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P A C I F I C / P R A I R I E June 2015 Vol. 21 No. 3
N AT I O N A L
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PARAMOUNT HEADS WEST
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C O V E R A G E
HIGHLIGHTS FROM CRIS
R E G I O N A L
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F O C U S
TALKING CHANGE AT TERROIR 2015
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FEATURE: TOP 50 CHAINS INCLUDING RANKING BY CATEGORY
Edmonton-area restaurant gets Kickstarted By Don Douloff, Assistant Editor
Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40010152
BEAUMONT, Alta. — A young family in Beaumont, Alta., is realizing its goal of bringing French Canadian food to this Edmonton-area town after a two-month crowdfunding campaign raised almost $108,000 for Chartier restaurant, set to open early next year. It has been the dream of Darren and Sylvia Cheverie to open a restaurant in Beaumont (population: 16,000), a community with deep French Canadian roots, where Sylvia was born and where the couple has returned to raise their one-year-old daughter. Launched March 5 on Kickstarter, the fundraising drive surpassed its $95,000 goal. The crowdfunded money represents one-quarter of the necessary startup capital and will be used as leverage for loans and to cover initial consulting, said Sylvia. All told, the campaign garnered 559 supporters, 75 per cent of whom live in the Beaumont area. Chartier will operate in a threestorey retail/condominium building under construction in the centre of town. Construction is expected to be completed in December and Chartier
is slated to open in January, said Sylvia. “Kickstarter allows us to create a direct relationship with our customers before we even open,” said Sylvia. “It gives them a stake in our success and allows them to join us in serving our community.” Rewards on Kickstarter included having contributors’ names posted on the Family Wall inside Chartier; free coffee for life; a Christmas party for 40 people; and naming rights to the restaurant’s signature poutine and cocktails. “We could have opened a restaurant in Edmonton, but we wanted to do something that would mean something special to the community we actually live in,” said Darren. “Unbelievably, Beaumont has no French Canadian restaurant, so opening Chartier here would be absolutely perfect. French Canadian food isn’t found much outside of Quebec, and our goal with Chartier is to be on the map nationally.” Darren has 10 years restaurant management experience and until recently was general manager of a Cactus Club Café in Edmonton, while Sylvia, a strategic marketer, has a long history of restaurant and bar work.
Sylvia and Darren Cheverie on site of their future restaurant. Photo by Jeff and Ingrid Vanelle. In keeping with its French Canadian theme, the restaurant will feature a rustic look — barnboard-clad walls; exposed brick and ductwork; post-and-beam accents; and concrete floors. In the dining room, there will be about 90 seats, including seven at the bar, augmented by another 20 on a patio. The couple has enlisted Edmonton chef Brad Lazarenko of Culina Restaurants & Catering. A strong
proponent of local sourcing, Lazarenko will create the menu — French Canadian comfort food classics given a modern twist — and hire Chartier’s permanent chef. Yvan Chartrand, of Edmonton’s Boulangerie Bonjour, “will work with us to develop recipes and procedures for making bread in-house, hire and train one to two bakers, source ingredients and equipment and will act as a supplier for dough that requires
longer fermentation processes that cannot be easily duplicated in a nonbakery environment,” said Sylvia. Complementing the food will be a wine list featuring vintages from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley, Ontario’s Niagara Region and France; a beer list spotlighting local craft brews; and a cocktail list featuring three signature drinks (for which naming rights were sold) that will be custom-created and tailored to those contributors’ tastes.
Named Best Value
in America for the eighth year in a row
Multi-Store
Opportunities Available Across Canada
CALL US NOW:
Marianne Schuts 888-822-7981 x 127 marianne.schuts@littlecaesars.ca www.littlecaesars.ca