FEEDING AN ADDICTION
Chalet BAR-B-Q reopens today
Like so many, Dave Masterson has been in a blur for quite some time. He concedes he is often unaware what day, week and even month it is.
But Masterson knows exactly where he will be Wednesday at 4 p.m. That’s when N.D.G.’S venerable Chalet BAR-B-Q reopens for takeout and delivery, and Masterson has already planned his route from his St-lambert home to be among the first in line for what he and many other devotees believe is the best barbecue chicken anywhere.
Masterson is squawking no longer.
“This is a source of great bliss for me,” says Masterson, a food-marketing entrepreneur. “It’s been like the Betty Ford Clinic for barbecue-chicken addiction for me the last few months. The withdrawal has not been easy. I was waking up in the middle of the night, eating my pillow for the feathers.
“But more to the point, the return of Chalet is almost like a hopeful symbol that there just may be a little bit of a glimmer at the end of the tunnel, that life the way we knew it may be coming back a bit, that the great chicken has come home to roost.”
Chalet BAR-B-Q manager David Theivan had decided to shut down takeout and delivery in late March, in order to protect both staff and customers due to COVID -19 concerns. He figured they would resume takeout and delivery after just two or three weeks.
“It’s actually been 70 days. I know, because I’ve been keeping count,” Masterson insists.
“But we just wanted to make sure everything would be OK before reopening,” Theivan says. “We’ve done a thorough cleaning and we’re now ready to go for takeout.”
It’s not for nothing that Chalet BAR-B-Q celebrated its 76th anniversary earlier this year. There have been some legendary barbecue chicken establishments in this city, but few have drawn the fervour of aficionados like Chalet BAR-B-Q.
“This news may even bring my father back from the grave,” blurts N.D.G. resident and coffee distributor Lynn Stafford. “I think he was there the day it first opened. Our family lived for Chalet. I can almost smell the chicken and fries from the takeout bags now.
“What’s really nice, though, is that some of our local favourites are returning. We’ve been waiting for these special moments.”
“We’re never going to close again, except for Christmas Day,” Theivan pledges. “Customers had been calling us every day, wanting to know when we’d be back. It’s at times like this we appreciate how much we have meant to so many over the years.”
True, for longtime regulars, takeout can’t replace the experience of eating in the dimly lit, now-closed dining room, with its knotty pine, post-second World War decor, and being served by staff who’ve been around for decades and know many customers by name. But at least it will be the same chicken, slowly charcoal-broiled in ovens that go back to 1944.
“And can’t forget that heavenly sauce,” Masterson muses, his voice quivering with delight. “I’ll probably go for a double. I’m pretty sure that sauce can cure most diseases.
“When I die, I’ve requested my ashes be buried in a Chalet takeout sauce cup and scattered along Décarie with the aroma in the air. Actually, that’s what’s been missing on Décarie the last 70 days, the Chalet aroma.”
Masterson has been a Chalet BAR-B-Q regular for 65 of his 71 years. One of his life’s highlights came when he was eight and was awarded a hockey trophy there, presented by no less than Maurice “Rocket” Richard and former Montreal mayor Camillien Houde.
“I can live without my Habs — and I’m a huge fan — but I can’t live without my Chalet chicken,” Masterson says. “I don’t think I’ll even make it home to eat it. I’ll probably gobble it all up in the parking lot.”