Brilliant Montreal Bakery Opens in Laval With Much More Than Just Pastry

Excellent Ahuntsic bakery La Bête à Pain has spread its wings off-island, with a big new Laval location more open.

The new bakery is the biggest yet, meaning it’ll be offering more than just bread and pastries (but certainly those, too).

Chef-owner Marc-André Royal (see also: Le St-Urbain) is taking advantage of that extra suburban space by offering full, more formal lunch services. (The existing Bête à Pain locations also do lunch, but lean more towards bakery-style lunches such as sandwiches, or some casual dishes like a burger in Ahuntsic.)

La Bête à Pain Laval/Facebook

In Laval, that means plates centred around Quebec produce that evoke the renowned fare that Royal’s team serves at Le St-Urbain. A sample menu from this week features terrine and lobster bisque among its appetizers, then mains span from grilled asparagus with smoked pork and fiddleheads through to grilled pleurottes with confit parsnip and crispy wild rice. Natural wines and Quebec beers are also on hand to accompany the seasonal menu. It’s all served in a rather chic, bistro-like setting.

Weekend brunches will also be served, and a wide selection of baked goods — Tastet notes that there’s three separate counters for bread, viennoiseries, and pastry; coffee is also served.

Anyone planning to pick up provisions should probably consider visiting earlier in the day — Facebook shows that the bakery has sold out of bread and pastry before closing time almost every day since opening.

The new location been in the works for close to a year, and opens right in time to be a pit stop for the chalet crowds heading to the mountains for weekends — it’s the third Bête à Pain, following the Fleury Street original, and a Griffintown location, open for three years now.

STATUS — La Bête à Pain Laval is open at 1969 Autoroute des Laurentides from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

• La Bête à Pain Laval [Facebook]
• Pastry Pros La Bête à Pain to Open Up in Laval [EMTL]
• Bête à Pain Laval : boulangerie, restaurant et bien plus encore [Tastet]