2024 – Famous snack bar demolished

The new owner of the icon dinner The stainless steel company on rue Saint-Denis said it wants to keep the building in Montreal while the structure begins to be dismantled.

Businessman Jean-Pierre Asselin has inherited a restaurant on the Mont-Royal Plateau at the corner of Guilford Street as the land is being prepared for a condo project.

“I want to stay in Montreal,” Mr. Asselin said in a telephone interview Friday. He mentioned the possibility of settling in the Quartier des spectacles in the center of the city or on the shores of the Lachine canal with an extended structure.

“It's going to be tough,” he admitted. He works in transportation logistics himself, but said he plans to work with “restaurateur friends who have successful restaurants.” He didn't want to identify them.

Unable to keep the prefabricated building in the metropolis, Jean-Pierre Asselin plans to install it on the side of the highway, possibly on the A10 at Porte de l'Estrie.

“The Egyptian Method”

A few hours before the interview Press In the 1950s, one of the two sections of the structure produced in the United States was witnessed in motion. After an early American career dinner Crossed the border in 1992 at the initiative of Montreal restaurateur Daniel Noyce.

“Time flies… Thirty years!” “said Mr. Noize, watching the scene, sighing.

There is no crane or complex equipment in front. Specialist workers simply lifted the section, which had to be moved with hydraulic jacks, before sliding it onto a large trailer using “skid” and nylon straps. “It's the Egyptian way,” noted the restaurateur.

“The challenge is the weight,” explained Justin, one of the workers. These are the modern prefabs he's used to carrying, and his layer is much lighter than a layer of “two-inch floor concrete.”

second part dinner, The street facing St. Denis will be moved in the same way on Monday morning. It then joins its longtime partner on land in the Drummondville area, where the structure awaits the next phase of its life.

Before starting it, the restaurant needs to be renovated. “Everything must be done, everything must be redone,” explained Jean-Pierre Asselin, who wanted to “modernize everything.” The entrepreneur plans to expand the restaurant to accommodate more customers.

“It was more passion than reason”

Charles Duchesne, president of the real estate firm Residia, wondered what he would do with it. dinner 2022 by purchasing this odd corner plot of steel.

After several months of searching for a serious buyer, he finally turned to Mr. Aselin. “It's very positive,” he said. Its workers have been working throughout April to prepare for the move, as well as dividing the two units and cleaning the exterior walls of the dozens of graffiti that have accumulated there.

Mr. Knowze was distraught when he saw his baby burned. 32 years ago, the man invested time and money to renovate the restaurant in the same way with the help of experts, architects and craftsmen. “More passion than reason,” he admitted.

Originally operating as an authentic American street food bar under the Galaxy name, the restaurant became a pizzeria in 1998. It was closed during the pandemic and never reopened.

Now the restaurant is open to all winds and plywood had to be installed to protect the interior of the two sections. “It's very impressive to see him like this. I moved a little bit,” Charles Duchesne said. However, the emotion soon turns to excitement: construction of his 30-unit project, called Galaxy, will begin as soon as the site is cleared.