Opening Wednesday, Pigeon dans le Parc is a collaboration between Zera Café, a not-for-profit social enterprise, and the Pigeon Café brand.
In early 2023, Zera Café founder Eve Rochman was invited to a Montreal-area synagogue to give a talk about the café, which had grown in a few short years to a team of 15 neurodivergent adults supported by professionals and volunteers. It offers a weekly menu online including soups, salads, main courses and desserts, and also prepares food for catered events.
Hampstead councillor Jack Edery heard her speak. A couple of days later, he approached her to say there was an unused snack bar space in Hampstead Park and floated the idea of Zera possibly using it, assuming council approved. But Rochman wasn’t ready yet.
Three months later, she applied for the Azrieli Foundation’s first Infinity Prize — a $100,000 prize awarded in a competitive process among social enterprises providing meaningful and sustainable employment for neurodivergent young adults.
“And I wanted to have a story to tell,” she recalled.
“I don’t know what possessed me … and it took chutzpah,” but Rochman reached out to Pigeon Café founder and owner Jonathan Dresner and asked if she could use Pigeon’s name in her pitch, in which she described a seasonal snack-bar café operation.
“She had good energy on the phone,” Dresner recalled. “Almost any charity that asks, we try to say yes.”
As it turned out, Dresner’s mother is a resource teacher who has worked with neurodivergent students and Dresner himself has volunteered with neurodivergent young adults. “It made me feel really good,” he said.
From an initial 20 applicants, Zera Café was one of three finalists. Rochman travelled to Toronto to pitch her idea to a panel of six judges at an event staged like the CBC show Dragons’ Den.
Zera Café won.
Having secured the prize, Rochman was in touch with Edery, who had her write a letter explaining what she planned. He then approached his council, which was in favour of supporting the initiative by supplying the space, located near the park’s outdoor pool, free of charge.
“I explained that it was a charitable organization. I think that pretty much sold them — bringing a project that had heart into the community,” he said.
The snack-bar space has operated in the past as a for-profit café “and we would charge rent and have a regular lease,” said Edery. “In their case, because it is a not-for-profit organization doing something good, no rent is being charged.”
Said 16-year-old Eliane Goldstein, who stopped by on Tuesday during the café’s soft opening: “I think it’s a really cool idea.”
The prize money will go toward salaries for the neurodivergent employees, who work two to a shift (they are supervised by McGill University student Elana Warshawsky, who has been hired for the summer as an assistant job coach), as well as to startup costs such as equipment and renovations, full-time supervisor Sara Levy, and to marketing. For now, the plan is to operate until Sept. 30.
Rochman and her team have decorated the space on a budget, with chairs and other items from Ikea and cushions from Canadian Tire, and made it inviting. The park is busy in summer, and there’s an outdoor pool and a day camp in place, so there should be traffic. And she says she’d love for Pigeon dans le Parc to become “a community meeting-up place.”
Salads, sandwiches and pastries including lemon loaf, brownies and banana cake with chocolate chips are prepared at Zera Café and transported to Pigeon dans le Parc. Pigeon brand coffee is served, and smoothies that use Pigeon Café recipes. As well, Zera Café ready-to-eat meals are available for purchase in a grab-and-go freezer.
Pigeon Café staff has provided input on designing the space, helped with the menu and provided a specialty coffee machine, as well as considerable counsel.
“It’s a real collaboration,” said Dresner. “They are running it and we are supporting them. It’s like one of our stores, but we are not making any money from it. My people are really excited; it’s nice for them to be a part of it.”
The new employees are being trained to prepare coffee, grilled cheese and smoothies and have been practising how to deal with customers. “We said that 95 per cent of people will be understanding and kind and supportive,” said Rochman. And should there be an issue, “we will be there to catch it.”
With coaching and regular check-ins, she said, the hope is to eventually integrate these young people into regular restaurants. As the poster soon to go up will say: “Brewing inclusion — one cup at a time.”
AT A GLANCE
The grand opening of Pigeon dans le Parc is Wednesday, July 3 from 4 to 7 p.m. in Hampstead Park, 30 Lyncroft St.; music will play, lemonade will be on tap and all are welcome. General hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends. Payment is by card only. All proceeds go to Zera Café.