Picasso’s restaurant gets rebirth of sorts

In the decade since the popular 24hour west-end diner/greasy spoon Serre Picasso served its last all-day breakfast, loyalists have not given up hope that it would return. Occasionally a story would be floated to that effect. “Every year we say we are going to reopen Picasso,” said Peter Sergakis, who owns the St-Jacques St. W. building that housed the establishment, “but we had other projects.”

And so the spot remained vacant, sinking slowly into disrepair.

On Wednesday, though, the Montreal businessman, who owns dozens of Montreal-area bars, restaurants and strip joints, had news. There will be no Picasso’s, but the space at 6810 St-Jacques St. that housed it will soon have two establishments, he said: a Brasserie Le Manoir, a cousin to those he owns in Pointe-Claire and in Lachine, will occupy 70 per cent of the 15,000-square-foot space, and PJ’s Pub will move over from 6910 St-Jacques St. into a smaller space but maintain “PJ’s ambience.”

Sergakis said Le Manoir will serve breakfast “to bring back our customers who came to Picasso’s,” as regulars called it. An all-day breakfast? “Probably.”

The fare will include “something for everyone,” he said. In addition to the regular menu, there are plans for daily lunch specials featuring such homemade main courses as cabbage rolls, shepherd’s pie and roast turkey, he said, and prices will be reasonable.

“We are going to work on volume,” Sergakis said. “We want people to come to our places three or four times a week, instead of cooking at home and having to do the dishes after.”

He said renovations are underway and will include a large kitchen, to be shared by the two establishments; they will also have common bathrooms. There will be separate entrances, with a passage between them so patrons can get from one to the other without going outside.

Le Manoir will have a bar section, but fully half its space will be for families, Sergakis said. As part of the effort to draw families, he said, there would be “clowns for the kids.”

The decor will feature lots of light, with brick, wood, a fireplace and “big projectors so that, while you are dining, you can watch your favourite sports.”

Picasso’s was a 24-hour spot, but Le Manoir will close from 3 to 6 a.m., Sergakis said, and hours at PJ’s, an 18-and-up space, will be 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. His basement strip club Cabaret Les Amazones, housed in the same building, will remain.

Sergakis moved Serre Picasso to St-Jacques St. from St-Henri in 1979, on the site of what had been a gas station. He sold the business in 1995 and evicted his tenant in 2009 for not paying the rent.