Regina’s Momentum Café has announced a new bakery expansion, just weeks after the five year anniversary of their opening.
Getting to this point was not always easy. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full force when Momentum opened their doors in 2021, just south of the University of Regina’s main campus.
“We started in September, and then in January the university completely locked down and we were back to wearing masks again,” said CJ Katz, the café owner. “It definitely had its challenges,” she added.
Prior to opening the café, Katz had an illustrious career in food media. She spent time writing about restaurants in the Leader Post, and served as the resident food columnist on CBC Radio.
For almost 19 years Katz hosted ‘The Wheatland Café’ on CTV, a cooking show that guided viewers through cooking high-quality meals in short time periods. She has also published two award-winning cookbooks.
“Something like the café here was kind of like a natural progression for me to move into doing something different, but still within that realm of food,” said Katz.
Instead of having a standalone building, the café is located in the atrium of the Innovation Saskatchewan building.
“When you walk into this space here, it is so incredible. It’s a real hidden gem in Regina,” said Katz.
The actual area of the building where Momentum resides was initially developed as a canteen, so Katz made the space her own.
“We added in lots of plants. We added in some beautiful shelves, and we just wanted to create a space that would start to create a community in here. I just saw the real potential in the location,” she said.
Keeping a café in business for five years is not an easy task. One key to Katz’s success is being able to understand what people value.
“I have a fantastic staff. We really work on customer service and really get to know people’s names. We spend a lot of time on creating all of our food from scratch,” said Katz.
This effort does not go unnoticed by customers.
“I come here all the time. I love it because they bake all their treats on premises. They remember my name,” said Medrie Purdham, a frequent visitor of the café.
Purdham also appreciates the wide selection of vegetarian options, and where Momentum is located.
“They’re in this beautiful open space, and now they have this beautiful extra space,” Purdham said.
This ‘beautiful extra space’ refers to Momentum’s new bakery expansion. When the café first opened, Katz said they quickly ran out of room in their 235 square-foot space.
“We blew out of that space and have been literally working in the back hallway,” said Katz.
The new expansion converted the room neighbouring the café into a bakery. A doorway will soon be built to connect the interiors of the two rooms.
Large windows in the bakery area create an ideal environment for Katz and her staff. “We couldn’t be happier with this space. We basically more than doubled the size of the café,” she said.
Katz said the new space can be used to further pursue the catering side of her business, as well as to prepare recipes that wouldn’t have been possible with the pre-expansion space limitations.
