Montreal’s First Berlin-Style Döner Shop Gets Meaty on the Plateau — and Other Openings

PLATEAU — Turkish-German street food now has a foothold in Montreal, with döner kebab restaurant Station Berlin now open on St-Urbain Street. It takes its cues directly from the ubiquitous kebab shops around Berlin and other German cities, often run by Turkish immigrants. It’s in the same food family as shawarma (much more common in Montreal), but certainly not identical — the standard dish is spit-roasted pork or lamb in Turkish bread (not a pita, as is more standard at many Montreal establishments) with lettuce, tomato, red cabbage, and garlic or spicy sauces, but falafel and other meats are on offer too. Station Berlin is diving right into the direct-from-Berlin theme, also serving currywurst (sausage with a curry-ketchup sauce) and German beers, and even has a bright yellow design, referencing the colour scheme of Berlin’s subway system.

POINTE-ST-CHARLES — Centre Street has a new neighbourhood café in the form of Florence, which started slinging caffeine very recently. It takes the address that was once casse-croûte Chez Paul, but the actual space is part of a new development.

Lafayette Pizzeria/Facebook

MILE END — Villeneuve Street Italian resto Terrasse Lafayette has decamped up to Bernard Street, where it is now open as Lafayette Pizzeria. It takes over the space that was short-lived diner Chez Léo, and is doing the standard Montreal-style pizza alongside casse-croûte standards like submarines and poutines, although the new digs are definitely a notch fancier than your typical neighbourhood pizza go-to.

PETITE-PATRIE — An affordable new chocolaterie, M&Mme (that’s “Monsieur et Madame”), has landed on Beaubien near the corner of Henri-Julien.

Café ORR/Facebook

PLATEAU — The east side of the Plateau has quite the pretty new coffee shop in Café Orr, open on Papineau near Masson. Per Nightlife, it’s going above and beyond your average café offerings — it’s open day and night, for one (until 11 p.m. daily), and is also doubling as a bar, with microbrews from nearby Mabrasserie on offer. Oh, it also doubles (or is that triples?) as a cinema, showing critically acclaimed films from 7 p.m. most nights in a small projection room. It’s not the first café-cinema around — Cinéma Moderne in Mile End opened up last fall, and seems to be making the hybrid format work.

ANJOU — There’s a new Italian street food option way out east on Jarry, with the Journal reporting that Bambi has opened up. Expect eminently snackable options such as arancini, meatballs, and fried calamari, panini, and mostly classic pizzas.

DOWNTOWN — The corporate owners of Robert-Bourassa Boulevard megalith Moxies seem to be trying their hand at something a little more upscale, with wine bar Sauvage now open in the same building near René-Lévesque.

La Bêtise/Facebook

VERDUN — St-Hubert Street fusion tapas-ish resto La Bêtise has expanded for the first time, opening its doors on Wellington Street, in the premises of one-time doggy café Ruff Haus. The menu varies from the Petite-Patrie original but sticks to the same small plates format with a bunch of pan-Asian influences thrown in — take the “Chinatown Mac ‘n Cheese” or a spicy mayo and yuzu teriyaki tartare as examples of what’s going on here.

• Chez Paul: une parcelle d’histoire qui s’efface à Pointe-Saint-Charles [Métro]
• Le Café ORR : un nouveau «café-cinéma» avec une folle murale de Stikki Peaches [Nightlife]
• Un comptoir de bouffe de rue à l’italienne a ouvert ses portes dans l’est de la ville [Journal de Montréal]
• Sauvage : Bar à vin à l’esprit parisien [HRIMag]