Mile End Pub Shutters for a Do-Over Under New Owners — and Other Closures

MILE END — After five years in the biz, Brit-pub Sir Joseph is no longer, having closed its doors on St-Laurent with an earthy new restaurant, Radicelle, coming to take its place. Sir Joseph seemed to be faltering in recent times, with an extended closure followed by a return under new owners, in which the “Pub” part of the name was dropped, as the venue tried to shift gears towards being a restaurant more than a bar operation. It seems the ownership has partly remained intact over the change, with sommelier and maître d’ Simon Desrosier partly at the helm alongside two other partners. New to the operation is chef Samuel Sauvé-Lamothe, who was most recently at Daniel Vézina’s praised restaurant Laurier Raphäel in Montreal. He’s listed as a chef-owner on social media posts, and should lend some culinary clout to Radicelle, with a fresh menu that seems to be focused around vegetables.

LITTLE ITALY — Oddball wine and small plates spot La Femme Fontaine (possibly renamed Femme à la Fontaine, given the lewd connotations of the original name) has closed up on St-Laurent. The sultry restaurant was a kind of follow-up to Bethlehem XXX, the resto-slash-”social experiment” that lived in the same space until 2016. Femme Fontaine aimed to be less chaotic, with more consistent food and wine offerings, but apparently never caught on.

PLATEAU — Following on from Indian nook Namaste’s recent closure, another McGill student favourite has disappeared off the map: long-time Milton Street diner Place Milton seems to have quietly shut down operations.

MILE END — This one isn’t super-recent, but Mile End BYOB sushi spot Yuukai shuttered several weeks ago, although Facebook posts suggest that the restaurant was either evicted or otherwise displaced from its Parc Avenue premises, since the owners state on social media that they’re looking for a new location, although nothing has been locked down yet.

LITTLE ITALY — It’s tough out there for bagel-makers that aren’t Fairmount or St-Viateur: Jean-Talon Market-based maker of those circular dough pucks O’Bagel has disappeared off the map, with doughnut-purveyor Beignes d’Antan moving into its location. While Antan’s doughnuts and other baked goods are available in some Montreal grocery stores, it’s the company’s first location of its own on the island, following on from its Berthierville HQ, and another in Magog.

OUTREMONT — Bagetino’s, a restaurant catering primarily to Outremont’s Hasidic population, has closed its doors on leafy Lajoie Avenue, making way for a new Greek eatery, Gyroligue. Unsurprisingly given the name, the restaurant is serving spit-grilled meat.

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

• Inside Montreal’s Sultriest New Resto-Bar, ‘La Femme Fontaine’ [EMTL]
• Casual Mile End Bistro Elda Shuts Its Doors — and Other Closure News [EMTL]
• Sir Joseph: trouver l’équilibre [La Presse]