Walking into Cafe Matina in Montreal’s trendy Mile End, you’re instantly met with a creative atmosphere of writers and readers sitting quietly at their tables, while coffee drinking moms catch up on gossip. More than just a cafe, this is a meeting place for the community, and a refuge for the self-employed. And it’s no accident. Matina Kottis, the congenial and chatty owner, hoped and planned for this place to become a welcoming second home to everyone who lives in the area.
Sitting unobtrusively on Rue Bernard, under a large red awning, the cafe is surrounded by some of the city’s most famous bars and restaurants. Matina had been working as a waitress in a coffee shop here, when the owners decided to sell up. “I’d been saving up money for a while, without really knowing what I was saving for, and then the cafe I was working in decided to close, so I jumped at the opportunity to buy it.” It was Matina’s first business venture, and at first she was unsure if she’d made the right decision. “I called my parents and told them I wanted to buy the place, half of me wanted them to talk me out of it. But they didn’t. And I’m glad they didn’t.”
