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Pastaga owners Louis-Philippe Breton and Martin Juneau have a new project, moving into Mile Ex with lunch box catering service Tricot Principal.
It moves into a commercial building on St-Urbain Street, at St-Zotique, just a few minutes away from the duo’s other hot spots in Little Italy. The initial focus appears to be lunch, lunch, lunch, likely geared towards the rapidly-growing office population in the formerly industrial area. It’s not quite open yet, but is offering a more catering service-like lunch box service: orders must be placed by 5 p.m. the day before, and can be delivered for free in the Mile-Ex area (west of Clark, north of Beaubien, east of Parc and the railroad).
That menu (see below) has various lunch boxes, centred around sandwiches, salads, cheese, and some sweet treats. A handful of cold plates are also on offer — fitting Juneau’s other chef endeavours, it leans French with items like a beef tartare and poached cod with green lentils and cabbage, but it’s not all that way — see: a poke bowl and chipotle-guac chicken wrap.
The proper space is still in the works, with a café, lunch counter, and co-working space on the way for August or September, and Tricot’s Facebook notes that breakfast will be served, and eventually, a full restaurant is in the works for the fall.
Juneau and Breton have built quite the mini-empire around the Little Italy area, although Tricot Principal is a little further from their hub at Beaubien and St-Laurent — first came Pastaga in 2011, then épicerie Le Petit Coin, closely followed by brick-and-mortar ice creamery Monsieur Crémeux (previously a truck) and wine spot Cul-Sec, all in 2015.