Julie Dubois and Karim Sghir are the co-owners of Café Resto Karim, which recently opened locations in both Luskville and Fort Coulonge. Both said they were pleased with their opening weekend and hoped to make the best of things under the current public health restrictions on eateries.

New restaurateurs open two Pontiac eateries

2021-02-09 Emily Hsueh 336 Views Fort Coulonge, Hwy. 148, local, Local business, Luskville, restaurant

CALEB NICKERSON
There’s a new spot to grab a bite to eat in both Luskville and Fort Coulonge.
Café Resto Karim opened two different locations over the past week, in the heart of these two distant communities. Co-owners Julie Dubois and Karim Sghir said they are new to the food service industry, but have received . . .a lot of positive feedback thus far after completing their first full weekend. The partners currently live in Aylmer, but Dubois is originally from Campbell’s Bay.
She said that their Luskville location at 3328 Hwy. 148 opened on Feb. 1 and their spot on rue Baume in Fort Coulonge started up the previous Friday.
Sghir said that the Fort Coulonge store is more of a café, serving up pastries, baked goods and plenty of hot coffee. In Luskville they offer traditional diner breakfasts as well as pizza, poutine and donairs for lunch and dinner.
“In Fort Coulonge we have one employee because the menu is really simple,” he said. “We’re … definitely going to have another employee or two depending on demand [and] depending what menu we’re going to have.”
He added that the Luskville restaurant will definitely require more staff, especially when they are able to re-open the dining room. He and Dubois said they were really pleased with the local response over the weekend.
“We didn’t expect that we were going to be busy like this,” he said. “It’s crazy, we ran out of [some items], we didn’t expect that we were going to see a lot of people and they were excited to come here.”
Dubois said that they started working on the project back in October 2020, and faced several delays due to public health restrictions. Sghir said that it had certainly been a challenge to open a business in these conditions, but noted that with cases declining, things will return to normal.
“We saw we had an opportunity,” he said. “I’m really thankful. People said to us, ‘What are you doing, opening in this time?’ I think it’s the time to re-open, because life is going to come back.”
“Slowly but surely,” Dubois added with a laugh.

Café Resto Karim in Luskville, pictured, sits at 3328 Hwy. 148, while the Fort Coulonge location is right downtown on rue Baume. The former is a full-service diner, serving three meals a day, while the latter is more of a coffee shop, offering hot drinks and lighter fare.

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