Montreal’s ‘fake café’ Saturday, a casual hangout turned roaming pop-up

There’s a lot of prep on one Friday night a month between two Villeray apartments only separated by an alleyway. As one grinds coffee, preps space, makes cold brew, and draws up a menu, the other bakes. 

By the next morning, Victoria Lauren Da Silva and Kate McDevitt’s ‘fake café’ Saturday has opened its doors, welcoming invited guests to a cozy dining room.

“It started as a casual way to hang out with friends,” Victoria shares. “We began in February and quickly realized how much we all missed spending time together. After the first one, we saw how much fun it was and decided to keep it going every month.” 

But as ‘fake’ as Saturday Café is, sharing the process of creating it online and building out social accounts for it—as well as drawing on Victoria’s experience in marketing to make branded menus, coffee cups, and bags alongside Kate's baking—has made it more than a prearranged intimate monthly gathering.

@urgirlvic

another saturday cafe at home - happy iced coffee season !

♬ Lady Love - Thee Sacred Souls

“I was already a content creator, so I love documenting my life,” Victoria says. “The first café blew up online, and people were interested in the idea. That gave Kate and I the sense that maybe this could be more than just a gathering with friends—maybe it could become a larger community in Montreal.”

“Now there’s moments where people ask, ‘Can I come by? Where is it?’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, it’s where I live.’”

@urgirlvic

cafe saturday at home <3

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A 'fake' café in a 'real' world

The general public can’t be rolling through Victoria’s apartment, but they can now find Kate and Victoria’s ‘fake’ operation out in the wilds of the ‘real world’.

Since those early days in February, Saturday Café’s been in PAS MON STYLE’s ceramic studio with a make-or-paint-your-own-mug element in August...

...followed by making espresso martinis and selling Kate’s cookies at the pizzeria Maps. And it’s working. 

“Maps is somewhere that we go to very often. We know the owners, we sit in the same spot every time we go, and like that also feels like an extension of our home,” Victoria says. “The turnout was really good, but we weren't expecting it to be that good.”

“It was so awesome to get to meet people, to have people come in and be like, I've been watching this since the start, I love what you guys are doing, I need a cookie, I need a coffee, I’ll take an espresso martini, I'm so excited to get to be part of this… that's exactly what we wanted,” Kate recalls.

@urgirlvic

hosting a saturday cafe pop-up at our fav pizza spot 🥹

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“We had these moments where we could look up from behind the bar and look at everyone sitting and talking and doing exactly what we do at home, but we'd picked it up and brought it outside.”

“We were kind of freaking out behind the till, when we had those little moments and were like: Yes. We found what we were chasing.”

A home away from home

Part of Saturday's charm is that it happens in ways that takes the aesthetic and charm of one’s home and brings it to new places, bridging connections between friends with hospitality towards the public.

“When I think about what the reoccurring themes of Saturday Café are? It's homey, it feels familiar and very casual with low pressure, and there's good energy in the space,” Victoria explains. 

To maintain that, Victoria and Kate have been intentional with who they've partnered with. As they bring Saturday out into the ‘real’ world, it’s important that it always feels like, even if a space might not be theirs, it still feels welcoming.

“This café project is a way for me to combine all these things I love,” Kate says, who currently works in the film industry in post-production but has experience in coffee shops and loves baking.

“I also worked briefly at a bakery, which I loved,” Victoria adds. “I realized I missed the human connection that comes with the service industry, and that’s part of why the café came to be. It’s something I felt was missing in my current work, reconnecting with face-to-face interactions while also exploring other creative areas.”

“When I think about why we’re chasing community this way, being in our mid-twenties in this city is great and exciting, it can also feel lonely,” Kate adds.

“You know people, but you don’t always feel like you truly hang out with them. The café became a way to bring people together, to build stronger friendships, and to create a real community.”

“Exactly,” Victoria adds. “Many of our friends are in similar, transitional situations—we’ve just graduated and are figuring out our lives. We don’t know what path to take and life can feel busy and isolating, so let’s create this café as a space where we could gather without the pressure of drinking or partying, and just hang out in a relaxed setting.”

Keeping things fake

As for the immediate future, “we do have our eyes on a few things, and we are in the very early stages of scheming,” Kate says.

“The ideas are just running faster than we can like sit down and put them together, but we're definitely seeking out more pop-ups and more weekend cafés that we can host over the next few months,” Victoria says.

Would Saturday Café stay fake, then?

“We're at the stage of reconsidering whether it's fake or not, but after Maps, it felt real,” Victoria says.

“Even if, down the line, we did open a location, we do more pop-ups, whatever it is—one Saturday a month or every other month, we're still gonna be at Vic's apartment,” Kate says.

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