A new eco-friendly pub has opened up in Montreal’s Chinatown.
Cantine Poincaré started pouring craft beers and natural wine in recent days, just south of the Chinatown gate at Rene-Levesque. It comes from a group of four experienced owners — Jeremiah Bullied (ex-Sala Rosa), focusing on food, Hugo Jacques, a sommelier and beer wiz stepping over from Isle de Garde, Samuel Boivin Provost of Dieu du Ciel, and Francis Melançon of Gaspésien beer bar Pit Caribou.
Poincaré isn’t your standard Molson-pouring pub: with the substantial beer pedigree of most of its owners, there’s a focus on carefully selected craft beer, drawing on multiple Quebec breweries from Dieu du Ciel to Les Grands Bois, plus cider from Chemin des Sept. (The bar will eventually use an innovative, gravity-driven system for its beer lines, anchored on the building’s roof.)
The pub will also highlight natural wines, particularly low-intervention options. Cocktails — mostly priced around $9 to $12 — take a “classics with a twist” approach. For example: a gin-tonic-carrot, Negroni with a grappa base, or an agricole rum-based Manhattan.
While Poincaré is a bar, there’s a notable menu here, too, with a variety of upscale drinking-friendly plates. Much of the menu centres around fermented and cured items, from chili-garlic gai lan to duck prosciutto or house capicollo and chorizo. House-preserved items like shiitake mushrooms or Basque-style octopus figure, as do some shareable items from the hearty (tamarind-honey pork ribs) to tidy classics (fries with black garlic aioli).
Most of these products are hyper-local, in line with the pub’s eco-friendly mission — the fermentation and curing means that produce can be bought when it’s seasonal, and preserved for use throughout the year, particularly in the winter when fresh, local produce is minimal.
The Chinatown space for Poincaré has had a major makeover from its previous iteration as karaoke bar 3T — it now has an industrial vibe to it, with banquettes ringing the main room, and exposed ceilings. Plants will also hang from the pub’s ceiling, once they grow out enough. Poincaré will eventually have its own rooftop terrasse — it’s set to start construction imminently, and could be open late in the summer, depending on permits.
STATUS — Cantine Poincaré is open at 1071 St-Laurent (second floor) from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 1 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday. A seven-day opening schedule is planned in future.
- Cantine Poincaré [Facebook]
- An Eco-Friendly Craft Pub is Coming to Chinatown This July [EMTL]