Word has just come in from food critic Lesley Chesterman that Le Paris Beurre will close for good at the end of December.

In a two-star 2010 review the columnist for The Gazette called the Outremont restaurant a "classic neighbourhood bistro." The last paragraph, however, may hint at why the 30-year-old Van Horne mainstay has not been able to keep pace with Bernard's busy restaurant row.

Yet despite so many disappointments, I will return to Le Paris-Beurre. Partly because it's my local bistro, partly because I just love its Parisian-bistro ambience and partly because I know on certain nights when the stars are aligned just right, the food is that much better. It's a little hit-or-miss, this place. This time it missed. But on the flip side, no landslide of new business, either. How very neighbourhood bistro of them.

Chesterman did enjoy a return visit in 2012. Nonetheless, Le Paris Beurre's last service will be on December 23.

This is just the latest significant closure in Montreal in 2014, with the likes of Le Continental, The Beaver Club, Le Latini and Bistro à Champlain up north.

Le Paris Beurre Video