Pâtisserie Lu & I is a bakery and café in Montréal’s Mile End, opened in 2022 by best friends Emilia Jamieson and Carmen Rose and named after their first daughters. Everything it bakes is vegan, gluten-free and naturally sweetened, made with whole ingredients, and the test for each recipe is whether the founders would feed it to their own baby. Emilia brings about twenty years in the industry, most recently baking and managing at Hello123 in St-Henri, and the business is women-owned.
The baking works without eggs, dairy or wheat: flax and water in place of egg white, applesauce for moisture and binding, coconut for butter, milk, cream and oil, almond milk for baking, and flours of almond, coconut, oat, chickpea and tapioca. Sweetness comes from maple sugar and syrup, agave, coconut sugar and dates, with no refined sugar, and most recipes use five to ten ingredients. The counter holds cupcakes, cookies, energy balls, quiches, sandwiches and a végépaté wrap, with custom cakes for any occasion, and the baking is also stocked at a handful of Montréal cafés and grocers, with wholesale on offer.
The coffee is PS Coffee, served as espresso, americano, latte, cappuccino and mocha with a choice of almond, oat or soy milk, beside matcha and chai lattes, Mighty Leaf teas, Le Seltzer, Lao kombucha and cold-pressed juice.