Old Montreal’s Les 400 Coups May Have Filed For Bankruptcy [Updated]

Old Montreal culinary mainstay Les 400 Coups seems to be in a state of flux, as the restaurant has closed its doors rather suddenly, with little indication of what’s going on.

Update (May 23): La Presse reports that Les 400 Coups’ owners have filed for bankruptcy, citing a listing on Quebec’s business register. However, there are two business listings for the restaurant at Les 400 Coups’ address — one, listed under long-time owner Jorge Da Silva Sr., states that the restaurant has entered bankruptcy; another under the name Larisa Baintan states that it has not entered bankruptcy.

La Presse also notes that a sign is on the restaurant advertising the fully-equipped restaurant as being for sale (again).

Les 400 Coups posted a message to Google in mid-May stating that the restaurant is closed “for an indeterminate duration” due to an equipment breakage. But there’s likely more to the story: there have been rumblings of some kind of staffing trouble at the restaurant. Correspondingly, at the same time this closure was announced, 400 Coups chef Jason Nelsons was spotted publishing a job posting for multiple positions at the restaurant: servers (plural), as well as a line cook and garde-manger. The restaurant also has more than one active job posting elsewhere, searching for cooks and managers.

Email and calls to Les 400 Coups have gone answered, and the restaurant’s voicemail still lists its regular opening hours. Strangely, tables at the restaurant are still available via reservations site OpenTable — but the restaurant’s page on that site features a one-star review from a would-be diner who had reserved a table in recent days, only to arrive to find a note stating that the restaurant was closed for “electrical problems”. There’s no mention of the closure on the restaurant’s Twitter page, and its Facebook page appears to be deactivated.

Google/Screencap

Facebook/Screencap

Les 400 Coups has been undergoing substantial changes in the last two year — the high-end kitchen has had two chef shuffles in two years, with Jonathan Rassi coming in and leaving, with Nelsons replacing him last summer. Not long after, realtor Sutton Quebec listed the restaurant as for sale. It appeared that long-time owner Jorge Da Silva Sr. was trying to divest himself of multiple of his Old Montreal restaurants — but at present, Quebec’s business register still lists Da Silva as an owner.

Confusingly, there is a second listing for the restaurant that names a different owner, Larisa Baintan, although neither of these listings have changed since the restaurant went on the market, suggesting that it may not have been sold.

Got any insight about what’s going on at Les 400 Coups? Get in touch over here.

• Les 400 Coups Has a New Chef — And Other News [EMTL]
• A Prominent Old Montreal Restaurant Appears to Be for Sale [EMTL]
• Les 400 coups déclare faillite [La Presse]