Local Economy : Café Jasette
Local Economy : Café Jasette – 475, rue Frontière, Hemmingford
by Susan Fisch February 2024
Good news! Hemmingford has a café again – the Café Jasette.Owner, Julie Fournier did a ‘soft opening’ in December, and as of February 8th, she is open full-time.
Julie and her husband, John Maher, moved to Hemmingford two years ago. Their son, Benjamin, was born here. They arrived at the end of covid, when everything was slowly emerging from the lockdowns. There hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to integrate yet, with the birth of a new baby and the renovations in preparation for the business, but they are looking forward to getting to know the community.
They come from Montreal.Julie worked in urban planning and saw a lot of places. When it was time to buy a house, they already had an idea of where to look. It took a year and a half to find a home, where they could also have a business. During their search, they stopped for coffee at Le Café and thought, wouldn’t it be nice to own a place like this! Their bid fell through on another property of interest.Then, serendipitously, Le Café came up for sale. John has a full-time job and Julie is the owner of Café Jasette.There are still a number of projects to be done, but in due course.In the meantime, they are looking forward to welcoming Hemmingford. John will be present when he can, greeting and chatting with the patrons.
The soft opening in December helped to take the pulse of the community. Variétés Hemmingford had just closed. The patrons were very happy to know that they would still have a place to gather with friends over coffee and a Julie got to meet the yoga group, and the morning and afternoon coffee group. She listened very attentively to comments, recommendations and suggestions, and will continue to do so.
Her dream is to create a warm and friendly place where people will love to gather with friends and family over a coffee or a light meal.The current schedule is four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, from 8am to 2pm, serving breakfast and lunch, expanding to five-day weeks, Wednesday through Sunday, beginning in May.
For the moment, the plan is to serve coffee and pastries and breakfast sandwiches, hot soups, salads and sandwiches, and one hot meal for lunch, all prepared fresh for the day, and of the season. Julie has happily hired a familiar face to help serve. Right now, the kitchen is not set up for cooking to order. Hopefully by next year she will be ready to serve brunch, with staff behind the stove to receive breakfast and lunch orders.
The menu offers vegetarian and vegan dishes.There are no plans to serve meat.Thus, she is simply proposing an alternative that can help reduce meat consumption. She and her husband both eat some meat, but this is her contribution to help the environment by reducing the carbon footprint.
People today are much more open to eating vegetarian and vegan dishes. While vegan may be more limited in its choices, since it does not use any animal products, vegetarian meals offer the opportunity to create varied delicious and nutritious dishes using dairy and eggs, including cheeses. Julie is sure that everyone will find items on her menu to please and satisfy their tastes. Keep in mind, bread and French fries are vegan!
Julie hopes that her patrons will be patient. She is taking things slowly and modestly for now, as she has a lot to learn. As the business solidifies and grows, she will be able to provide a more extensive service and opening hours. She and John look forward to serving the community.
Café Jasette is located at 475, rue Frontière. You can find them on Facebook and can reach them by email at cafejasettehemmingford@gmail.com
We wish Café Jasette much success. Welcome to Hemmingford.