St-Henri’s Polish Café Opens Today With A Hollywood Endorsement [Updated]

There’s one more venue of note on Montreal Eastern European dining scene, as Café Baba Yaga opens today on St-Jacques in St-Henri.

As reported back in August, it comes from a L’Orignal co-owner, Monica Terlecki, along with others from the Old Montreal restaurant.

Update (September 25): Baba Yaga also scored a major endorsement on its very first day: X-Men actor James McAvoy, who has been in town for filming for the last few months, re-posted a picture of the store’s doughnuts, encouraging the crowds to go try them out.

While the café might be named for a folkloric witch with chicken legs who meets a gory end, the offerings are anything but nasty — the recipes derive partly from Terlecki’s mom, who is Polish and pitched in with expertise as the menu was being prepared and refined. Some of the offerings also branch out into other Eastern European culinary traditions, notably from Ukraine and Russia.

On offer are pierogies, including potato-cheese, and mushroom ones, but also a weekly surprise dumpling. Customers won’t know what’s inside until they order it. Krokety (stuffed Polish crepes), cabbage rolls, turkey schnitzel sandwiches, a prune-beef stew, will figure too, as well as soups like a classic beet borscht, and its cold, summery counterpart chlodnik.

On the sweeter side, dessert pierogies will figure on the menu, doughnut-like paczki, the apple crumble-esque charlotka, and rugelach.

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It’s also a café — a location adjacent to Lionel-Groulx means they’ll be open from 7 a.m. with coffee, tea, pastries, and more — look for the red façade with the witch’s chicken legs.

STATUS — Baba Yaga is open at 3279 St-Jacques, as of Monday September 25 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, with hours likely to expand a few weeks after opening.

• Café Baba Yaga Will Shower Polish Fare on St-Henri [EMTL]
• Café Baba Yaga [Facebook]
• X-Men Actors Spotted Eating in Montreal [EMTL]