Our History

The adventure began in May 1987, when Cora bought a small diner in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent district. After just a few months of operation, Cora changed the diner's mission, making breakfasts her specialty. Combining fruit, cheese, cereal, omelettes, crepes and French toast, culinary magician Cora started a whole new breakfast concept in Quebec. Since opening her first restaurant, Cora has changed the eating habits of an entire generation.

Inspired by family traditions, customer requests and sometimes outlandish suggestions from her children, Cora designed her new breakfasts to coincide with the new trends toward healthy eating. One by one, she improved the traditional breakfast dishes and then conjured up a hundred others.

Every new creation merited its own colourful illustration, which was then posted on the wall of the little Côte-Vertu diner. The menu imagery was used in the now-famous signage that still decorates each Cora restaurant.

Soon, the little Côte-Vertu establishment grew to be such a success that Cora’s children had to quit school to help out. Even back then, going out for breakfast at Chez Cora Déjeuners was a morning gastronomic adventure.

Cora’s philosophy: "Offer the highest quality ingredients and service, give people the best and they will come. If we serve the best breakfasts in town, why would they go somewhere else?"

Very quickly, Cora's reputation for great breakfasts far exceeded the small diner's capacity to meet demand. So the family decided that mom would open a second Cora, while her children managed the little Côte-Vertu establishment. In February 1990, the new restaurant on Saint-Martin Boulevard in Laval generated a lot of press, reinforcing the success of the new breakfast concept. A few months later, partnering with a former co-worker, Cora opened a third establishment in a large, defunct restaurant that was three times the size of the first two. The success of this new restaurant quickly led to the opening of five more Chez Cora Déjeuners. The Cora family continued to grow and several new partners were introduced to the secrets of successful entrepreneurship, with the founder's children being the first to train the new business partners in the foundations of this winning formula.

Today, the Cora family includes over 130 franchised restaurants and the adventure continues.

Franchising

Motivated by the success of her breakfast concept, Cora and her ambitious family decided to franchise their restaurants.

For Cora, developing the breakfast food business niche meant doing it better than anybody had ever done it anywhere. Like any good recipe, success takes time to perfect. Cora, supported by her diligent team, slowly but surely developed more expertise in the business, and her unwavering drive for perfection earned her the title, "Queen of Quebec Breakfasts." Because she loved cooking for a crowd, Cora was continually opening new restaurants until she realized she could teach others her winning recipe. So began her journey into franchising.

In 1993, Cora explored the possibility of franchising and was delighted to find that her business formula met all the criteria established by franchising specialists. Her dream of having restaurants throughout Quebec was about to become a reality. Franchising soon became Cora’s business strategy to achieve her primary objective. For Cora, franchising allowed her to offer breakfasts in as many places as possible, as often as possible and to as many guests as possible.

Cora soon understood that by franchising, the team would be able to quickly build a strong brand image and dominate the Quebec market. An exciting new chapter for the newly formed Franchises Cora Inc. began in April 1994 when it granted its first franchise to open a restaurant in Pointe-Claire, in Montreal's West Island community. Ten more franchises would follow shortly. Always looking for a challenge, the Cora team's new objective was to open restaurants "all over Canada."

In 2000, Cora developed the Cora Franchise Group to target the market in the rest of Canada, and soon opened its first restaurant in Nepean, Ontario. Shortly after, Cora also conquered other Ontario markets as well as markets in the Atlantic Provinces, Manitoba and Alberta.

The result is impressive. The Cora group today includes 130 restaurants across Canada, with even more restaurants opening their doors in the months to come. Collectively, the Cora restaurant chain serves 12,000 litres of coffee, 60,000 crêpes and 317,000 eggs every week on average. It is the recognized leader in the Canadian breakfast industry, serving more than 10 million guests each year.

Would you like to join the Cora family? Find out about franchising opportunities.

Our Foundation

Established in the early part of 1998, The Cora Foundation’s mission is to aid children in need. The Foundation supports and works in collaboration with non-profit organizations trying to improve the quality of life of Canadian children.

The Foundation is financed through the profits generated by fundraising events as well as through special events created by employees and the owners of the more than 130 franchised restaurants across Canada.

Over the last years, the Foundation has been working very closely with the Breakfast Club of Canada to help provide support and food to schoolchildren so that they can start their day off right. The two groups share the same goals of well-being and education of youth across the country.