Living Sky Café may have lots of bells and whistles now – including the SaskTel IBC solution – but it had humble beginnings, to be sure. Its first location was in Saskatoon’s Mendel Art Gallery and opened right around the time the Mendel was transitioning over to the Remai Modern. That was the first challenge.

That challenge was met with hours spent distributing flyers through the parking lot of Saskatoon City Hospital and around the neighbourhood. The effort paid off. “By the time the gallery actually left,” said Taylor Morrison, the restaurant’s founder, “we were super busy, so I said ‘please, just let us stay!’ We got to stay until about two months before they started demolition for the renovation.”

That first location closed at the end of September 2017 and the second, current location in the historic GlenGarry Building on 3rd Avenue was up and running on May 4, 2018. Although it started out for the first year as a dine-in restaurant and catering company, the pandemic had other ideas.

Surprisingly enough, the pandemic created an opportunity by forcing Living Sky Café to close its doors. “Basically, by day two of the shutdown, we decided to flip our entire business and open up an oven-ready meal service where we made meals and delivered directly to our customers,” said Morrison. “That allowed us to take over more space on the main floor that we are on and renovate the other area.”

Today, over three years later, Living Sky Café is triple the space and includes a full-blown market, a private event company, a catering company, and a brunch-and-lunch restaurant.

“It's definitely evolved into quite the little empire,” said Morrison. “Because we make everything from scratch­ – we make our own preserves, we do our own pickles, we make our own bread – Jenna and I always had this dream of having our own little marketspace. I think we’re the only restaurant where you can come and have lunch, then grab all the things you need to make your dinner.”

With the growth of their business, the Café needed more office space and expanded into the vacant fourth floor of their building. When asked about the change, Jenna Dubé – general manager, business partner, and Morrison’s lifelong friend – said it created its own set of challenges. “It’s important to us that our customers are able to contact us, no matter where in the building we are,” said Dubé. “Our office moved up four flights of stairs from the restaurant, which is what piqued our interest in setting up the IBC phone system from SaskTel.”

Right now, even though they have a beautiful office space on the fourth floor, they’ve been too short staffed to spend much time there. But that’s okay because IBC is designed to grow with the business. They may not be using all the features now, but Dubé especially likes having the IBC Call Forward feature. It allows her to forward her catering calls to her personal cell phone. Those calls are especially important to the business’s bottom line.

When it comes to running the restaurant, Dubé spends a huge portion of her day communicating with clients both over the phone and by email. “A quick internet connection is probably the most important factor to keeping our business running smoothly,” said Dubé, “as everything from our debit terminals to our reservation app runs over the internet.”

When choosing a communications provider, SaskTel was the obvious choice. “We loved the idea of having a provider with Saskatchewan local roots,” said Dubé. “We really appreciate that when we phone in with any issues or questions, the person we speak with is local to us, and has usually been to our restaurant or used our catering services.”

What’s next for this determined pair of entrepreneurs? “My partner and I would like to get another space,” said Morrison. “We're looking for space where we're able to host larger groups. We love our brunch-and-lunch restaurant, but a huge passion for both of us is events and catering.”

Wherever their dreams lure them, SaskTel will be there with the products and services they need.

Visit their website to reserve a table, drop by the restaurant at 245 3rd Ave. S, or check them out on Facebook and Instagram!

If you’re interested in learning more about IBC or the many other products and services from SaskTel, please call 1-844-SaskTel to speak with a sales representative about a solution that’s perfect for you.