aromas in her Wellington kitchen at home, where she chops lots of garlic, lavishes a few bay leaves and grates fresh turmeric into her homemade curries. She roasts chicken with rosemary and sage, always seasoning the bird overnight for roasts and stews. She draws ideas from her stack of well-thumbed Bon Appetit magazines and a vintage Five Roses cookbook she inherited from her mom.

On her wedding anniversary, she’ll devote hours of concentration to make her husband Peter’s favorite dish, de-boned chicken thighs stuffed with wild rice in a white wine cream sauce.

“She cooks all the time, and she’s a great cook. I love her curries the best,” says Alana Inniss as she serves a nice wedge of nut bread to go with my tea.

But despite her foodie credentials, this great cook is missing a key ingredient at her exquisitely framed, chandelier-punctuated, banquette-appointed, beige and taupe café: a real kitchen.

The former office space is not equipped with a restaurant kitchen. Inniss has a panini grill for her pressed sandwiches, a flat grill for the café’s egg dishes and a good coffee maker. Fresh-cooked meats and fresh vegetables are delivered by a private chef she has hired. He slow-cooks the steaks in the French sous vide style (vacuum-sealed, at low temperature) to assure they are tender for the hot sandwiches. She buys her preservative-free bread fresh from a local baker.

And here’s what she does have in abundance: a view of the comings and goings of a city block.

“You listen to life stories, watch the people who come and those who leave for a while. There’s a mix, a good mix, and it’s great. You learn people are all the same, all over, no matter where you live,” says Inniss, who opened the café in January.

In New York, her home of many years, Inniss worked at a health insurance company until she gave birth to Alana. A stay at home mom, she had two other children, Evan, now 17, and Richie, now 15. But when the family moved to Wellington a few years ago, she missed the hodge-podge of New York streets and their mom-and-pop cafés and shops.

“When I got here, I thought, ‘Where’s the city.’ So I used to come to CityPlace because it was the area that most reminded me of the bustle of New York,” she says. “I told my husband I wanted to bring a little bit of what I remember and love about New York here.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be the first coffee shop here. There are others, and each has their own little bit of character. I wanted to add to the neighborhood with my own little place. And I wanted it to feel like home for anyone who comes here.”

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ABOUT THE CAFÉ:

Café Toria

410 Evernia Street, #108, West Palm Beach

(561) 290-5108; CafeToriaWPB.com

Open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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CAFÉ TORIA CHICKEN SALAD

Recipe by Helen Inniss, owner of Café Toria in West Palm Beach. She makes this salad without salt or pepper.

Makes: 4 to 6 servings

1 pound chicken breast, poached and cubed

2 to 3 ribs of celery, thinly sliced, to taste

1/4 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 to 2 tablespoons honey, to taste

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Combine chicken and celery. Add cranberries and toss. Add mayonnaise and honey and combine until ingredients are well mingled. Fold in almonds.

Enjoy salad on fresh, preservative-free bread.