Even if you’re not staying at the Sarova Stanley Hotel, you should stop for a meal or a snack at its Thorn Tree Café. Located on the ground floor of the hotel, it’s billed as an open-air eatery, but (fortunately) it’s somewhat sheltered from the noise of downtown traffic by a wall of glass.

The café is open from early morning to late night — it’s where hotel guests partake of their breakfast buffet, which includes an eggs-cooked-to-order option. The menu is extensive enough to offer something for everyone.

Wood-fired pizza? Check. Deli counter? Check. Selection of coffee? Check. There are express lunch selections for those in a hurry mid-day (hard to imagine in laid-back Kenya, but there must be enough demand or it wouldn’t be there). It’s a popular spot for informal business meetings, partially because everyone knows where it is.

Although the food is tasty and the Tuskers are cold, tourists aren’t really drawn by the victuals. It’s the thorn tree in the center of the “outdoor” portion of the restaurant. Legend has it that an acacia tree became Nairobi’s unofficial “post office” in the British Colonial period a century ago, when the city was just a staging point during the construction of the railroad from Mombasa to Kampala. Workers and visitors would post notes at this crossroads that they’d hope the intended recipient would find.

The tree in the café isn’t the original (in fact, it’s probably the third one), but the message board remains. Instead of notices of safe arrival or requests for safari information, these days the pinned papers are mostly “love notes” to the hotel.

As is true in most upscale hotels, the prices are a bit higher than in other restaurants, but you can’t beat the atmosphere. Besides, you, too, can pin a note to the Thorn Tree.