Pioneer Bar to come down
Anglo media are mostly noting the start Tuesday morning of the demolition of the Pioneer Bar building in Pointe Claire. The building, 120 years old, was a hot potato for some time in the suburb, but the owner of the land is determined to put up a condo development.
I was struck by what someone interviewed on CBC radio said Tuesday morning – that this building had been a spot for social gatherings in Pointe Claire village for a long time, so that removing it was not good for the area.
Incidentally, I worked briefly in that area some years ago, and it was a bar then too, with food, but it wasn’t called Pioneer or Le Pionnier. It was something like Benjy’s or Binky’s – does anyone remember what it would’ve been called in the 1990s?
Kevin 11:04 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
Clyde’s.
Kate 11:05 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
Yes!! Thank you. I could remember the typeface on the sign, and that the name had 6 letters and an apostrophe, but not what it said.
Kevin 11:08 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
I confess I don’t get the nostalgia for the joint, but then again, I never went inside.
Kate 11:19 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
I’d be curious to see what the building originally looked like, 120 years ago. More recently, it may have had its social role as a bar, but it was pretty much an eyesore architecturally.
I recall going there to have some food and beers with the people I worked with, in the 1990s. It was your typical dark wood gloomy interior, I think, but iirc, we ate on a terrasse that used to exist outside.
Is there any other bar in the area? I recall ice cream places but no other watering holes.
David Senik 12:10 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
Hey hey! Likely noted in one of the stories you linked is that the building was originally built for use as a hotel.
I grew up in Pointe Claire so I can remember the early 90s when the ‘Pi’ was frequented by bikers, followed by it’s conversion to a country and western bar called Stetsons around 1993/4. That didn’t last long because by 1995 it had become Clyde’s Showbar and Grill.
There was one other bar in the village just northwest of the Pioneer building which was called the Brasserie du Village but most people referred to it as Dag’s. As teenagers if we didn’t get into Clyde’s we would try Dag’s, where Elgie (pronounced EL-gee) would typically serve us. I’m not surprised you weren’t aware of the place, Kate. It was small and a real dive. Even if you had seen it you likely wouldn’t have ventured inside. Not the most welcoming place!
Kate 12:40 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
David Senik, I didn’t grow up in Pointe Claire, and only spent a little time there when working on a project in a little office on Cartier near the highway. Didn’t hang out in the village area much, but went there once or twice with the people I worked with. So I’m not too familiar with the spots or the people who frequented them.
Much more recently I worked with a young woman who’d waitressed at the Pioneer while finishing a degree. She must have been one of the last people to work there before it was boarded up. But that’s the extent of my connection with the place.
Dominic 13:21 on 2020-11-10 Permalink
Clydes had a small front dining room, a very small hallway leading to a good sized room in the back for mediocre West Island local bands to play. There was also some very narrow stairs leading up to a balcony with a pool table or two. In the late 90s it was full of life guards and yacht club teens from the John Rennie, Lindsay Place, and St Thomas/St Tomas highschools.
A lot of West Islanders have good memories there.