Soupesoup Founder is Back With A Charming Outremont Bistro [Updated]

Update (September 25): Take a look at some of Bloomfield’s dishes, with new pictures added below.

Van Horne Avenue in Outremont continues to morph into a minor restaurant destination — first came Provisions and Les Fillettes in recent years, then this summer, Boxermans and DJ Poulet joined — now, new neighbourhood bistro Bloomfield joins them.

It comes from Caroline Dumas, who created the successful local chain SoupeSoup. After publishing a book and expanding her empire to several locations, Dumas left the soup and café business in 2016, and Bloomfield is her first project since. (She’s also not the only ex-SoupeSoup-er to jump to something else — Dumas’ friend Caroline Desgagne left the company to open Mélisse earlier this year).

Dumas tells Eater that it’s a change of style for her, with Bloomfield as somewhat of an evening place.

“I love talking to customers, and they have time at night. They don’t have time at lunch...they have time to enjoy life, to drink wine.”

Her menu is eminently seasonal, and homey yet well-crafted — it will shift very regularly, but check out the latest iteration of it below. Dumas says she’s also going for affordability.

“The price is low for the quality, I want people to come more often; I want to be their kitchen, not a restaurant, where people say “let’s go to a restaurant, but can we afford it?” Well, they might not say it, but they think it.”

“I’d like to think they can afford me every day.”

Eater Montreal/Tim Forster

Eater Montreal/Tim Forster

Eater Montreal/Tim Forster

She highlights Mexican flavours, too: grilled corn, inspired by New York’s Café Habana in SoHo, and a perfumed chicken adobo. There’s also steak, sourced from Nordest in the Laurentians, and socca, a dough-based creation of chickpea flour, water, and olive oil which Dumas is morphing into a pizza-like entity with toppings.

Also on the menu is a burger (not shown above) — the offerings are notably friendly to the gluten-free crowd, too.

Grid View

• Outside Bloomfield Eater Montreal
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• Bloomfield’s clams Supplied
• Bloomfield’s grilled corn Supplied
• Bloomfield’s burger Supplied

There are also organic and natural wines, with selections from Steve Beauséjour — notably, they’ll be available to take home, with a mark-up of just a few dollars.

“There’s no SAQ in the area; there’s no way for people to buy organic natural wine unless they go to the restaurant.”

Starting in a week, Bloomfield will also do lunches, which Dumas says will be more of a soup, salad and sandwich affair — true to Dumas’ business roots, there will also be prepared soups to take home.

STATUS — Bloomfield is open at 1199 Van Horne — dinners only, for now (from 5 p.m.) with lunches set to start next week.

• Caroline Dumas n'est plus madame Soupesoup [La Presse]
• Say Hello to Boxermans, Outremont’s Newest In-and-Out Bistro [Updated] [EMTL]