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Le Coq de L’Est 2015, a seven-year-old east-end restaurant adored for its Pakistani-spiced rotisserie chicken, has quietly closed up shop.
On June 4, the Tétreaultville restaurant announced plans on Facebook to take a one-month vacation without specifying a precise return date. Then, last Thursday, surpassing the one-month mark, the operating hours on the restaurant’s Facebook page were updated to reflect that it had “permanently closed.” Le Coq de L’Est has not posted about the closure on social media. Still, co-owner and chef Omar Zabuair has confirmed to Eater via DM that the restaurant has permanently shut down. He did not disclose details beyond saying, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That’s life.”
Zabuair (formerly of Joe Beef) and co-owner Vanessa Beeching (formerly of Au Pied de Cochon) launched the tandoori rotisserie chicken haunt in 2015, overhauling a spot of the same name — though until then frequented for its “serveuses sexy” (sexy servers). A long way from the high-end establishments where they’d earned their stripes, the pair built Le Coq de L’Est into both a reliable neighbourhood fixture and a destination for diners willing to venture past Honoré-Beaugrand metro for a taste of Zabuair’s famously succulent, rose-hued bird. Deep-fried ribs, some solid poutine, and hot chicken (a Quebec specialty of sliced white bread, rotisserie chicken, and peas drenched in gravy) were among the other favourites on the menu.
In March 2021, the restaurant relocated, taking up residence a couple of blocks east, though still on Hochelaga Street.
Eater will update this story as more details become available.
