Élise Page always dreamed about going into business. “That dream goes back a long way. At school, maybe grade 5 or 6, we had to draw a picture of our parents. I made one of my father, a businessman. He was so proud to tell me about what he did. That’s when I knew that I also wanted to become a business owner.”

After graduating in dance from the University of Manitoba, Élise Page continued in that field and put aside her childhood dream. But later, before her first pregnancy, the young woman joined her father’s business. “I liked working with my father. I found it rewarding.”

Her maternity leave gave Page some time to think. “I was always very busy, often juggling several jobs. But during my maternity leave, I took the time to further explore my dream of opening a café.”

That project took on a prominent place in Élise Page’s life. “I started looking for a business partner. Last year, I was discussing my idea with Teri-Lynn Friesen, and she told me that her dream was to sell ice cream. I told her that was number two on my wish list! We immediately thought that it would be great to embark on the adventure together.”

The two women decided to combine their dreams of coffee and ice cream. “We can sell both. It will add a special touch to our business.”

Unlike Teri-Lynn, Élise does not have much business experience, so the partners complement each other well. “I work on the financial side of things, and Teri-Lynn handles the marketing.”

Élise and Teri-Lynn also received support from the University of Manitoba to make their project a reality. “We were really lucky. We were able to use the professional kitchens at University of Manitoba for our training. We needed to do some testing to figure out what recipes we wanted to use.”

“The advantage of the University of Manitoba’s kitchens is that we could get used to working with professional machines, and we could test exactly what we are going to do in our own kitchens.”

After a lot of tests, Élise Page and Teri-Lynn Friesen finally landed on the basic recipe that they both liked. Says Page: “I really didn’t know much about ice cream before we started. But I had one requirement: I wanted to use all-natural products with no chemicals. Our base had no artificial stabilizers, and most of our flavors don’t as well. »

The pair also had to find a name for their new business. “Teri-Lynn came up with Fête, which is funny, because she doesn’t speak a word of French! She thought it would sound good, because everyone knows the song C’est aujourd’hui ta fête, which means today’s your birthday. I thought it was a great idea.”

Fête will feature up to 18 different flavours of ice cream, including 12 “always” and two to four rotating flavours.

FÊTE

 300 Assiniboine Ave.

Sunday – Thursday :  8am to 6pm

Friday and Saturday : 8am to 8pm