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Come the end of the month, Montreal’s culinary scene will be one vegan restaurant lighter: Radis, on Bernard, will be packing up its things on August 28.
“You have three weeks left to come to Radis one last time before closing. Same atmosphere, same food, same members of our team, everything will be in place to serve you one last time,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post on August 6.
Partners (in business and life) Dominic St-Pierre and chef Eve-Marie Gobeil Beaucage opened the restaurant — their first — in 2019, with an Italian approach and the intention of casting vegan fare in a comparatively more fancy setting than many of the city’s other animal-free eateries.
Reached for comment via Instagram, St-Pierre tells Eater that the closure was in no way prompted by insufficient sales or COVID-19 pressures. On the contrary, “We are pretty much full every night and our name gets known more and more every year,” he says.
“An opportunity came up very recently and made us want to close down,” St-Pierre says, adding that he can’t provide further details about the forthcoming project just yet. (The restaurant’s Facebook post announcing the closure similarly offsets the disappointing news with the promise of a new beginning: “With our heads and hearts full of ideas and dreams, we will direct our efforts to the next destination. In a few weeks, we will be able to give you all the details on what is to come,” it reads.)
News of the restaurant’s closure was met with an outpouring from patrons wishing it not to be true. Radis is “by far one of the best vegan restos in town,” one Facebook commenter wrote; another said the announcement feels like “a bad dream.” And, within just 48 hours, the restaurant’s reservation slots up until closing were entirely booked, meaning anyone who hasn’t snagged a spot may have missed their chance to eat Radis’s vegan mozzarella dish, pistachio crème fraîche gnocchi, and Neapolitan-style pizzas one last time.
More details about St-Pierre and Beaucage’s next project to come.