Changes to liquor laws cause for celebration
“I’m a very happy man,” said Claude Pires Lopes.
The owner of beloved Plateau landmark Else’s was celebrating changes to Quebec’s liquor laws allowing restaurants to serve alcohol without forcing customers to order food.
Anyone who has been to Else’s knows it’s more of an artsy pub than a traditional restaurant. Opened in 1993 by Norwegian expat Else Smith (and taken over by Lopes following Smith’s death in 2000), the Roy St. E. hangout attracts a range of regulars with its convivial atmosphere and choice selection of microbrews.
Unable to obtain a bar licence, Smith settled for a restaurant licence, which meant clients had to order food with their drinks. Over the years, that little technicality has caused no shortage of trouble for the neighbourhood hangout.
“So many headaches,” Lopes said. “Let’s say you have a group of five eating, and they have a friend who comes and just wants to join them for a drink — they can’t. We have to tell them they have to order food. It’s ridiculous for the province, and it’s ridiculous for Montreal.”
All that is about to change with the arrival of Bill 170, which was passed Tuesday and comes into effect this summer, bringing with it a slew of modifications relaxing Quebec’s liquor laws.
“It’s going to be easier for everybody, including all the tourists who come here,” Lopes noted. “We won’t have to explain to them that we have an old law (and they have to order food with their beer). People think we’re trying to scam them.”
Else’s has received its share of fines over the years from inspectors who deemed that the bylaw was not being respected.
“We had to close for four days at one point, three or four years ago,” Lopes said.
“It was just ridiculous. When you got caught, you had to go to court and appear before a judge paid for by the Quebec government, and a lawyer paid by them too. There’s so much waste of money for a law that has been around since the ’30s or ’40s.”
Else’s adapted, at first offering vegetables-and-dip or chips-and-dip plates for a couple of bucks, until inspectors decided that wasn’t substantial enough to meet the illdefined requirements of the law.
“Le mot repas, or meal, nobody knows exactly what’s a meal,” Lopes said. “Things are changing; now people are eating less and less meat. For some people, a vegetable plate was a meal for them. But we’ve been forced to do bigger plates, more and more.
“French fries are apparently not a meal, but if you put sauce (on it) it’s a meal. I don’t want to argue with (the inspectors). Those are the people who tell us what to do with the law; you don’t want to set them against you. So you say, ‘OK, it’s your call.’”
Though Lopes welcomes Bill 170, he insists that Else’s isn’t about to stop serving food or cut down on its offerings.
“Even if we got a bar licence today, we would still keep the food we have on the menu,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve seen the evolution. Bars are putting food in their establishment because they realize that’s what people want. Otherwise customers are leaving. They want the customer to have a good time, and if you have food for sure they’re going to stay longer.”
The upside of Else’s having to offer a substantial pub grub component over the years is that its modest kitchen pumps out an impressive roster of simple favourites that people keep coming back for, alongside the beer, including shrimp/veggie tacos, mini bison burgers, ribs, butter chicken/tofu, quesadillas and, of course, their famous chili.
The takeaway seems to be that alcohol and food go well together — even better when customers can decide for themselves how and when to combine them.