Veronica Kaczmarowski on the closing of Le Cartier
The abrupt closure of the Le Cartier restaurant in Sherbrooke on Monday came as a result of unmanageable rental costs, former operator Veronica Kaczmarowski explained to the Record.
“It’s a very large space, and not all that space is used but we’re obliged to pay for it because it is here,” Kaczmarowski said, citing a lease that required an extremely high level of sale to be viable combined with a downturn in the economy leading to a reduction in sales. The sudden nature of the closure, she added, is just a reflection of how she received the news.
“We learned just before the weekend” the former owner said, explaining that she tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate an alternative. “This was brutal.”
In a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page Wednesday morning, Kaczmarowski referred to her three years running Le Cartier as “an extraordinary culinary and social adventure.” In speaking with the Record she carried on that theme, saying that her focus on promoting a real organic diet focused on locally sourced produce was a mission before her time at the restaurant and it will continue to guide her afterward.
“This is the end of the story for me here at the Cartier,” Kaczmarowski said, “but the adventure does not stop.”
The former restaurateur did not shy away from the fact that running a restaurant comes with some serious pressures, but she argued that her reliance on more expensive local products was not the cause of Le Cartier’s demise.
“The restaurant industry is challenging, I won’t hide that, but it’s easier for the big chains or when you deal with packaged, processed, prepared food.” Kaczmarowski said. “There’s a lot of restaurants in town that everybody knows haven’t made money in years, and I’m talking really big places. They survive because they have very big financial backing from other sources. This is not my case.”
With regard to the food that was being prepared, offering raw, gluten free, dairy free, and vegan meals, Kaczmarowski said that she saw huge demand. In a different venue, not bogged down by the same administrative costs, she said she feels the model could thrive in Sherbrooke.
“I think it could have continued,” she said. “Le Cartier didn’t vary too much between good years and bad years,”
Kaczmarowski was known for being actively involved in workshops and foodrelated activities around the City of Sherbrooke before and during her time at Le Cartier, and she said that she plans to continue her involvement in that sort of event.
“There are so many excellent projects going on,” she said, citing her recent involvement in the Ville Nourriciere urban agriculture conference as just one example. “That’s what I was doing before I came here and I will continue to do that. I was able to express that mission for three years through this really wonderful experience at the restaurant Le Cartier, and I will continue doing it now in other ways.”