St-Henri Thai Restaurant Appears to Have Locks Changed Unexpectedly — And Other Closures [Updated]

Update (October 17): Plateau souvlaki restaurant Alto tell Eater that they’re still planning to reopen after a fire shut them down last November, somewhere in the vicinity of their former Parc Avenue location.

ST-HENRI — Thai restaurant Makmak has shut its doors, leaving the Sud-Ouest neighbourhood without any go-to Thai restaurant (yes, there may be places serving a Thai dish or two, but no dedicated Thai spot). A post in a Facebook group for the neighbourhood highlighted a sign posted on the Notre-Dame West restaurant’s door noting “Locks have been changed by owner”. It’s not clear if this means that the building owner changed the locks on the restaurant, or if the restaurant owners changed the locks on their staff (this would be strange, but happened not too far away at former café Buck15). Eater has reached out for more information but in any case, the result is the same — no more Makmak.

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ROSEMONT — German beer hall Das Bier closed up suddenly earlier this month — a post announcing the closure on the bar’s Facebook page drew some dramatic comments alleging the bar had not paid contractors who had done recent work; that post (along with the Papineau bar’s entire Facebook page) is now gone.

MILE END — Five-year-old Fairmount restaurant Cartel shut up shop in recent weeks, with the owners posting online that they would be moving on to other yet to be announced projects. Cartel didn’t focus on one cuisine, instead positing itself as a “street food bar”, doing everything from tacos to Japanese-style yakitori skewers. Normally such an idea idea of taking street food, making it fancier, and elevating the price could be a red flag, but Cartel did stick to foods that were either not terribly common in Montreal (e.g. satays), or not terribly cheap ($3 tacos are very easy to find). Take a moment to remember their gloriously bizarre mural that very literally spelled out what the restaurant was trying to do.

ST-HENRI — Lovely neighbourhood hangout Café Joe is up for sale as owner Eric Hanson is looking at a career shift, and spending more time with his family. The café remains open (repeat: it’s not closed), but eyes are peeled for developments at this St-Antoine street café.

DORVAL/POINTE-CLAIRE — An Eater tipster reports that Italian restaurant Portovino on highway 40 around the edge of Dorval and Pointe-Claire has shut its doors and been replaced by another Italian restaurant. The small chain also closed its Laval restaurant a few months back, as well as its de la Jockeys location — wihle there’s still one left at Brossard’s Dix30, it doesn’t look great for the eatery.

VILLE ST-LAURENT — Côte-Vertu Italian eatery Divino is no longer for this world — an Eater tipster notes that pizza and pasta restaurant Mike’s (located at the other end of the same property) will be taking its place.

PLATEAU — It’s approaching a full year since McGill student gyro favourite Alto was caught up in a fire from a neighbouring building and there’s still no sign of them reopening; the last update was way back in February.

Seen any bankruptcy notices or papered-over windows in your neighbourhood? Tell us about it.

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