Système D Café and Bakery Channels Retro Vibes in Old Montreal

The principals behind Old Montreal's newest coffee shop aim to conjure up bygone Québécois vibes at their forthcoming café-boulangerie. Système D will serve what Cynthia Descheneaux and Mathieu L'Écuyer describe as grandmotherly comfort fare in a nostalgic, shabby chic ambiance suggestive of an early 20th-century Laurentians auberge. The Saint-Nicolas street café plans to offer a lineup of artisanal breads, made fresh daily with ancient grains and organic flours, as well as pastries, muffins, cookies, and cakes. Brown-baggers can also look forward to seven different sandwiches, a few salads, milkshakes, floats, espresso-based coffee drinks, teas, chai, and hot chocolate. Despite the rustic digs festooned with found objects, Système D will feature free Wi-Fi, and plenty of accessible electrical outlets. A launch party is set for this Saturday, May 7, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Status: Système D, 417 Saint-Nicolas, (438) 387-4447, opens this weekend.

Système D | Photo credit: Gregory McCormick