High-quality food and drink is always on the menu at Ratio Coffee and Pastry.
Butters are imported from Europe and New Zealand because their higher fat content makes pastries and croissants theflakiest; only the freshest coffee roasted with care; specialized oil for frying donuts to make them crispy but not greasy.
These are just a few of the measures the owners of Ratio take to insure the products they sell are of the highest quality.
“I think that there is a certain amount of excitement around when people do things that they are passionate about, likecoffee and pastries without cutting corners, everything from scratch,” said Andrew McWilliam, who owns the coffee shopand bakery with his wife Sarah and their business partners Steffen and Laurie Knuever. “People really want to experiencethose types of products. The ingredients we are using are unlike anything you can get in the valley.”
The two Vernon couples, who met and became friends through their work with the non-profit organization Young LifeCanada, all bring their own expertise to the table.
Andrew is the general manager, keeps their customers happy and the operation running smoothly. Sarah tackles thebookkeeping and administrative work. Laurie is head of pastries and food and Steffen is the company’s business guru.
Laurie has extensive training in pastries, breads and food and has studied in San Francisco and Vancouver.
“She has taken lots of raw and vegan food courses. It’s her passion in life, she does these courses as a hobby,” said Andrew.“She comes up with all of our recipes, keeps on top of the trends and then brings them to the table for out pastry team toproduce here.”
The business started as a kiosk selling coffee and pastries across from Cenotaph Park in March of 2015. They opened theirpermanent location in the old train station in October of the same year.
Since then they have expanded and have taken over more than half of the historical building, employing 17 staff, have a fullfood menu and have recently added beer on tap.
“We are a bakery to people, where you can come get a dozen donuts or whatever it may be, but we are also a daily routineto people as far as getting their coffee.”
Ratio’s beans are roasted by Drum Roaster in Victoria, which is committed to sourcing only the freshest coffee beans.
“The beans are harvested in Columbia a month before we get it so it is super fresh crop coffee.”
Ratio’s coffee offerings are constantly changing, with beans coming from Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala and other coffeebean hotbeds.
“We have really high-end coffees and then we use the highest level of equipment that we can and our baristas arecraftsmen. This is their passion in life, it’s not just them having a job, it’s what they really want to do.”
Andrew admits that one of the keys to their success has been their location in the old train station building, built in 1911,in the core of downtown.
“People really like the charm of the old train station. Sometimes we get people coming here just to experience the trainstation and they wait for a train to come by. There is a sense of love for that old world travel that people like to experience.”
Ratio’s foundation is pastries and coffee but with the additional space for food preparation, they are able to offer a full foodmenu, with sandwiches on housemade breads, soups, breakfast sandwiches and granola’s.
The place is bustling with activity: customers ordering at the counter, coffee being prepared, a pair of women chatting onstools by the window, pockets of people gathered, some typing on their computers with coffee in hand, all while Ratio’snewest addition, Red Collar beer, is being installed.
“We just got licensed and beer is arriving as we speak.”
Beers by Red Collar Brewery out of Kamloops and Hoyne from Victoria will be served alongside Americanos and lattes.
“We will also have a variety of warm coffee cocktails and in the future we will be adjusting our hours a bit to be open later.”
Andrew loves to see how their shop has become a place for people to meet, have conversations with someone they wouldn’tnormally speak to, sharing their ideas and thoughts.
“I think that customer service is something that we are always working on and trying to make a priority, that we don’t justhave a coffee shop — we build a community around the coffee shop so we become part of each others’ lives.”
Each day Ratio has a different feature menu and the most popular so far is donut Fridays.
Customers line up for the decadent creations such as the coconut lemony snicket ring, chocolate espresso filled donut,gluten free white chocolate macaroon and apple cranberry fritter, which only scratches the surface of the different flavourcombinations they offer each week.
Before catching a plane, a customer travelling to India picked up a box of donuts for her husband after he requested them.
Looking at what they have achieved so far Andrew, a father of four, is blown away by how Ratio has been embraced by thecommunity.
“The hope was that we would have a business that would sustain itself, give a few people some work and support myfamily. We are majorly surprised about how enthused people have been and how they are getting behind what we areputting out as far as products go.”
Another sign of support is that another local business has reached out and will start serving Ratio coffee and food.
Mike and Terence Giesbrecht, owners of Skyride on Silver Star Road, will open the Ratio satellite store in February for peoplewanting to grab a coffee and pastry on the way up the hill for a day of skiing or biking.
“It will have the same Ratio standards and quality,” said Andrew of the location that will have a pick-up window as well assome seating.