Hôtel Herman to Take Over Brewpub Réservoir

Plateau microbrewery Le Réservoir is set to get a shake-up in coming months — as all three owners of hit Mile End fresh and French restaurant Hôtel Herman are jumping on board as partners at the brewery.

There’ll be changes all around at the mid-Plateau spot, as the three will work with remaining Réservoir owner Michel Zabitsky to overhaul menus, renovate and allow for expanded brewing operations.

The first changes will be soon — Hôtel Herman partner Dominic Goyet tells Eater that a new lunch program will start December 1. Hôtel Herman chef Marc-Alexandre Mercier, also one of the three new Réservoir owners, is keeping the exact menu under wraps for now.

“It’ll have the vibe of Marc-Alex and what he does at Hôtel Herman, but with a pub feel. It’s going to be a fresh menu, something for lunch with local products. Then at night the snack menu is going to change…and take a bar food menu through a Marc-Alex filter.”

Réservoir’s brunches will also evolve over the winter, after a brief closure to allow for some overhauling of the bar. Those renovations will also free up space for 200 more litres of brewing tanks — that means the microbrewery’s beer offerings will be able to expand beyond the fairly traditional brews it currently offers.

“There’ll be a [beer] line restricted to experimentation, for collaboration brews, so anyone who is a beer aficionado on the staff or among the friends who has a cool recipe…will be able to use that line. The three other [new lines] will be specialty beers that take a little more time to brew. We’re going to start fooling around with aging some beer down there,” explains Goyet.

So why choose Réservoir for the Hôtel Herman do-over? Goyet points out that in some sense, it’s where Hotel Herman all started.

“My two partners at Hôtel Herman, we all met here in 2006. Reservoir was always a bit where it all started, and this place was really close to us. Lately we’ve been talking to Michel, the head brewer there and he needed a hand so we just joined teams with him.”

Ariane Lacombe, the third new owner of Réservoir is sticking more closely to Hôtel Herman — for the time being.