Eva Baldi
Fort-coulonge June 22, 2022
After two years in operation, owner of Café Downtown, Remi Bertrand, is looking to hand the keys over to the community.
In March 2020, in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic, Bertrand found himself back home in Fort-Coulonge. No longer able to travel for work in the United States, Bertrand decided to continue his business ventures closer to home. He bought a building in downtown Fort-Coulonge, began renovating, and by January 2021, Café Downtown was open for business.
His goal in opening the business was to . . .
allow the community to gain a casual dining experience they didn’t have to leave town to experience. In the past, entrepreneurs had a tendency to open businesses on Highway 148. However, according to Bertrand, this does not allow for the building of communities the same way that businesses located in a downtown core do as they do not encourage foot traffic. His choice to open a business in the downtown core of Fort-Coulonge was based on a need he saw for a casual, dine-in setting that allowed people to feel accepted. Bertrand added that right down to the design of the space, the goal was always to have all members of the community feel at home when visiting his business.
“The objective of the café was to be a non-judgemental place where diversity is accepted,” said Bertrand.
Bertrand added that this was his goal in all events that the café hosted. He said that he explicitly chose to host both French and English speaking performers, ensured that his staff was bilingual, and that he encouraged community members to come to him with ideas, which a vast majority of the time he met with the answer “yes, how can we help?”
His epiphany moment happened last Saturday, when prior to a concert at the Café Downtown, Bertrand exited the building to see streets of downtown Fort-Coulonge filled with people walking around. Previously vacant buildings were now home to new businesses, and the street was being traversed by pedestrians, not only cars. Bertrand recounted this story by saying, “I haven’t seen the town buzzing since I was a teenager, and it was amazing to know that I was a part of it.”
As for the future of the café, Bertrand is returning to work in the United States, starting a new real estate development project in Montana. He believes that the people of Fort-Coulonge and the café deserve more attention than what he will be able to give. The Café Downtown is not currently being listed with a real-estate agent as Bertrand would like to have more say in who will be purchasing the business. He hopes to find a buyer that shares his same community-oriented goals. That is why he is discussing with employees and community members about the possibility of selling the business and the building to the community to create a co-op.
On Tuesday June 14, a meeting was held at the café with La Coopérative de développement régional (CDR) Outaouais–Laurentides, that outlined the types of co-op models available to the interested community stakeholders. The meeting covered the different models of co-ops available to the group, underlining the pros and cons, to allow them to make an informed decision as to how they should move forward with the project. As of right now, no decision has been made. Bertrand is willing to consider private offers as well, as long as the buyer has the intention of keeping the same community oriented spirit around their business practices.
In regards to Bertrand’s personal life, he plans to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. This involves him scaling down on material possessions, both in quantity and scale. He is choosing to sell his Pontiac home, and sizing down to a smaller home that better promotes his new lifestyle. This is why he is choosing to sell the Café Downtown business as well as the building. He told THE EQUITY “I feel liberated not being attached to material things.”
THE EQUITY will continue to follow the sale and the possible implementation of a co-op at Café Downtown in the following months.
