Toi; Moi & Cafe

In the up-and-coming neighbourhood of St. Henri where new businesses are popping up every month, Toi Moi et Café is a veteran by comparison. With a second location that opened in 2006, the company itself started back in 1995.

The owners are two Armenian brothers who share an affinity for good coffee and the restaurant business. “They are people who are well-known in the coffee world for what they do,” says floor manager Claude-Nicolas. The owners of the café take the relationship between themselves and the producers of coffee beans to an extremely personal level. “All the coffee producers that we buy beans from, the owners make sure they have gone to their farm personally at least one time to check out their methods of production,” he says.

The owners believe in creating a strong relationship with the manufacturers of coffee beans. “Everything runs the way they like, otherwise they’re not buying from them. They’re also making sure the quality of the beans is good. They pushed a lot of companies to get their certification for fair trade. And most of them did,” says Claude-Nicholas. The owners have gone as far as fronting companies money so that they can start the process of fair trade.