Thursday, April 28, 2011

La Binerie Mt-Royal

Continuing on my last visit to Mt-Royal street....I came across another Montreal institution: The Binerie Mt-Royal. I don't know how well known it is....It might be known only to francophone.
I'll start with the name Binerie, it means beanery, yes a place where you eat , well mostly beans and other typical old time french canadian food.

See? even their sign has a bean pot on it.
To tell you the truth, I've only been there twice in their 73 years of operation and with mixed results....Let me clarify, it was 1986 and I was 20 (with a matching judgment!). I went and ate pork meatball stew and meat pie in mid-July,,,,needless to say I had a lot of trouble digesting that meal (it stayed with me for EVER).

But I loved the atmosphere! It was a crack in the wall kind of place with a counter and only enough place to fit one table. All the regulars sat at the counter. You could get some classics like texas tost with butter and Bovril on it. Now I did my research and Bovril is not sold in the US, let's just say it's like syrupy OXO beef cubes. My dad loved it on toast and so do I (about onece a year).
You could also get your bean lean or greasy. To obtain the lean beans they would get served with a slotted spoon.


You can get shepperd's pie, beef macaroni, french canadian plate, porc roast sandwich on crusty bread.

I was glad it was still opened and serving the classics.

On another nostagic note....

                                            This taylor is still in operation.
 Isn't a to die for vintage sign?

What about this one?

I'm sorry to day that this deli closed about 20 years ago. The family still owns the building but the store is all boarded up. What a waste!

I smell a roadtrip on saturday.....

2 comments:

Caroline (Piorra Maison) said...

Funny to see a tour around my own city. Hope you had a Happy easter
Au revoir

Caroline

Unknown said...

I have to show you this link... http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2007/10/tale-of-two-guys.html I found it a few months ago and the place is long gone but I remember the place and it looked exactly like that. And it was amazing seeing it.

So cool to see these old places. There was an area we used to shop when I was little like your showing and it's all gone and so sad...