Mile End Spanish Favourite Sala Rosa is Cutting Back Its Food — and Other Closures

MILE END — Sad news from a staple restaurant on the Main: Spanish restaurant Sala Rosa is switching management and cutting back to being a bar with a much more limited focus on food. Chef Jeremiah Bullied has been running the restaurant inside the Centre Espagnole for around 18 months, and made the announcement on Facebook last week: “the financial burden of keeping the doors open has proven to be too much.” Julie Richard is to take it over and it’ll be more of a cocktail bar, since the whole building wields a bar license, with pared back food options. That will likely mean no more paella, and no more flamenco performances. On the upside, Bullied is running the restaurant until the end of January, so drop by for some fried goat cheese balls while it’s still an option (seriously — it’s an underrated destination). Note that Sala Rosa is not to be confused with the music venue and bar upstairs, Sala Rossa, which is running as normal.

PLATEAU — Just short of a decade in business, Mont-Royal Avenue market cuisine and Québécois restaurant La Salle à Manger closed its doors over the New Year. Little explanation was given, although the restaurant posted a perfunctory farewell note on Facebook. The closure was predicted by La Presse food writer Iris Paradis-Gagnon in Eater’s end of 2017 wrap up, noting that it had gone downhill: “I’ve heard rumours that the place will close soon) but La Salle à Manger isn’t what it’s used to be.”

ALL OVER — It’s not news that longtime Montreal pastry chain Gascogne is closed (the news was everywhere for days), but Montreal Gazette critic Lesley Chesterman penned a noteworthy retrospective look back at the French patisserie, with some thoughtful analysis about what went wrong for them.

• Dirty Dishes: 2017’s Most Disappointing Meals in Montreal [EMTL]
• Decades-Old Patisserie de Gascogne Closes All Locations Suddenly [EMTL]
• Lesley Chesterman: What went wrong for Pâtisserie de Gascogne? [Montreal Gazette]