Bitter, Shaken Montreal Restaurateur Has Lost Faith in the Free Market

Montreal has so many restaurants that even the normally unflappable Carlos Ferreira feels the heat. The debonair don behind Ferreira Café and Taverne F tells Le Journal de Montréal that he no longer has faith in the free market: "We have to protect the good restaurants. Even I'm in danger if we do nothing."

Not content to stop there, Ferreira turns bitter old man on journalist Stéphan Dussault: "[Too many posers] who watch food television and get tattoos before they open restaurants. Sometimes I hope for a financial crisis to clean up this industry."

The rest of the article is a de facto doomsday screed about the dire state of the industry in Montreal, with copious statistics, ominous references to "restaurant graveyards" and calls for quotas and protectionist measures from Ferreira and ITHQ prof François Pageau.

"There's always a trendy new restaurant that hurts my business but ultimately closes after a few months. It's enough!," whines Ferreira.

Dussault also includes this stunner from Misto and Le Richmond owner Luc Laroche about the recent shutter of the former: "I prefer to pay $120,000 for 10 months of rent than remain open and lose money every day. There are too many restaurants in the Plateau."