Memorable Montreal restaurants from the past

SteveW · February 18, 2004

Any Montreal restaurant(s) from the past that are now gone, but you still fondly remember? What about any anecdotes about them?

-Steve

palom · February 18, 2004

LES CAPRICES WITH NICOLAS.... :smile:

eat2much · February 18, 2004

I miss Matty's / Mykonos on de la Montagne. They made a lamb cooked in yoghurt and garlic that was out of this world.....

davidkemp · February 18, 2004

talking about pitcha and kiska i remembered schneiders steakhouse on decarie.was one of the best steak places in town.started eating there back in the 60 s.what ever happened to them?

eat2much · February 18, 2004

what ever happened to them?

Does anybody remember the tainted meat scandal of the 1970's and the televised hearings complete with wiretap evidence etc......

Nuff said.

maggiethecat · February 18, 2004

Is the Coffee Mill on de la Montagne still there? When I was a teenage Buyer's Assitant at Holt Renfrew, I would have lunch there almost every day. It's where I learned that potato salad doesn't have to be coated in mayo.

And that baroque Mittle-Eupora espresso machine was one of the loveliest porcelain objects I'd ever seen -- gilded and painted with wreaths of pink roses

eat2much · February 18, 2004

Sadly the Coffee Mill is gone along with all the rest of the great coffee houses of the day (Pam Pam, etc). I miss their Ludlab ang Rigo Janksi....

Lesley C · February 18, 2004

Good pick Maggie! No, sadly it's long gone.

I miss many many Montreal restaurants. Le Bouchon was great when it first opened. I was too young to dine at El Gaucho but always heard it was amazing. I never had the chance to dine at Les Mignardises or Chez Bardet. I heard Bardet was really something. Or Ruby Foo's in its heyday. Big regret. :sad:

maggiethecat · February 18, 2004

If we're really going to take a stroll down memory lane...

Pauze's was the my first "seafood" restaurant. When I was a little girl, I thought all that white linen and crystal was unbelieveably glamorous. As I remember, dimly, the Dover Sole was pretty good.

Gone, I assume?

davidkemp · February 18, 2004

the last time i ate at schneiders was in the early 90 s,i guess it survived the meat scandal for twenty years wich i would say is not bad considering life exceptancy of new restaurants.i think they started in late 40 s.

eat2much · February 18, 2004

Gone, I assume?

Nope, still there! Try the Shrimp Nantua.....

maggiethecat · February 18, 2004

Gone, I assume?
Nope, still there! Try the Shrimp Nantua.....

This makes me very happy -- my godfather would always take me to dinner there.

Then there were my years at McGill fueled almost entirely in delivery from Pine's Pizza....

carswell · February 18, 2004

Sadly the Coffee Mill is gone along with all the rest of the great coffee houses of the day (Pam Pam, etc). I miss their Ludlab ang Rigo Janksi....

Yes! I was going to mention the Coffee Mill's ludlab but wasn't sure how it was spelt (thought there was a J in there somewhere). Dense dark chocolate mousse studded with brandy-soaked morello cherries and served with a dollop of kirsch-spiked whipped cream: you couldn't get through a piece without a cup or two of strong black coffee, which thankfully they were able to provide (not something you could take for granted in Montreal in the '70s).

I also miss Toman's Czech pastry shop on Mackay. A great place for a light lunch followed by a piece of their apple-cranberry strudel. The assorted bite-sized pastries were delicous, too.

(Funny those should stick in my mind, as I don't have much of a sweet tooth.)

But the resto I miss most is the original Christophe on Lajoie, where Delfino is now. As much as I love eating at Christophe's new digs on Van Horne, the feel just isn't the same; the original was more intimate and had a great terrasse and the food was, if anything, better. But the clincher was the wine policy, the most enlightened I've ever encountered: you could order any bottle on the list and they would charge you only for what you drank (e.g. half the bottle, half the list price). As this was in the days before Private Preserve, I'm sure the policy provided the staff with some enjoyable after-hours imbibing. It wouldn't surprise me if it were one of the factors leading to the restaurant's demise either...

Lesley C · February 18, 2004

Toman is closed!? :shock: I had no idea.

Hey, Chez Pauze closed ages ago. And it wasn't too glamourous at the end.

Carswell I agree with you 100% about Christophe. But it was next to impossible to get a reservation there. I finally nabbed one a few months before it closed. The food was much fancier than what he does now.

eat2much · February 18, 2004

Hey, Chez Pauze closed ages ago. And it wasn't too glamourous at the end.

oops I was there a few years ago and assumed that since it had been open since the dawn of time it would continue forever....

Whatever happened to the space....great oyster bars along both sides.

carswell · February 18, 2004

Toman is closed!? I had no idea.

I haven't trudged up to the second floor to check for myself but that's what I've heard and read. From Ste-Catherine St. the building sure looks dead.

A few more restos I miss:

Jongleux Café, of course.

Vientiane, which may have been the city's first Thai (well, Thai/Laoatian) restaurant. Almost a hole in the wall on Victoria a couple of blocks north of Van Horne. Extremely affordable, very tasty home-style cooking and my introduction to the cuisine.

A post-hippie restaurant whose name I don't recall run by a big bearded guy whose name I don't recall (Shawn has suddenly popped into my sieve-like mind). I think they only served lunch and tea. The cooking — vegetarian, maybe? — leaned toward India/Asia and was hit-or-miss but quite adventurous for the time (late '70s?). It probably didn't stay open for longer than a year; I believe the owner had a run-in with Customs over an illicit brownie ingredient found in his bags when returning from a trip to India. What sticks with me is the ambience of the place. It was located in an apartment in the Concordia U. building on the east side of Bishop south of de Maisonneuve that also housed the Cheap Thrills used record store. No advertising; you had to know about it. The dominant shade was pink and the floors were amazing: they'd been wallpapered and then covered with many coats of Verathane. The food was served on a crazy assortment of thrift-shop china. Great soundtrack, mostly jazz divas. Laid-back, friendly service. It was cool taking people there and letting them in on the secret.

Lesley C · February 18, 2004

I never liked Jongluex Cafe. I certainly thought Nicolas was brilliant -- I had the best meal of my life at Les Caprices when he was there -- but the Cafe never did it for me. I knew he could do the high-end stuff, so I never really bought into his casual side. It seemed like a waste of his talent. And what a talent it was. Boy, I miss that chef more than anything on the Mtl restaurant scene.

eat2much · February 18, 2004

Dick Chen on Victoria. Dick was one of the early Chinese chefs in Montreal and opened up in his duplex on Victoria. Delicious home cooked asian food complete with his kids riding their tricycles through the dining room.

davidkemp · February 18, 2004

how about the howard johnson on st catherine?especialy late night.

cook-em-all · February 18, 2004

Victoria Station and Sammy's Ribs on Victoria near de la Savane, I worked at both of them maybe that;s why I miss them.

carswell · February 18, 2004

I never liked Jongluex Cafe. I certainly thought Nicolas was brilliant -- I had the best meal of my life at Les Caprices when he was there -- but the Cafe never did it for me. I knew he could do the high-end stuff, so I never really bought into his casual side. It seemed like a waste of his talent. And what a talent it was. Boy, I miss that chef more than anything on the Mtl restaurant scene.

Sorry to say I ate only once at Les Caprices during Jongleux's tenure there. Portefeuille oblige. But the three meals I ate at the Café were wholly satisfactory and the last one, only a couple of weeks before NJ's death, featured a dish that remains among my top-ten resto experiences: roasted lobster with fresh verbena sauce (more like a glaze, actually). I also loved their winelist: at that last meal, we drank, among other things, a red '97 J.-L. Chave Hermitage that cost a bit over C$100, considerably less than its retail price in the States at the time. My 'Mericun dining companions couldn't get over the food, the wine or the QPR. And when we asked the waitress to give our complements to the chef, she said, "I'll give him a kiss instead." Such a loss...