Fire Knocks Out Plateau Favourite Ma Poule Mouillée [Updated]

A major fire broke out at popular Plateau Portuguese rotisserie Ma Poule Mouillée Friday evening, causing some $100,000 in damage.

Per the CBC, the restaurant was evacuated around 9:15 p.m. and nobody was injured. The fire started in the restaurant's kitchen.

Five fire trucks attended the blaze on the corner of Rachel and de Mentana — the restaurant is fortunately almost directly next door to a Montreal fire department station.

A video taken from a nearby apartment tower was posted to Instagram showing flames coming from the top of the restaurant’s two-level building. Writing on the restaurant’s Facebook page, one customer described two-metre flames jumping from the grills as a chimney fire ignited, as well as brief panic among customers attempting to leave the building.

On Saturday morning the restaurant was closed, although no updates had been posted to its social media channels. With an estimated one hundred thousand dollars of damage, the popular restaurant, known for frequent line-ups, will presumably be closed for the immediate future.

Update (January 7): In a Facebook post, the restaurant confirmed that it will be closed for now. There’s no timeline for reopening, as the restaurant said it’ll be out of action “for the foreseeable future”. Could it be a repeat of the infamous 2013 seven month long Romados drought after that rotisserie faced a similar fire? Let’s hope not.

• Fire forces evacuation of Plateau restaurant Ma Poule Mouillée Friday night [CBC]