Montreal Jamaican Patty Mogul Lloydie’s Is Opening a Second Restaurant

DOWNTOWN — Well, that was fast: just six months after opening its first restaurant, Montreal-based Jamaican patty-maker Lloydie’s is plotting a second location, bam, right in the middle of downtown. The second location is to be at 2145 Crescent Street, on the same block as salad spot Mandy’s and beloved shawarma purveyor Boustan. Lloydie’s (named for founder Lloyd Tull) is hardly a new business — the company has been making Jamaican patties for over two decades, but it shifted into the restaurant business last October with a Mile End location on St-Viateur, branching out into platters and sandwiches with oxtail, jerk pork and chicken, twisted poutines, and more.

MILE-EX — Exciting dinner alert: the team behind sadly-closed Mile End restaurant Hôtel Herman are teaming up with Mile Ex/Little Italy bistro Marconi for a one-off prix fixe dinner. Marconi co-owner Molly Superfine-Rivera calls it a “throwback”, with Hôtel Herman chef Marc-Alexandre Mercier (now at brewpub Réservoir, with his other Herman co-owners) taking to the burners alongside Marconi chef-owner Mehdi Brunet-Benkritly. It’s happening this Sunday (May 6), at the cost of $65 for seven courses, with wine and cocktails available à la carte, and reservations are being accepted now.

Marconi/Supplied

DOWNTOWN — In case you missed it, Europea owner and chef-about-town Jérôme Ferrer has some kind of grand plan in the works for late 2018, in the Roccabella condo development on de la Montagne and René-Lévesque. Per La Presse, Ferrer and his partners at Europea are opening a two-level restaurant. Details are slim at this stage, but Ferrer tells La Presse it won’t be something super-traditional. It’ll be accompanied by an all-day lounge-tea room.

GRIFFINTOWN — Chef Sophie Tabet’s eponymous Notre-Dame West restaurant Chez Sophie has had a makeover. The French-Mediterranean restaurant’s new look is calm and understated, with creams, blues, and grey sandstones from architect Luci Mastropasqua. While the colours are cool, it’s a lively new look — here’s a peek.

Gaelle Vuillaume/Supplied

Gaelle Vuillaume/Supplied

ALL OVER — There’s a new reservation service in town, as New York online reservation system Resy has expanded to Canada, with Montreal as its first stop. The service is a relative upstart compared to big guns like OpenTable, although in Montreal, Yellow Pages’ service Bookenda is much more prominent, as is locally-made app Dinr. Yet Resy has secured major funding from AirBNB, and has some big-deal Montreal restaurants on board for its launch, such as Nora Gray and Candide.

Disclosure: Resy CEO Ben Levanthal was a co-founder of Eater.

• Montreal’s Preeminent Jamaican Patty Magnates Open Up Mile End Restaurant [EMTL]
• Jérôme Ferrer voit grand [La Presse]