Early Riser

Ms. Tsouflidou (toof-li-doo) did.

Ms. Tsouflidou grew up on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. She loved school and was in her last year of college when she unexpectedly got pregnant … well Ms. Tooflidoo loved being a mom … and life was good.

Until it wasn’t … she and her husband went through a very difficult divorce.

At 40, she was a single mother of 3 kids and had no idea what to do … but after working in a restaurant … she decided to run her own … so she sold her house and with the little money she had left over bought a small snack bar in Montreal. It was a way to make money and make ends meet.

But her adolescent kids were too young to be on their own at night so … Ms. Tooflidoo decided to just open the restaurant for breakfast and lunch … so she could be a home with the kids in the evening.

The plus side of owning a restaurant was her kids would never go hungry .. and that they would have a good start to the day … she used simple quality ingredients and made her breakfast different and fun. Her kids loved it … and so did Montrealers.

Before long she opened second location … and then a third that was huge … and people just kept coming. So she started to franchise.

Today, Cora Tsouflidou’s 130 restaurants feed over a quarter million people every week right across Canada … and they are still named after her … Cora Breakfast and Lunch

Cora’s is a great idea … sometime unexpected circumstances are the mother of invention!