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Meet the baker behind some of our favourite bites at Le Café Ralia, and why we think a treat should leave you feeling better than before you had it.
If you have stood at the counter at Le Café Ralia, waiting on your drink, you have probably noticed the mini bar. A row of small things, each one made with intention, each one sized just right for when you want a little treat, or when you can't decide and want to try a few.
What you might not know is who makes them. Some of the most-loved treats on our mini bar are baked by Elle of By Organic Bella, a Montréal baker who works with organic ingredients and a whole lot of heart. This post is about her, about what she bakes for us, and about why this collaboration feels like exactly the kind of thing Ralia was built for.
Meet the baker behind By Organic Bella
Elle is the Montreal baker behind By Organic Bella, and her approach is easy to love: certified organic ingredients, real care for where they come from, and recipes that feel nourishing without ever tasting like a compromise.
Organic Bella began many chapters ago, during Elle's own health and awakening journey, when she recognized that how she felt was directly connected to what she ate, and to how she felt about it. In her words:
"For me, baking is an ode to love. Nourishment is our greatest link to Mother Earth and how we receive love: our relationship to our bodies, to ourselves and to each other. My ethos of honouring natural ingredients with nostalgic and epicurean touches speaks to honouring what sustains us, with a whimsical touch of finding simple pleasures in the present. Creating memories, sharing and caring for each other. An invitation to take a pause, savour a moment and nourish our vessels with joy." — Elle, Organic Bella
She talks about her farmers the way our baristas talk about coffee growers, with gratitude for the whole chain behind every bite. There are many she thanks, but her favourites are Trouvailles de Fanny and Jardin Ramsey. That care is exactly what we were looking for in a partner.
What Elle bakes for us
Elle's bakes sit alongside a few other small bites on our counter, and they change with the seasons. Right now she makes us olive oil banana bread, spelt muffins with whatever fruit is in season, dark chocolate olive oil cookies, and no-bake energy bites made with dates, pecans and almonds.
What makes them special is what goes into them, with Quebec producers wherever possible. Her flour is certified organic from La Milanaise in Quebec, organic olive oil runs through every one of her baked treats, and they are sweetened with Quebec maple syrup or coconut palm sugar, most of them warmed with Ceylon cinnamon.
Our favourite detail? The chocolate in her cookies is a single-origin 70% dark chocolate from the Mateza Cooperative in Madagascar, folded into organic grass-fed butter and finished with flaky Maldon salt.
There is a little something for everyone. If you are settling in for a long co-working day, a few minis will keep you going between emails and calls. If you are stopping by with the kids, those chocolate cookies are usually the first thing they point to. And if you are on the go, grab a couple of energy bites: they are filling, easy to tuck into a bag, and made to carry you through to your next meal.
Small on purpose
A wellness café does not mean a salad with no dressing. For us, wellness is simple: you leave a little better than you came in.
That idea shaped the mini bar from day one. Mya spent more than a decade in performance nutrition coaching elite athletes, and Melissa brought the nourishment lens that runs through the whole menu, the thread we first pulled on in building our wellness café brand one mini muffin at a time. Together they landed on something that sounds almost too simple: make the treats smaller, and make every bite count.
That is really the whole idea behind the mini bar: we want you to try many things. Instead of committing to one big pastry and hoping you chose right, you can pick two or three little ones, taste your way across the counter, and discover a new favourite every visit. A mini portion means you get the pleasure without the slump, and it means the ingredients have to be good, because when something is small there is nowhere for a shortcut to hide. Elle understood that immediately.
Why we chose to bake with her
When we talk about the coffee at Café Ralia, we talk about the chain of craft that runs from farmer to roaster to barista. We wanted the food on our counter to follow the same logic.
Working with a local, independent baker means the dollars you spend on a mini treat stay in Montréal and support a woman building her own business, one batch at a time. It means fewer kilometres between the oven and your plate. And it means we know the person behind these bites by name, which is a very different thing from opening a box from a distributor.
As a women-led company, it also matters to us to lift up other women doing the work. Elle is not a vendor on a spreadsheet to us, she is a collaborator, and the mini bar is something we are building together. It is the same thinking behind how we choose to operate in this city, and the same instinct that led us to fill the hotel with rooms activated by Montréal artists.
Come taste it
You will find Elle's treats on the mini bar at 4281 Saint-Laurent, inside Le Cafe Ralia on the Plateau, and at 525 Rosemont when that location opens its doors this November. Pull up a chair, pick your vibe, and let a small thing do its quiet work.
Follow @by_organic_bella to see what she is dreaming up next, and @ralia.cafe for a peek at everything happening behind the counter.
Good coffee deserves good company. We are so glad Elle is part of ours.