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They knew it wouldn’t be a picnic.

Years spent working for others in the restaurant business had shown them what a grind it could be.

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But Mackenzie Snow, 28, and sister-in-law Jessica Starnino, 38, still wanted their own place. And this month, against all odds, it opened.

Their pride and joy is called La Luncheonette, a modestly furnished but spotlessly clean soup, sandwich and salad shop at 4271 St-Jacques St. W. in St-Henri, just a block from the Place St-Henri métro.

They’re there morning, noon and night on weekdays, doing everything from cleaning to cooking, and couldn’t be happier.

Photo by Giovanni Capriotti / Montreal Gazette

Snow, who studied at the LaSalle College culinary school and worked in local restaurants and on food trucks since her teens, was the instigator of the project.

She remembers the location from her childhood, when it was known as Perroquet Violet. “My dad’s former business partner owned the building, and we’d come to the restaurant here for long, boring meetings. But I would get an apple juice.”