103 Reviews, and Not One of Them From a Scanned Code

"One morning we had 103 reviews," a longtime Fosetter team member told us. "A hundred and three reviews. It's hard for us, because we're not a restaurant, and a lot of our customers are older. There's this AI thing now, you scan a code and it generates the review for you automatically. Older people who aren't comfortable with phones, they just use that, and the review is already written for them. But us, we're doing this the hard way. A lot of our customers send us little essays, written themselves, on their own. They do it because they want to. And these older customers, they show it through what they do. If the food is good, they'll leave a review."

What a storefront gets that online selling doesn't

"Running a storefront is different from wholesale or any other kind of business," she said. "If you sell online, you see customers who have an emotional connection with you, feelings. That's the one thing that really moves you about running a physical shop."

What that looks like

At harvest season, the proof shows up on the counter. "When the harvest season comes around, our workbench and the shop itself get vegetables from aunties, from friends, whatever they grew themselves, fresh produce," she said. "Sometimes it really moves you. That's what makes running a physical shop so hard, in a good way. The desserts they make are so good, not worse than what you'd buy at a shop. And the vegetables, there's a lot of that too. Yesterday an auntie steamed a 發糕, just gave us two, and the four of us shared it."

"These older customers, they use the most direct method there is. The vegetables they grow, the food they make well. Everyone cares, in their own way. I think this place is more like a hub that passes love along."

Come see the counter for yourself at Fosetter, 78 Rue De La Gauchetière Ouest in Montreal's Chinatown.