Asian Heritage Month: Highlighting businesses owned by Montrealers

Savoir Wealth's Jennifer Torres. (Jennifer Torres)

It’s Asian Heritage Month.

To celebrate Montrealers with origins from the Far East diaspora, every Saturday in May, CTV News is highlighting individuals who have not only built their lives here but also created thriving local businesses.

L’Atelier Floral

Christine Law says she’s never been afraid to take a leap of faith and wait patiently as it blooms into something wonderful.

In fact, the 37-year-old Montrealer says she welcomes the challenge.

“I believed in my vision and trusted that my perseverance…would take me somewhere meaningful,” she said. “Launching L’Atelier Floral was both exciting and humbling.”

The atelier, a luxury flower shop in Montreal, first opened in 2017 and was the culmination of years of personal exploration and trying things that, well, didn’t always work out the way Law intended.

“I took a bold step and tried to open a shop in Chinatown. I wanted to create something beautiful for the community and reconnect with my heritage in a meaningful way,” she said. “Unfortunately, the timing and market dynamics weren’t right.”

She says while things didn’t work out there, she doesn’t see the endeavour as a failure.

“It taught me resilience, adaptability, and to trust my long-term vision,” she said. “Maybe it’s just my personality, but I don’t let external perceptions define what I can or cannot do. Being a person of colour adds depth to my story. It’s part of who I am and what I bring to the table.”

Over the years, Law says she’s made a habit of letting the results speak for themselves, adding that the floral oasis she created hasn’t gone unrecognized by her community.

“From kind messages and referrals to customers choosing to buy from me simply because they wanted to support a local Asian-owned business,” she said. “That sense of community and mutual pride has been really meaningful. It reminds me that showing up and doing what I do every day can have an impact beyond just the business.”

Savoir Wealth

It’s a man’s world…but Jennifer Torres is taking over, all the while raising her four girls and living her best life.

“Being a business owner and being a mom and a wife and taking care of the home,” she said, “generating your own income, certainly, was not just challenging, but it really tested my limits of what I can sustain and survive.”

Torres created Savoir Wealth, a business and financial advisory firm, after studying business and working a corporate job that eventually led her to want something for herself.

So, she took the plunge into the male-dominated world.

“It was an automatic that I was the assistant. They looked to me to get the coffee, and never with a negative connotation, but just sort of an assumed role,” she said. “Being Asian, I think it’s also in my personality to serve. I was raised that way. I wouldn’t change anything about it, but it can certainly get you stuck.”

The business consultant and financial security advisor admits it took a while for people to stop seeing her as “the help” and instead recognize her as a trailblazer.

“When I started in my 20s and being Asian, I had good genes that came from my parents, so I was battling even, how can somebody trust you with their money when I look so young?” Torres recalls. “It certainly was frustrating, I think, to just learn to accept it.”

In the end, Torres says not only did she learn to accept people’s preconceived notions of her – she learned to use them to her advantage.

“I felt like I had something to prove. I was a perpetual student. So, I learned in every opportunity that I had,” she said. “I took accountability. I took initiative. It gave me opportunities to learn from more senior advisors.”

Nowadays, Torres spends her days helping people make the most important financial decisions of their lives.

“It’s not often that the clients actually come to us and tell us what their goals are,” she said. “We actually help them identify it and numerate it and put a number to it.”

Café Rì Yuè

Café Rì Yuè was never a business Daisy Yuan planned to start, but she says she got the idea when she noticed that the K-pop (Korean pop) trend was taking over social media.

“I feel like Montreal started to embrace Asian culture more compared to pre-COVID-19,” she said. “For me, Café Rì Yuè is more than just a business, it’s a way to create representation in the food scene, introduce people to Asian flavours in a romantic and elegant setting and build a community.”

She admits the journey hasn’t always been easy, with the idea behind the cafe surfacing in October 2020 after Yuan’s previous business, a bubble tea shop, closed during the pandemic.

“I started making the kind of cakes I like to eat back in Taiwan, but are hard to find in Montreal,” she said, explaining that she first operated only online. “It was my last try before I seriously considered a career change.”

The 33-year-old grew up in Taiwan and moved to Montreal 20 years ago, graduating from Concordia University with a degree in international business.

“I hope that by supporting small POC (person of colour) businesses, people gain a deeper appreciation for the cultures and stories behind them,” Yuan said. “Our cafe is not just about serving desserts and drinks, it’s about sharing a piece of our heritage, creating a space where different cultures meet and redefining what Asian-inspired flavours can be in Montreal.”

She says she’s glad she took a chance on herself and has been overwhelmed by the city’s warm reception.

“Supporting businesses like ours helps ensure that diverse voices are represented in the food scene,” she said, “that traditions evolve in new and exciting ways, and that the city continues to thrive as a place where everyone’s culture has a place to shine.”