Jun 25 2004
Griffintown blues…
There is a forgotten part of Montreal, just south of downtown, lower even than Little Burgundy, that used to be called Griffintown. It is still called that by old-timers and the nostalgic, despite the fact that the Quebec government stamped a new label on it a few years ago (the forgettable “Faubourg des Récollets”), essentially swiping aside the area’s Irish history.
Defined roughly as the area between (from the north, clockwise) rue Notre-Dame, rue McGill, the Lachine Canal, and rue Guy, the area has been in steady decline since the 1940s. It had always been a dirt-poor ghetto of labouring immigrants providing factory fodder for the booming industries along the Lachine Canal. Those factories were building empires for a handful of Scots who lived up the hill (more history, here), but with the more egalitarian prosperity of the post-war years, the Irish moved away to nicer parts of Montreal and beyond. This is the same basic pattern that saw the Jewish immigrants of the Main move on to better parts of town, to be replaced by waves of Portuguese, but in the case of Griffintown there were no replacements.
By the early 1990s it was virtually a ghost town. Mid-90s saw the birth of the Multimedia City (Cité Multimedia), occupying the south-eastern corner of Griffintown, and along with it came business, money, and housing. Griffintown proper still has a ways to go, but if the condo developments and new shops among the battered and crumbling store fronts of rue Notre-Dame are anything to go by, the area has never been richer.
I used to work in the Multimedia City, and occasionally I would hop on my bike at lunchtime and go over to a little cafe on Notre-Dame called the Griffintown Cafe. It’s still there, serving up primarily cold — but fresh and tasty — breakfasts and lunches to folks who work in the area. The cafe is not open at night, since its main business is feeding the hipsters and geeks who flee back to The Plateau and Mile-End at the end of the working day.
But lately they’ve been experimenting with evening hours. Since last December, an old-school blues band called The Catfish Blues Trio has been plunking and growling that their baby’s done left them every Friday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. I heard about this through Binky the Wonderpony, who’s much better informed about these things than I am, so last Friday night he and I and a couple of lady friends decided to check it out.
It’s a very small venue and they don’t even have a stage. Instead, the band sets up in a cleared spot on the old hardwood floor and goes to work. There’s just a stand-up bass, a vocalist with a vintage Harmony guitar from the 1950s, and another vocalist with a pocket full of harmonicas. The sound is amplified through a single Fender amp, plus another old box for the harmonica that looks like it might have been on stage when Muddy Waters still ran clear. Which is to say, the sound is perfect. Not loud, but you hear everything cleanly and clearly.
This isn’t the kind of annoying big-hat so-called “blues” you hear at the Jazz Festival on the Labatt Blues stage — all Stratocasters and big drums sets and flashing lights. No, this is good old hurtin’ blues from Memphis and the smoky bars of Chicago. The way the blues oughta be.
The night was early and the air was hot, so after a few cold Griffon blonde ales we finally left at 8 to pursue dinner. Word on the street, however, is that they’re looking to push closing time to 9:00 PM, so if you check it out some Friday night be prepared to stick around. The cafe serves excellent and very reasonably priced meal-size salads and sandwiches. If last week was anything to judge by, there aren’t even very many smokers. (A few, but it wasn’t blue in there.)
So Griffintown still has the blues despite the name change and the new money. But like a bug to a lightbulb, this kind of blues will have me going back for more.
21 Comments on “Griffintown blues…”
Hey - great post Ed! One of my favourite things about working in Griffintown back in the day was eating lunch at the Cafe with Julien F every day.
We should check out the show some Friday!
There’s also the Lowney’s building, across the street from the cop shop, that a company called Prevel is converting to relatively low-cost condos. I took at a look at it and, while promising, is stuck with the concept of in fact being in Griffintown.
But it was a ‘Faubourg des Récollets’ since the early 1600’s right? The Irish immigration started in the 1850’s and by the 1890’s most of then had moved on. That’s only 40 yrs of history vs. 300. Barring its possible Native name, the “Faubourg” re-naming seems appropriate, no? Still, until the luxury condos arrive, one can still find awesome bière d’épinette there. Yumm.
Rachel, I was under the impression that the name was new, but I might be wrong. An the Irish history was longer than 40 years — my understanding (again, I might be wrong) was that it was still pretty Irish right up until the 1940s.
Bière d’épinette indeed! On of my upcoming Monday Morning Photo Blog entries is a photo of a plate full of grub and some glasses of bière d’épinette from Restaurant Betrand on Notre Dame. It should be around for a while, because the condos are mostly low and mid-range condos, not luxury condos.
Mmm, Resto Bertrand…
hey, now you know where to find us — we live about 1 block west of the Griffintown Café. (And, putting on my food critic hat, i must say we had the oiliest spaghetti in the world the one time we ate lunch there.)
Spaghetti? What were you thinking? ;-) Was it at least supposed to be oily (e.g., oil & garlic) or was it just nasty oily?
We saw people eating some yummy looking sandwiches, and they had some fab looking salads topped with smoked salmon or southern-fried chicken. Didn’t taste any of it though.
We were wondering where you lived relative to there. Martine was pretty sure you were close to the cafe but I thought you were farther west. As usual, she was right!
That’s the stuff, real potent and tangy. Mmm. In the ‘way back’ days I’m told [coincidentally by my Irish-Montreal’er uncle] that it came in pretty glass bottles with a ceramic top sealed gently with a little wad of gummy sap that crystallized over time.
Ah I see, it was always a generic “Foubourgh” and they merely re-named it after the Franciscan order established there in the 1600’s - but it never officially carried that name, just the history. It’s a pretty name. I guess it was chosen as a cultural compromise of sorts since the ‘Recollets’ contributed so much to Griffinville proper.
You’re right of course that Griffintown remained very Irish well into the 1940’s, but once the trolleys were installed in the 1890s folks began to leave and the ‘town’ stopped growing. I guess I don’t see the point in preserving the name of a relatively short-lived slum that, if anything, represented little more than Irish exploitation. Heck even the name Griffintown itself came out of an illegal British land deal and really had nothing to do with the Irish themselves.
As I see it, from the early 1800’s on, Montreal’s immigrant Irish were used as political pawns by Britain and the UK’s industrial upper class. And as usual the Catholic Church was only too eager to help along by encouraging both cultures to mistrust and out-breed each other into oblivion [which only served to put more asses in Church seats and further exploit both cultures]. This common experience bonds the French Québecois to the Irish of Montreal today, or at the very least it should unite them. These kind of bittersweet stories about the re-naming of Griffintown as an oppressive Francophone obliteration of Irish history strike me as odd. As the direct descendant of Irish who arrived in Canada via Montreal, I guess I hate the idea of being politically manipulated by politicians and corporate power mongers - twice.
Ed: nasty oily. It was a regular red sauce. Portions too large to finish.
Technically, i suppose we’re more like 2 blocks west of Guy, if you count little ruelles etc. as streetcorners.
Weird that the only resto you mentioned in Griffintown was the Griffintown café. I remember I was looking for a compadre on a graphics venture and he worked around there and we met at the Griffintown café.
It was the middle of February or some such and it was so godforsakenly isolated . . . foot-high snow on all the sidewalks . . . they had odd sandwiches on the menu–I think the one I had involved prosciutto and croissants. It was oddly good and the owner’s name was Nick, so I of course bonded instantly.
But my meetee’s eyes were severely walleyed, like the lead singer for Men At Work, and I had a very tough hour or so pretending to be normal and trying to figure out which eye to stare at.
Um, Blork, all is forgiven here at the sprawling offices of montrealfood.com. I’ve got so much business here happening that I can barely find the time to organize the new patterns for the Cascading Style Sheets.
Rachel, you’re right that Griffintown was all about exploitation, but it was also about a lot of people living there under that exploitation. The Irish are largely gone from there now, but the memory of that era — exploitation and all — should be preserved, even if it’s just in the name. No one will ever ask why it’s called the Faubourg des Récollets, but if it were still called Griffintown, some people might want to know why, and that history wouldn’t just fade away.
I disagree that only happy history should be remembered.
Nick, thanks for the break! :-)
I think Griffintown is kind of cool - especially around eastern edge, near Cite Multimedia - it has managed to escape being gentrified while being renewed. Lowney factory conversion is a good way to go for preserving authentic inner city heritage but my concern is what will go into the empty car park lots. Anonymous condos are not the answer….
Just wanting to find any former inhabitants of Murray street- around 1938, or so. My father, and his family, grew up here, and I’m not certain of his exact address, so any info. would be appreciated! Thanks!!!!!
Sam
Bonjour|
Je suis franchement déçu que votre site soit unilingue anglais.J’aurai aimer me rendre chez-vous ce soir mais je crois que j’irai ailleurs.Je n’irai pas encourager des gens qui ignore encore qu’à Montréal ont parle aussi français.
I remember my Dad taking me to Bertrand’s in the 1950’s. The “steamies” cost .15 cents!
Robert N. Wilkins, Montreal
montreal_1900@hotmail.com
Sam G you can look up the Lovell’s directory for 1938 or later and find Murray street and find the exact address of where your family lived. Or… you can post your dad’s full name and I will reply with his address.
My family lived just north of there above St. James from 1930ish until 1970’s and then moved a scant block and a half away again further north.
Robert we often went to Bertrand’s for hotdogs but no-one ever had one they were 2/25 and every good Irishman and woman too knows a good buy.
Sam G
1938-39 on Murray there were Gleason’s Gardiner’s 2 families a Gaseal and a Gallagher family. That’s it for English families starting with G.
Hi there!! September 7, 2006
It’s been a few years since I wrote the notice, but hey…
My Family’s name , who lived on Murray was GASKELL. Gaseal seems quite similar to that, though… Head of household was Harold Gaskell and Mabel Gaskell (nee HICKSON); kids were Allan, Ramona, Raymond (my father), Edwin (a.k.a. Rolo), Myrna, Malcolm, William (a.k.a. Bill). They later (?) moved to St.Hubert, on the South Shore…My father, Raymond, was born in 1938…Sound familiar perhaps? Thanks for keeping me informed,
Sam Gaskell
Sam you are correct - I magnified it 150% and the address was 367 Murray and head of household H Gascal (spelling error) they do not list others who lived in the house unfortunately.
I’ve been going to the Griffintown Cafe on Friday nights every chance I get for the last year. The ambience is like nothing I’ve ever felt outside my own home and the band will blow you away. The best thing of all is that everyone (from the owner to the band members) is real and down to earth. There is no pretentiousness in sight and no other experience compares. I actually drive more than two hours to be there and it has been worth it every single time!!!
Kelly