07/29/2024
Our newest commercial partner is Breakfast By the River and we could not be more excited. The compost pile cannot get enough of those eggshells ✌️Read on to find out why Luma is such a wonderful community partner. Welcome Luma!
Luma Khoury’s vision was born first of a desire to share her love of baking and her great joy in feeding people, and was realized in part the moment she discovered a blog by the Almonte Farmer’s Market searching for a breakfast and baked goods vendor. ‘That’s me!’, she thought. As she describes her journey, beginning with her family’s arrival in Canada in 2003 from Jordan, landing in Ottawa in the middle of winter at seven years old, then moving to N.B at 20 to ‘find’ herself, Luma’s bright eyes reveal a woman who both knows what she wants and is determined to achieve her goals. Any struggles faced along the way have only led to her success, she says. Set-backs only provide lessons for learning, challenges, opportunities for growth.
She hit upon the name, Breakfast by the River while considering both her vision and her location; it was both simple and evocative, as well as a nod to her adopted home’s mighty river, the Mississippi. ‘Perfect for me’, thought its inventive, determined creator, and from that point on she was off and running. Well, mostly. The story of her opening day is laughable in hindsight, but at the time the experience shook her confidence considerably. Having shopped, then baked for hours the day before, and following an anxious, sleepless night, Luma arrived at the market armed with an overly ambitious menu, her first mistake, she says, only to find no electrical hookup, and the day proceeded to go from bad to worse from there, as customers waited in long lines for sandwiches and potatoes that took far longer to cook than the young entrepreneur had anticipated, without even a cup of coffee to keep them company.
As she tells it, at the end of that awful day she sat down on the curb - head in hands, eyes a little weepy, feeling defeated – worse, like a phony – and beat herself up pretty hard; that is, until she gave her head a shake and determined she simply had to start over. Luma reconfigured her menu, the market solved the problem of power, and Almonte gained one of the best new ‘Homestyle Boulangeries’ anywhere in the valley. Nowadays, regulars line up every Saturday to sample a slice of one of her indescribably irresistible, delicious cakes – carrot the big favorite – or to sip on freshly squeezed orange juice and piping hot coffee while they watch their sandwiches sizzle on the grill. So many sandwiches, each a perfect start to a summer weekend. Or how about her homemade sausage rolls, Danish pastries and breakfast poutine… decisions, decisions. You can’t make a bad one.
Luma’s family has always played a huge part in her success, supporting her in many, many ways as well as sharing in her happiness. Her older brother provided a start-up loan, her parents prepare the coffee and juice, and her younger sister handles the checkout while Luma cooks. Her commitment and determination are bolstered by theirs, and she is the first to say how grateful she is for that, as well as for the fact the she and her family have found a home in Almonte, where they are happy to have been a part of the community for the past twenty years. Perhaps even more heartening is the fact that in addition to running Breakfast by the River, this hard-working young woman holds another job as well, a feat also admired by her proud family.
It’s easy to see why Luma’s business has taken off so well since opening three years ago. Its owner’s culinary talent is obvious, and her skill at running Breakfast By the River are the result of an open, vibrant and focused spirit which says ‘yes’ to life, and of a heart that believes food is love. As an enthusiastic supporter of JGC, Luma agrees that we need to support programs like it for the good of the environment. “Food absolutely should not end up in the landfill”, she says; “We can get a lot of life out of our compost – and we generate a lot of compostable material. On Saturdays alone, ten dozen egg shells go into one of the buckets”, adding that she is happy to be part of the solution. And while she is hoping to expand into a bricks and mortar shop someday, for now this clever, hard-working and most deserving young woman is happy to be serving locals and tourists alike from Victoria Day to Thanksgiving at her homestyle boulangerie by the river.
