the owner

I was born and raised in Montreal, where my family also ran a local Chinese restaurant for several years. Since young, I have loved the food and beverages industry because of its ability to bring people together.

After moving to Toronto from Montreal, I wanted to build a business of my own. For a long time, I wondered what I could be doing differently or what could be something new to bring to Toronto’s ever-changing food scene.

I saw the popularity of bubble tea shops and chains around the city, and although there are a plethora of them, there was no place I felt like I could customize my own drink beyond ice and sugar level preferences. I believe that everyone has different tastes, and not everyone can picture how a drink will turn out by looking at a menu with over a hundred items.

I then had the idea of letting my customers pick out their own ingredients, as I love the ability to touch and see what goes into my food (which is also why I love cooking). Like others who enjoy to cook at home, one of the major reasons why we do is because we have full control in choosing our ingredients to fit our tastes. WE can do just that at Labothery. You can physically choose your flavours, sugar, dairy and toppings! You can consider Labothery as a supermarket for bubble tea as you will see in the variety we offer.

Lastly, I threw in the lab theme to make things even more fun, because why not?

Jeffrey Shek

Photo by: @ellexeats