INfinity prize winner expands café to an idyllic park setting 

On July 3, business owner Eve Rochman fulfilled a goal to expand her successful Zera Café in Montreal to a second location called Pigeon dans le Parc.

The occasion was as sweet as the baked goods on offer as it came on the tail end of months of hard work and collaboration with many partners, one of which was the Azrieli Foundation.  

In October of 2023, Montreal’s Zera Café was awarded the Azrieli Foundation’s inaugural INfinity Prize—a competitive prize recognizing a social enterprise demonstrating excellence in neurodivergent hiring. On the day of the Dragon’s Den-style contest last October, Zera’s founder, Eve Rochman, stood up in front of a panel of expert judges and pitched her idea of scaling up her already successful Zera Café to a second location that would allow for the hiring of an additional 10 neurodivergent employees. (At the time, Zera Café had grown from four to fifteen neurodivergent team members in just a few years of operation). Eve’s track record of success and her enthusiastic pitch won over a panel of judges that included Jim Treliving, Varun Chandak, Wanda Deschamps, Caroline von Hirschberg, Garth Johnson and Erica Barbosa Vargas, and an eager audience, both on-site and online.  

In the months following, Eve received in-kind coaching along with $100,000 in prize money to put in place the infrastructure and relationships to make the second café a reality. Now open in Hampstead Park in Montreal, the year-round café is cause for celebration.

In her remarks at the launch, Eve thanked her many supporters, family, friends, volunteers and the Azrieli Foundation.  

“I want to say a special thank you to the Azrieli Foundation for creating the INfinity Prize. It allowed me to take up the offer from Hampstead City Council to utilize this space. Without the prize, I would not have the bandwidth or the funding to open this café,” she said, and then added, “Now let’s cut the ribbon and get this party started!”   

Established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2023, the prize aims to create employment equity, boost awareness and help us take a big step toward creating a more diverse and inclusive society.