Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:41 on 2020-06-14 Permalink Reply  

• david116 10:52 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  Put succinctly:

  “It’s either we open, face the fine or we permanently close,” said Siozios, who is also head of the local merchants’ association. “We have nothing to lose, do we?”

  All three bar owners believe that without more help, half or more of the city’s bars are at risk of closure.

  —

  We need takeaway drinks allowed right now! Scrap open container rules city-wide! Save the bars!

• JaneyB 13:34 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  In the Franco boroughs, open containers of alcohol are fine…with food. Food includes a bag of chips. I see a solution emerging.

• Chris 13:40 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  Even if they reopen, will they have enough customers to break even past of salary of the returned employees? They might just lose even more money.

  Take-out seems an obvious compromise. Has the government discussed the idea? Rejected it?

• Marco 13:41 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  Bars had a good run but I’m sad to say, it’s over for them. They can only make money by cramming as many people as possible in a space during a few peak hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They can’t ever turn a profit if everyone has to be two meters apart. As for takeout, why would anyone pay $5 for a beer in a take-out bar when they can go to the dep. Cocktails-to-go sounds good but not enough people are going to go out to a bar for a takeout cup so they can stand around outside.Sorry, bar owners but cut your losses and come back next year.

• Patrick 14:49 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  Does anyone remember the days when Montrealers made fun of Toronto because you couldn’t buy a drink there on Sundays (and maybe other circumstances) without ordering food? The bag of chips JaneyB mentions recalls the stale sandwich that supposedly was served to customer after customer to get around the law. What is Ontario doing about bars now?

• Tee Owe 15:30 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  The solution in Ottawa when I lived there (late 70’s) was to have a bar as part of a bar-restaurant combo, so food was served by the establishment and there was a bar under the same roof – I do not know how this was regulated by the authorities but it seemed to work – I know, cringe factor to learn from Ottawa, but hey, whatever works

• MarcG 15:33 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  There’s a Belle Province in Verdun that has a separate room with VLTs and a bar atmosphere where you can order pints but you need to order food from the resto. My father likes to talk about the plastic sandwich that they passed around at bars in Toronto back in the 60s.

• david847 20:03 on 2020-06-14 Permalink

  1. Open container restrictions are nixed city-wide – you can drink anywhere you want in public, no exceptions;
  2. Bars are allowed to serve takeaway booze of whatever sort they want;
  3. Streets are closed down every day of the summer;
  4. Music, performers, whatever happens New Orleans-style on the streets, parks, plazas, the works a dispersed sort of way;
  5. Pretty much every business spills outside.

  LET’S DO IT!

• Kate 09:24 on 2020-06-15 Permalink

  Patrick, we’ve always had an odd arrangement in Montreal, where a bar can more easily get a licence to serve alcohol with food than without. I’ve seen suggestions over the years that this historical oddity should be phased out but I’ve never seen any article saying it’s no longer the case. For example, I remember that at Else’s on Roy, you couldn’t just have a drink, you had to order a plate of olives or chips with it, to satisfy the rule.

  JaneyB, which leads to: what’s a meal? By all accounts, this is at the discretion of police. They’re unlikely to bust a family picnic where a few adults are sharing a bottle of wine, but they might not look so kindly on a party of 20-year-olds having beer and chips.

• Mark Côté 11:51 on 2020-06-15 Permalink

  What happened to the law that was passed two years ago that supposedly removed the food requirement for restaurants, I wonder?

• dwgs 12:00 on 2020-06-15 Permalink

  Story time. I worked at Else’s and would take great delight in forcing our city councillor (Michel Prescott) to order the proverbial rubber sandwich when he would come in for a nightcap.
  Better still, one of my colleagues forced a young Justin Trudeau to order food when all he wanted was drinks. He actually asked “Do you know who I am?”, to which darling Annie replied, “Yes, do you know who I am?”