'They really foster community support': New café with a focus on supporting local
Felice Café has been open for just one month and local vendors are already seeing a boost in business because of it.
Owner Michelle Brouwer left the medical field to open the café.
“We love good food, live music, supporting local and I just wound them all together in a café,” said Brouwer.
“There has been a lot of lessons to learn but so far it's been really great and positive.”
She wanted to make a space where the focus of everything, from the food to the drinks and other products on the shelves, was supporting local.
“We love the Stadium Yards' philosophy about supporting community and promoting community,” said Brouwer. “They wanted someone in this space that would bring people out of their apartments to be involved and be part of their community and that’s exactly what we wanted to do here.”
Brouwer said she comes from an entrepreneur family and knows first-hand the positive impact shopping local can have on a community.
“One of the good things coming out of COVID is that people have changed their perspectives and they’re looking to support local,” said Brouwer. “To make that easier for them just made sense.
“We’ve had an overwhelming positive response so far.”
Market for local vendors at Felice Café. Friday May 27, 2022 (CTV News Edmonton)
In addition to the coffee and food, the café also features a market for local vendors to show off their goods.
“I don’t have a physical retail space that I operate out of so it’s really great to be a part of this space, it’s so beautiful and they really foster community support,” said Titi Fueston, the owner of Tikkhu Jewelry. “Supporting local is really big in Edmonton and it’s getting bigger.”
“There’s not too many avenues for us to showcase our product without opening our own storefront, which is a huge investment that not many of us are able to do,” added Alysia Lok, the owner of Caramunchies.
“The foot traffic and everything, just exposure in general, people coming across our products, and then seeing us at markets or online. The more they’ve seen us, they'll eventually try it and fall in love with our product.”
Fueston and Lok plan to keep selling their products out of Felice Café as long as they’re able to.
“That’s been the funnest part of this journey so far, interactive with the other business owners, because they bring such a different perspective. We chat often about how we can better support each other,” said Brouwer.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.