This is actually a two parter and will probably only be of interest to Montrealers. I live in Montreal, Lachine specifically, and there is no good place short of driving distance just to go and have a couple of coffees and read and relax. There are places, one in Dorval, and one in Lachine, and a couple of smaller places in Lachine but they all share the same characteristics:
-they have all the atmosphere of a morgue, or perhaps less
-there’s possibly a TV on one wall showing soccer or car races
-the larger ones are very high ceilinged but everything’s white and very sterile
-if they play any music, it’s completely inappropriate top '40s pop, otherwise the only background is the hum of the fridge and the scraping of chair legs on tile
-they have fairly high end pre-prepared food for sale as well as gelato and coffee
Is there a specific name for this?
Part 2. For god’s sake, won’t some entrepreneur open up a Java U, Starbucks, or Second Cup in Lachine or Dorval? Not a Tim Horton’s but a cool place.
I see nothing’s changed in the 17 years since I last visited Lachine; there was nowhere to have a decent business lunch and if memory serves we wound up at an Asian-like restaurant that was unpleasant. On that same trip I had poutine from a KFC (which may have been in NDG so Lachine’s blameless there).
There can be no forgiveness for fast food poutine.
Maybe you can drag matt_mcl out there and start a cafe together?
Are there no little independent cafe’s in Lachine right on the canal anymore? Years ago when I used to ride my bike on the trail through there, there were a number of them. Right near Baie D’Urfe, if memory serves.
Nawth Chucka, Lachine’s actually good for business lunches, as it turns out. At the western end of the canal there is a string of restaurants for two or three blocks, some of them very good, along the lakeshore. There are a few really good Italian restaurants and a really good Mexican place in that area.
QuickSilver, yes Baie d’Urfe has a zillion places but isn’t close enough to Lachine or Dorval to offer an alternative.
So in Lachine the dining situation is very good but the informal, ‘have a few coffees over an hour while reading a book (or laptop as the case may be)’, situation is not good at all. I would love to see a place that I could walk or bike to within 20 minutes that serves the purpose of the places I mentioned in my original post.
There are a lot of condos being built in Lachine right now so that might inject a critical mass of people that could support something like that.
EmilyG, in Dorval there is Non Solo Pane boulangerie, in Lachine there is Marius and Fanny’s second patisserie location and then two much smaller places. The first two places both have sizeable seating areas but my wife and I find them incredibly cold and unwelcoming. I am within a few kilometers of two different Lafleurs, one in St. Pierre and one on Cote-de-Liesse, but they’re not what I’m referring to.
Non Solo Pane changed locations in the spring and Marius and Fanny’s, who’s original location is by the Lachine market, opened a second location also in the spring. My wife and I really had high hopes for both of them but we were really disappointed in them both.
The closest Second Cup is in NDG and the closest Starbucks are at Place Vertu and in NDG. Sadly none of them are close enough to bike or walk to.
There are Starbucks inside the airport, but I guess none outside the control zone.
Move to the city. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are a dozen Starbucks, Van Houtte’s, and Second Citys, all inside the underground city. Someday, I might do a census of them all. You can walk underground to the following Metro stations: Lucien L’Allier, Bonaventure, McGill, Peel, then backtrack to Place Bonaventure and walk past Victoria Square, Place d’Armes, Place des Arts. You are passing through various commercial buildings and the Convention Center and they all have coffee shops.
If you told the management of the two cold places why you don’t like to go there I have to think they’d at least listen to why business they could have is being lost, no? Even franchisees w/ rigid signage restrictions have some personal flexibility about their own locations.
I’m glad to know things have improved on the business lunch front in Lachine! Such a nice group of people at our valve distributor, Cowper.
Living in NDG or Point St Charles was our original plan but circumstances at the time (we moved here a couple of years ago after a 20 year absence) were such that Lachine was the best option. In all other respects we’re happy campers and I recognize that my complaint is a definite first world problem. Having said that, I can technically bike to Café, Moi et Toi by Atwater Market, but it’s an hour and sweat.