Boil Water Advisory | Restaurateurs ‘in crisis management’

Among the collateral victims of Friday’s major water leak are the many restaurant owners targeted by a preventive boil water advisory that is expected to last at least until Saturday evening.

Early Saturday evening, the Motel Ontario restaurant was open and ready to welcome customers. A small victory, at a time when the boil water advisory in certain Montreal boroughs is putting a spanner in the works for restaurateurs.

“It was a bit of a pain,” said Nicolas Curcio Valquenart, co-owner of the restaurant located on Ontario Street in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The manager and his team spent “$300 to $400 in one day” for cans of water and about thirty bags of ice.

A baptism of fire for the establishment, which is only celebrating six weeks of opening. “It’s going to mean a lot of back and forth to change the cans during service, but all in all, we managed it well,” says the co-owner, posted behind a coffee machine.

In addition to depriving certain areas of electricity, the water main break that occurred on Friday led the City of Montreal to issue a preventive boil water advisory in the boroughs of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, as well as in Montreal East.

The municipal water system has been tested regularly since Friday, says Philippe Sabourin, spokesperson for the City of Montreal. “The advisory will last until we have two consecutive positive tests that tell us the water is safe.” […]so at least until the end of the first service this evening.”

Close to reopen better

Further east on Ontario Street, Café Hélico had to close its doors on Saturday. “We didn’t have enough bottled water to serve customers, so we took the day to prepare,” said David Ollu, owner of the café, as well as the Hélicoptère restaurant and the Aube bakery, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

David Ollu’s three establishments were without electricity on Friday, and the Aube bakery closed its dining room on Saturday. “We can say that it’s not our most profitable weekend ever,” he added with a laugh.

The owner was, however, pleased to be able to open the Hélicoptère restaurant on Saturday evening, specifying that the cooks make sure to boil the water used to prepare the food.

The L’Espace public microbrewery on Ontario Street was also able to open its doors on Saturday evening after a day of “crisis management,” according to the establishment’s manager Joey Calce.

The team at the establishment boiled water in advance to wash their hands during service, in addition to stocking up on ice and bottled water. “It was complicated because the shelves were empty everywhere, we were not the only ones wanting bottles,” he says.

Joey Calce estimates he spent more than $200 to get the brewery up and running Saturday. “At the time, I thought, ‘Oh, come on, another deal,'” he says. “But hey, it’s not the end of the world.”