Côte St Luc Bar-B-Q Knocked Out of Action by Fire

NDG chicken roasting stalwart Côte St Luc Bar-B-Q was damaged in a fire early Thursday morning, and will be temporarily out of business to clean up and repair.

The Montreal Gazette reports that the fire broke out around 6 a.m. Thursday morning at the restaurant on Côte-St-Luc and Earnscliffe (near Decarie), half an hour after cooks arrived and fired up the chicken roasting ovens.

A fire in the ventilation system spread to wooden parts of the apartments above the restaurant — while nobody was hurt, the fire left nine people homeless. Côte St Luc Bar-B-Q’s damages are expected to be covered by insurance.

A post to Facebook said the restaurant hopes to re-open in a month, although the Gazette reports that owner Johnny Castellano says it may take two months to reopen. In any case, fire (and subsequent water) damage often takes restaurateurs longer than expected to repair — as anybody affected by Romados’ nightmareish seven month closure following its 2013 fire should remember.

• Côte-St-Luc Bar-B-Q badly damaged by fire [Montreal Gazette]
• Best of MTL: Romados reopens next Friday [CultMTL]