Chartier

The community of Beaumont, which began as a French colony in 1895, is one of the oldest settlements in Alberta. It’s that French heritage that Sylvia and Darren Cheverie wanted to invoke when they hatched the idea of a restaurant 120 years later. “We love Beaumont. We realized there was a real opportunity here,” says Sylvia. “We wanted to make sure that if we were doing something in the downtown core that we were paying tribute to where Beaumont started.” Their idea was Chartier, a rustic French Canadian restaurant with modern twists.

Darren and Sylvia wanted to make sure opening Chartier in the growing bedroom community was a viable business option, so they took to the Internet. The pair went to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise the capital and gauge the interest of the community. “We wanted to make sure that this wasn’t just us thinking it would do well, but that we had the support from the community, as well,” says Sylvia. And it was a great success. By the time they opened in the spring of 2016, Chartier was the most successful Kickstarter campaign launched by a restaurant in Canada. “There is a strong sense of community here” says Sylvia. “People support each other. They go out of their way to make sure those around them are thriving.”