Danny St-Pierre Has Shut Down Mile End’s Petite Maison

MILE END — After two years, Sherbrooke chef Danny St-Pierre has closed his Parc Avenue restaurant Petite Maison. The restaurant opened in early 2016, doing homey food with flair, including the chef’s signature poutine inversée — it closed for the Christmas break, and while earlier in the month St-Pierre suggested it would return, it’s now a permanent shutter. In a Facebook post, the chef-owner said that the restaurant won’t completely vanish — St-Pierre will switch the restaurant to an event space for groups, and will hold occasional pop-ups open to people who are not in groups. This is tenable given that St-Pierre owns the building (which also houses music festival Pop Montreal).

MILE END — A few blocks away, Peruvian sandwich and empanada nook El 77 has shut its doors after all. This one is a little odd: in October, co-owner Alexandra Pilon confirmed that the restaurant would be closing to both a customer and an Eater editor. Later, Pilon insisted that the closure report be retracted, saying that the restaurant was planning to rebrand — the story was rewritten, yet the rebrand never happened, and the space now looks rather vacant.

DOWNTOWN — Burger spot with a whole lot of toppings Le Gourmet Burger has shuttered on Bishop Street. Bishop Street’s various merchants have fairly continuously voiced concern that lengthy construction work on the street for the nearby Guy-Concordia metro station by the STM would pose a threat to their livelihoods — it appears, then, that those fears may have been well-founded.

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

• Step Inside Petite Maison, Danny St-Pierre’s New Montreal Restaurant [EMTL]
• El 77 Won’t Close; Will Mix Up Peruvian And Bolivian Cuisines Instead [EMTL]
• ‘I can’t see us surviving’: Bishop Street merchants face over 3 years of construction [CBC]