Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:20 on 2020-09-17 Permalink Reply  

• Ian 09:30 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  Fortunately Ripples has a second location, open on Jeanne-Mance, just north of Saint-Viateur.

  The connection between Ripples & Berson Monuments is an interesting one, I had no idea. I am glad to hear the new development is going to keep the street scape intact to some extent…

  For sure it’s sad to see the old place razed but it’s kind of hard to imagine new development being any different given how things usually go on around town.

• Kate 10:22 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  I remember vaguely hearing the guy had opened there because it was a family connection, but this is years ago, when Welch’s bookstore was next to Ripples and his black-and-white cat would cool her belly on the sample gravestones on hot summer evenings.

• Ephraim 10:28 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  Ripples is now downstairs from Moishe’s

• DeWolf 10:54 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  In an ideal city Berson’s would have been taken over by an NGO that could have done something interesting with the space. Sadly the cost of property is too high for something like that to happen without significant government funding. But I’m not entirely mad about the new development though because, as Ian mentions, it will include a courtyard that roughly mirrors the open space in front of Berson’s.

• Janet 12:07 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  Rosie was the cat. I used to say hello to her on my way home walking up the Main. Now the old loft I lived in at the corner of St-Laurent and Duluth (over the former American Sample Dress Shop) is up for sale too. I’m waiting to see a similar sad photo of that corner. At least Berson seems to have tried to maintain something of the original site (courtyard, residential units, Berson sign and one-story building for the ice cream parlour).

• j 16:01 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  I heard an interview with the owner on CBC that the place downstairs from Moishe’s is temporary, and that it’s an issue that food is being made, packaged, and served in the same spot. To sum up, the “original” location may or may not reappear, especially given they have a Mile End outlet.

  I’m dreading to see whatever it is (condos?) that they put up in that spot.

• dwgs 16:22 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  Read the story folks,
  “And good news for ice cream fans: Ripples will return. The little shop opened by Bernett in 1984 will move back to its original location, perhaps as early as next spring.

  “One hundred per cent,” Berson said. “He’s family. When I started this whole process, I always insisted there be a spot for Richard. I could only imagine what my father would say if I didn’t leave him a spot; my father would return from his grave.””

• Michael Black 16:49 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  I always thought it was a lucky coincidence. I think Ripples benefitted from not being wedged in between two stores, and being able to have the bench along the fence made it a mild hangout rather just a destination to get a cone. And it made it very easy to give directions, “look for the monument store”.

  None of that changes, except it wssn’t random.

• j 17:31 on 2020-09-17 Permalink

  I’m so happy to hear that dwgs!